John Geraghty

I stumbled across a somewhat tenuous link between Larry King and the assassination of JFK. Larry King's profile on the website www.mugshots.com states Does anyone have information as to who this financial backer of Larry King is? I will take a look in Joan Mellen's book, as that seems the obvious place for information. Please feel free to add other information relevant to Larry king and the assassination. John

Phil Spector gives his take on the Lennon assassination. He ponders whether Mark Chapman was another Lee Harvey Oswald or a "dupe". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX1on3Pr8uQ

I created a short promotional video for the conference on youtube. It is unlikely that it will get around enough to have an impact upon conference registration, but it may draw peoples attention to COPA and may also be useful in highlighting future conferences. If you have a blog or a mailing list, please distribute this. As the video says, COPA may broadcast the conference live over its website, so stay tuned. We also expect CSPAN to cover the event. John

I created a short promotional video for the conference on youtube. It is unlikely that it will get around enough to have an impact upon conference registration, but it may draw peoples attention to COPA and may also be useful in highlighting future conferences. If you have a blog or a mailing list, please distribute this. As the video says, COPA may broadcast the conference live over its website, so stay tuned. We also expect CSPAN to cover the event. John

In addition to journalists use of wikipedia I must also point out that a lot of sports journalists have been known to use content provided at the football forum http://forum.football365.com The forum is frequently quoted in the Irish Times sports section in which they list quotes from footballers. Other newspaper have not been so forthcoming in attributing their content to the forum. Wikipedia is increasingly bein used by journalists and students alike. If I were to use wikipedia as a reference I would automatically fail my essay. John

Here are the details from John Judge. Map to the event is available on COPA's website www.politicalassassinations.com Please donate to help the conferences get off the ground. We hope to broadcast the entire event live on our website from 4pm on April 4th, so please tune in. Friends, The regional meeting of the Coalition on Political Assassinations that marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be held in Memphis, Tennessee from April 4-6 at the Comfort Inn Downtown, 100 N. Front St. with easy access to trolley lines that go to the National Civil Rights Museum, site of the murder. We will gather at 4:00 on April 4 at the Comfort Inn lobby to go down to a candlelight vigil at the site and return for the start of our conference at 7:00 pm, with keynote speaker Judge Joe Brown and presentation of awards, followed by films. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Randy Benson will record the events. Our meeting will run through Saturday, starting with more speakers at 9:00 am and ending at 5:00 pm for dinner, then films that night. Confirmed speakers include Jerry and John Ray, Lyndon Barsten, T Carter, Charles Cabbage, and Coby Smith, others pending. Sunday morning we will go from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm with wrap-up and COPA plans for the future. Hope you can joiin us there. If you have not yet reserved a room, try the Sleep Inn, which is closeby, our COPA rate and rooms have been filled already. Please see our website at www.politicalassassinations.com about all our other meetings planned this year and the latest news items concerning assassinations. If you have not yet made a donation to COPA this year, please consider helping us out, we are doing five conferences on almost no funds. Donations are not tax-deductible, but for those who send $50 or more we will provide a set of the COPA 2007 Dallas annual conference DVDs. Address to COPA, PO Box 772, Washington, DC 20044 or send by Paypal online at our website www.politicalassassinations.com. *Thursday, April 3 ***MLK National Leadership Summit From Memphis Toward 2018**** *April 3-4* Hundreds of the nation’s and the world’s leaders will gather for a critical symposium on the state of Black American titled “Where Do We Go from Here:MLK Leadership Summit 2008-2018.” The event will move beyond ceremony and focus on policy development and the commitment to a concrete policy framework for America. (No further information available) **National Action Network: 10th Annual Convention** *April 3-5** *Rev. Al Sharpton invites you to attend NAN’s national convention in at the Peabody Hotel. Among those confirmed to attend include: Myrlie Evers- Williams, Harry Belafonte, comedian Mo’Nique, Michael Baisden, Marc Morial, Shirley Caesar Earle Graves, Sr., Steve Harvey, Sean Hannity and activists, union leaders, and members of the clergy and community. For more information, please visit http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net. * Friday, April 4 Dream Reborn Conference **Memphis Cook Convention Center* *255 North Main Street* *April 4-6* Hundreds of leaders, youth, dream makers and dream seekers, primarily from communities of color, will be joining us at The Dream Reborn to deepen both relationships and skills in the arena of climate justice and building opportunity for poor communities in the new growing green economy. Among the presenters, we will hear from Van Jones (Ella Baker Center/Green For All), Majora Carter (Sustainable South Bronx), Winona LaDuke (Honor the Earth), Malia Lazu (The Gathering for Justice), LaDonna Redmond (Institute for Community Resource Development), Mary Ann Hitt (Appalachian Voices), Reverend Yearwood (Hip Hop Caucus), Adrienne Maree Brown (Ruckus Society), Tony Anderson (Morehouse College Student Leader), Ian Kim (Oakland Green Jobs Corps) and more. *National Action Network Recommitment March *2:00 pm *Peabody Hotel, 149 Union Avenue*** Join the march commemorating the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as Rev. Sharpton and Martin Luther King, III lead people in Memphis to the Lorraine Hotel, the site of the assassination of Dr King 40 yrs ago. *Candle Light Vigil* 5:30 p.m. National Civil Rights Museum *450 Mulberry Street* Vigil will include special guest speakers and performers including Rev. C.T. Vivian, Dr. Cynthia Griggs Fleming, and Philander Smith Concert Choir. Forty lanterns will be lit by local citizens from diverse backgrounds as a roll call of beneficiaries of the movement and as the names of civil rights figures of the past are read. The lanterns will remain lit for forty days. *Contact:: 901-521-9699 ***COPA Regional Meeting** *7:00 pm - 10:00 pm Comfort Inn, Downtown, 100 N. Front Street* *Keynote: Judge Joe Brown*, last trial judge for James Earl Ray's appeal who testified at the civil trial on his ballistics testing of the alleged murder weapon. Presentation of awards. Films. Registration paid at event, amount TBA. Hotel: 877-287-8601. (Rooms sold out, try Sleep Inn, 901-522-9700) *April 4th Foundation Commemorative Awards Banquet* 7:00 pm *EVENT SOLD OUT* *Memphis Cook Convention Center* *255 North Main Street* This annual event honors some of the pioneers in civil and human rights. This year’s honorees are U.S. Rep. John Lewis, and Harry Belafonte. The banquet’s keynote speaker is Dr. Joseph Lowery and Mistress of Ceremonies is Angela Basset. Tickets are $100.00. For more information, contact Cato Walker at 901-255-0725 or 901-864-2286 *Saturday, April 5 ***COPA Regional Meeting** *9:00 am - 5:00 pm Comfort Inn, Downtown, 100 N. Front Street* Speakers include researchers, jurists and witnesses Judge Joe Brown, John and Jerry Ray, Lyndon Barsten, T Carter, Charles Cabbage and Coby Smith **7:00 pm - 10:00 pm** Films. Hotel: 877-287-8601. (Rooms sold out, try Sleep Inn, 901-522-9700) **Sunday, April 6** **COPA Regional Meeting** *9:00 am - 12:00 pm Comfort Inn, Downtown, 100 N. Front Street* Discussions and wrap-up, future of COPA and events this year. Hotel: 877-287-8601. (Rooms sold out, try Sleep Inn, 901-522-9700)

The opening and closing statements of the 1999 civil trial of the King family vs Lloyd Jowers for the murder of Martin Luther King have been made available online Opening Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEpAs1E5v4s Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuqRIlZLurw Closing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-mlYaWOu4E There are 9 more parts to the closing which you can find in the riht hand column of the above video link. Thanks to reprehensor (911 blogger) for uploading all of this.

Indeed the Wikipedia entry on Agee that now exists was created in January of this year. Did you create it John? John

I posted the MSNBC video footage on the COPA blog, which you can find at http://www.politicalassassinations.com John

Here is a link to video of the entire conference, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=24...h&plindex=8

Duncan, That is an extraordinary website. It was something I was just thinking about a few days ago. I will add a link to it on the COPA site. This kind of site could easily be used for political campaigning. The blog function is particularly useful, as is the video archive. Congratulations. John

I think a good model for student media to model itself upon would be the 'Real News', www.therealnews.com

Ventura wrote the book with Dick Russell, author of 'The man who knew too much'. I enquired as to whether Jesse was still planning on a presidential campaign recently, but he has apparently undergone surgery, which may rule him out. I would push for a McKinney/Ventura ticket, though unlikely it would tick several boxes and the two are more alike than you would think. Having Nader, McKinney and Ventura all running would somewhat spoil any progressive unity in terms of voting. Should Ventura enter as McKinney's running mate I'm sure that they would quickly make up the media attention that was given to Nader following his announcement. I'm looking forward to reading the book, as I find Jesse a fascinating man. John

Last year myself and a friend, in our final undergraduate semester, decided to found a new College newspaper that would be indpendent of both the College and the Students' Union. The publication started well, with a writers list of around 30 people (though only 10 were frequent contributors) and three issues in our first semester. As we printed it like a regular newspaper (24 pages, full colour), the costs were huge and we had entered the studet advertising market too late in the year to get any funding from that method. As a result we were heavily in debt coming into this academic year. We are also in great need for more contributors and general helpers. Most of the burden has fallen to me this year, though I enjoy doing it, and so we cold neither afford the time (we get no extra credit for society work, nor do we get any time off College or pay) nor the expense of running more print publications. This year we have opted to publish online at our website http://www.maynoothadvocate.com . We released an issue last Tuesday, it covered the Students' Union elections that take place on Thursday and a number of other campus events. The hustings (debates) for the electionswere on Tuesday evening, and had it no been for the lack of a wireless internet connection at the venue we would have broadcasted it live over the internet using www.ustream.tv and embedded it on our own site. Our new issue also boasts a few videos that we (when I say 'we' I mean I) shot on campus, including the hustings themselves, the official launch of a student charity event and the launch of Irish language week, which entailed a talk in Irish by public intellectual Desmond Fennell (www.desmondfennell.com) . Publishing online is completely free, as is broadcasting (it works along the same principles as youtube, but live), as is posting videos. Our costs have gone from €800 per issue to €0, and the content is more interractive. The newspaper is not as visible as it once was, due to the fact that students see no physical manifestation of our work, so we have to find moreinnovative ways of advertising to our readership. I spent much of Tuesday postering the campus and sending out messages using the social networking sites www.bebo.com and www.facebook.com . As it is, there are a few other people writing for the paper, but most of the organisational, design and promotional work falls to myself. If this were not the case, the online format would be a much more viable alternative to an expensive print publication. With a dedicated team of 4/5 people, an online student media would be an extremely powerful method of promoting events, ideas and news. The potential for the establishment of alternative media on campuses around Ireland and Britain is enormous. This is what a few of us have achieved in what spare time we can give, in some Universities the chairs of societies take a sabatical year out- imagine what they could do. I would be interested in hearing about other College publications that use the internet effectively. http://www.maynoothadvocate.com I will create a wikipedia page on our publication.

Indeed maybe I should. Both he and my mother both worked in the Abbey theatre, Ireland's natinal theatre for 30/40 years until recently. It is my eventual intention to write a book about them, but that it some years down the line, unless someone would care to give me a cash advance when I finish my masters! John

Yes Kathy, That is he. He is primarily a stage actor, but he has done several movie, radio and television productions. Yes, in the christmas episode of father ted my father played the man on a boat who Ted hit with a skimming stone- a nice piece of forum trivia! Forgot about this topic, sorry for the late reply. John

Here is the programme that Nathaniel references, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaXs8MdmXWY Nathaniel, did you make the COPA event in NYC?

Along with pitching for $$, WBAI radio www.wbai.org has had great shows on Malcolm-X in the last few days and they should be archived...... I tried to get the free three day trial, but i didn't work...computers are very stupid and first it didn't accept opera - then when I tried again on explorer it rejected me for already having an accoun . I'll have a look for the WBAI stuff Peter. I will be able to record the COPA conference and I'll upload it either to the COPA site or youtube. John

The conference is being broadcast on sirius radio tonight. To listen to the show, which starts in 30 minutes and runs for 2 hours, go here, http://www.sirius.com/siriusinternetradio Sign up for a free 3 day subscription, after that you can sign in and find the station 'sirius left', also known as 'channel 146'. It should be a good show. Enjoy it, I know that I will. I hope to record it. John

The Tudors is filmed in Ardmore studies, County Wicklow, Ireland. We also have a link to the forum, as it features my father as the Kings physician. How many of you can claim that your father cured Anne Boleyn of the plague! John

Here s one of myfavourite songs, 'Shout to the top' by the Style Council. The group was headed by former Jam frontman Paul Weller and was accompanied by the keyboard player from Dexies Midnight Runners. It's a soulful tune, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRdQawKCX5s John

Good to hear Nathaniel. I expect the turnout for th event to be quite high. It is being advertised through a number of mediums. I have contacted various black political organisations, Cynthia McKinney publicised it on her blog, the Malcolm X foundation has put te word out. I have been sending messages and leaving posts on youtube and facebook in an effort to get a good turnout. It being black history month it is likely that there will be a sizeable turnout among history students and researchers. I believe John Judge is trying to secure a videographer. All of the COPA conferences in Dallas are recorded and sold as a dvd through COPA and the guy that tapes them (his name escapes me). There is of course free online content from COPA conferences, such as Peter Dale Scott's talk from last November. Search for Peter Dale Scott at http://video.google.com and you will surely find it. I would love to go, but I will be some 3,000 miles away. If anyone is going it would be great if you could get some of it on film, interviews with speakers and some shots of the crowd etc. All the best, John

You can hear John Judge plugging the conference on Black Op radio, http://www.blackopradio.com/archives2008.html Show 360 John

Cynthia McKinney has also been added to the list of speakers. The event is open to the public and will be broadcast live on Sirius satellite radio on Sirius Left 142 (channel). Non-subscribers can listen by going to www.sirius.com (use link to listen online) and signing up just in advance for a 3-day free trial subscription to hear the program. All the best, John

Strangely enough, Chomsky actually signed onto an early advert in the NY Times that had been arranged by Mark Lane for the Citizens Inquiry Committee (or some such entity related to the assassination), something Chomsky later would most likely not be part of. I recall one talk or book in which Chomsky talked at length about the improbability of a high level conspiracy to kill JFK, that it simply was not practical. We must understand that Chomsky's analysis of such things are in the context of the ruling class. He saw no reason for one element of the class to eliminate Kennedy. Chomsky believes Kennedy to be a cold warrior of the highest ordrer and by his logic Kennedy was in no way impeding an imperialist or corporatist agenda. I doubt that Chomsky has analysed the facts in this case, he is probably comfortable in his own analysis that he has 'logically' deduced. This is why I have more interest in the writings of Michael Parenti, as he understands the seperations and competitions between the ruling class. In the same book/lecture that Chomsky says that a conspiracy in the JFK assassination was impossible, he also says that the MLK assassination was most likely the result of a conspiracy, going to highest parts of the Government! I think Noam, like Joan Mellen, does not want to fall into the trap of what they perceive to be the left's idealizing of JFK, something those of us on the radical left don't do. It really doesn't matter how radical leftists saw Kennedy, as they didn't kill him. So, before you talk to Chomsky about this, be sure to tell him that you never liked JFK anyway! Personally, I probably wouldn't have voted for Kennedy, as he was an establishment candidate, that is not to say that I can not make rational assessments of his presidency. It is not ideolizing to think, based upon the large amount of evidence, that Kennedy was getting out of Vietnam and that Bobby was going to open the case. John