Join us this Monday, January 15, 2007 in an examination of the life and murder of Martin Luther King Jr
Title: An Act of State The Execution of Martin Luther King Jr.
When: Monday, January, 15th, from 5 pm 9 pm
Where: "David¹s Church" 602 N. E. Prescott, Portland, OR.
Door: Free, but a donation would be meaningful.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was in Memphis, supporting a workers¹ strike. By the end of the day, top-level army snipers were in position to knock him out if ordered. Two military officers were in place on the roof of a fire station near the Lorraine Motel, to photograph the events. Two black firemen had been ordered not to report to duty that day and a black Memphis Police department detective on surveillance duty in the fire station was physically removed from his post and taken home. Dr. Kings¹ room at the motel was changed from a secluded ground-floor room to number 306 on the balcony. Lloyd Jowers¹, owner of Jim's Grill which backed on to the motel from the other side of the street, had already received $100,000 in cash for his agreement to participate in the assassination. He was to go out into the brush area behind the grill with the shooter and take possession of the gun immediately after the fatal shot was fired. When the dust settled, King had been hit, and a clean-up procedure was immediately set in motion. James Earl Ray was effectively framed, the snipers dispersed, any witnesses who could no be controlled were killed, and crime scene was destroyed.
Schedule of videos and audio:
5 pm 6pm Videos of Martin Luther King III and Rep. Cynthia McKinney on the FBI surveillance of MLK
6pm 7 pm- Audio of John Judge, an independent researcher and lecturer on political assassinations, covert operations, hidden history and the rise of fascism in America. He has been active since the 1960¹s opposing war, racism and militarism. Judge is a co-founder of 9/11 Citizens Watch, a grassroots watchdog group devoted to learning and exposing the truth about those pivotal events. His audio lecture, from 2006 is called ==The US Governments Role in the Murder of MLK.==
7pm 9pm- William Pepper MLK: Orders to Kill. From 1967 to 1968, William Pepper was an associate of Dr. King and executive director of the independent political coalition that hoped to put Kind forward as a third party presidential candidate in 1968. After the murder he walked away from political activity. Then, in 1977, Rev. Ralph Abernathy asked Pepper to interview James Earl Ray. Initially skeptical, Pepper became convinced that Ray was innocent of the crime. He came to believe that, as Ray had always claimed, that he had been manipulated by a man named RAUL and was the victim of a set up. But who was ultimately behind the set up and why? The intertwined injustices to King¹s memory and unfinished work, and Ray¹s freedom compelled Pepper to devote much of the next twenty-plus years of his life to finding the answers to these questions.
Analysis of the event: Many speakers we have heard recently, particularly people from inside the establishment, who become whistle-blowers as a result of the conduct of the Bush administration tend to portray present US policies as a qualitative departure from the past. They talk about taking the country back, restoring democracy, etc. But a through examination of history shows that the policies of the present administration are merely quantatively different. The Bush Administration is more corrupt, more overtly imperial and more openly the workings of a corporate oligarchy; but this oligarchy is not new. It is the basis on which this nation was been ruled. When Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower left office he warned about the excesses of the military-industrial complex. This complex is in fact the actual government of this nation and most of the people who run it have never run for any election. It is not democratic and it maintains power by coercion and violence, incentives to the faithful, by secrecy and by the creation of a comforting public mythology, far from the actual truth, that those who speak out against it are easy to marginalize as paranoid nut-cases. It persists no matter which party holds office. No candidate who would fundamentally challenge it is allowed to emerge as a serious contender.
See also comment "THE PENTAGON" on portland.indymedia
