-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: May 1, 2007 7:03:44 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Kent State 1970 -- National Guard Ordered to Shoot to Kill
Antiwar Protestors
Kent State Victim Releases Recording
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN
AP
CLEVELAND (May 1) - A static-filled recording of war protesters
yelling, followed by a voice and gunfire, was released Tuesday by a
survivor of the Kent State University shooting who claims the tape
proves a military order was given to fire on demonstrators.
A Deadly Campus Confrontation
After the deadly 1970 shootings, the FBI investigated whether an
order had been given to fire. It said it could only speculate.
"The evidence speaks for itself," said Alan Canfora, 58, one of
nine students wounded during the National Guard shooting. Four
students were killed in the 1970 shootings, which followed several
days of protests over the Vietnam War.
Canfora played two versions of the tape - the original and an
amplified version - in which he says a Guard officer issues the
command, "Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!"
To the casual listener, the word "point" can be heard followed by
the sound of shots being fired. There is no indication on the tape
of who said the word.
The tape, played to a group of reporters and students at a small
university theater, was given to Yale University for its Kent State
archives in 1979 by an attorney who represented students in a
lawsuit filed against the state over the shooting, Canfora said. He
found out about the tape six months ago while researching the
shooting.
Canfora said he will turn over copies of the tape to federal and
state officials with an appeal to reopen the investigation over how
the firing began.
Watch Video
"We're hoping for new investigations and new truths," he said. "We
need truth, we need healing."
After the shooting, the FBI investigated whether an order had been
given to fire and said it could only speculate. One theory was that
a Guardsman panicked or fired intentionally at a student and that
others fired when they heard the shot.
After an initial investigation, the case was reopened in 1973 when
a grand jury indicted eight Guardsmen. They were acquitted of
federal civil rights charges the next year.
Larry Shafer, a Guardsman who said he fired during the shootings
and was among those charged, told the Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier
newspaper Tuesday that he was unaware of the tape and that "point"
would not have been part of a proper command.
"I never heard any command to fire. That's all I can say on that,"
said Shafer, a Ravenna city councilman and former fire chief.
"That's not to say there may not have been, but with all the racket
and noise, I don't know how anyone could have heard anything that
day."
The reel-to-reel audio recording was made by a student who placed a
microphone at a windowsill of a dormitory overlooking the anti-war
rally, Canfora said. The student turned the tape over to the FBI,
which kept a copy.
Stan Pottinger, who helped prosecute the Guardsmen when he was an
assistant attorney general with the Civil Rights Division of the
U.S. Justice Department, said Tuesday from New York that he doubts
anything was overlooked then.
He said he could not specifically recall the tape, but that audio
recordings and film were carefully studied.
"I'm so curious about this," he said of a possible order to fire.
"That was a major part of our effort."
But he said justice has been served.
"The Guardsmen were acquitted, the case was closed, the families
expressed enormous gratitude for the reopening of the case, and
that was it," he said.
But only a small portion of the tape was reviewed during various
investigations, Canfora said.
Joseph Lewis, 55, of Scappoose, Ore., shot in the abdomen and ankle
in 1970, joined Canfora at the news conference and said he believes
the tape recorded a military command to fire.
"It sure sounds like an order to fire. On that day I did not hear
an order to fire. I seem to hear one on this tape," Lewis said.
Scott Wilson , an FBI spokesman, said Tuesday that he was unaware
of any request to look into the matter.
The Ohio National Guard had no comment on the tape's release,
spokesman James Sims said Tuesday.
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