American Conspiracies - Jesse Ventura [42]
So I’ve witnessed hypnosis firsthand. I was told that pretty much anyone who’s willing can be hypnotized, because it comes from within, and the hypnotist is just someone who leads you down the path. Some people accept it more than others. To get someone to the level of an assassin, it would require you to work with them for more than a year. The hypnotist also said, “Remember this, a military man is much more predisposed to be a Manchurian Candidate than a civilian, because when you get indoctrinated into the military, you are told there are times when killing may be necessary. And that’s already settled in your mind, so you might not have such an adverse reaction under hypnosis.”
It’s impossible to say whether the self-hypnosis that James Earl Ray was practicing, and what his brother is now claiming, actually fell under the CIA’s MK-ULTRA program or something similar. But we shouldn’t rule it out. Since the congressional committee’s report already concluded that Ray probably had help, and the King family’s court case saw a jury return a verdict of conspiracy that included agencies of our government, wouldn’t you say that justice for Dr. King remains a long way from being served?
WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW?
I fault the media again here, for giving us the sensational gavel-to-gavel coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial, while ignoring matters of true national importance like the civil case brought by members of the King family. I also wonder when we’ll call for accountability of law enforcement agencies that seem in such a hurry to remove evidence from a crime scene, as they did in Memphis and would do again in Los Angeles and after 9/11.
CHAPTER SIX
THE ASSASSINATION OF ROBERT KENNEDY
THE INCIDENT: Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, after winning the California primary and seeming to clinch the Democratic nomination for president.
THE OFFICIAL WORD: Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, a young Palestinian opposed to Kennedy’s policy toward Israel, fired a pistol eight times from a few feet in front of him, was taken into custody immediately, and pled guilty to the murder.
MY TAKE: Sirhan didn’t have enough rounds in his gun to make all the bullet holes found by police, so there was a second gunman firing from behind. Sirhan was hypnotically “programmed,” using methods developed by the CIA, to take part in the murder.
“A revolution is coming—a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough—but a revolution is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.”
—from a speech by Robert Kennedy in the U.S. Senate, May 9, 1966
At the time Robert Kennedy was gunned down in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in L.A. on June 5, 1968, I viewed it more as a copycat political murder—this young Palestinian, Sirhan Sirhan, who didn’t like Kennedy’s policies toward Israel, much like five years earlier Oswald had been a disgruntled Communist. It was now a trend, a cycle, where if a Kennedy decided to run for president, some idiot would put an end to it. At that point, I still didn’t believe the government would lie to me. This was before my doubting the of the Warren Commission, which didn’t start until I got out of the military and heard Mark Lane speak. Later, the death of Robert Kennedy became the turning point where I felt either their father Joe had done something that was never going to be forgiven, or there certainly were forces out there ensuring another Kennedy would never occupy the White House. To say that my trust of the Establishment had deteriorated would be an understatement.
Robert Kennedy was only 42 when he was assassinated and, having just won the California primary, was on his way to the Democratic nomination and likely the presidency. He would have