European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 18, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes monday september 18, 1978 Jesse Jackson it appears Fri was involved in King s death the House select committee on assassinations Husca through its Public hearings circumstantially convinced us that James Earl Ray was the actual Assas sin of or. Martin Luther King or. Too Many of us however Are willing to Settle for the one crazy Man theory in or. King s death. Mounting evidence continues to Point to a conspiracy and circumstantial evidence suggests that the government itself especially the Fri is deeply implicated. What suggests the Fri was involved 1 the Fri had the greatest motive. Hoover s personal hatred of Blacks and esp scially or. King is Well known and publicly documented. Others in authority at the Fri and Many in the ranks shared his views took his Lead and carried out his wishes with great Zeal. The background of James Earl Ray a professional subculture criminal tends to Lead one to believe that he would do any thing for Money rather than engaging in criminal activity for a cause racial or ideological. Hoover on the other hand wrote memos directing the Fri to disrupt discredit or otherwise destroy the Black movement and to neutralize Black leadership and prevent the Rise of a  2 the Fri is implicated in or. King s death because of actions taken by it. Hoo ver did t just have certain feelings and attitudes or say things and write memos. He also acted on those feelings. His documented illegal activities Are even greater than the contempt for the Law displayed by former president Nixon. The Fri used the same and similar surveillance and disruptive techniques against or. King that it used against soviet agents. The Fri spent More of the taxpayer s Money violating the constitutional rights of or. King than it did any other american citizen in the history of this country. Wiretaps were placed in his Home and offices and in the Homes and offices of associates and friends As Well As in hotel and Motel rooms while he travelled. At tempts were made by the Fri to discredit him with churches politicians unions and financial supporters. The Fri attempted to manipulate the press by leaking alleged damaging information about or. King and cultivated reporters writing negative Arti cles about him. When or. King received the Nobel peace prize the Fri tried to both Sabo Tage receptions Given by foreign Heads of state and undermine a huge banquet and special Day held in his Honor. It at tempted to use Cardinal Spellman to pre vent King from having an audience with the Pope. The Fri sought to influence universities to withhold honorary degrees from or. King. It also attempted to use the irs against him and his organization. They even sought to destroy King s marriage. Even two years after King s death Hoover and the Fri continued to attempt to smear and discredit his accomplish ments honors character and integrity and to undermine mrs. King s efforts to perpetuate his legacy. The Acle revealed Fri and right Wing political collusion which resulted in Voi Lence against the Freedom riders of the 1960s, and the present Alabama attorney general alleges similar Fri and political actions during the civil rights movement i Alabama. Pulitzer prize winning reporter Les Payne has revealed the strange actions by the Memphis Public safety director Frank Holloman in removing a Black police offi cer in charge of Security for or. King de Redditt just two hours before King s assassination. Holloman spent 25 years working for the Fri eight years As inspector in charge of j. Edgar Hoover s person Al office before his Memphis Job. Or. King had been under constant electronic and physical surveillance from the time he received the Nobel peace prize in 1964 until approximately an hour before his death by As Many As 25, and never fewer than seven agents. According to Memphis newspaper sources the Fri took Over the investigation within one hour after the assassination and refused to talk to anyone. 3 the Fri is implicated because of actions not taken by them. Their investigation lacked thoroughness. I was standing in the parking lot below the Balcony on which he died talking with or. King when the shot was fired yet the Fri has never inter viewed me. Interviewing eyewitnesses is normally a routine matter. Rev. Ralph Abernathy who was also present has said that he has never been interviewed either. If the Fri overlooked routine investigative procedures what else did it Overlook a thur Murtagh a former Fri agent and one who participated in the investigation has indicated that his superiors both in at Lanta and Washington washed out leads suggesting a right Wing connection and never even looked for a conspiracy. When the memo surfaced from the St. Louis Fri Bureau in regard to the Byers matter and the alleged $50,000 offer by two St. Louis businessmen to kill or. King at Torney general Griffin Bell said that there May be other such memos yet undiscovered lying around in other bureaus. That statement is inconsistent with past Fri positions stating conclusively that there was no conspiracy and the Fri played no role in King s death. How can one draw Conlu 1 Sions with certainty and yet say All the Evi Dence May not be in if we knew As much about another organization . The Minu temen As we know about the Fri in rela Tion to or. King it would be difficult even irresistible for reasonable people not to i conclude that the Fri was involved. We i know it engaged in Eha Recter Assassin i Tion. It is the task of the Husca to establish 1 whether the Fri went further and engaged i in physical assassination. And it is in the National interest that we know the answer. C Universal press Watt a minute its 9 . And there s no Captain Kangaroo no screaming or crying no slamming doors. Good god i made it it s the first Day of school George f. Will d. C Nof entitled to Senate seats the nation owes a full measure of gratitude to the Legislatures of California and Delaware for their dignified abstinence from haste. They have refused to ratify without scrutiny the recently pro posed constitutional amendment to give congressional representation to the District of Columbia As though it were  the Constitution has been changed four times in the last 18 years and today two More amendments Are before the states. If this is not itself evidence of a too casual approach to the Republic s fundamental Law the tactics used by some who favor the amendments Are such evidence. When the equal rights amendment was sent to the states Hawaii rushed to ratify it the first Day. Nebraska scrambling to be second ratified it improperly and had to do it again six Days later. Twenty states ratified it within three months most with out hearings or other evidence of thought. Era supporters tried to generate a mor Al tidal wave by insisting that Era is a simple matter of being for women a matter about which intelligent people could not honorable disagree. Today peo ple trying to create a Stampede toward ratification of the District of Columbia representation amendment argue that it is in the words of a California Stampede a Black  such assertions were sufficient to propel the amendment through California s As Sembly which evidently is not a Delibera Tive body. California s Senate refused to rubber stamp the amendment so californians will have an Opportunity to note that the Issue is constitutional not racial. As he frequently does rep. M. Caldwell Butler r-va., has defined a position to which moderate people of Good will can rally. He notes that the Constitution pro Vides for three kinds of entities states territories and the District of Columbia. Today the District has three electoral votes in presidential elections and a non voting Delegate in the House of representatives. The proposed amendment would give the District voting representation in the House based on population give Senate representation As though it were a state Grant participation in the electoral College substantially As a state and Gran participation in the process whereby the Constitution is amended. Of these four says Butler Only the first is proper. As regards the amending process note that under the Law granting the District Home Rule the City Council remains the agent of Congress subject to Congress s veto. That is the Law is consistent with the Constitution s provisions that Congress shall exercise exclusive legislation in Al cases whatsoever Over the District. But what this Means is that in the amendment process Congress would submit Amend ments for approval of its own agent. As regards participation in the electoral College the weight of the District vote should be registered by electors equal in number to the members of the House allocated according to population perhaps two after the 1980 census. But the District should not have two additional electoral votes As states do because the District should not have senators. As Butler says the founders made a distinction that should not be blurred a distinction Between the House in which people Are represented and the Senate in which states Are represented. States Are the fundamental entities of this Federal system. Senators represent geographical regions containing diverse interests. But the District is Only a City of moderate size and because of restrictions on its growth it will steadily descend on the list of largest cities As other cities grow. Were the District to elect senators they would be the Only two representing no rur Al interests whatsoever. So state Legisla Tures with Strong Rural representation will be reluctant to ratify the proposed Amend ment which would dilute their Senate Power even More seriously than it would dil tote the Power of other states. That is not the most elevated reason for doing the right thing but rejecting this proposed Amend ment s approach to District representations the right thing to do. Because the constitutional stipulates that Congress must have final responsibility for the District residents of the District have a special interest in congressional representation. But that fact about final responsibility is one reason Why it would violate the essence of american Federal ism to Grant to the District representation in the Senate a body that expresses the principle of a Union of Sovereign states. C Washington Post