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Commentary Last Updated: Jan 4th, 2007 - 01:08:31


Beyond "Bobby": Exposing the continuing conspiracy and cover-up of the RFK assassination
By Larry Chin
Online Journal Associate Editor


Nov 27, 2006, 01:38

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With the film Bobby, director-writer Emilio Estevez captures a snapshot of 1968 America, and the many hopes and dreams lifted and crushed on the night Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. But the real story that still begs to be told begins where Bobby leaves off: with the assassination itself.

For it is only through investigation of the assassination and its cover-up, the murder�s direct connection to the other 1960s assassinations (JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and others), and its relevance to subsequent (and also directly connected) wars and political crimes (Nixon/Watergate, Iran-Contra, and both Bush administrations) -- that the soul of the American Empire is truly revealed.

RFK case wide open

The RFK assassination was, like the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other prominent figures, a political murder committed by operatives and agents of the US government (including, but limited to, the CIA and FBI), in conjunction with local police (operating as CIA cutouts), and intelligence-connected organized crime figures and mercenaries.

There is overwhelming evidence that the RFK murder was a CIA operation involving the Los Angeles Police Department.

More proof continues to emerge, including this fresh piece of evidence uncovered by BBC investigator Shane O�Sullivan. Conducting research for his own film on the RFK assassination, O�Sullivan has identified and corroborated the presence and identities of three former CIA operatives at the crime scene:

Michael Ruppert, former Los Angeles Police detective, author, journalist and editor of From The Wilderness, conducted his own investigation of the RFK assassination, tapping into inside contacts deep within the LAPD. His investigation definitively proves that the assassination was a CIA operation, and names some of the perpetrators:

Following the trail of evidence

If there is a call to action inspired by Bobby, it must not stop with a revival of the causes that purportedly died with RFK. It must begin with a furious worldwide call to break down the doors of the national security state, with the immediate reopening of real and legitimate investigations into not only the RFK assassination, but every other political murder and crime of the past 40 years. The CIA, the FBI and other agencies must be held accountable.

Nothing less will do.

The RFK assassination physical evidence was, predictably, destroyed, manipulated, and subjected to a massive and continuing cover-up shortly after the murder. Investigations have been meticulously sabotaged. Whistleblowers, eyewitnesses, investigators and researchers have been silenced and murdered. The Kennedys, physical evidence and 9/11

The crime scene, the kitchen of the historic Ambassador Hotel, was manipulated shortly after the assassination by the LAPD, but not before many forensic investigators, including Chief LA Medical Examiner Thomas Noguchi, raised questions that, to this day, remain unanswered -- and still offer a compelling and damning case for a conspiracy. The Ambassador was demolished in 2005. It is sickening, but no surprise, that this hallowed ground was torn down by the city of Los Angeles, despite the legal petitions before the California Supreme Court to save the site. RFK Assassination Far From Resolved It is bitterly ironic that the Bobby film was shot in the ruins of the Ambassador just before the building went down forever.

Sirhan Sirhan, the manipulated patsy who could not have committed the RFK murder as described by the ridiculous official version, has languished in prison for years, awaiting a retrial. His attorney, Lawrence Teeter, fought for years to reopen the RFK case, but died in July 2005.

Still, there is more than ample evidence, old and new, that demands that the case be reopened.

With respect to the RFK assassination specifically, there is a wealth of information waiting to be found, bought, read, studied and absorbed. The many sources include the following:

  • Philip Melanson was a professor of political science, a specialist in the study of political violence, and the former director of the Robert F. Kennedy Assassination Archives. Melanson, one of the premier RFK assassination authorities, died in September 2006, just as he was completing a new work exposing US government drug trafficking. Tragically, Melanson joins Gary Webb atop the list of courageous and recently deceased investigators of the same milieu. The Archive still exists (under someone else�s direction). Follow the link to the extensive list of Melonson's books and articles, which include The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination: New Revelations on the Conspiracy and Cover-Up (1991) and Shadow Play: The Murder of Robert F. Kennedy (1997).

  • Gaeton Fonzi, The Last Investigation (1993)

  • Lawrence Teeter, attorney representing Sirhan Sirhan, fought doggedly to reopen the RFK case for years. In a July 6, 2005 interview for KPFA�s Guns and Butter, Teeter discussed the case and his hopes for its reopening. Sadly, Teeter died in July 2005.

  • Probe Magazine offers a full archive on every assassination of the 1960s. Probe�s editors, Jim DiEugenio and Linda Pease, are the authors of the important The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, Malcolm X, MLK and RFK.

  • William Turner and Jonn Christian, The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (1978, 1993). One of the first, and still best, investigations that prove that Sirhan Sirhan was a manipulated government asset.

  • William Turner, Rearview Mirror: Looking Back at the FBI, the CIA and other Tails (2001). Turner�s memoirs, which include extensive chapters on the RFK hit.

  • The Robert F. Kennedy assassination (a web site that serves as a good general overview)

RFK assassination and deep political reality

The conspiracy and cover-up of all the 1960s' assassinations must be understood not as isolated murders, but parts of a long and seamless continuum. To borrow the words of Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, authors of The Iran-Contra Connection, they are merely �the outgrowth of a long tradition of covert US activities."

Any sober examination of any of the assassinations leads directly to the same master list of agencies, political suspects and covert operatives, from the Kennedy killings to the crimes of Watergate and Iran-Contra, to the present day. The system that made the RFK murder and cover-up possible is at its zenith today, with the openly criminal, overtly brutal George W. Bush administration.

Anyone who has studied his history must have been disgusted and outraged by the official ceremony in which George W. Bush named the Justice Department building after RFK, given the fact that the Bush crime family and its network can be directly connected to the Kennedy killings.

With due respect to Emilio Estevez and the well-meaning producers and cast of Bobby, tomes about suffering and symptoms, no matter how brilliant, artful or poignant, are useless if the root causes and agents of the problem are not identified, directly faced, and courageously eradicated. It is foolish to speak of a Bobby Kennedy legacy without the same attention paid to those who plotted, committed and covered up his murder.

Hopefully, the continuing efforts of researchers and investigators, and people like researcher/film maker Shane O'Sullivan will be a part of a new wave.

In short, there is an arduous and long-running battle for justice that must be joined. Let it start now.

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