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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 27, 2021 11:13:25 GMT -5
Who Killed John Lennon?On Dec. 08, 1980, musician, and peace activist, John Lennon was gunned down in front of his home in New York City. He had just returned from the studio on an unusually warm Dec. night, when Mark David Chapman fired 4 shots into his back and side. The hollow point bullets exploded upon impact from the .38 snub nose revolver, as John staggered about 5 steps, and collapsed. When police arrived they decided not to wait for an ambulance, and took him immediately to the hospital in the squad car. The doctors said the wounds were so severe there was no hope, and just after 11pm, John Lennon was pronounced dead. Meanwhile immediately following the shooting, back at the Dakota Building, the assailant calmly sat at the curb by the driveway and began reading a book. The door man, having seen all this, ran over to Chapman and asked, "Do you know what you have just done?" Chapman replied, "I just shot John Lennon". Chapman was taken into custody without incident and the world began to find out about this "lone nut". Did he do it because John was a phony? Or because he was so delusional he thought he was "John" and had to kill the real John? The reason was never clear. How can it be? One thing is clear, the similarities of this assassination to that of Robert F Kennedy and the shooter Sirhan Sirhan. Parallel descriptions by arresting officers after the shootings, noted a docile demeanor, a glazed look, and little memory of the incident. Questions about the number of shots and trajectories around the foyer. Doubts about how he could have gotten that bullet type, illegal in NY. Where did he get the money to travel, and how did a round trip ticket from Hawaii to Chicago get extended to NY? Incredibly, José Sanjenís Perdomo, known CIA and a major player in the Hit-squad Operation 40, was the doorman at the Dakota that night. Is it possible a man could be used to commit murder from a government program designed to use mind control?" Could the "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, "The Wizard of Oz", and the music of Todd Rundgren, be used as triggering devices? In 1989, Fenton Bresler, a investigative journalist from the UK wrote, "Who Killed John Lennon?", through evidence of documents and interviews he makes a compelling argument that John Lennon may have been assassinated as a political plot while coming back into the public eye under the new administration of Ronald Reagan. Bresler makes no argument that Reagan could have anything to do with it, but goes on to suggest that this programing may have occurred years before, and perhaps was "asleep" until such time it may have been turned on.
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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 30, 2021 10:22:28 GMT -5
Mother Superior Jumped the Gun By the fall of 1968, The Beatles were by far the most popular group in the world, and had been for the previous four years. Although they stopped touring two years prior, and the manager died in August '67, record sales were topped over the top. The new year had brought the single "Lady Madonna", then in August the first song on a new label, "Hey Jude" b/w "Revolution". There was a new artist division signing, James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, Billy Preston, a new band, Badfinger. Electronics and films, clothing and merchandising, "Apple" was a group concept to manage themselves, but soon collapsed in the breakup. In the spring, while his wife Cynthia was away in Greece, John invited his new friend avant-garde artist, Yoko Ono to stay with him. John had met Yoko at an Art Gallery opening in London just about two years earlier, and was impressed with her work. When Cynthia returned and found the two of them in her kitchen, then later discovered Ono was pregnant with his child, she filed for divorce. Except for a brief period of about 18 months in the '70s, John and Yoko stayed together until his death in 1980. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Pilcher'dIn the underground drug culture of swinging London in the mid-late '60s, there was a British police officer always on the lookout, Norman Pilcher. Pilcher gained notoriety by busting major pop stars in and around London. It was mostly for marijuana and hashish possession. Still, the penalties could be harsh, especially for these long hair eccentrics with the responsibility to set an example for young people. Starting in early '67 he got, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, and Donovan. He just missed Eric Clapton but he had slipped out the back. The biggest prize of all came in '68, two Fabs, George Harrison then John Lennon. Rumor was Pilcher was planting it on these high marks for publicity. On Oct 18, 1968, John and Yoko were busted for hashish. John claimed he did not know it was there and could have been left by someone else. Yoko [pregnant] was a guest in the house and could not have known it. There was no obvious sign of usage at the time, and her taking any rap for this could mean deportation. In early November '68 Cynthia was granted her divorce, then sadly, within 3 weeks Yoko had lost the baby. John appeared at Marylebone Magistrates’ Court, London on Nov 28 th, the judge was lenient and fined him only 150 pounds + court costs. John pleaded guilty to possession and paid the fine equivalent to that of a misdemeanor. There was no way to foresee any consequences of this action.
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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 30, 2021 10:24:54 GMT -5
Press the IssueIn July of 1980, New York City police were faced with a murder at the Metropolitan Opera House. A young violinist was found dead in the ventilation shaft of the theater, and after a month long investigation, a MET employee, Craig Crimmins was charged with her murder. There was tremendous pressure on the precinct to solve the crime. It took nearly 2 months, with the help of hypnosis, a ballerina described a sketch that brought the attention to this "normal kinda guy". In Sept '80, Crimmins was sentenced to 20 years. Two months later the NYPD received nowhere near the same kind of pressure in the Lennon case. A much higher publicity crime, no doubt, and by circumstance of surrender they had their man. There was a subway less than 70 feet away. No one else had run from the scene. There was no need to solve or look beyond anything they had in front of them. Handed off so divinely. Chapman never tried to run away, and never denied the crime he committed. It appeared to be an open and shut case. No pursuant pressure. Wesley Nunn was a Special Agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, he did followup work for the New York City Police, he told Bresler, "Apart from wanting me to go check on where Mark got his bullets, primary thrust of my inquiries was into his background. What sort of guy he was, this kind of thing. I got the impression the DA in New York was more concerned with fighting a defense of insanity at the trial than anything else. Conspiracy? I know nothing about that. No one mentioned anything to me about the possibility and I certainly didn't get into that area."In Hawaii, Chapman had left behind his wife Gloria. When Honolulu Detective Louis Souza asked for an interview she refused. When Souza checked with NY authorities, he later told Bresler, "... NY did not want to press the issue so I didn't pursue it" Souza wanted to ask Gloria where Mark got the $2500 to finance the trip to NY. Gloria said she was too upset to talk about any of it. Somehow it was discovered to have come from her credit union. When Souza tried to confirm that he was denied access by confidentiality, "Maybe we could have gone to court to get that information, but at the time I guess they didn't feel in New York that it was important where he got the money from to make the trip. The fact is that he did take the trips." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Three MotivesThe defense in this case took two positions for motive. One was that Mark killed Lennon because he believed that he himself was Lennon and that only through killing this other part of his split personality could he be free. The other theory was that he killed Lennon because he hated him so much he believed he was a true life Holden Caulfield, from J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye", charged with the self-imposed task of ridding the world of phonies. The prosecution theory for the murder was Mark killed Lennon to become famous. None of these are right or even true, but should at least approach a reasonable explanation for even such a senseless act. The defense was contradicting itself, while grasping at straws and would have failed, "...if it wasn't this, it must have been that."A plea of insanity was never presented in this case in face of the later admission that he actually did it for the fame. But that is not what the record shows early in the investigation and some years to follow. Chapman never did seek to present his story. Bresler wrote him for an interview several times, he finally wrote back in 1988 and said he had only given access 4 times. Chapman wrote to his YMCA friend David Moore, responding to a documentary that mentioned he was a publicity seeker, "That is nonsense. I turn away 30 to 40 invitations from the media a year. I have never given an interview. I am not a seeker after publicity." NYPD Officer Arthur O'Connor was with Mark that night, "It is definitely illogical to say Mark committed the murder to make himself famous. He didn't want to talk to the press from the very start...He didn't want the press. He didn't encourage it. He did not want the notoriety. He did not want the "glory" of a trial either."Consider his guilty plea, why? - Wouldn't the trial of the decade be his premiere performance. To make the authorities have to prove it while the press wanes on every word from the witness stand. Isn't that notoriety? Still, the NYPD saw it as an open and shut case. It wasn't until 8 years later that O'Connor told Bresler: "It's possible Mark could have been used by somebody. I saw him the night of the murder. I studied him intensely. He looked as if he could have been programmed - and I know what you're going to make of that word!"
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Post by Michael Capasse on Mar 30, 2021 10:25:07 GMT -5
Mission: ImpossibleRobert Maheu, was an American businessman and lawyer that had worked for Howard Hughes as an investigator, that evolved into his own private practice, and eventually was working for the FBI and CIA. Through his detective agency A. Maheu and Associates, he secured a contract with the CIA to do "cut out assignments", "The CIA was my first steady client, giving me 'cut-out' assignments [those jobs in which the Agency could not officially be involved]." His agency was the model for the television series "Mission: Impossible". In May of 1960 Maheu was recruited by the CIA to approach mobster Johnny Roselli to put the contract on Fidel Castro. Roselli was the West Coast arm of the Giacanna family in Chicago. The offer was $150,000 to kill the Cuban leader. Sometime later, a secret meeting took place at the Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami, adding "Sam Gold" [Giaconna] "Joe" [Santos Traficante] to the plot. Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post, "After Fidel Castro led a revolution that toppled a friendly government in 1959, the CIA was desperate to eliminate him. So the agency sought out a partner equally worried about Castro, the Mafia, which had lucrative investments in Cuban casinos."The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence | Victor Manchetti and John D Marks "The agency penetrates and manipulates private institutions creates its own organizations [called proprietaries] when necessary. It recruits agents and mercenaries; it bribes and blackmails foreign officials to carry out the most unsavory tasks. It does whatever is required to achieve its goals, without any consideration of the ethics involved or the moral consequences of his actions." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ We Don't Do That ...anymoreIn the mid-seventies, a Committee chaired by Senator Frank Church investigated the abuse of powers by the CIA, and government intelligence. In 1975, Maheu confirmed his role in the assassination plot against Castro under oath to the committee. The report went on to conclude, no foreign leader had ever been directly assassinated by the CIA but "...American officials encouraged or were privy to plots which resulted in the deaths of Rafael Trujillo (in the Dominican Republic), Ngo Dinh Diem (in Vietnam) and General Rene Schneider (in Chile)."The action was "never here", that would be improper, the CIA has no jurisdiction toward its own citizens, that is the job of the FBI. Yet under the Nixon administration the CIA took on an enormous nationwide sweep against the anti-war movement, and turned on its own citizens. Never before had there been such a massive yet laser pointed electronic surveillance of certain, and in some cases, prominent American citizens. Admiral Stansfield Turner CIA Director 1977-1981 "...Some 300,000 Americans considered to be potentially dangerous to our national security indexed in the CIA computer in separate files were created on approximately 7,200. [including John Lennon] Millions of private telegrams were obtained between 1974 and 1975, countless "dangerous" citizens were placed under surveillance, with bugs on their telephones, microphones in their bedrooms, and warrantless break-ins of their homes.
Tax returns were obtained from the IRS, and scanned for information about citizens. Army intelligence infiltrated domestic dissident groups, collected information on prominent citizens, and that such groups created an estimated 100,000 files on Americans."On Feb. 18, 1975, President Ford signed Executive Order 11905, to improve oversight on foreign intelligence activities, and ban political assassination. Every successive CIA director, has maintained that, "..assassination as a legitimate tool had only taken place outside the USA. No one was ever disposed of by the CIA." Can a secret organization practicing clandestine assassinations since 1960 actually be 100% trusted?
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Post by Michael Capasse on Apr 3, 2021 10:56:18 GMT -5
In the RampartsThe Young Men's Christian Association aka, the YMCA, is a youth organization founded in England by a drapery clerk, George Williams in 1844. Due to concerns for healthy activities for young men in the Industrial Revolution. Williams began a prayer group at his business in London. Much of the activities to young men at the time were taverns and brothels, Williams provided, "the improving of the spiritual condition of young men engaged in the drapery, embroidery, and other trades." Soon the idea crossed the Atlantic where it flourished in the United States. Now the "Y" is based in Geneva Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It is a huge highly recognized world organization. In March of 1967, "Ramparts" magazine ran an editorial piece that lifted the lid on a fifteen year scandal: "...The CIA has infiltrated and subverted the country's student leadership. It has used students to spy. It has used students to pressure international student into Cold War positions, and it has interfered in a shocking manner in the material workings of the nation's oldest and largest student organization..."The National Students Organization was forced to admit to receiving more than $3 Million from the CIA between 1952-1966. Regarding reports in the press of a systematic use of American missionaries by the CIA, "Christian Century" magazine wrote: "...Since the CIA's rationalizes and keeping everyone in the dark, friend and foe alike, there is no way to know how widespread this practice has been." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ At the YMCAThere is nothing in the official literature of the CIA that the YMCA was ever used in the capacity of any cooperating agency. With locations in 120 countries the World Alliance of the YMCA, is the perfect junction under cover. That is all it has to be. When Bresler was researching a book on the Chinese Mafia, he talked to a former CIA agent that bragged about the agency's use of the "Y". Another author, Paul Agee, names the YMCA specifically as a CIA front in his book, "Inside the Company: CIA Diary". The "Y" office in Quito, Equador was used for training new agents and potential agents. That book brought legal action, and the Supreme court ruled in Agee's loss of his passport for exposing the CIA /YMCA link. Mark Chapman had a history with the YMCA, first as a young man, and then right up until the assassination. In 1975, he worked for the "Y" for about 5 months at a Vietnamese refugee camp in Arkansas. He continued work for them at six Georgia summer camps (1969-1976), as Camp Counselor, and Assistant Camp Director. The same year he turned 20, he went to Beirut for them. He toured the world in 1978, staying at YMCA hostels each time. When Bresler asked Andrea Hinding, the archivist at the YMCA, she could not find any record of Chapman having been employed by the organization. One thing to be clear here, the YMCA has nothing to do this murder. But it can be used as a junction, or a base, concealed in the obvious.
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Post by Michael Capasse on Apr 3, 2021 10:56:30 GMT -5
Bed In PeaceJohn Lennon, married Yoko Ono, on March 20, 1969, in Gibraltar, a possession of the British Empire near Spain. In May, the Beatles single "The Ballad of John & Yoko", described the flurry of publicity and absolute mayhem a Fab can bring. From England to France, to Gibraltar, they could not find a place to get married, and they knew the press would be wherever they went. It could create a media blitz. They turned that into an ad campaign for peace with a bit of humor. Stay in bed for peace. A Bed-In. The idea was to give daily, 12 hour press conferences promoting peace, just as the establishment sells any product. The press came from all over. Nobody knew what to expect, inviting the press into bed for questions and answers. It was all very decent, the hosts wore proper pajamas. Because of John's previous cannabis conviction they could not get into the US. So, they settled on Canada knowing the message would still get through. There were two scheduled "Bed ins". One in Toronto in March, the other in Montreal a few months later. The second got much more publicity. In contrast to the US President Richard Nixon, Canada had just elected Pierre Trudeau as Prime Minister. Trudeau was a "hip and happening person", his popularity resulting in throngs of young people cramming to get close. He had Trudeaumania. He was a non conformist, obviously not part of the establishment. He gave a new hope for young people in Canada in a stance against war. In 1969 the biggest concern for any young American was Vietnam, you will be drafted, and if you took a more noble stance you protested, "Stop the War" In Berkeley CA, protesters had taken over an area of Peoples Park, and when Gov Regan called in the Guard, hundreds were injured and one was dead. The aftermath of that, was still going on during the 2nd Bed in. John & Yoko were hooked into a local radio station, speaking live to anyone remaining. A few years earlier Richard Nixon had said, "…opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S.” When he said that as a private citizen, the anti war movement was strong, still in the days of LBJ. President Nixon turned up the heat even more. While the two "clowns" John & Yoko amused the establishment in a campaign like no one had ever seen, it was clever, it was funny and even a bit naive. The message got through.
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Post by Michael Capasse on Apr 3, 2021 10:57:46 GMT -5
Look With InsideIn Dec 1974 Seymour Hersh published an article in the NY Times, "Huge CIA Operation Reported in US Against Anti-war Forces, Other Dissidents in the Nixon Years" it shook the walls and forced Pres. Ford to appoint The Rockefeller Commission to investigate. "The Central Intelligence Agency directly violating its charter, conducted a massive illegal domestic intelligence operation during the Nixon Administration against the anti-war movement and the other dissident groups in the United States according to well-placed government sources"In 1975 three Senate and House Committees looked into the abuse of domestic power by the intelligence community in the US. All ended with a slap on the wrist. The Rockefeller Commission signed off on the majority of domestic activity but not without a warning of criticism. "A detailed analysis of the facts has convinced the Commission that the great majority of the CIA domestic activities comply with its statutory authority. Nevertheless over the 28 years of its history, the CIA engaged in some activities that should be criticized and not permitted to happen again"++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Poppy at the HelmGeorge HW Bush was the head of he CIA from January 1976 - January 1977, then Jimmy Carter appointed, Admiral Stansford Turner. Turner said, "The reason they had great love for George Bush [at the CIA} was that he let them do whatever they wanted.." "He came in and said, "What do you want to do?, and then he said, "...go ahead and do it."As Vice President, he was the keynote speaker at Richard Helm's Testimonial Dinner. Six years earlier Helms was forced to plead "no contest" to 2 charges of failing to testify "fully, completely, and accurately" to Congress regarding the agency's covert operations in Chile. Still, Bush declared his respect and admiration for Helms as director and called the agency, "...fastidious in respecting the law of the land..." He is the only US president that was a former head of the CIA. When Spiro Agnew was forced to resign as VP under Nixon in 1973, George Bush was head of the Republican Party. When the threat of blackmail hit the White House involving Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, and a handful of Cubans. Nixon's fear was divulged on tape when he said Hunt's involvement could bring up the whole "Bay of Pigs" thing. Some White House staff thought he was referring to the JFK Assassination. Nixon had played a key role setting up Operation 40. Now it was up to the head of the Republican party to pitch for the next President in the inevitable downfall of Nixon. Someone will need to protect the agency from any scandal involving illicit covert operations foreign or domestic, Cuba or otherwise. Gerald R. Ford, one of the leading members of the Warren Commission was chosen, Once president, Ford appointed Bush head of the CIA.
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Post by Michael Capasse on Apr 7, 2021 10:18:57 GMT -5
Mind ControlOne of the bestselling novels of 1959 was, "The Manchurian Candidate" by Richard Condon. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent political family being captured by the communists in Korea. He was sent to a secret location in Manchuria, where he was programed through mind control to kill the American President. A programmed killer, that could be later activated with a phrase, or an image or a book. Bresler asked is this possible in real life? The practice of mind control or hypnotism goes back to the mid 18th century, a German scientist named Franz Mesmer. Mesmer, discovered he had a profound influence on his patients thru the power of suggestion, and with hands on healing he could cure some pain. Others took his practice further, Étienne Félix d'Henin de Cuvillers, coined the phrase hypnotism in 1820, and actually put his patients in a trance. Then in 1841, a Scottish surgeon James Braid brought the term and practice to the forefront when he began using it as an anesthesia. It soon became a novelty stage act as others learned to use it to entertain, putting audience members in a trance to act foolishly about the room. The notion to use it to kill, came during the Second World War. An OSS (Office of Strategic Services) officer, Stanley Lovell, worked in research and development, he promoted a way to hypnotize a high ranking German prisoner into hating the Nazis and the Gestapo, and let him escape to Germany with the hypnotic suggestion of killing Hitler. The idea was eventually scrapped based on the theory that people will not do under hypnosis, what they wouldn't do normally. Professor George Estabrooks from Colgate University, disagreed, and proposed a program to the OSS using "average" citizens. Head of the OSS, Gen. William Donovan refused, and it was left to be taken up by the brand new CIA. In April 1950, "Operation Bluebird" was the CIAs mind control program, with teams of psychiatrists, and lie detector technicians trained in hypnosis. One thing they were looking for was to induce memory loss under strict interrogations, if caught, the prisoner could tell the enemy virtually nothing. Within 2 years "Bluebird" developed into "PROJECT ARTICHOKE", with expanded more sophisticated ways to, "...exploit operational lines, scientific methods and knowledge that can be utilized in altering the attitudes, beliefs, thought processes and behavioral patterns of agent personnel. This will include the application of tested psychiatric psychological techniques including the use of hypnosis,in conjunction with drugs .." By April 1953 the program changed yet again, to MKULTRA. Over the next twenty years, 149 sub-projects and 33 allied sub-projects, were often pursued by US Armed Forces Intelligence and Chemical Research Units. MKULTRA ended in 1973 amidst the discovery by the Church Committee. The scandal exposed innocent Americans being dosed with excessive amounts of LSD or mescaline and then observed behind two way mirrors. In 1979 Johnathan Marks' book, "In Search of the Manchurian Candidate" he discussed when openly recruited it was part of a 'special deal". The individual would come in as a normal infantryman and be brought to a special program to receive special training.
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Post by Michael Capasse on Apr 7, 2021 10:19:32 GMT -5
"...on to Chicago..."Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on June 05, 1968 while leaving the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. His accused assassin was a 24 year old from Jerusalem, Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy had just given a victory speech for winning the South Dakota and California primaries with, "My thanks to all of you; and now it's on to Chicago, and let's win there!"
As he walked away from the podium toward the ballroom, his designated exit, he was stopped by personal aides that had changed the route. "No, it's been changed. We're going this way." Fred Dutton and William Barry (aides) cleared the way thru the kitchen pantry. Once inside, Sirhan stepped down from a side table and fired. All hell broke loose as the gunman continued firing wildly while being held down by NFL Defensive Tackle, Rosey Grier and writer George Plimpton. Kennedy had been hit 3 times, one shot from very close to his head. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Black Out CoffeeSirhan was in the hotel, his exact locations and timeline are unclear. At some point he went out to get some air, and thought he would go home. While he was in his car, he realized he was probably too drunk to drive, and decided to go back inside and find a cup of coffee. Additionally not clear is, at what point did he bring the gun into the building? - and what were his original intentions when he arrived? In his home, police found notebooks and journals, some scribbled with the repeated phrase, "RFK MUST DIE", "RFK MUST DIE", "RFK MUST DIE". The similarities of the Kennedy and the Lennon case are quite remarkable. Evidence of assassins being programmed. When Sirhan first spoke to his public defender he had no memory of the event, "...I don't remember much about the shooting Sir, did I do it? Well guess I am told I did. I remember being at the Ambassador Hotel. I am drinking Tom Collins'. I got dizzy. I went back to my car so I could go home. But I was too drunk to drive. I thought I'd better find some coffee. The next thing I remember I was being choked and a guy was twisting my knee." NYPD Officer Arthur O'Connor on Mark Chapman:"It's possible Mark could have been used by somebody. I saw him the night of the murder. I studied him intensely. He looked as if he could have been programmed - and I know what you're going to make of that word!" The reactions and manners of the 2 assassins after the shootings are the same. A calm, glazed look, with a docile demeanor. Loss of memory. Adding to this is something more bizarre, Dr. Bernard Diamond of the University of California, one of the nation's leading psychiatrists that used hypnosis in his work, was a principal medical defense witness for Sirhan. Thirteen years later, he was one of the psychiatrists on Chapman's defense team. Interesting still, is the doctor's use of hypnosis with Sirhan came out in his trial, but with Chapman, no trial, no public record of that. Diamond said Sirhan preferred to write his answers in an auto-writing manner, often repeating words until the doctor stopped him. This was an indication he may have been programmed or had the ability to put himself under, or possibly was done with some sort of trigger. In one of these sessions, Diamond had hypnotized Sirhan and went thru a series of questions discussing, "crazy writing". "Is this crazy writing?" Diamond asked. "YES YES YES," Sirhan wrote. "Are you crazy?" "NO NO.""Well, why are you writing crazy?" "PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.""Practice for what?" "MIND CONTROL MIND CONTROL MIND CONTROL," was the written response.
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Post by Michael Capasse on Apr 7, 2021 10:19:52 GMT -5
When Nixon Met the KingOn the morning of Dec. 20, 1970, Elvis Presley showed up at the gates of the White House with a personal letter for the president. A few days earlier, his father and wife were complaining he had spent over $100,000 gifting 32 hand guns and 10 Mercedes Benz cars. Peeved off, Elvis caught the next flight out of Memphis, and ended up in his Los Angles home. He called one of his men, Jerry Shilling. The next day, Presley asked Schilling to book them to DC. "He didn't say why, but I thought the badge might be part of the reason." What Elvis wanted was a Federal Narcotics Badge, "The narc badge represented some kind of ultimate power to him," Ex wife Priscilla Presley wrote, "With the federal narcotics badge, he [believed he] could legally enter any country both wearing
guns and carrying any drugs he wished." Elvis wrote his letter to the president on the red-eye flight to Washington. Once landed, he dropped the note off at the White House gate [about 6:30a] and checked into the Washington Hotel. From there, he got an appointment at the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, but no approval for the narcotics badge. As the White House offices opened, Egil "Bud" Krogh, read the letter requesting the meeting and just so happened to be a huge Elvis fan. He convinced White House Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman to make it happen. Elvis had written, Sir, I am staying at the Washington Hotel, Room 505-506-507. I have two men who work with me by the name of Jerry Schilling and Sonny West. I am registered under the name of Jon Burrows. I will be here for as long as long as it takes to get the credentials of a Federal Agent. I have done an in-depth study of drug abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques and I am right in the middle of the whole thing where I can and will do the most good..."Elvis had brought a Colt .45 pistol mounted in a display case as a gift, that was swiftly confiscated by the Secret Service before going in. Taking pictures was White House photographer Ollie Atkins, then Presley was allowed to bring in his guests Jerry Shilling and Sonny West. Nixon gave them Presidential cuff links, and broaches for their wives. After lunch Elvis got his badge, no one dare tell him it had no authority. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In ContrastOne year earlier, John & Yoko met Canada Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau at his home in Ottawa. The meeting lasted just under an hour behind closed doors, with no where near the drama of the [then] secret Nixon-Elvis summit. When asked why it took longer than expected, Yoko said, they had all had been really enjoying the conversation. Lennon added, "We spent about 50 minutes together, which was longer than he had spent with any head of state. If all politicians were like Mr Trudeau there would be world peace.” It becomes an interesting contrast both politically and socially, while these two giants attempt to maneuver the powers to get what they want. The bold sincerity of Lennon's mission for a real discussion on world peace, in contrast to Presley using such a meeting as a premise for a narc badge. Elvis, dressed in purple velvet, with a huge gold belt, his coat draped over his shoulders like the cape of a new kind of super hero. Each host graciously accommodating as they play the part, like the "wizard" handing out the accolades at the end of "OZ". John Lennon didn't mean very much to Nixon at the time. There was no threat for re-election, no Jerry Rubin. He wasn't even living here. While a silly bed protest in Canada means even less, the anti war movement grew and a more immediate need for peace was required of it. This brought on all the immigration trouble Lennon faced. Nixon was aware of the Beatles, and was a bit surprised by something Elvis said. transcript summary: Bud Krogh "...Presley indicated that he thought the Beatles had been a real force for anti-American spirit. He said that the Beatles came to this country, made their money, and then returned to England where they promoted an anti-American theme. The President nodded in agreement and expressed some surprise..."
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