From: Robalini@aol.com
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 19:26:22 EDT
Subject: Important: Tim Leary Letter To Sign
X-Mailer: AOL for Macintosh sub 53
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
To all receivng this:
I am sending this to you because I truly respect your opinion and feel it has important value to many.
Below is a petition pertaining to the current media smear being engaged against the late, great Tim Leary. If you agree to the statement, please let me know, and I will include you on the list. Further, please pass this around to others who you feel have the importance to transmit the message that the current portrayal of Mr. Leary as an informant is not only false but intentionally malicious.
Thank you,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
FBI AND MEDIA KICK A MAN WHILE HE'S DEAD: An Open Letter from the Friends of Timothy Leary
"Those who want to gnaw on his bones never knew his heart" --Ken Kesey
"He stood up bravely for freedom of speech and behavior and deserves to be remembered for that" --Winona Ryder
Recent media coverage about Timothy Leary's "cooperation" with the FBI brings into focus the Orwellian character of today's tabloid media environment.
Focusing on documents selectively released by the FBI, and initially published by the "true crime" webzine, The Smoking Gun, a news story picked up by the Associated Press presented as shocking news the fact that Leary testified about the radical left in 1974 in the hopes of speeding up his prison release. Young readers, or those with a short historical memory, were led to believe that Leary was a secret FBI collaborator, hiding behind a mask of countercultural anti-authoritarianism. We refer the Associated Press and all other conscientious reporters to newspapers and periodicals from this period. We also refer them to the final chapters (39-41) of Leary's own autobiography, Flashbacks (Tarcher/Putnam, 1983). Leary found his interaction with the Feds important enough to make it the closing chapter. He was certainly aware that it was no secret. Trumpeting the fact that Leary answered the agency's questions as "news" is utterly dishonest.
"I feel my neurons perking up and snapping to attention as the fog of mass-media disinformation turns to high-definition clarity" --Susan Sarandon
Journalists who wish to investigate this situation further will be rewarded with a complex adventure story of a heroic man whose rights were consistently violated by various government agencies, who served 4-1/2 harsh years in prison and another 1-1/2 years in exile, and who finally evaded several lifetimes' worth of further prison sentences while doing negligible damage to friends and acquaintances.
"For those whose image of Dr. Leary has been formed by shallow and often malicious reports in the press..." --Tom Robbins
Here are a few salient facts:
* Timothy Leary faced about 100 years in prison. Twenty years were for a
total of less than half an ounce of marijuana; another five for escaping
from prison. That alone would have put him away for the rest of his life.
But in addition, he faced 75 years on some bizarre conspiracy charges around
global distribution of LSD. Of his thirty "co-conspirators," twenty-nine
were unfamiliar to him, and conspiracy charges were eventually dropped. In
contrast, the leaders of the Weather Underground received fines and
suspended sentences when they finally turned themselves in, due to the
disclosure that the FBI had committed illegal acts against them.
* Nobody was seriously injured by Leary's interaction with the FBI, with the
exception of a former attorney, who received three months in prison after
being set up on a cocaine bust by a girlfriend of Leary working on the
outside, not from Tim's testimony. The lawyer has never come forward to
express any anger toward Leary. Two other former lawyers of Leary were
placed at risk, as were his estranged wife and his archivist, but nothing
came of it because of the absence of corroborating testimony from people who
Tim well knew had been underground for years.
* The Weather Underground, the radical left organization responsible for his
escape, was not impacted by his testimony. Histories written about the
Weather Underground usually mention the Leary chapter in terms of the escape
for which they proudly took credit. Leary sent information to the Weather
Underground through a sympathetic prisoner that he was considering making a
deal with the FBI and waited for their approval. The return message was "we
understand."
* While in exile, Leary was illegally kidnapped by US agents in Afghanistan
(which had no extradition treaty with the U.S.) and brought back to America.
On returning to prison, he was thrown into "the hole" in Folsom Prison. His
bail was five million dollars, the largest in U.S. history. President
Richard Nixon had earlier labeled him "the most dangerous man in America."
* When Leary first agreed to talk to the FBI about those involved in his
escape, the agents were so dissatisfied with his testimony that they put him
out on the "main line" at a Minnesota prison under the name "Charles
Thrush," a songbird. This was a blatant attempt to label him a snitch and
get him murdered by prisoners, or at least to scare him into giving the FBI
the kind of answers they wanted.
* After his testimony, Leary remained in prison for close to two years.
"Tim knew he had to make the same sort of rollover when he was in the belly of the beast. He also knew he wasn't telling the Feds anything they didn't already know. And he figured it the same way I did: our true allies and comrades would understand.
I have no need to associate with doubters. When the priests in the Star Chamber promise to stop pouring hot lead in your ear if you'll confess to being in league with Satan, you do what you have to do. Those citizens who think you are being a traitorous coward have never had hot lead poured in their ears.
Tim Leary was a great warrior, funny and wise and clever and, above all,
courageous. I judge myself blessed to have battled alongside a revolutionary
like this blue-eyed battler. Those who want to gnaw on his bones never knew
his heart"
--Ken Kesey
Signed,
The Friends of Timothy Leary:
Greg Bishop
Howard Bloom
Andrei Codrescu
Michael Horowitz
Ken Kesey
Paul Krassner
Richard Metzger
Cynthia Palmer
Genesis P-Orridge
Tom Robbins
Douglas Rushkoff
Winona Ryder
Susan Sarandon
R. U. Sirius
Larry "Ratso" Sloman
Robert Sterling
Kenn Thomas
Robert Anton Wilson
Contact Michael Horowitz flashbks@nbn.com or Richard Metzger metzger@disinfo.com for more information
This letter can also be found online at http://www.konformist.com/1999/leary.htm