Iona Miller with Leutrell Osborne, Sr., April 2008

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Turning a Blind Eye

Think you are tired of still being lied to? Imagine the pain and cognitive dissonance of those who thought themselves intelligence “insiders” during some of the biggest government crime mysteries in US history. There is a public and clandestine history. Is it any wonder that many of us are in denial about the changing nature of our civil rights when even those “in the know” don’t know?

Will our government ever own our national shadow, so we can begin to heal from the wounds of our past and present, and prevent them in the future? We need to reconnect our civic practice with the unifying principles accepted by all Americans. We need to stop turning a blind eye to the erosion of our quality of life. Truth lies somewhere between real liberty and a false sense of security manipulated with deception.

Most people don’t want to know the truth. Why isn’t anyone talking about it? The truth is tough to take. We vary in our capacity for understanding, paranoia and hopelessness. Many don’t know, don’t care and don’t want to be confused with the facts. If you simply don’t care, why not? Even “enlightened self-interest” demands we care and care deeply or suffer a worse fate collectively. But it seems we can only digest bite-sized chunks of bad news. Too much truth is hard to stomach.

Accurate Reflections of History

The public is not alone in being led down the garden path. There are lies of commission and lies of omission that both block transparency. Those in a highly compartmentalized CIA during its most infamous missteps were kept as ignorant as the public. In June 2007, CIA released its full declassified report on infamous CIA dirty tricks, including Mafia ties, attempted assassinations, mind control, drugs and domestic spying. [1]

As 700 pages of these “CIA Family Jewels” came to light, many veteran intelligence officers and analysts experienced epiphanies over the manipulations of their vows to uphold the Constitution. Reminded of the dirty tricks of past decades, it is indeed disheartening to see the very same kind of unconstitutional acts virtually institutionalized. Freedom is being sold out, replaced by fearful conformity. The war on our hearts and minds is truly the coldest war of all.

Our civil liberties are further threatened by pending legislation, including the “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act,” (pending SB 1959). [2] The obvious goal is to silence public rhetoric. U.S. citizens can be classified as “homegrown terrorists,” including those using the Internet to express their First Amendment rights. Constitutional rights are voided for accused “homegrown terrorists.” At the same time that virtually any deliberately vague dissent in thought or speech is being criminalized with political persecution, oversight has eroded or been discarded.

Espionage Oversight Weakened

In 2004, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was created to coordinate all intelligence activities. In an executive order issued Feb. 29, 2008, President Bush stripped the independent Intelligence Oversight Board of most of its authority and systematically scaled back Watergate-era intelligence reforms. [3] Mass media remained curiously silent on the matter, while both internal oversight and effective external oversight by Congress was neutralized.

The watchdog board, formed in March 1976, probed domestic spying, assassinations and intelligence abuses but can no longer mandate criminal investigations. Oversight is now in the hands solely of the directors of each intelligence agency. Independent inquiries are virtually eliminated just when other restrictions on intelligence powers have been removed.

Isn’t this just paving the way for illegal intelligence acts? They are certainly more likely to occur since accountability is gone while the DNI’s powers are bolstered. The oversight board is now subordinate to the DNI. [4] Perhaps this might be ameliorated by Congressional oversight of intelligence.

Unfortunately, the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence happens to be Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia), whose family name is synonymous with manipulation of the US political landscape. In 2004, the Committee accepted a demand stripping its oversight of the director of national intelligence. This was despite the fact that the most important recommendation of the 9/11 Commission was to strengthen congressional oversight. [5, 6]

Mixed reviews claim that the Senate Intelligence Agency reports were “cherry-picked,” that raw intelligence reports and preliminary assessments lacked coherent context, and edited out the caveats that accompanied the intelligence. They miscalculated on pre-war intelligence regarding al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein’s regime and WMDs, among other errors.

Compromises with the Bush administration threaten the very independence of the Congress as a coequal branch of government. Rockefeller initially pushed for more oversight but backed down after intensive lobbying and perhaps fear for his own life. [7, 8] In 2007, describing the historical struggle between Congress and the White House, he said,

“Don't you understand the way Intelligence works? Do you think that because I'm Chairman of the Intelligence Committee that I just say I want it, and they give it to me? They control it. All of it. All of it. All the time. I only get, and my committee only gets, what they want to give me.” [9]

Patriotic Dissent

Many intelligence veterans have stepped up to add their names to the patriotic dissent and public advocacy on this and other issues. On Sept. 23, 2007, seven CIA veterans announced their criticisms of 9/11 accounts, calling for further investigations of cover-ups. [10]

Leutrell Osborne, Sr., one of the first black CIA Case Officers is among them. Serving 26 years (1957-1984) as a Case Officer, he is a strong counter intelligence expert with strong objections to Agency Covert Action intelligence operations. As the only CIA Spy manager that served six years in CIA's Communications Security, he also knows telecommunications, information management, safety and emergency preparedness, as well as risk analysis.

Now that his eyes are opened, he has studied Government dirty tricks, especially those related to injustices against Blacks and Native Americans. A good example is COINTEL PRO surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr. as depicted in the recent CNN documentary, “Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination.” [11] He has personally seen accurate intelligence distorted or ignored for purely political reasons.

Such actions came to light publically in the Bush administration decision to go to war in Iraq, as depicted in the PBS Frontline account, “Bush’s War.” [12] It shows how a reluctant former DCI George Tenet was grossly manipulated to serve the neo-con PNAC agenda [13] against Iraq that was written before 9/11, before the first term of George W. Bush. Is that “preemptive war” agenda still in play for Iran? Or worse, a mad scramble for global military domination?

The emphasis is no longer solely on waging major theater wars as outlined in the PNAC's “Rebuilding America's Defenses, Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century", the March 2005 military blueprint points to shifts in weapons systems as well as the need for a global deployment of US forces in acts of Worldwide military policing and intervention. The PNAC in its September 2000 Report had described these non-theater military operations as "constabulary functions": [14]

Dedicated to civil rights and protection of Constitutional law, Osborne has certain pet peeves that have prompted him to continue his own investigations into the injustices and truth of our nation’s clandestine history. His interests include what he calls more intelligent intelligence (HUMINT), the KKK Assassinations (JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King, Jr.), 9/11, COINTELPRO, Covert Action (CA) oversight, and transnational crime including global drug trade.

Osborne was interviewed on national television channel BET the day after 9/11 with Congresswooman Maxine Waters. Anderson Cooper has also interviewed him on CNN about life in CIA when he assisted in the defense with lawyer Mark Zaid of a fellow Black CIA Case Officer (Jeffrey Sterling), who had lost his job. Osborne was also interviewed in Mike Ruppert’s book Crossing the Rubicon.

Osborne's personal story of his mother’s CIA employment and his own vocation was also featured on CNN during Black History Month in February 2007. [15] A highlight of his life was attending the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize for Martin Luther King, Jr. and a long conversation with the civil rights leader at the following reception.

Osborne independently questions 9/11 foreknowledge events with activist Mike Ruppert, pursues the truth about MLK’s death with official investigator Gary Revel, and counters apparent continuance of COINTEL PRO type activities. Understanding many of the propaganda and mind control issues involved, he characterizes the whole mess as a “cultural illusion.” Collective delusion may be closer.

Public Advocacy

Obviously, conclusions drawn by intelligence insiders come from their own inside track, experience of the “enterprise,” a term used by former DCI William Colby. Osborne sees his mission as a spiritual one, dedicated to justice, freedom and peace.

Unfortunately, the public often apathetically “turns a blind eye” to the growing problem of cover-ups and disinformation. What used to be hardcore conspiracy is now blasé common knowledge to many -- surrender. But there is still much to learn and more to do. Osborne has summarized his main policy issues.

THE OSBORNE ULTIMATUM [16]

Issue No. 1

US intelligence needs to be reinvented and transformed, especially Covert Action intelligence operations in all of the various aspects called "dirty tricks." Tighter oversight and accountability with improved end results are required. Accountability boards are not enough. One still has to measure the failed Covert Action intelligence for “blowback.”

Issue No. 2

No nation-state currently polices transnational crime, which is a growing threat. Failure to provide adequate Human Intelligence (HUMINT) is a true weakness in the USA system. Most policy decisions are not based on hard HUMINT sourced information but other so-called facts and truths open to spin and interpretation. Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of Select Committee on Intelligence claimed congressional oversight has increased about 100% since 9/11, but that program is now strangled.

Issue No. 3

The shadow of the Shadow Government, including domestic spying and assassinations, needs to be revealed to the American people and the world so we can finally heal. We must take responsibility for that shadow, including national and global discrimination and exploitation.

Issue No. 4

As of this writing, SB 1959 (HB 1950) threatens to annihilate the First Amendment. Free speech, the right to assembly, and freedom of the press will be over. It will be illegal to disagree with government policy, even with patriotic dissent. Our Constitution is under attack.

Issue No. 5

A serious consequence, the breakdown in credibility between the U.S. government and its citizenry, needs to be addressed, as well as increasing militarization of police and unwarranted surveillance of US citizens.

The breakdown of domestic relations is a serious issue, perhaps concealing further manipulations. Those hunting the truth continue to press for disclosure from all knowledgeable sources. The Osborne Ultimatum deals with national and transnational crimes. Our ultimatum is the U.S. government has to change, period.

Have we met the enemy and found it is us, in our complacency? Have we inadvertently relinquished our passion for freedom and justice, much less peace? Power can only be gained at another's expense; prosperity can be shared. We must reject manipulation by fear and greed, trading rights for so-called safety.

Fear is being used against us to promote otherwise unacceptable domestic and global policies. When you no longer fear, you rediscover your active compassion, beyond the myriad cultural illusions.

Operation “Kill Bill”

I (Leutrell Osborne, Sr.) have read the Homegrown Terrorist bills and have several serious concerns about the core competencies of the persons who constructed the document. In my opinion, the persons don't know counter intelligence and more importantly, they don't know or nor understand covert action intelligence operations,especially secret para-military operations.

Here are my issues:

Definition of terrorists. Anyone can call someone a "terrorist" but the term has its place in the lexicon of intelligence/espionage which is where I come from. One might also remember, name calling and using tags for people is one of the "dirty tricks" as well. I am sure you have heard about the propaganda or political effect of labelling people "communists" and "racists." Right?

In the world of espionage there is more to it. So, shall we say the word 'terrorists' has evolved into an emotional buzzword like the term 'race' or shall we force the speaker to get more into the real issue of covert action intelligence which includes assassinations and secret non-military operations that are truly terrorism. Got it?

9/11 Foreknowledge

Osborne reported his findings on 9/11 coverage to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Mike Ruppert’s From the Wilderness (FTW) website confirms that the complete version of Izvestia coverage came into its possession "thanks to former CIA counter-terror case officer, Leutrell Osborne. . . .The story had been brought to his attention by his son and had fortunately been saved in its original form before it was sanitized of several key sentences". That original unsanitized version curiously began:

"Yesterday at the headquarters of Central Intelligence Service in Langley a confidential meeting between one of the Deputy Directors of CIA and a special messenger of Russian Intelligence Service took place. According to NewsRu sources he delivered to his American colleagues some documents including audio tapes with telephone conversations directly relating to terrorist attacks on Washington and New York last Tuesday. According to these sources, Russian Intelligence agents know the organizers and executors of these terrorist attacks. More than that, Moscow warned Washington about preparation to these actions a couple of weeks before they happened."

Osborne adds, “When I left the CIA in 1984, I thought the Afghan War was one of the few successful CIA Covert Action intelligence operations. As a Cold Warrior, I like many thought the US had given the Soviet Union its Vietnam. That theme died quickly as I began my research after 9/11. For me, the blowback began in 1993 with characters such as Ramzi Yousef, Amil Kanzi and the 19 Arabs in 9/11. They fit the mold of characters getting back at the hands that feed them, meaning acts against the USA. Russian foreknowledge led me to understand Russian intelligence operations were still collecting and reporting on the Arabs from the Afghan War.”

"I knew Gust Avrakotos, who armed the Afghan tribesmen for their 1980’s guerrilla war. Now the story is back in the news with Tom Hank’s movie, “Charlie Wilson’s War.” The same weapons were used in their own civil war, and when the U.S. went to war with Afghanistan in 2001, In 2008 we’re still fighting there."

“The false flag Mossad led operation and US supported 9/11 model has greater probability than some Arab grown non nation state theme that the public has been spoon fed by the Overt Action operating elements of the US government. Before blindly accepting the alleged smoking gun let's focus and monitor events closely to follow the treads. We should continue to press sources for truth, motive and due diligence posturing.” The least that can be said is they let it happen.

COINTEL PRO: Big Brother Spy Program

There are five very important insights to understand about past Government led dirty tricks and illegal activities.

1. From 1956 to the early 1970s, the secret domestic intelligence operations of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) for the most part were performed without the upper level political leaders of the US Government knowing the truth. In other words persons conducting these domestic activities even fooled them. Thus most of the campaign was unknown to the upper echelons like the Presidents and Attorney Generals while the key elements of the IC deployed dirty trick specialists from the FBI, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) against so-called enemies of the state such as dissidents, the peace movement, and made secret war on select individuals and groups, particularly Blacks and Native Americans.

2. The FBI was not alone in doing these dirty deeds. Other members of the Intelligence Community (IC) collaborated and conducted the dirty tricks along side the FBI’s COINTEL PRO.

3. COINTEL PRO was not a Counter Intelligence operation.. However, it was a Covert Action Intelligence operation equal to if not better than what CIA could perform.

4. Most of the so-called adversaries were not really “bad” people but the nature of dirty trick operations by the US Government made these persons appear “dirtier” than they were. They used labeling, propaganda, and other smear tactics.

5. Several CIA components performed illegal domestic intelligence activities in concert with the FBI’s COINTEL PRO. As an IC activity, the COINTEL PRO “neutralized” and fabricated threats against individuals and organizations. The IC activities sowed distrust and disinformation utilizing a controlled system of informants and provocateurs against various individuals and organizations.

COINTEL PRO was unconstitutional clandestine activity to shape and manipulate the sociopolitical landscape by preventing or disrupting the exercise of First Amendment rights and advocacy. They wanted to suppress speaking, teaching, meeting, writing and publishing. Vigilante-style domestic covert action and propaganda was used against American citizens.

Agents infiltrated, manipulated and disabled organizations, conducted “dirty tricks” psychological warfare, used the legal system, warrantless black bag breakins, stalking, assaults and beatings for harassment. They inflicted physical, emotional and economic damage, and did not stop short of using assassinations to “neutralize” their adversaries. [ ] www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/c...portIIIa.htm

Murdering a King Among Men

One of the main objectives of secret counter intelligence program COINTEL PRO was to prevent the rise of a “black messiah.” The Black Panthers, NAACP, Malcolm X, and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as other Black nationalists were heavily surveilled. Andrew Young often repeats that he and Dr. King, Jr knew that the government surveilled him and his people, because they even discovered microphones.

In Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King, Jr. himself on the day after the ceremony while attending the the U.S. Ambassador’s reception for him told Leutrell Osborne, Sr. that he knew that the Government was watching him and his people in the USA. The legacy of this domestic spying continues today in the lies and continued persecution of political targets, such as former Black Panther, Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Osborne wonders why forty years after the fact, CNN (April, 2008), validates disinformation by pointing the finger at Ray and restating the lies about the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination. Neither James Earl Ray nor Loyd Jowers did the killing but both have dirty hands.

Osborne’s opinions come from working directly with some of the principle investigators of the King murder and his deep experience in intelligence and clandestine operations. He knows how things work, how plans are executed with “plausible deniability.”

William Pepper, Attorney

The King family brought a civil suit against Jowers because they refused to believe Ray was the killer. The jury blamed Jowers for 30% of the liability and 70% to others, including “governmental agencies.” Pepper argued in Orders to Kill (1995) that King was the victim of an elaborate plot involving the Mafia, the FBI, the CIA, military intelligence - and the highest levels of the U.S. government.

“In an unlikely alliance, the King family was represented in the [Memphis wrongful death] case by William Pepper, who had been Mr. Ray's lawyer. The King family maintains that Mr. Pepper's version of the assassination is the one that gets at the real truth behind Dr. King's death, not the official version with Mr. Ray as the gunman. Mr. Pepper said federal, state and Memphis governmental agencies, as well as the news media conspired in the assassination.”
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html

Why doesn’t media get the truth and point the fingers in the correct directions at COINTEL PRO and organized crime? The latest CNN documentary continues pointing at James Earl Ray and Loyd Jowers. But the bullet has never been linked to Ray’s rifle.www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/200....in.america/. Let's focus on telling the truth at the 40th anniversary of King’s untimely death. The full story still hasn’t been told.

Truth At Last (2008) is the title of a new book by James Earl Ray’s older brother John Larry Ray. [ ] He claims there is forensic evidence that exonerates his brother. He also says Ray was inducted into the CIA, then used as a patsy. He blames “white America,” but the perps may be fewer in number. The government is not the country.

"Martin Luther King Jr. was a man admired by millions, but my brother didn't kill him," John told the New York Daily News. "I believe my brother was not only misused by conspirators within our government but also greatly misconstrued as a 'racist' and a 'murderer' by the media." www.globepequot.com/special/...illedmlk/

Attorney Ray Kohlman

Ray Kohlman conducted an investigation for the King family and James Earl Ray. He still believes a massive government conspiracy conceals the identity of King’s true assassins. There was a mystery man in James Earl Ray’s narrative, Raoul or Raul, who many believe was his intelligence handler.

The "problem" with Pepper's Raul, was that when Ray was in a Montreal bar, he was appraoched by Raul. Another British seaman was also approached by the same Raul, asking about smuggling weapons on the British liner. The descriptions of Raul by the two people correlate 80 - 90+ %.

A person who could have been "Raul" was also involved with Houston, Texas smuggling of weapons. This is from a 3rd person who's decription match the other two persons. James Ray stayed away from drugs and drug smuggling. Any criminal operation he was involved with was very lilimited becuase Ray was a klutz (shot himself with a revolver). Raoul/Raul is a fictious name used by the person who was controlling Ray's activities.

By eyewitness accounts, the shot came from across the street above the retaining wall, not the bathroom. The participants knew this as they ordered the COMPLETE CLEANING of the bushes. Eyewitness also saw a puff of smoke (probably dirt, etc from the muzzle blast) from the bushes. (Kohlman, 2008; private correspondence).

“According to Kohlman, a Memphis police officer named Earl Clark actually committed the crime and Ray was framed by the federal government Kohlman said he has evidence that Clark was hired by a friend named Loyd Jowers to kill King. Jowers, in turn, Kohlman said, was paid $100,000 by "Fat Frank" Liberto, a Mafia boss who may have been in league with the FBI and U.S. army.

Kohlman said King's April 1967 speech, in which he denounced the Vietnam War, led the government to worry that his words would lead to an anti-war uprising in the already volatile South. "The FBI did not pull the trigger [in King's assassination]," Kohlman said. "But they were definitely implicated in his death."

“Kohlman said he has evidence that the military or the CIA probably hired a Portuguese immigrant named Raul to provide them with a perpetrator - Ray - whom they could blame for King's murder. Raul was never questioned by the government and recently retired from his work in the import-export business.” [ ] www.stanforddaily.com/article...nspiracy “Attorney Claims MLK Murder Conspiracy,” Melissa Lambert, Feb. 7, 2000.

Investigator Gary Revel

Gary Revel was commisioned by the US government in 1977 to go undercover and find the King killers. Since then, he has not been fired, decommissioned, told the job was done, nor been paid. The stark reality is that the King killers have not yet been found.

This only offically appointed investigator of the MLK assassination doesn’t mince words – he names names: Lyndon Baines Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, Vito Genovese, Santo Trafficante Jr., Sam Giancana, Meyer Lansky, Joseph Colombo, Frank Costello, Don Carlo Gambino, Joseph Bonnano, Paul Castellano, Carlos Marcello, and the CIA's E. Howard Hunt. [ ] leutrellosborne.50megs.com/what....html

Revel speaks of Raoul, based on the description of witness Grace Walden of the man who left the bathroom where the kill shot allegedly came from. A sketch artist produced a face Revel is convinced implicates E. Howard Hunt.

There was more than one 'Raoul'. In conversations I have had with JR, some which are recorded and held by the US Government, JR states that there were several 'Raouls' that he met with on different occasions. He identified one of them in 1977 for the HSCA's attorneys in Brushy Mountain Prison as one of the 3 tramps in the November 22nd, 1963 Dealy Plaza photograph. (Revel, 2008, private correspondence).

Revel previously advised Osborne about information that might lead to solving other related deaths to the assassination of King. When Osborne learned about the deaths of people associated with the investigation of King such as the two judges and six FBI Special Agents (SAs), Osborne said "There has to be fire where there is smoke."

Revel laid out these details to Osborne:

Two of the judges in Tennessee, who were planning to give James Earl Ray the trial he never had, died of heart attacks just before their plans could be put into place. Six FBI officials, all of which were to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), were prevented from doing so because of their deaths. Revel said deaths of these FBI SAs could be more significant than what many realized because all six of these FBI SAs were identified to Revel as being important witnesses for the HSCA. "Is it likely that the stress of the planned testimony really brought on heart attacks to three of these people?" questioned Revel.

Osborne now knows of eight people who died or were killed within a 6-month period. All eight were directly related to Revel’s investigation of the King assassination. When including other deaths during that year that were official suicides, accidents or deaths under unusual circumstances related to the work of the HSCA then a judicious person has to pause for thought. There is truth yet to be learned about unknowns who were directly involved in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, and Malcolm X.
[ ] leutrellosborne.50megs.com/what....html

Osborne’s Take

Let me frame one of the most important insights into the events surrounding the assassination of Dr. King, Jr that I, Leutrell "Mike" Osborne, Sr., am able to state as of 040308. First ignore every mention of COINTELPRO as a counter intelligence operation of the FBI. COINTEL-PRO was not CI.

"The FBI led domestic dirty tricks intelligence operation known by the acronym COINTEL PRO was a Covert Action intelligence operation equal to if not better than one led and directed by the CIA Clandestine Service Spy Masters that I worked with in the past." This may be the most important insight I have for you to understand. CA as I define it included both assassinations and collaboration with intelligence operation resources such as organized crime and international hit persons. That is the way CA used to be even though there are rules of the game that tend to state that the US Government doesn't participate in such activities today. We are discussing the past.

Further, it is enlightening that much of the COINTELPRO or COINTEL FACTOR (as I prefer to call it) was not performed so that neither the White House nor the Attorney General knew in advance what was taking place. This observation is based on my research and reading so-called official documents.

Further many of the DOJ and FBI post investigations in my opinion confused matters and did not include persons doing the investigation who had a paradigm of a CIA Spy Master like me and others who understand the protocols and downside of CA intelligence operations. Plus many departments and agencies in the Intelligence Community collaborated both wittingly and unwittingly during the COINTEL FACTOR in the dirty tricks against US citizens especially Blacks and Native Americans.

One more point and I will hold for now. Also discount the mis-information about James Earl Ray and the true COINTEL FACTOR professionals mostly out of the FBI and some of the US Army intelligence organizations on the contrary there used Loyd Jowers being the assassins. Perhaps the only true link is the coordinator and agent handler known as Raul.

In my opinion Raul had the attributes of a person trained by Spy Masters but Raul is not what I call a Case Officer, per se. However, he has the attributes that tend to resemble a "trained agent or asset who knows how to handle agents" or people like Ray and Jowers in this case. During my life I have been blessed to meet people who have first hand knowledge of COINTEL PRO and the related events concerning the assassination of Dr. King, Jr. (Osborne, 2008)

Gary Revel suggests, based on his personal interviews of James Earl Ray, that there were several “Raul’s” or “Raoul’s” and all were covers for handlers. Revel’s opinion from deep within his own investigation winds up countering Pepper’s theory and naming former CIA officer and White House Watergate secret agent E. Howard Hunt once again holding the black bag. Revel summarized his findings relative to the King assassination in a post to this author on April 4, 2008. It connects the players and their respective motives.

E. Howard Hunt was the Team Leader of a group of assassins that included former CIA operatives (Employed or Contracted) and Mafia Assets. James Earl Ray was a patsy (ie: Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan) in that he was set up to take the fall for the killing. Oversight of the crime scene and homicide investigation was supervised and directed by Frank Holloman - the appointed Director of the Memphis Police and Fire Department.

The orders to terminate MLK was made by President Lyndon B. Johnson in association with J. Edgar Hoover and the Italian Organized Crime group, aka Mafia. The motive for the killing was MLK's public stand against the Vietnam War as that stand was considered by US National Security Officials as a threat to them and their policies.

[It also threatened] the economic fortunes of the Mafia (The billions of dollars made by the Mafia via the Heroin Pipeline.) The pipeline began in Burma and was strung by sea and air via Southeast Asia to the rest of the world most of which ended up on the streets of the biggest cities in the US. The presence of US Military in Southeast Asia served to protect that pipeline for the Mafia. If the Vietnam War had ended earlier the Mafia would have lost billions of dollars in illegal drug and black market weapons sales. When the Vietnam War finally ended in 1975 the Mafia's cash cow from illegal drug sales changed to the Cocaine trade from Colombia. (Revel, 2008)

Osborne disagrees strongly and counts Hunt out of the still-shadowy picture of the hidden truth of the assassination, which is not to say there was no intelligence handler involved. All agree there was a dark marriage of organized crime and clandestine government and military behind the trigger with media manipulation after the fact, including contemporary depictions. Osborne even wonders if CNN isn’t under “adversary control.” But then what 3-lettered acronym organizations aren’t? Perpetual suspicion goes with the territory.

As with many obfuscated mysteries of history, the “truth” is a relative value which lies in the “Eye of the Beholder.” But for those who at least bother to dig, to inform themselves, it is not a “blind eye.”

REFERENCES

[1] Family Jewels (Central Intelligence Agency) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_jewels_(Central_Intelligence_Agency)

[2] “Where are clinton and obama on the homegrown terrorism act?” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeanine-molloff/where-are-clinton-and-oba_b_91465.html

[3] “President weakens espionage oversight:Board created by Ford loses most of its power” Charlie Savage Globe Staff / March 14, 2008

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/03/14/president_weakens_espionage_oversight/

[4] New White House Oder Bolsters Intelligence Chief’s Power, March 1, 2008 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/01/america/Intelligence-Board.php

[5] www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2007/03/congressional_intelligence_ove.html

[6] http://www.e-thepeople.org/article/36885/view

[7] The New Media Journal | Sen. Rockefeller’s Senate Intelligence ...

www.therant.us/staff/malensek/04182007.htm

[8] DownWithTyranny!: HOW DID THEY GET TO JAY ROCKEFELLER?, March 22, 2008. http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-did-they-get-to-jay-rockefeller.html

[9] April 24, 2007, Charles Davis, Amazing Statement Of Congressional Impotence By Senate Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller, http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/001436.html

[10] http://www.opednews.com and http://leutrellosborne.50megs.com/whats_new_8.html

[11] CNN, “Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination.” [11]

[12]Bush’s War, Frontline, On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, this definitive two-part series draws on FRONTLINE's more than 40 reports on Iraq and the war on terror, ...www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/

[13] Project for the New American Century, http://www.newamericancentury.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century

[14] http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8303.htm

[15] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU0WVcbOTp4

[16] The Osborne Ultimatum, Iona Miller, http://leutrellosborne.50megs.com/whats_new_8.html

John Larry Ray and Lyndon Barsten (2008) “TRUTH AT LAST: The Untold Story Behind James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.” In the book the 75-year-old brother of James Earl Ray, claims that there's forensic evidence that proves his brother did not assassinate Dr. King. The book also includes conversations between the brothers where James thinks he was being set up.

Iona Miller, consultant and transdisciplinarian, is a nonfiction writer for both the academic and popular press, hypnotherapist (ACHE) and multimedia artist. Rather than an interest in specific doctrines, she is interested in the EFFECTS of doctrines from global politics, religion, science, psychology, and the arts. Our beliefs are the moldable raw material of the psyche, manipulated by governments, media and culture. How do we become what we are and how is that process changing in the near future? http://ionatopia.50megs.com http://ionamiller.org, http://ionamillermenu.iwarp.com

Iona_m@yahoo.com

Leutrell Osborn, Sr. is a former CIA Case Officer with 27 years on the job from 1957-1984. As a CIA Spy Manager, he supervised CIA agents, spies and assets on 3 continents in what historians have termed the most fertile period of domestic and international spying of the modern era. He has appeared on CNN, BET, numerous radio programs and worked with many influential people. Today, he is President of Leutrell Osborne & Associates (LOA), an author, commentator and public advocate. http://leutrellosborne.50megs.com/

iiculture@mac.com

 

Leutrell’s Business Blog

http://loassociates.wordpress.com/

 

Transnational Institute of Culture Blog

http://leutrell.wordpress.com/

 

Dark Operative Series Blog

http://darkoperativeseries.wordpress.com

 

Draft Press Release: THE OSBORNE EFFECT, 4.13.08

PRESS RELEASE - “The Osborne Effect”:
Veteran CIA Case Officer Has Alternate Theory About the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Annapolis, MD, April 12, 2008. Martin Luther King was assassinated. However, over 40 years after his untimely death, questions remain about the identities of the assassins and their backers. In short, who is specifically responsible?

Leutrell Osborne, Sr., former CIA Case Officer for over 26 years, has his own top-down approach based on his work with many prominent figures in the investigation. Meetings with Ray Kohlman, Mike Ruppert, former Congresswoman Cynthia Mc Kinney, Catherine Austin Fitts, Gary Revel and more have helped shape Osborne’s conclusions.

The assassination of Dr. King took place against the backdrop of domestic spying that is now rapidly becoming institutionalized in the US. The FBI dirty tricks program COINTEL PRO targeted King as an adversary and “enemy of the state.” The world has come to honor him as an intrinsic part of the Soul of America.

COINTEL PRO was a questionable and possibly unconstitutional clandestine activity, manipulating the sociopolitical landscape by disrupting the exercise of First Amendment rights. They suppressed speaking, teaching, meeting, advocacy, writing and publishing with vigilante-style domestic covert action and propaganda used against American citizens.

Agents infiltrated organizations, conducted “dirty tricks” psychological warfare, and used the legal system, break-ins, stalking, assaults and beatings for harassment. They inflicted physical, emotional and economic damage, and did not stop short of using assassinations to “neutralize” their adversaries.” Osborne encourages us to share his conclusions about governmental dirty tricks.

1. COINTEL PRO is the acronym for an FBI led dirty tricks operation against US citizens especially Blacks and Native Americans. There is still active disinformation claiming that COINTEL PRO is a Counter Intelligence (CI) domestic operation and that COINTEL PRO was not part of any Government conspiracy. As a former CIA Case Officer, Leutrell Mike Osborne disputes both the claim that COINTEL PRO is a CI operation and that there is no Government conspiracy.

2. The mere definition of a Covert Action operation describes COINTEL PRO. Dirty tricks are CA intel operations.

3. J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director, had contacts with organized crime. William Sullivan before he was killed in a deer hunting accident had plans to tell the HSCA that he opposed continuance of the COINTEL PRO under his Intelligence Division, etc.

4. The FBI was not the only Intelligence Community (IC) agency involved in Covert Action intelligence. The DIA and CIA both conducted what I consider illegal domestic CA operations in collaboration with the FBI. Richard Ober at CIA’s CI Staff and William Sullivan at the FBI coordinated dirty tricks operations. The CIA’s MHCHAOS program with several internal Office of Security programs like HYDRA also were in concert with the FBI’s COINTEL PRO.

5. Under no circumstances accept any information alleging that James Earl Ray and Lloyd Jowers are the assassins. At the most, both of them were controlled assets handled by an unidentified agent handler or handlers that used the alias Raul, who may have been foreign born and under the control of the US Army’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). With the above as backdrop, why do recent programs honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 40th Anniversary of his assassination continue to implicate Ray as the assassin? This is part of the continued Government cover up using various public media resources.

Osborne wants to know “Why doesn’t media get the truth and point the fingers in the correct directions at COINTEL PRO and organized crime?” The latest CNN documentary continues pointing at Ray and Jowers. But the bullet has never been linked to Ray’s rifle. Let's focus on telling the truth at the 40th anniversary of King’s untimely death. The full story still hasn’t been told.

"The FBI dirty tricks intelligence operation COINTEL PRO was a Covert Action intelligence operation equal to if not better than one led and directed by the CIA Clandestine Service Spy Masters." CA includes both assassinations and collaboration with intelligence operation resources such as organized crime and international hit persons. That is the way CA used to be though rules of the game now state that the US Government doesn't participate in such activities today.

Based on my reading of “official documents,” much of the COINTELPRO was performed to shield the White House. Further many of the DOJ and FBI post investigations only confused matters further. My paradigm is that of a CIA Spy Master who understands CA intelligence operations. Many departments and agencies in the Intelligence Community collaborated both wittingly and unwittingly during COINTEL PRO.

You can discount misinformation about Ray and the true COINTEL FACTOR professionals mostly out of the FBI and US Army intelligence. Perhaps the only true link is the coordinator and agent handler known as Raul.

In my opinion Raul had the attributes of a person trained by Spy Masters but was not a Case Officer. His attributes resemble a "trained agent or asset who knows how to handle agents" or people like Ray and Jowers in this case. I know many people who have first hand knowledge of COINTEL PRO and the related events concerning the assassination of Dr. King, Jr. (Osborne, 2008)

Osborne believes evidence points to interventions by an intelligence handler. The enterprise was a dark marriage of organized crime with clandestine government and military behind the trigger with “clean up” and media manipulation after the fact. Current depictions, such as CNN’s “Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination,” still blindly support the tired official version. How long will we turn a blind eye to truth?


BIO

Leutrell M. Osborne, Sr. (1939-) is an African-American veteran of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and widely-recognized as a leading authority on transnational and national crimes especially related to nation-state Covert Action intelligence operations. Known in the CIA as "Mike," Mr. Osborne has appeared on CNN and BET, had numerous speaking engagements, appeared on several radio shows and is author of the espionage thrillers “Dark Operative Series," first of which is The Black Man in the CIA. Mr. Osborne has re-opened the assassination investigation on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. CIA, FBI dirty tricks and global drug trade, 9/11, and COINTELPRO are high priority targets of interest for him. Conversing with Dr. King at a reception following the Nobel Prize ceremony was a highlight of Osborne’s life. His main issue is that the one percent of the people who control 40% of the world’s wealth include some people who engage in organized crime.


CONTACT LEUTRELL OSBORNE, Sr.

Leutrell Osborne, Sr. is a former CIA Case Officer (1957-1984). He supervised CIA agents, spies and assets on 3 continents in the Cold War era. He has appeared on CNN, BET, numerous radio programs and worked with many influential people. Today, he is President of Leutrell Osborne & Associates (LOA), commentator and public advocate. He is currently writing his memoirs, THE DARK OPERATIVE SERIES, and is available for public events and media.

CNN Profile of Leutrell: www.youtube.com/watch
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leutrell_Osborne
Homepage: leutrellosborne.50megs.com/
Email: iiculture@mac.com
Phone: (301) 858-8455




Alternate Bio [longer]

Leutrell Osborne, Sr. ~ Soul Man of the CIA

From the age of 12, Leutrell Osborne knew deep in his soul that he wanted to follow his mother's footsteps by working for CIA. His dream came true because he mobilized his soaring spirit to make it happen. He swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States that he still honors today. The soul he brought to CIA was a deep belief in democracy, recognizing divinity within, realizing human potential and serving the good.

At the CIA, Leutrell Osborne, Sr. became a model for the Agency’s efforts to desegregate in the 1960s and 1970s. He became the tenth Black man to earn the coveted position of Case Officer. As such, he was the first Black case officer to serve in the CIA’s Near East Asian (NEA) Division in l982 and the first to enter its Office of Communication Security Division (COMSEC) in l976.

Enlisted as part of then-CIA director William Colby’s efforts to diversify The Agency in 1975, Leutrell joined the organization’s Equal Employment Opportunity panel and helped confront hesitant officials on why so few people of color seemed to find good positions in their departments. Faced with an organization which had no Black people among its highest-level management, he worked on a panel which advised Colby and later CIA head George H.W. Bush on methods to desegregate the Agency.

While working as a case officer, Leutrell performed counter intelligence assignments against Latin American, Arab, and Muslim nationals – turning people from each of these areas into intelligence “assets”; paying them to provide information on secrets of their respective governments.

After joining internal teams which diagnosed technical threats and improved procedures in the Agency’s communications security department, Leutrell eventually helped assemble a report for the White House on Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s capabilities to threaten the United States – including the question of whether he could successfully attempt an assassination of the President (he couldn’t).

By the mid-‘80s, the call of entrepreneurship grew too strong, and Leutrell left the CIA to pursue opportunities elsewhere. He formed Leutrell Osborne and Associates (LOA), a consulting firm, to utilize his experience in security operations.

It wasn’t long before Osborne was back in government service, however, joining the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in 1989 as Director of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. Charged with encouraging the use of small and disadvantaged businesses as federal contractors, he developed policies which helped diversify the types of companies receiving government work. Along the way, he became a staunch advocate for small business, monitoring all programs of the Small Business Administration while coordinating the Federal government’s small business programs.

In addition to his security consulting work with LOA, Osborne volunteers as a community mentor and public speaker, serving as public relations chair for the Washington D.C. chapter of the National Association of Black Procurement Professionals, a member of the Anne Arundel County Women and Minority Business Committee and a member of the American Genealogical Historical Society.

He met his wife, Rose, at a party celebrating the end of the academic year at his high school in Washington D.C. in June 1956. On Sept. 9, 1957, they were married, starting a partnership which has lasted 50 years. Together, the couple raised five children.