Thursday, February 18, 2016

Sirhan Shrade

The coverage and in fact the whole case is one:

"Robert Kennedy’s assassin is denied parole for 15th time" Associated Press  February 10, 2016

SAN DIEGO — For the 15th time, officials denied parole for Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, after hearing Wednesday from another person who was shot that night and called for Sirhan’s release.

The decision came after Sirhan answered questions from the California parole panel for about three hours in a small, windowless conference room.

Commissioners concluded Sirhan did not show adequate remorse or understand the enormity of his crime.

‘‘This crime impacted the nation, and I daresay it impacted the world,’’ commissioner Brian Roberts said. ‘‘It was a political assassination of a viable Democratic presidential candidate.’’

And let's hope there is never another one again, be he a Sanders or a Trump.

During the hearing, the 71-year-old Sirhan stuck to his previous account that he did not remember the shooting in 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after Kennedy won the Democratic presidential primary in California.

It's evidence of some sort of mind control programming.

He said he recalled being in the hotel then going to his car and returning after realizing he had too much to drink. He said he became interested in a female and they drank coffee in a hotel pantry.

It's the girl ion the polka dot dress.

‘‘It’s all vague now,’’ Sirhan told the parole panel. ‘‘I’m sure you all have it in your records, I can’t deny it or confirm it, I just wish this whole thing had never taken place.’’

You and a whole lot of people in this world. 

You see, looking back in hindsight, it becomes clear that Bob Kennedy was our one, last best hope for a decent world and I had to take my glasses of because every time I think about it now I get teary-eyed. 

When one considers the course of events in this country and beyond in the 48 years since, one can reach no other conclusion. They took out JFK, Malcolm, MLK, and RFK, and that was it.

Sirhan, a native of Jerusalem, listened intently during most of the hearing, turning testy when commissioners pressed him on his memory. He said he felt remorse for any crime victim but added that he couldn’t take responsibility for the shooting.

‘‘If you want a confession, I can’t make it now,’’ Sirhan said. ‘‘Legally speaking, I’m not guilty of anything. ... It’s not that I’m making light of it. I’m responsible for being there.’’

Sirhan said incriminating statements he made at trial were the result of an ineffective defense attorney who pressured him into thinking he was guilty.

Those three paragraphs were not included in my print copy, and it's interesting to note that the patsy was a Palestinian consider RFK (and his brother) opposed the Jewish state possessing nuclear weapons and wanted to make AIPAC's forerunner register as a foreign lobby. 

And then he was splayed out on the kitchen floor of the hotel.

Paul Schrade, now 91, told the panel that he believes Sirhan shot him at the hotel but an unidentified second shooter killed Kennedy. Schrade was a Kennedy confidante who was one of five people injured in the shooting.

Not really unidentified, but more on that later.

Schrade pleaded for the release of Sirhan at the hearing and apologized to him for not doing more over the years to secure his freedom.

You've done all you can and more, sir!

Schrade’s voice broke with emotion at times during his hour of testimony that recounted his efforts to unravel questions about the shooting of Kennedy.

‘‘I forgive you for shooting me,’’ Schrade told Sirhan. ‘‘I should have been here long ago and that’s why I feel guilty for not being here to help you and to help me.’’

The two men faced each other for the first time since Schrade testified at Sirhan’s 1969 trial. Schrade repeatedly apologized for not attending any of Sirhan’s previous 14 parole hearings.

Sirhan nodded politely each time Schrade sought his forgiveness.

Schrade showed flashes of anger against Roberts, who admonished him for violating protocol by addressing Sirhan directly.

Schrade also criticized a representative of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office for making what Schrade called a ‘‘venomous’’ statement against the release of Sirhan.

Roberts at one point asked Schrade to wrap up his presentation, saying ‘‘quite frankly, you’re losing us.’’

‘‘I think you have been lost for a long time,’’ Schrade shot back.

Earlier in the hearing, the commissioner asked if anyone wanted a break. Schrade spoke up from the audience and said, ‘‘no I want this to get over, I find it very abusive.’’

Sirhan told the panel that he initially didn’t plan to attend the hearing but appeared at the urging of his attorneys.

If released he said he hoped he would be deported to Jordan or live with his brother in Pasadena, California.

His hope, he said, was ‘‘just to live out my life peacefully, in harmony with my fellow man.’’

‘‘This is such a traumatic experience, it’s a horrendous experience that for me to keep dwelling on it is harmful to me,’’ Sirhan said.

Those long ago assassinations are traumatic and horrendous to bring up, but we must.

It is only when we deal with the war machine takeover of the 1960s that we can understand why we are where we are today. 

The Kennedys were not angels, that's for sure; however, no mortal is.

As an ordinary citizen, what one hopes for is a decent, well-adjusted aristocrat that is connected in some way to ordinary pain. For all their flaws, both Kennedys had that. JFK due to his many illnesses and RFK due to what happened to his brother. 

Given the realities of our world today, that's the best we can hope for: a benevolent leader who will listen to the will of the people and not the $elf-$erving psychopathic war criminals we have in charge now.

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Related:

"The Full Story of the Sirhan Sirhan Parole Hearing

by Shane O’Sullivan
February 16, 2016

The ban on video and audio recordings at Sirhan Sirhan’s parole hearing on February 9 meant the world depended on the one reporter allowed inside the hearing to tell us what happened. He had to condense “more than three hours of intense testimony” into 854 words.

Elliot Spagat’s lively account of the proceeding for the Associated Press omitted one very important document that shooting victim and Kennedy family friend Paul Schrade presented to the parole board. This was a letter from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to US Attorney General Eric Holder, dated September 25, 2012, supporting Schrade’s request for a new investigation of his father’s murder:

“I am here to speak for myself, a shooting victim, and to bear witness for my friend, Bob Kennedy.
 Kennedy was a man of justice. But, so far, justice has not been served in this case. And I feel obliged as both a shooting victim and as an American to speak out about this — and to honor the memory of the greatest American I’ve ever known, Robert Francis Kennedy. In order for you to make an accurate determination of Sirhan Sirhan’s parole, you need to know my feelings on this case and the full picture of what actually happened.

When Schrade turned to address Sirhan, he “angrily ignored” the commissioner’s instructions not to speak or make eye contact with the prisoner. He said he believed Sirhan did not know where he was or what he was doing and therefore was not responsible for his actions at the Ambassador Hotel:

Sirhan, I forgive you. The evidence clearly shows you were not the gunman who shot Robert Kennedy. There is clear evidence of a second gunman in that kitchen pantry who shot Robert Kennedy…The fatal bullet struck Bob in the back of the head…You were never behind Bob, nor was Bob’s back ever exposed to you…the evidence not only shows that you did not shoot Robert Kennedy but it shows that you could not have shot Robert Kennedy.”

Schrade then directed the panel’s attention to documents submitted in advance of the hearing, which proved “Sirhan Sirhan did not shoot — and could not have shot — Robert Kennedy”:

A copy of the autopsy report describing the fatal shot fired from an inch behind Kennedy’s right ear; Phil Van Praag’s declaration showing evidence of 13 shots and 2 guns on the Pruszynski recording; and witness statements from Ambassador Hotel maître d’s Karl Uecker and Edward Minasian confirming Sirhan’s firing position several feet in front of Kennedy....

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The Shrade is enough to make you cry.

Anybody check on the whereabouts of Thane Cesar lately (if that was his real name)?

Also see: RFK, Jr. on the JFK Assassination