Conspiracy Test: The RFK Assassination - airing June 06, 2008 at 4:00 pm on Investigation Discovery
http://investigation.discovery.com/tv-sche....30536.33887.13
Also linked at:
[Part 01 of 11] CONSPIRACY TEST: THE RFK ASSASSINATION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaF6pW45d0o
San Francisco Chronicle - 40 years after RFK's death, questions linger - June 3, 2008
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...p;type=politics
L.A. Times - 40 years later: The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy - June 5, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ro...67119.htmlstory
L.A. Daily News - Agent recalls the last hours of RFK - May 31, 2008
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_9441739
Long Beach Press Telegram - Little left of Ambassador Hotel, site of RFK assassination - June 4, 2008
http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_9469889
Baltimore Sun - The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy - June 5, 2008
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/...78.photogallery
Baltimore Sun - Epic Vision - May 27, 2008
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/...0,2574700.story
New York Sun - New Film Raises Questions About RFK's Assassination - June 4, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-film-raises-...sination/79234/
am New York - RFK assassination 'like yesterday' for photographer Richard Drew - June 4, 2008
http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-drew0604,0,4187191.story
UPI - Author: Questions remain on RFK's killing - June 3, 2008
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008...s_killing/4629/
U.K. Times Online - Robert F Kennedy: photographer Harry Benson's final shots - June 1, 2008
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle4022056.ece
Full Version: RFK Murdered 40 Years Ago Today
The Pacifica stations www.pacifica.org are having many shows today. Currently, I'm listening to speeches of RFK's last days - they were even more progressive than I remembered. Another sad reminder of how the Secret Government has over and over robbed us of our better leaders, politicians, and hope - I've always thought it was the hope they most wanted to assassinate - and seeing the general passivity of the American Sheeple, it seems they all but succeeded.
NB Many speeches and shows on RFK [as well as other important events in history] at the Pacifica Archives
NB Many speeches and shows on RFK [as well as other important events in history] at the Pacifica Archives
And Democracy Now Special, including interesting never-before broadcast speech by RFK here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/5/democ...obert_f_kennedy
It also includes some clips from Shane O'Sullivan's film RFK Must Die.
Also very interesting and new to me testimony from John Pilger [who was in kitchen with RFK] about second gunman firing after SS was already subdued!!!!
JOHN PILGER: I had been traveling with Robert Kennedy as a correspondent for the London Mirror in the end of May, early June, primarily through California. And this was the primary that Kennedy had to win to show that he could gain the nomination. In fact, by winning in California, which he did, he would almost certainly have gained the nomination.
But I had one of the last interviews with Kennedy. In those days, there was good access to the candidates. There were spin doctors, but the protection around the candidate was fairly minimal, in that you could speak to him and have an interview. And I had a very long interview with Kennedy, in which I asked him about his alleged opposition to the war. You may remember, he was running against Senator Eugene McCarthy then, whose so-called children’s campaign was very much an antiwar campaign, and Kennedy really only came into the campaign after McCarthy had won in New Hampshire and Lyndon Johnson had decided not to seek another term. So Kennedy was really running as the new liberal candidate, antiwar, which he wasn’t, and somebody—he was like Barack Obama of his time, very much for—he was supported by young people, although they were divided then between McCarthy and him, and he was supported by minorities. So the interview I had with Kennedy was about two or three days before he arrived in Los Angeles.
And I went along to the Ambassador Hotel, where Kennedy was due to appear, having won that primary. And in fact I had been invited with a number of other journalists to join him and his entourage at what was then a fairly well-known discotheque in Los Angeles called The Factory. And we had been told to follow the candidate through the kitchen, because they were going out the back way. And as we waited for Kennedy to appear on stage in the ballroom at the Ambassador, one of the Kennedy workers came up to us and said, “There’s a funny-looking guy in the kitchen. He’s giving me the creeps.” Well, that was Sirhan Sirhan. And I have to say that none of us journalists where we were went off and inquired who this funny-looking guy was.
Kennedy arrived, stood on the stage, made a very short speech, which ended famously with now “on to Chicago,” where the Democratic nomination would have happened, the convention there. And then, he and Ethel, his wife, and his two protectors—Bill Barry, former FBI agent, and Rosey Grier, NFL player—followed by a half a dozen journalists, including myself, started to walk towards the kitchen. Kennedy entered the kitchen. Sirhan leapt up on a serving area, pointed a gun at him and fired. He was wrestled. Kennedy fell. He was wrestled to the ground, and then there were other shots.
There’s no question that there was another gunman, because one of the people who was hit, just grazed, was standing next to me, and that happened when Sirhan Sirhan had been wrestled to the ground. So that’s the interesting thing. There was another assassin or another several assassins. And then it was bedlam. And as you know, Kennedy died about twenty-four hours later.
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, what about Robert Kennedy’s views of Vietnam? Also, of course, your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins.
JOHN PILGER: I’m sorry. I didn’t quite hear the second part. His views of Vietnam and…?
AMY GOODMAN: Your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins there. But—
JOHN PILGER: Well, I told—the FBI interviewed quite a few of us, and I told the FBI at length just what had happened, the numbers of shots that were fired that I heard—I thought I heard. And I’m pretty sure I did hear them, which Sirhan Sirhan—
AMY GOODMAN: How many?
JOHN PILGER: —couldn’t have fired. There were two people seen running from the Ambassador Hotel, including one famous woman in a polka dot dress. A number of us thought we saw those. We can’t be absolutely sure about that. There is a new documentary out, which I haven’t seen, which I understand goes into this in depth. But—
[there is more to Pilger's interview on the site]
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, covered Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign in the last months, was one of the last extended interviews he did with Robert F. Kennedy. He was there, back in the kitchen, when Robert F. Kennedy was shot and assassinated.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/5/democ...obert_f_kennedy
It also includes some clips from Shane O'Sullivan's film RFK Must Die.
Also very interesting and new to me testimony from John Pilger [who was in kitchen with RFK] about second gunman firing after SS was already subdued!!!!
JOHN PILGER: I had been traveling with Robert Kennedy as a correspondent for the London Mirror in the end of May, early June, primarily through California. And this was the primary that Kennedy had to win to show that he could gain the nomination. In fact, by winning in California, which he did, he would almost certainly have gained the nomination.
But I had one of the last interviews with Kennedy. In those days, there was good access to the candidates. There were spin doctors, but the protection around the candidate was fairly minimal, in that you could speak to him and have an interview. And I had a very long interview with Kennedy, in which I asked him about his alleged opposition to the war. You may remember, he was running against Senator Eugene McCarthy then, whose so-called children’s campaign was very much an antiwar campaign, and Kennedy really only came into the campaign after McCarthy had won in New Hampshire and Lyndon Johnson had decided not to seek another term. So Kennedy was really running as the new liberal candidate, antiwar, which he wasn’t, and somebody—he was like Barack Obama of his time, very much for—he was supported by young people, although they were divided then between McCarthy and him, and he was supported by minorities. So the interview I had with Kennedy was about two or three days before he arrived in Los Angeles.
And I went along to the Ambassador Hotel, where Kennedy was due to appear, having won that primary. And in fact I had been invited with a number of other journalists to join him and his entourage at what was then a fairly well-known discotheque in Los Angeles called The Factory. And we had been told to follow the candidate through the kitchen, because they were going out the back way. And as we waited for Kennedy to appear on stage in the ballroom at the Ambassador, one of the Kennedy workers came up to us and said, “There’s a funny-looking guy in the kitchen. He’s giving me the creeps.” Well, that was Sirhan Sirhan. And I have to say that none of us journalists where we were went off and inquired who this funny-looking guy was.
Kennedy arrived, stood on the stage, made a very short speech, which ended famously with now “on to Chicago,” where the Democratic nomination would have happened, the convention there. And then, he and Ethel, his wife, and his two protectors—Bill Barry, former FBI agent, and Rosey Grier, NFL player—followed by a half a dozen journalists, including myself, started to walk towards the kitchen. Kennedy entered the kitchen. Sirhan leapt up on a serving area, pointed a gun at him and fired. He was wrestled. Kennedy fell. He was wrestled to the ground, and then there were other shots.
There’s no question that there was another gunman, because one of the people who was hit, just grazed, was standing next to me, and that happened when Sirhan Sirhan had been wrestled to the ground. So that’s the interesting thing. There was another assassin or another several assassins. And then it was bedlam. And as you know, Kennedy died about twenty-four hours later.
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, what about Robert Kennedy’s views of Vietnam? Also, of course, your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins.
JOHN PILGER: I’m sorry. I didn’t quite hear the second part. His views of Vietnam and…?
AMY GOODMAN: Your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins there. But—
JOHN PILGER: Well, I told—the FBI interviewed quite a few of us, and I told the FBI at length just what had happened, the numbers of shots that were fired that I heard—I thought I heard. And I’m pretty sure I did hear them, which Sirhan Sirhan—
AMY GOODMAN: How many?
JOHN PILGER: —couldn’t have fired. There were two people seen running from the Ambassador Hotel, including one famous woman in a polka dot dress. A number of us thought we saw those. We can’t be absolutely sure about that. There is a new documentary out, which I haven’t seen, which I understand goes into this in depth. But—
[there is more to Pilger's interview on the site]
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, covered Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign in the last months, was one of the last extended interviews he did with Robert F. Kennedy. He was there, back in the kitchen, when Robert F. Kennedy was shot and assassinated.
Thanks for those, Peter.
Robert F. Kennedy Remembered - Washington Post - June 5, 2008
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2...remembered.html
Remembering Our Father - New York Times - June 5, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/opinion/...amp;oref=slogin
Robert F. Kennedy: What if He Had Lived? -- A Golden Age That Never Was - Huffington Post - June 5, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-fleetw...f_b_105370.html
RFK for Twentysomethings - Huffington Post - June 5, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-maxwel...s_b_105435.html
Robert F. Kennedy Remembered - Washington Post - June 5, 2008
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2...remembered.html
Remembering Our Father - New York Times - June 5, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/opinion/...amp;oref=slogin
Robert F. Kennedy: What if He Had Lived? -- A Golden Age That Never Was - Huffington Post - June 5, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-fleetw...f_b_105370.html
RFK for Twentysomethings - Huffington Post - June 5, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-maxwel...s_b_105435.html
Sadly, on this 40th anniversary the media is still ignoring the truth.
That would be the best way to honor Bobby's memory: the media grow some b****.
Not in our life time, I'm afraid.
"Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?"
Dawn
(That song never fails to make me cry)
That would be the best way to honor Bobby's memory: the media grow some b****.
Not in our life time, I'm afraid.
"Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?"
Dawn
(That song never fails to make me cry)
40 Years Later: RFK's Daughter Reflects - USA Today video - June 5, 2008
http://usatoday.feedroom.com/index.jsp?fr_story=FRdamp275980
Forty years later, Robert Kennedy’s assassination reverberates - Kansas City.com - June 5, 2008
http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/651993.html
Memories Of Robert F. Kennedy - CBS News - June 5, 2008
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/05/...in4158341.shtml
QUOTE(Peter Lemkin @ Jun 5 2008, 08:02 PM) 
And Democracy Now Special, including interesting never-before broadcast speech by RFK here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/5/democ...obert_f_kennedy
It also includes some clips from Shane O'Sullivan's film RFK Must Die.
Also very interesting and new to me testimony from John Pilger [who was in kitchen with RFK] about second gunman firing after SS was already subdued!!!!
JOHN PILGER: I had been traveling with Robert Kennedy as a correspondent for the London Mirror in the end of May, early June, primarily through California. And this was the primary that Kennedy had to win to show that he could gain the nomination. In fact, by winning in California, which he did, he would almost certainly have gained the nomination.
But I had one of the last interviews with Kennedy. In those days, there was good access to the candidates. There were spin doctors, but the protection around the candidate was fairly minimal, in that you could speak to him and have an interview. And I had a very long interview with Kennedy, in which I asked him about his alleged opposition to the war. You may remember, he was running against Senator Eugene McCarthy then, whose so-called children’s campaign was very much an antiwar campaign, and Kennedy really only came into the campaign after McCarthy had won in New Hampshire and Lyndon Johnson had decided not to seek another term. So Kennedy was really running as the new liberal candidate, antiwar, which he wasn’t, and somebody—he was like Barack Obama of his time, very much for—he was supported by young people, although they were divided then between McCarthy and him, and he was supported by minorities. So the interview I had with Kennedy was about two or three days before he arrived in Los Angeles.
And I went along to the Ambassador Hotel, where Kennedy was due to appear, having won that primary. And in fact I had been invited with a number of other journalists to join him and his entourage at what was then a fairly well-known discotheque in Los Angeles called The Factory. And we had been told to follow the candidate through the kitchen, because they were going out the back way. And as we waited for Kennedy to appear on stage in the ballroom at the Ambassador, one of the Kennedy workers came up to us and said, “There’s a funny-looking guy in the kitchen. He’s giving me the creeps.” Well, that was Sirhan Sirhan. And I have to say that none of us journalists where we were went off and inquired who this funny-looking guy was.
Kennedy arrived, stood on the stage, made a very short speech, which ended famously with now “on to Chicago,” where the Democratic nomination would have happened, the convention there. And then, he and Ethel, his wife, and his two protectors—Bill Barry, former FBI agent, and Rosey Grier, NFL player—followed by a half a dozen journalists, including myself, started to walk towards the kitchen. Kennedy entered the kitchen. Sirhan leapt up on a serving area, pointed a gun at him and fired. He was wrestled. Kennedy fell. He was wrestled to the ground, and then there were other shots.
There’s no question that there was another gunman, because one of the people who was hit, just grazed, was standing next to me, and that happened when Sirhan Sirhan had been wrestled to the ground. So that’s the interesting thing. There was another assassin or another several assassins. And then it was bedlam. And as you know, Kennedy died about twenty-four hours later.
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, what about Robert Kennedy’s views of Vietnam? Also, of course, your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins.
JOHN PILGER: I’m sorry. I didn’t quite hear the second part. His views of Vietnam and…?
AMY GOODMAN: Your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins there. But—
JOHN PILGER: Well, I told—the FBI interviewed quite a few of us, and I told the FBI at length just what had happened, the numbers of shots that were fired that I heard—I thought I heard. And I’m pretty sure I did hear them, which Sirhan Sirhan—
AMY GOODMAN: How many?
JOHN PILGER: —couldn’t have fired. There were two people seen running from the Ambassador Hotel, including one famous woman in a polka dot dress. A number of us thought we saw those. We can’t be absolutely sure about that. There is a new documentary out, which I haven’t seen, which I understand goes into this in depth. But—
[there is more to Pilger's interview on the site]
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, covered Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign in the last months, was one of the last extended interviews he did with Robert F. Kennedy. He was there, back in the kitchen, when Robert F. Kennedy was shot and assassinated.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/5/democ...obert_f_kennedy
It also includes some clips from Shane O'Sullivan's film RFK Must Die.
Also very interesting and new to me testimony from John Pilger [who was in kitchen with RFK] about second gunman firing after SS was already subdued!!!!
JOHN PILGER: I had been traveling with Robert Kennedy as a correspondent for the London Mirror in the end of May, early June, primarily through California. And this was the primary that Kennedy had to win to show that he could gain the nomination. In fact, by winning in California, which he did, he would almost certainly have gained the nomination.
But I had one of the last interviews with Kennedy. In those days, there was good access to the candidates. There were spin doctors, but the protection around the candidate was fairly minimal, in that you could speak to him and have an interview. And I had a very long interview with Kennedy, in which I asked him about his alleged opposition to the war. You may remember, he was running against Senator Eugene McCarthy then, whose so-called children’s campaign was very much an antiwar campaign, and Kennedy really only came into the campaign after McCarthy had won in New Hampshire and Lyndon Johnson had decided not to seek another term. So Kennedy was really running as the new liberal candidate, antiwar, which he wasn’t, and somebody—he was like Barack Obama of his time, very much for—he was supported by young people, although they were divided then between McCarthy and him, and he was supported by minorities. So the interview I had with Kennedy was about two or three days before he arrived in Los Angeles.
And I went along to the Ambassador Hotel, where Kennedy was due to appear, having won that primary. And in fact I had been invited with a number of other journalists to join him and his entourage at what was then a fairly well-known discotheque in Los Angeles called The Factory. And we had been told to follow the candidate through the kitchen, because they were going out the back way. And as we waited for Kennedy to appear on stage in the ballroom at the Ambassador, one of the Kennedy workers came up to us and said, “There’s a funny-looking guy in the kitchen. He’s giving me the creeps.” Well, that was Sirhan Sirhan. And I have to say that none of us journalists where we were went off and inquired who this funny-looking guy was.
Kennedy arrived, stood on the stage, made a very short speech, which ended famously with now “on to Chicago,” where the Democratic nomination would have happened, the convention there. And then, he and Ethel, his wife, and his two protectors—Bill Barry, former FBI agent, and Rosey Grier, NFL player—followed by a half a dozen journalists, including myself, started to walk towards the kitchen. Kennedy entered the kitchen. Sirhan leapt up on a serving area, pointed a gun at him and fired. He was wrestled. Kennedy fell. He was wrestled to the ground, and then there were other shots.
There’s no question that there was another gunman, because one of the people who was hit, just grazed, was standing next to me, and that happened when Sirhan Sirhan had been wrestled to the ground. So that’s the interesting thing. There was another assassin or another several assassins. And then it was bedlam. And as you know, Kennedy died about twenty-four hours later.
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, what about Robert Kennedy’s views of Vietnam? Also, of course, your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins.
JOHN PILGER: I’m sorry. I didn’t quite hear the second part. His views of Vietnam and…?
AMY GOODMAN: Your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins there. But—
JOHN PILGER: Well, I told—the FBI interviewed quite a few of us, and I told the FBI at length just what had happened, the numbers of shots that were fired that I heard—I thought I heard. And I’m pretty sure I did hear them, which Sirhan Sirhan—
AMY GOODMAN: How many?
JOHN PILGER: —couldn’t have fired. There were two people seen running from the Ambassador Hotel, including one famous woman in a polka dot dress. A number of us thought we saw those. We can’t be absolutely sure about that. There is a new documentary out, which I haven’t seen, which I understand goes into this in depth. But—
[there is more to Pilger's interview on the site]
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, covered Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign in the last months, was one of the last extended interviews he did with Robert F. Kennedy. He was there, back in the kitchen, when Robert F. Kennedy was shot and assassinated.
--------------------------------
I find AMY GOODMANS RESPONSE QUITE STRANGE AND THOUGHT PROVOKING: Here is a famous journalist talking about having seen a second gunman ( is his testimony here new?) and what does Amy Goodman do?
Refutes and changes the subject in one line.
Are we certain that Amy Goodman's reaction to this famous witness' testimony is the natural knee jerk reaction of a journalist?
QUOTE(Nathaniel Heidenheimer @ Jun 12 2008, 04:02 AM)
QUOTE(Peter Lemkin @ Jun 5 2008, 08:02 PM)
And Democracy Now Special, including interesting never-before broadcast speech by RFK here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/5/democ...obert_f_kennedy
It also includes some clips from Shane O'Sullivan's film RFK Must Die.
Also very interesting and new to me testimony from John Pilger [who was in kitchen with RFK] about second gunman firing after SS was already subdued!!!!
JOHN PILGER: I had been traveling with Robert Kennedy as a correspondent for the London Mirror in the end of May, early June, primarily through California. And this was the primary that Kennedy had to win to show that he could gain the nomination. In fact, by winning in California, which he did, he would almost certainly have gained the nomination.
But I had one of the last interviews with Kennedy. In those days, there was good access to the candidates. There were spin doctors, but the protection around the candidate was fairly minimal, in that you could speak to him and have an interview. And I had a very long interview with Kennedy, in which I asked him about his alleged opposition to the war. You may remember, he was running against Senator Eugene McCarthy then, whose so-called children’s campaign was very much an antiwar campaign, and Kennedy really only came into the campaign after McCarthy had won in New Hampshire and Lyndon Johnson had decided not to seek another term. So Kennedy was really running as the new liberal candidate, antiwar, which he wasn’t, and somebody—he was like Barack Obama of his time, very much for—he was supported by young people, although they were divided then between McCarthy and him, and he was supported by minorities. So the interview I had with Kennedy was about two or three days before he arrived in Los Angeles.
And I went along to the Ambassador Hotel, where Kennedy was due to appear, having won that primary. And in fact I had been invited with a number of other journalists to join him and his entourage at what was then a fairly well-known discotheque in Los Angeles called The Factory. And we had been told to follow the candidate through the kitchen, because they were going out the back way. And as we waited for Kennedy to appear on stage in the ballroom at the Ambassador, one of the Kennedy workers came up to us and said, “There’s a funny-looking guy in the kitchen. He’s giving me the creeps.” Well, that was Sirhan Sirhan. And I have to say that none of us journalists where we were went off and inquired who this funny-looking guy was.
Kennedy arrived, stood on the stage, made a very short speech, which ended famously with now “on to Chicago,” where the Democratic nomination would have happened, the convention there. And then, he and Ethel, his wife, and his two protectors—Bill Barry, former FBI agent, and Rosey Grier, NFL player—followed by a half a dozen journalists, including myself, started to walk towards the kitchen. Kennedy entered the kitchen. Sirhan leapt up on a serving area, pointed a gun at him and fired. He was wrestled. Kennedy fell. He was wrestled to the ground, and then there were other shots.
There’s no question that there was another gunman, because one of the people who was hit, just grazed, was standing next to me, and that happened when Sirhan Sirhan had been wrestled to the ground. So that’s the interesting thing. There was another assassin or another several assassins. And then it was bedlam. And as you know, Kennedy died about twenty-four hours later.
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, what about Robert Kennedy’s views of Vietnam? Also, of course, your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins.
JOHN PILGER: I’m sorry. I didn’t quite hear the second part. His views of Vietnam and…?
AMY GOODMAN: Your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins there. But—
JOHN PILGER: Well, I told—the FBI interviewed quite a few of us, and I told the FBI at length just what had happened, the numbers of shots that were fired that I heard—I thought I heard. And I’m pretty sure I did hear them, which Sirhan Sirhan—
AMY GOODMAN: How many?
JOHN PILGER: —couldn’t have fired. There were two people seen running from the Ambassador Hotel, including one famous woman in a polka dot dress. A number of us thought we saw those. We can’t be absolutely sure about that. There is a new documentary out, which I haven’t seen, which I understand goes into this in depth. But—
[there is more to Pilger's interview on the site]
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, covered Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign in the last months, was one of the last extended interviews he did with Robert F. Kennedy. He was there, back in the kitchen, when Robert F. Kennedy was shot and assassinated.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/5/democ...obert_f_kennedy
It also includes some clips from Shane O'Sullivan's film RFK Must Die.
Also very interesting and new to me testimony from John Pilger [who was in kitchen with RFK] about second gunman firing after SS was already subdued!!!!
JOHN PILGER: I had been traveling with Robert Kennedy as a correspondent for the London Mirror in the end of May, early June, primarily through California. And this was the primary that Kennedy had to win to show that he could gain the nomination. In fact, by winning in California, which he did, he would almost certainly have gained the nomination.
But I had one of the last interviews with Kennedy. In those days, there was good access to the candidates. There were spin doctors, but the protection around the candidate was fairly minimal, in that you could speak to him and have an interview. And I had a very long interview with Kennedy, in which I asked him about his alleged opposition to the war. You may remember, he was running against Senator Eugene McCarthy then, whose so-called children’s campaign was very much an antiwar campaign, and Kennedy really only came into the campaign after McCarthy had won in New Hampshire and Lyndon Johnson had decided not to seek another term. So Kennedy was really running as the new liberal candidate, antiwar, which he wasn’t, and somebody—he was like Barack Obama of his time, very much for—he was supported by young people, although they were divided then between McCarthy and him, and he was supported by minorities. So the interview I had with Kennedy was about two or three days before he arrived in Los Angeles.
And I went along to the Ambassador Hotel, where Kennedy was due to appear, having won that primary. And in fact I had been invited with a number of other journalists to join him and his entourage at what was then a fairly well-known discotheque in Los Angeles called The Factory. And we had been told to follow the candidate through the kitchen, because they were going out the back way. And as we waited for Kennedy to appear on stage in the ballroom at the Ambassador, one of the Kennedy workers came up to us and said, “There’s a funny-looking guy in the kitchen. He’s giving me the creeps.” Well, that was Sirhan Sirhan. And I have to say that none of us journalists where we were went off and inquired who this funny-looking guy was.
Kennedy arrived, stood on the stage, made a very short speech, which ended famously with now “on to Chicago,” where the Democratic nomination would have happened, the convention there. And then, he and Ethel, his wife, and his two protectors—Bill Barry, former FBI agent, and Rosey Grier, NFL player—followed by a half a dozen journalists, including myself, started to walk towards the kitchen. Kennedy entered the kitchen. Sirhan leapt up on a serving area, pointed a gun at him and fired. He was wrestled. Kennedy fell. He was wrestled to the ground, and then there were other shots.
There’s no question that there was another gunman, because one of the people who was hit, just grazed, was standing next to me, and that happened when Sirhan Sirhan had been wrestled to the ground. So that’s the interesting thing. There was another assassin or another several assassins. And then it was bedlam. And as you know, Kennedy died about twenty-four hours later.
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, what about Robert Kennedy’s views of Vietnam? Also, of course, your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins.
JOHN PILGER: I’m sorry. I didn’t quite hear the second part. His views of Vietnam and…?
AMY GOODMAN: Your view is not the standard one, that there were other assassins there. But—
JOHN PILGER: Well, I told—the FBI interviewed quite a few of us, and I told the FBI at length just what had happened, the numbers of shots that were fired that I heard—I thought I heard. And I’m pretty sure I did hear them, which Sirhan Sirhan—
AMY GOODMAN: How many?
JOHN PILGER: —couldn’t have fired. There were two people seen running from the Ambassador Hotel, including one famous woman in a polka dot dress. A number of us thought we saw those. We can’t be absolutely sure about that. There is a new documentary out, which I haven’t seen, which I understand goes into this in depth. But—
[there is more to Pilger's interview on the site]
AMY GOODMAN: John Pilger, investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, covered Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign in the last months, was one of the last extended interviews he did with Robert F. Kennedy. He was there, back in the kitchen, when Robert F. Kennedy was shot and assassinated.
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I find AMY GOODMANS RESPONSE QUITE STRANGE AND THOUGHT PROVOKING: Here is a famous journalist talking about having seen a second gunman ( is his testimony here new?) and what does Amy Goodman do?
Refutes and changes the subject in one line.
Are we certain that Amy Goodman's reaction to this famous witness' testimony is the natural knee jerk reaction of a journalist?
I agree with you on her reaction and its 'effect', but not sure I agree with you on her motivation. I know you consider her a 'gatekeeper' of the left. I think she is more afraid of loosing her position as the leader in the field of the progressive/alternative daily news in a video/audio format. I don't know her, or anyone who's discussed this matter with her, but have long noticed there are only a few topics she won't fully explore - the assassinations being one of them. 911's real underpinnings another. She has slowly slowly slowly let the smallest of mentions of them creep in. I'm as disappointed as you, but don't [in her case] sense a conspiracy here - just either naivete or, more likely, fear of a loss of credibility. I'm NOT defending her and regularly email the show with suggestion they cover those topics I just mentioned. Perhaps her show will change if she feels she won't loose her audience. If not, perhaps someone will come along with as effective a show that will cover these topics. There is even enough material to [with proper funding] have a DemocracyNow! type show ONLY on the assassinations, government overthrows and other black operations - but would prefer they be put in the context of all that is happening now. She should have explored further the whole multiple-gun theory with Pilger [or others]. Sad, I agree.
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