it’s the honest 9/11 truth!

According to his friends, Jared Loughner hated Bush, and he believed in the 9/11 Truther conspiracy theories.

Assuming the man’s mind was capable of a political classification (a big assumption, IMO), that would have tended to place him on the left at the time. Because Bush was president and the official government position was that the 9/11 attacks were done by foreign terrorists, he could also have fairly been described as “anti-government.”

While I have not read anything to indicate whether Loughner hated Obama or subscribed to Birther conspiracy theories, I’m pretty sure that if he did, the media would have had a field day declaring that this was proof that he was a rabid right wing nut, etc. 

I’m not saying he was on the left, but the double standard is appalling, and unfortunately quite unremarkable. If I decided to blog about nothing but double standards all the time, I would never run out of material, but the blog would become quite boring, and while I hope my complaint about the Loughner double standard is not too tedious, I want to focus on another double standard —

the conspiracy theory double standard.

Without defending any conspiracy theory, it is clear that some conspiracy theories are more respectable than others. This does not depend so much on the credibility of the theory so much as it does on what “side” of the political spectrum the theory falls. The more a theory tends to advance a left wing position, the less likely it will be called a conspiracy theory by liberals, and the more it advances a right wing position, the less likely it will be derided by conservatives. Non-politicized theories involving things like UFOs and chemtrails are usually safe for people on both sides of the spectrum to ridicule, and so are grand plots involving the Illuminati, Bilderbergers, Skull and Bones, the Masons, the Royal Family, etc. 

While assassination conspiracy theories tend to advance political agendas on the left, It has long fascinated me that the three biggest political assassinations — JFK, MLK, RFK (four if you include Malcolm X) — occurred while the federal government was run by Democrats, yet they are almost invariably spun as being “right wing” conspiracies involving the government. 

As yesterday was the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and as a serious attempt was made to invoke the King Legacy in regards to the Loughner massacre, I have been thinking about the King assassination lately. 

What started me wandering towards King conspiracy theories was the attempt by the AP to spin the theme into one of “gun violence.” I reacted with irritation:

Wait a minute. Since when is one of the most harmful and malicious political murders in our history to be reduced simply to “gun violence”? That phrase implies that no human agency or evil is required; the guns either just do it all by themselves, or else they inspire evil men to shoot people. I would love to hear the “reporter” explain exactly how James Earl Ray‘s Remington .30-06 rifle made him look down that Redfield 2×7 telescopic sight, draw a bead on King as he came out of the balcony of his motel, and then place an accurate fatal shot.

Except that many on the left would disagree, and call me a dupe of government propaganda for saying that. There is a huge conspiracy industry which cranks out books, videos and web pages all devoted to the idea that King was murdered not by Ray (who is portrayed as a innocent patsy who never shot anyone), but by the U.S. government (including the FBI, CIA, and military special forces) working in conjunction with the Mafia, and the trigger man was not Ray, but Memphis Police Lieutenant Ed Clark. (Conveniently, Clark had died in 1987, before his name was recalled via hypnosis retrieval of a repressed memory, so the man never had a chance to offer his side of the story.) 

Remarkably, the King Center (featured prominently in the piece attempting to make the Loughner tie-in), is one of the leading proponents of this theory.

Coretta Scott King: There is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. And the civil court’s unanimous verdict has validated our belief. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. This verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory for America. It is a great victory for truth itself. It is important to know that this was a SWIFT verdict, delivered after about an hour of jury deliberation. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. I want to make it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. Instead, our sole concern has been that the full truth of the assassination has been revealed and adjudicated in a court of law. As we pursued this case, some wondered why we would spend the time and energy addressing such a painful part of the past. For both our family and the nation, the short answer is that we had to get involved because the system did not work. Those who are responsible for the assassination were not held to account for their involvement. This verdict, therefore, is a great victory for justice and truth. It has been a difficult and painful experience to revisit this tragedy, but we felt we had an obligation to do everything in our power to seek the truth. Not only for the peace of mind of our family but to also bring closure and healing to the nation. We have done what we can to reveal the truth, and we now urge you as members of the media, and we call upon elected officials, and other persons of influence to do what they can to share the revelation of this case to the widest possible audience. I know that this has been a difficult case for everyone involved. I thank the jury and Judge Swearington for their commitment to reach a just verdict, I want to also thank our attorneys, Dr. William Pepper and his associates for their hard work and tireless dedication in bringing this case to justice. Dr. Pepper has put many years of his life, as well as his financial resources, into this case. He has made significant personal sacrifices to pursue the search for the truth about my husband’s assassination.

To delve into all of the details of this theory would require much, much more than a blog post, but briefly, attorney William F. Pepper arranged for the King family to “sue” an elderly man named Loyd Jowers, who basically confessed to his involvement in a civil trial, and the jury agreed based on his confession that he was liable and the government killed King.

The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame.” Following statements by Dexter King and other family members, Dexter was subsequently asked by a reporter, “there are many people out there who feel that as long as these conspirators remain nameless and faceless there is no true closure, and no justice.” He replied:

“No, he [Mr. Lloyd Jowers] named the shooter. The shooter was the Memphis Police Department Officer, Lt. Earl Clark who he named as the killer. Once again, beyond that you had credible witnesses that named members of a Special Forces team who didn’t have to act because the contract killer succeeded, with plausible denial, a Mafia contracted killer”.^[2]

United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division started investigation on Jowers claims August 26, 1998. The investigation was completed in June 2000, and found no reason to believe Jowers’ allegations.^[3]

I was a bit annoyed by that last link to the Justice Department investigation, because it is dead, and it took a bit of sleuthing to find the report, which is titled “United States Department of Justice Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” (I also updated the Wiki entry.)

The report is incredibly detailed, and meticulously documented. It calls Jowers into serious doubt, and makes mincemeat of numerous unsupposed allegations presented the manufactured jury trial. While this post is burdensome enough already, I’ll quote just one small excerpt dealing with the supposed linchpin of the conspiracy theory, Loyd Jowers:

At the time of the assassination, Loyd Jowers owned and operated Jim’s Grill, a tavern below the rooming house where James Earl Ray rented a room on April 4, 1968. Until 1993, Jowers maintained in several public statements that he was merely serving customers in his tavern when Dr. King was shot. He did not claim any involvement in the assassination or significant knowledge about it.

In December 1993, Jowers appeared on ABC’s Prime Time Live and radically changed his story, claiming he participated in a plot to assassinate Dr. King. According to Jowers, a Memphis produce dealer, who was involved with the Mafia, gave him $100,000 to hire an assassin and assured him that the police would not be at the scene of the shooting. Jowers also reported that he hired a hit man to shoot Dr. King from behind Jim’s Grill and received the murder weapon prior to the killing from someone with a name sounding like Raoul. Jowers further maintained that Ray did not shoot Dr. King and that he did not believe Ray knowingly participated in the conspiracy.

Since his television appearance, Jowers and his attorney have given additional statements about the assassination to the media, the King family, Ray’s defenders, law enforcement personnel, relatives, friends, and courts. Jowers, however, has never made his conspiracy claims under oath. See Section IV.C.1.a. In fact, he did not testify in King v. Jowers, despite the fact that he was the party being sued. The one time Jowers did testify under oath about his allegations in an earlier civil suit, Ray v. Jowers, he repudiated them. Further, he has also renounced his confessions in certain private conversations without his attorney. See Section IV.C.1.b. For example, in an impromptu, recorded conversation with a state investigator, Jowers characterized a central feature of his story — that someone besides Ray shot Dr. King with a rifle other than the one recovered at the crime scene — as “bullshit.” Consequently, Jowers has only confessed in circumstances where candor has not been required by law or where he has not been required to reconcile his prior inconsistencies.

When Jowers has confessed, he has contradicted himself on virtually every key point about the alleged conspiracy. See Section IV.C.2. For example, he not only identified two different people as the assassin, but also most recently claimed that he saw the assassin and did not recognize him. Jowers also abandoned his initial allegation that he received $100,000 with which he hired a hit man to kill Dr. King, claiming instead that he merely held the money for the conspirators. Additionally, Jowers has been inconsistent about other aspects of the alleged conspiracy, including his role in it, Raoul’s responsibilities, whether and how Memphis police officers were involved, and the disposal of the alleged murder weapon.

Equally significant, the investigative team found no credible evidence to support any aspect of Jowers’ varied accounts. See Section IV.D. There is no corroborating physical evidence, and the few isolated accounts allegedly supporting Jowers’ claims are either unreliable or unsupportive. At the same time, there is evidence to contradict important elements of Jowers’ allegations. For instance, investigators did not find a trail of footprints in the muddy ground behind Jim’s Grill after the murder, undermining Jowers’ claim that the assassin shot Dr. King from that location and brought the rifle to him at the backdoor. Similarly, there is substantial evidence establishing that the assassin actually fired from the bathroom window of the rooming house above Jim’s Grill.

The genesis of Jowers’ allegations is suspect. See Section IV.F.1. For 25 years following the assassination, Jowers never claimed any specific involvement in or knowledge of a conspiracy. It was not until 1993, during a meeting with the producer of a televised mock trial of James Earl Ray, that Jowers first publicly disclosed the details of the alleged plot, including the names of the purported assassin and other co-conspirators. He also initially sought compensation for his story, and his friends and relatives acknowledge that he hoped to make money from his account.

Jowers’ conduct also undermines his credibility. He refused to cooperate with our investigation. See Section IV.E. Even though he repeatedly confessed publicly without immunity from prosecution, he was unwilling to speak to us without immunity. We were willing to consider his demand, but he refused to provide a proffer of his allegation, a standard prerequisite for an immunity grant, particularly where a witness has given contradictory accounts. His failure to provide a proffer demonstrates that he was unwilling to put forth a final, definitive version of his story. It further suggests he is not genuinely concerned about obtaining protection from prosecution, but instead has sought immunity merely to lend legitimacy to his otherwise unsubstantiated story.

From the beginning, Jowers’ story has been the product of a carefully orchestrated promotional effort. See Section IV.F.2. In 1993, shortly after the HBO television mock trial, Jowers and a small circle of friends, all represented by the same attorney, sought to gain legitimacy for the conspiracy allegations by presenting them first to the state prosecutor, then to the media. Other of Jowers’ friends and acquaintances, some of whom have had close contact with each other and sought financial compensation, joined the promotional effort over the next several years. For example, one cab driver contacted Jowers’ attorney in 1998 and offered to be of assistance. Thereafter, he heard Jowers’ conspiracy allegations, then repeated them for television and during King v. Jowers. Telephone records demonstrate that, over a period of several months, the cab driver made over 75 telephone calls to Jowers’ attorney and another 75 calls to another cab driver friend of Jowers who has sought compensation for information supporting Jowers’ claims.

In summary, we have determined that Jowers’ claims about an alleged conspiracy are materially contradictory and unsubstantiated. Moreover, Jowers’ repudiations, even under oath, his failure to testify during King v. Jowers, his refusal to cooperate with our investigation, his reported motive to make money from his claims, and his efforts along with his friends to promote his story all suggest a lack of credibility. We do not believe that Jowers, or those he accuses, participated in the assassination of Dr. King.

I don’t believe they did either, and I think it is very unfortunate that such utter nonsense is promoted at such high levels, simply because some people desperately want to blame the federal government. I find it ironic that the assassination occurred during a Democratic presidency, and the more recent Justice Department investigation was conducted by the Clinton administration, yet still this is all spun as a dastardly right wing plot.

I also think it is worth pointing out that the theory’s leading proponent, attorney William F. Pepper, is a leading proponent of 9/11 Truther conspiracy theories.

William Francis Pepper (born August 16, 1937) is a attorney based in New York City who is most noted for his efforts to prove the innocence of James Earl Ray in the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sirhan Sirhan in the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

He has been active in other government conspiracy cases including the 9/11 Truth movement and has advocated that George W. Bush be charged with war crimes.^[1]

While I don’t believe there is any conceivable common thread or tie-in between the King assassination and the Tucson massacre, it strikes me that the demagogues who love to search for such connections could find one in the 9/11 Truth department.

Hey, at the rate these things go, it might not take long for them to start saying that Loughner was under hypnosis like Sirhan Sirhan. 

There’s no end to these right wing government plots, is there?

MORE: It ought to go without saying that the common thread between most of these assassins and patsys involves CIA activities — especially on college campuses:

Substantial evidence exists linking members of this country’s intelligence community (including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Office of Naval Intelligence) with the esoteric technology of mind control. For decades, “spy-chiatrists” working behind the scenes — on college campuses, in CIA-sponsored institutes, and (most heinously) in prisons have experimented with the erasure of memory, hypnotic resistance to torture, truth serums, post-hypnotic suggestion, rapid induction of hypnosis, electronic stimulation of the brain, non-ionizing radiation, microwave induction of intracerebral “voices,” and a host of even more disturbing technologies. Some of the projects exploring these areas were ARTICHOKE, BLUEBIRD, PANDORA, MKDELTA, MKSEARCH and the infamous MKULTRA.

Loughner, who complained of being “brainwashed” by “grammar” (at his “genocide school“) is obviously just the latest victim of this sinister plot.

Isn’t it obvious to anyone who can connect the dots?

MORE: While I don’t think I need to point out I consider the idea that Loughner was brainwashed in an MKULTRA program to be utter nonsense, it is already considered the truth by thousands of conspiracy theorists.

To their way of thinking, he’s a perfect fit.

(But I don’t expect that there will be much of a call to tone down the conspiracy theory rhetoric….)