Friday, December 02, 2005

22 November 2008


Dear visitor,


You may note that this appears to be the first entry I’ve made on this blog since I launched it three years ago. Well, yes and no. I put up this blog coincident with the 25th anniversary of the assassination. I was at the Strawberry Fields/Dakota murder/memorial site on that day, walking around with a sandwich sign and handing out flyers positing the CIA-Central America connection.


I wanted to give anyone interested in following-up an outlet, a bulletin board essentially, where they might visit and interact. I really didn’t intend to do blog-like stuff, e.g. expounding on a daily basis. So my main goal was to attract comment, feedback, new information, ruminations. And this has happened, as the blog has attracted a a mix (albeit small) of support, queries, derision. I have responded to most comments left on the site within the comments area, so while the blog may appear to be dead, it in fact continues to serve its primary function.


Another constraint: there is a limited amount of material out there relating to this theory, as a quick Web search will show you. In fact, it’s remarkable how little, given the scope of the Internet. I monitor the Web for any material related to the Lennon assassination and/or Chapman, and I can tell you it’s been mighty sparse. To me, that speaks to the success of the assassination mechanism: Chapman has no idea what happened to him. No one in the (probably) very small circle of planners and actors who pulled this off has tipped their hand. Ergo, nothing new emerges except return visits to a very cold trail.


But there is more to say. Recently I rented the DVD The Killing of John Lennon by Andrew Piddington. This is a fine film, given its premise: that Chapman was a psychotic lone gunman. Interestingly, Piddington includes a scene of Chapman firing at a practice range next to an unidentified lawman - this is Dana Reeves, Chapman's likely handler, and the guy who gave him the hollow-point slugs to kill Lennon (the bullets, prominently featured in the film, are visibly not hollow-point, even though they are referred to as such in the script – the continuity person must have been asleep at the switch, but that’s a minor quibble) . Piddington's footage hints at that but does not identify him, nor does Piddington remark on this in his voice-over commentary on the DVD (who is this guy??). Nor does he mention Chapman's unaccounted-for layover in Chicago on his way to assassinate Lennon. And while his scene of Chapman laying out some artifacts in his hotel room just prior to the murder includes a photo of a young boy sitting on Chapman's shoulders (also reproduced in Bresler’s book), he does not hint at its significance: it was taken in a refugee camp at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas in 1975 run by the CIA collaborationist World Vision and full of CIA assets evacuated from Saigon as it fell.


The film’s depiction of Chapman’s mental landscape raises an interesting, and critical, question: could an MKUltra-style “programming” produce a Chapman who would appear to be psychotic – specifically, to be paranoid schizophrenic – while in fact his head was full of “programming”? Of course, we have no way of knowing. I thought more about this while reading The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein (which has my highest recommendation, by the way). Klein recounts the story of Ewen Cameron, the McGill psychiatrist who “regressed” psychiatric patients, using sensory isolation, electroshock, and hallucinogens to “depattern” the mind, turning it into a “blank slate” ready for the installation of a new patterning through “psychic driving” which might include playing taped messages to the patient 16 to 24 hours a day for weeks. The CIA was so interested in Cameron’s work that the company hired him in 1957 to further their “special interrogations techniques” project (which included MKUltra), leading to the production of the Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation handbook, believed to be in use today at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.


Now consider Chapman’s own words, quoted by Jack Jones in his 1992 book Let Me Take You Down (Villard Books). Jones spent 200 hours interviewing Chapman in Attica. Just as a mental exercise, assume for the moment that Chapman actually was motivated to kill Lennon by some well-planted suggestion, Cameron’s “psychic driving”; that the “voices” telling him -- compelling him – to take the actions he did came not from his own troubled psyche, but rather were placed there by his handlers.


Prior to 8 December 1980:

“Things were going on in my mind that I didn’t even know about.” (p. 173)

“And it was almost like I was handed something – that here was a solution. Kill John Lennon.” (p. 180)


Chapman describes his “revelation”, in late January 1981 in his cell on Rikers’ Island, that his decision to assassinate Lennon was “a choice that was made by somebody or something else…a wicked satori of realization that I had been called by a far higher power to do this, that this was something much bigger than me.” (pp. 213-214)


I’ll be posting more about specific elements of the Chapman story in the future, so stay tuned…

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alan.
Keep up the good work. You may be right or wrong, or somewhere in between. Your work just came to my attention, but I commend you for your persistence in trying to maintain a dialogue for all those interested enough in contributing and commenting, pro or con. For this, we have the internet (and the US military i guess) to thank.

http://www.2035crash.com/2008/11/23/jfk-assassination-conspiracy-coup-detat-other-and-what-it-means-for-the-next-thirty-years/

Regardless of race, nationality, or political or religious affiliation, we all need to keep an open mind.

Starmandala said...

Alan, thanks for bringing your blog to my attention - and for mentioning World Vision, the Christian do-gooder organization that has people like my own daughter "adopting" poor kids in countries impoverished by war. I never really liked the "smell" of it but had no idea why. Now I know! I appreciate your feedback on my "terror" blogpost - but your comment was left on another post by mistake. What I'll do is copy & paste it to the appropriate post for you, so others might check out your Lennon blog.

alan said...

Antares,
Thanks for your comment and for your own blog, which I'd recommend to any readers of this one. The rap on World Vision dates back to the Vietnam War, but what was most convincing to me was first-hand testimony. An old friend spent a year working with Salvadoran refugees in the Colomoncagua refugee camp in El Salvador in the mid-80s. This was one of several camps sheltering Salvadoran campesinos who fled the Salvadoran army's scorched-earth policy to destroy the civilian base of the FMLN liberation forces. These campesinos were kept under tight control by the Honduran military, being co-managed by the US military and CIA. Salvadoran military occasionally crossed the river-border to kidnap and execute suspected organizers. In that camp was a representative of World Vision, ostensibly doing humanitarian relief. This person was seen walking through the camp at dusk with Salvadoran military personnel, pointing out the tents of the alleged FMLN sympathizers. The next day, these people had disappeared. I'll post some more information on World Vision on the blog.

alan said...

CORRECTION: Colomoncagua camp was in Honduras (not El Salvador), just across the Rio Lempa. Salvadoran campesinos fled into Hondorus in an attempt to escape the murderous armed forces of El Salvador, who were armed, trained, and managed by Uncle Sam. Familiarity with the astonishing savagery of U.S.-sponsored violence in Central America, the launch of which coincided with Lennon's assassination, has convinced me beyond any doubt that this was the motive for John's murder. For a good introduction to the tortured history of the region, I'd recommend _Cry of the People_ by Penny Lernoux.

Christopher said...

Thanks for the site Alan. Since the late 80's I've felt that U.S. govmt interests likely took Lennon out. Didn't know about the Central American happenings of the period, which add another piece to the puzzle. I just always suspected that for the incoming Reagan administration (with or without the Gipper's knowledge) he would have been viewed as too politically hazardous to their agenda, a foreign agitator on American soil - should he have decided to again become politically active (indeed as has been mentioned on this blog: John was planning involvement in some low key political activity).
I agree Lennon surely would have wanted any conspiracy outed! He had a nose for justice. I loved his honest streak too - with enough English insouciance to say what he thought - damn the torpedoes (and the bullets).
Re. the discussion of John's view of spirituality and his line about 'imagine no heaven', keep in mind he was an artist always digging for truth and meaning. I recall hearing his friend Elliot Mintz on the radio in the 90's saying that John had seen a NYC televangelist on the tube and "for those to whom this might be important, it affected him." In a later interview, John spoke of God in a broad sense. These things indicate that at the end of his time here he hadn't closed the door on heaven. As a Christian my hope is that he did meet Jesus at some point and on the night of Dec 8/80 John grasped the hand of the King of kings forever.
We will know someday the full circumstance of John's passing: "So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known." - Matthew 10.26
Take care,
Christopher

Bran said...

Hello,
Just arrived here, but, after viewing 'The killing of John Lennon' on Sundance Channel the other night,I have a lot of questions.

Benjamin Eidelman said...

Thanks Alan,
I hope more atention is brought to this.
here in Latin America we know very well (at least those who know a bir of history) that CIA is capable of that and many more horrible crimes.
In our contries, worst things happened to lot of people that spoke against CIA interests.
Kind Regards!

Anonymous said...

If the CIA wanted John dead it would have been done long before 1980. Please move on in life, we can't change the past, but we can create a better and more peaceful future. Today is all that matters. We must learn from the past, not live in it.

Anonymous said...

Do something to help people if you have nothing else to do but complain about the CIA and their alleged conspiracies.

Anonymous said...

DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT THE CIA cares about Jesus or religion? Their assignments and activities in the world are not tied to personal emotions. It's political. Do you really believe John Lennon was a political threat in the world? LMAO!!!! You are fanatical and out of control. Get help!