Question:
Anybody know to whom Pat Buchanan was referring Wednesday night on the Scarborough show, when he said a previous high government official had provided reporters with FBI surveillance tapes of Martin Luther King --tapes which were extremely raw (in more than one sense) exposures of MLK in VERY comprising positions?
Buchanan said that although those reporters chose not to run the story, the fact remains that this official had illegally leaked sensitive FBI information to the press.
Buchanan said he was not going to reveal the name of the leaker becaue "it was too old and too long ago."
Who was this official? Robert Kennedy? J. Edgar Hoover? Lyndon Johnson?
make that "compromising positions"
Have no idea, but there are lots of "conspiracy theories" out there.
A federal judge in the 60's ruled that the FBI files on MLK's "links" to communist sympathizers should remain top-secret until 2027. Senator Jesse Helms appealed to the USSC Court in 1983 to release the files, so that the Senate bill to create the Martin Luther King Federal Holiday could be abolished. He was denied.
MLK was under FBI surveillance for several years (until he died) due to his supposed ties with communist organizations nationwide.
Pardon me, but one cannot read King's speeches and writings and conclude that he proselytized communist teachings.
Perhaps it's a matter of guilt by association since supposedly a couple of individuals working within the Southern Christian Leadership conference were apparently former Communists---(maybe an I Love Lucy-type affiliation).
That made the Kennedy's nervous, and later reports say neither USAG Robert Kennedy nor the FBI could find any indication that employees had Communist ties while working for MLK's organization.