The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, July 11, 1968, Image 5
The Newberry Sun, Newberry, S. C., Thursday, July 11, 1968—PAGE 5
Strange Sequence
Perhaps they’re not, but
there has been a strange
sequence of official rejection
of Communist blame in many
recent dastardly acts. It will
be recalled that when Presi
dent John F. Kennedy was
shot in Dallas the “right wing”
was immediately blamed
(Chief Justice Warren took the
lead in making such a charge,
just hours after the shooting);
later the Warren Commission
appeared to play down the
fact that a Communist who had
renounced his U. S. citizenship
had shot the President, and
even today, the alleged killer’s
connection with World Com
munism is discounted in some
Federal government circles
and is challenged in many
quarters.
From early press reports on
the shooting of Dr. Martin
Luther King one got the im
pression that the fugitive was
a Southern white “racist”
motivated by personal hate.
Attorney General Ramsey
Clark, just a few hours after
the shooting, said “no con
spiracy” was involved, that it
was the act of one man.
Hired Killers?
Scarcely anyone has sug
gested that Communism could
have had a hand in the King
slaying. The TV documentaries
and the press generally have
not explored the possibility
that the suspect might have
been a hired killer. Yet any
person half-way informed on
Communist tactics knows that
assassination is a common
practice of Communist agents;
and the thousands of dollars
traced to the ex-convict held
for the shooting would seem
to indicate conspiracy and pay
off. By whom?
And now the Robert Kennedy
killing. For the first few hours
after the Los Angeles shoot
ing, reports said that the
suspect held was a “swarthy,
Spanish-looking” man. Then
most of the news reporting
switched. The unknown man in
custody became “a Cauca
sian” in news and TV report
ing. It was not until he was
identified positively that his
true origin was reported —- a
Jordanian, bom in a section
of Jordan now under Israel
rule.
Will the Trial Tell?
*
Mayor Yorty, who had dis
pleased many in Washington
by declaring in April that Com
munist organizations had been
active in the Negro rioting and
burning of American cities,
' may have felt that the infor
mation in Sirhan’s personal
notebooks which, he said,
showed the young man to be
“inflamed by contacts with the
Communist Party and Commu
nist fronts”, would have been
suppressed. When he was at
tacked for having made the
disclosures, Mayor Yorty said
he was determined that the
American public should get
“some of the background in
formation” on the motivation
of the Senator’s assailant.
The Mayor said that in the
notebooks, Sirhan had set a
deadline date for the assassina
tion — “before June 5, 1968”,
Testimony at the arraignment
of Sirhan, though the “diary”
was not mentioned, did bring
out the dramatic information
that Sirhan had engaged in ex
tensive target practice with a
9-shot 22 pistol, and was seen
at a target range the day be
fore the shooting of Kennedy.
Probably most Americans
will side with Mayor Yorty,
who told his critics that “there
is so much evidence that I
don't see how revealing some
of the background can be pre
judicial.” It all gives added
interest and importance to the
Sirhan trial.
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