Citizen Lane--Documentary on Mark Lane

[James DiEugenio]

Pauly Perrette's film about the life and career of the late activist and lawyer Mark Lane is now available to us all.

You can link to it at Kennedys and King or go directly to You Tube.  It does a nice job of capturing the guy's never say die spirit and his devotion to several causes that were not very popular at the time.  Lane deserved a video memorial and I am glad he got one.  

 

[Rob Couteau]

I just finished reading Citizen Lane after reading your great review. What an amazing man.  I'd read his "Plausible Denial" years ago, but I had no idea he made such notable contributions to so many other causes as well, both big and small. What an interesting and amusing story in the book about how Lane was the first "non-Beatle" to hear Paul McCartney play Eleanor Rigby, and that Paul was the first person (other than publishers and agents) who read his manuscript version of Rush to Judgment. But the story that really caught me eye was the one he told about Hellen Battle, the woman who helped translate Lane's JFK lecture in Vienna once she realized the official translator was altering the content of his speech, and who was later punished for this by the powers that be. I ordered her memoir and skimmed through it to see what she says about this event. Oddly enough, although she chronicles how Lane, with Bertrand Russell's assistance, helped to get her out of jail in East Germany, she never seems to mention anything about how the U.S. government's failure to help her was a result of payback for stepping in to help Lane. A quick Internet search revealed nothing about her. Has anyone uncovered anything else about Hellen Battle and this event?

 

Edited November 9, 2017 by Rob Couteau

[James DiEugenio]

No that is the only place I ever saw it mentioned was in Lane's book Citizen Lane.  But man does that tell you how surveilled Lane was?

BTW, in the new documents which the MSM says are so barren, it is revealed who asked for stepped up surveillance on Lane.

It was Rankin.  The FBI met with WIllens and said they had been going to some of his lectures but he had word from Rankin that the WC wanted more surveillance on him and so he told WIllens they would probably do it.

 

Mark Lane is all over these new documents. It is really a disgrace if you ask me.

[Ron Bulman]

5 hours ago, Rob Couteau said:

I just finished reading Citizen Lane after reading your great review. What an amazing man.  I'd read his "Plausible Denial" years ago, but I had no idea he made such notable contributions to so many other causes as well, both big and small. What an interesting and amusing story in the book about how Lane was the first "non-Beatle" to hear Paul McCartney play Eleanor Rigby, and that Paul was the first person (other than publishers and agents) who read his manuscript version of Rush to Judgment. But the story that really caught me eye was the one he told about Hellen Battle, the woman who helped translate Lane's JFK lecture in Vienna once she realized the official translator was altering the content of his speech, and who was later punished for this by the powers that be. I ordered her memoir and skimmed through it to see what she says about this event. Oddly enough, although she chronicles how Lane, with Bertrand Russell's assistance, helped to get her out of jail in East Germany, she never seems to mention anything about how the U.S. government's failure to help her was a result of payback for stepping in to help Lane. A quick Internet search revealed nothing about her. Has anyone uncovered anything else about Hellen Battle and this event?

 

Deep and very interesting observations.  Never read of Hellen Battle myself.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=elano+rigby&form=PRUSEN&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=6409c65d5dd748a0ae0e4bc74e2cf0df&sp=-1&pq=elano+rigby&sc=8-11&qs=n&sk=&cvid=6409c65d5dd748a0ae0e4bc74e2cf0df

 

Edited November 9, 2017 by Ron Bulman

[Dan Doyle]

Thanks the heads up on the Citizen Lane movie, Jim.  Watched it in its entirety yesterday.  I've read most, if not all of Mark Lane's books on the the JFK assassination and knew about his work with James Earl Ray and the MLK assassination but what was new to me was the fact that Lane, with Charles Geary and Congressman Leo Ryan, was in Jonestown in 1978 during the mass suicide/murder there.  And what really struck me in this movie, was Mark Lane's revelation that Jim Jones was planning  a mass defection of his Jonestown congregation to the USSR and then Lane suggests something more sinister was behind the mass suicide ("murder" in Lane's words).....like it was to deprive the USSR of a potential propaganda coup if 900 or more American citizens in mass rejected the USA in favor of the USSR.  Remember this was in 1978 and the Cold War was very real.

Edited November 9, 2017 by Dan Doyle

[James DiEugenio]

As much as I like the film, as Rob says, the book of the same title is even better for the simple reason that the expanse is greater, as is the detail.

https://kennedysandking.com/reviews/mark-lane-part-ii-citizen-lane?tmpl=component&print=1

With books you can get more material in, so the battles Lane had with the state legislature, with Wassaic home for boys, which was really more like a prison, how he held free legal clinics to teach tenants about their legal rights, how he became the first lawyer in Spanish Harlem to actually defend murderers against the DA etc etc. 

Lane was such an extraordinary character and such an inspirational lawyer its a  shame how the other side smeared him, sort of like what they did to Garrison, in the JFK case.

Edited November 9, 2017 by James DiEugenio

[Rob Couteau]

Jim, 

That is a fascinating revelation about Rankin and, as you say, rather shameful. Thanks for sharing this. Are you considering doing a special piece on how the new docs reveal that Lane was being smeared and constantly spied upon? I recall you saying somewhere, perhaps in your book, that the fact the Agency was all over Garrison shows how concerned they were about what he was digging up, and perhaps the same can be said about their "interest" in Lane. Lane's early interviews with Grassy Knoll witnesses are certainly invaluable documents. And then there is that chilling tale in his book describing the Agency's attempt on his life. Look forward to seeing you on Ventura's program.

Note to Dan Doyle:

On 11/9/2017 at 9:15 AM, Dan Doyle said:

Lane's revelation that Jim Jones was planning  a mass defection of his Jonestown congregation to the USSR and then Lane suggests something more sinister was behind the mass suicide

Dan, Mark Lane also has a book about his experience in Guyana, titled, "The Strongest Poison." You might also find Jim Hougan's piece on Jim Jones of interest (link below). (Hougan also authored two very good books, perhaps you are familiar with them: "Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA" and  "Spooks: the private use of secret agents." ) Although Jones pretended to be pro African American and a civil rights sympathizer, he actually maintained secret ties to extreme right-wing racists, going back to an early period in his life. I also recall that, after the massacre, they found a large refrigerator in his compound that was stuffed to the gills with psychiatric medications, which Jones was administering to his captive audience on a regular basis. The whole story just stinks of a mind-control experiment, and one whose cover was blown. Hougan's link:

http://jimhougan.com/JimJones.html

 

 

Edited November 11, 2017 by Rob Couteau
adding additional info

[James DiEugenio]

I do plan on doing something with all this new material on Lane.  Its really kind of disgusting what they did to his guy.

Not sure what format it will take just yet.

Concerning Jonestown,  Lane's book is pretty good.  But I always wanted Jim Hougan to expand his essay into a book because he unearthed so much interesting stuff on Jim Jones that I had not seen before.

And what can one say about Secret Agenda?  It was the Rush to Judgment of Watergate.  If you have not read it, then you really don't know what happened.

Edited November 11, 2017 by James DiEugenio

[Rob Couteau]

Glad to hear that you are doing something on Lane and the files. Yes, Hougan's work on Jonestown is amazing. Have you also read his "Spooks" book? There's a section in there about RFK and Bernard Spindel. On another note, I was perusing the recent releases and noticed that page three of this pdf (below) has a blacked-out section that nonetheless remains legible in part. (As if the black marker had faded, revealing the typewriting beneath.) Any idea why it would be released like that? 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32393182.pdf

[James DiEugenio]

No I don't.  That is unusual for these recently declassified files.

IF you listened to my show on BOR, I noted how the new method the CIA is using is simply to blank out the whole page.

But I will also add this, a lot of the new files released with redactions are pretty much the same as the release before, but with say one symbol or digraph uncovered. 

So that may be the case with this.

It is simply a disgrace what is happening.  And the MSM is saying not a word about it.

[Rob Couteau]

For what it's worth, the parts that I've included in brackets (below) are the parts that still remained legible despite the blackout ink. The blacked-out paragraph (all of paragraph two) mentions a "Rima SHURAKOVA," an "INTURIST" (sic) guide. Could this be Rima Shirokova (also spelled Shirakova), Oswald's Intourist guide? Comments included in angled brackets <thus> are my own. Mostly it involves the Nosenko case, but I found the Madame Toussaud angle really bizarre. 
----------

Retyped for Clarity

[SECRET]

[Mrs. Egerter]

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

29.7.68

SUBJECT: OSWALD-- Nosenko

1. On 26 July [Mr. Rocca, C/CI/R&A] called my attention to an aspect of NOSENKO’S information which must be thoroughly examined when we attempt to assess analyze (sic) NOSENKO’S story about the OSWALD case. <ONE WORD REDACTED > has been reading all the latest from N(OSENKO) re OSWALD and it is his impression there are not only gaps in the info from the stanpoint that N(OSENKO) should know more but also some aspects which don’t ring true.

2. [Recently, Rocca received from the British information about the activities of Rima SHURAKOVA [[who]] <REDACTED > with a British co<ntrolled source ?> <REDACTED> to be reliable. It is Rocca’s impression (I have not examined this case thoroughly) that the Soviets have continued to try to make SHURAKOVA look clean <ONE WORD REDACTED> that she has not had a KGB role and is only an INTURIST <REDACTED><SHURAKOVA’s ?> thesis. This is questionable on its surface. At any rate, the controlled British source and SHURAKOVA visited Mme TOUSSAU’s (sic) Wax Works museum where SHURAKOVA had a visible (sic) reaction when seeing OSWALD display. <REDACTED> thought this vist (sic) was entirely innocent on the part of the source – British, i.e., it was not done deliberately. SHURAKOVA’s reaction indicated suspicion that this was a provocation.]

[252-126] [SECRET]

Edited November 14, 2017 by Rob Couteau

[James DiEugenio]

Boy Rob that really is something.

The lengths those guys will go to.

 

[Rob Couteau]

Right? In the sentence "<?> has been reading all the latest from N(OSENKO) re OSWALD", there is only room for five or six letters in the blanked-out space; I'm wondering if that might be an acronym (instead of a name): perhaps one for Associate Deputy Director of Operations for Counterintelligence (ADDOCI), or Angleton. "ADDOCI" would fit perfectly in that space. But I'm not versed in the codes employed in these files. "Mr. Rocca" must be Angleton's senior aid in counter-intelligence, his deputy Raymond Rocca. Mrs. Egerter, whose name appears at the top right, must be Elizabeth Ann Egerter, who opened Oswald's 201 file. And Russ Holmes, who filed this,  must be Russell Holmes (according to www.archives.gov):  "The Russell Holmes papers consist of 50,000 pages of CIA documents maintained by Holmes in his role as the custodian of the Oswald 201 file, as well as the Segregated Collection of CIA records compiled for the investigation of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). Holmes was the CIA liaison for all inquiries on the assassination after the end of the HSCA investigation until his retirement." The gang's all here.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Rob Couteau

[James DiEugenio]

Yep you are correct on all those counts.

This does sound like Angleton's  kind of work.

 

[Guest]

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32180775.pdf