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The corporate media
harbors hundreds of CIA propagandists and fawning loyalists who find
revelations concerning domestic political assassinations inconvenient
and stroll by with little comment. The central revelation of this volume
is the fact that the Agency and Organized Crime have, for over over
thirty years, engaged in a program to silence popular musicians whose
influence subverts the cynical thought control tactics of American
government and media. There exists within both worlds a rigidly
"conservative" infrastructure that has little regard for human rights.
This infrastructure has contributed to the rise of every fascist regime
in the Third World. It has overthrown many a democratically-elected
leader and favors death squad rule. It thrives on war, propaganda and
social control. It takes a dim view of critics in the music industry,
particularly young "communards" who advocate demilitarization,
dread-locked musicians standing up for their rights, or street Thugs who
condemn police violence and suggest shooting back.
The untimely
deaths of John Lennon, Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, and other rock
musicians who lashed out at the established order were followed by
widespread suspicion of foul play. The murder of Lennon led Fenton
Bressler, an English barrister, to descend reluctantly into the hidden
labyrinth of CIA mind control operations, and the result of his
investigation, Who Killed John Lennon? (1989), raised provocative
questions regarding the deep history of Mark David Chapman. But
Bressler was an exception. Hard questions concerning the deaths of most
musicians in this book have never been asked. On the contrary,
many reporters and biographers are inclined to dismiss, with varying
degrees of condescension, evidence of murder as grist for exotic
conspiracy theories (though these, of course, do tend to run rampant
when fascism, which is inherently conspiratorial, dominates the
intelligence community). This unwillingness to dissect covert operations
renders reporters with integrity incapable of evaluating the evidence
and arriving at an objective judgment. An attempt is made here to
correct this imbalance, to treat the evidence with the seriousness it
deserves.
A sobering
example: ten years ago, the statement that Brian Jones, founding member
of the Rolling Stones, was murdered would have been met with ridicule.
Everyone knew that Jones died in 1969 by accidental drowning. The
"rational" view held that Jones was a fiercely talented but precocious,
drug-crazed rogue with an irrepressible death wish. But the subsequent
confession of his killer, and the testimony of several witnesses
intimidated into silence, has since dispelled the status quo
belief (though the press remains largely indifferent). Brian Jones was
murdered. Journalists should take care not to let it happen again, but
this is not a profession that readily learns from its mistakes.
Reporters will transcribe the official verdict on the next "accidental
drowning," pride themselves on their "objectivity" for refusing to be
lured by bothersome details into contradicting the official record. A
politically indifferent public will accept all this and the hypocritical
distortions of the propagandists.
Anyone with a
penchant to research the subject is advised that there are patterns to
look for to distinguish a political hit from the apolitical variety and
accidental or natural causes. Nearly all celebrity subjects of this
volume knew extreme "paranoia" before their deaths. John Lennon and Jim
Morrison were both driven to desperation by constant FBI harassment.
Jones was made a nervous wreck by police raids and the intimidations of
a circle of killers who infiltrated his household. Jimi Hendrix feared
Michael Jeffrey, his manager, a self-avowed intelligence agent with
Mafia ties, who stole from him, then arranged for his kidnapping
and probable murder. Bob Marley received a death threat from the
CIA, and sang about his "War" with the Agency. Tupac Shakur lived in
defiance of a COINTELPRO-type operation waged, he realized, to destroy
his career and silence him.
Another recurring
theme is the posthumous publication of books libeling the deceased and
misleading the reader on the circumstances of death. Bob Woodward, Danny
Sugarman and the late Albert Goldman worked this genre and profited
handsomely from it. In the "mainstream" media, discrediting
tactics are also common, and the death is almost always blamed on the
victim. Cass Elliott, according to one fraudulent medical expert and a
flurry of erroneous press reports, was claimed by "gluttony." Jones was
a victim of vague "misadventure," and drugs were said to have
contributed -- despite the fact that he had been off them for a month
before he died. It was widely reported falsely that Jimi Hendrix
overdosed on heroin, and it is universally held that he "choked on his
own vomit," though the true circumstances are complex and have driven
many of his friends to demand an investigation. Michael Hutchence was
supposedly done in by auto-erotic sex, but a broken hand, split lip and
contusions on his body have not been explained. In each case, cruel
exaggeration and blatant falsehood parade as fact.
The victim often
leaves behind witnesses whose testimony is wildly at variance. Sometimes
they even contradict themselves on the essential facts. It's tempting to
walk away from a case like this in a fit of frustration -- until
considering the chill that death threats put on eyewitness testimony. A
coerced witness makes false statements to police and the press. Three or
four witnesses, knowing that the killers mean business, will fabricate
details to fill in the gaps of information they are forced to withhold
under threat of retaliation. When seen in this light, blaring
contradictions in a murder case should be interpreted as possible
duress.
And this brings us
to another recurring theme: the cover-up proves the crime. And in
each case examined, the perpetrators and their accomplices have altered
history by concealing crucial evidence. This book is an attempt to
return that evidence to the historical record.
Alex Constantine
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