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The Miami News from Miami, Florida • 5

Publication:
The Miami Newsi
Location:
Miami, Florida
Issue Date:
Page:
5
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

June 6, 1968 THE MIAMI NEWS 3A RFK Often Spoke In Israel's Behalf ir Is i 1 '7 si At -v Irresponsible propaganda, so long the greatest losen from the military adventures of their leaders." AdvortlMmenl ARE YOUR PROPERTY TAXES TOO HIGH? tit fiv. Anoclated Prill phoiot Sirhan Sirh Going To Arraignment 'Sirhan'i Brothers Add and Mtinier (Joe) Comforh Sirlian Mother Neighbor The New York Timet Ntwi Service NEW YORK For Sen. Robert Kennedy, Israel was a nation to be aided and admired. As recently as last Saturday, In his televised debate with Sen. Eugene McCarthy, Kennedy was expressing as he had many times in the past his views on the subject.

Although he has looked with disfavor on the Idea that the United States "be the policeman of the world," he stated that he did recog-n i some commitments around the globe, and promptly declared: "I think we have a commitment to Israel, for Instance, that has to he kept." Last June, at a commencement address at Fordham University in New York, he spoke with admiration of Israel as "a tiny outpost of Western culture and ideals." He said: "This gallant democracy, this nation of survivors from history's greatest example of man's capacity for senseless cruelty to his fellow men cannot be allowed to succumb to the threats and assaults of her neighbors." Although he spoke strongly in behalf of Israel, he recognized the plight of the Arab nations, as when he told an audience last June: "Let us also hold out our hand of friendship to the Arab peoples, so long living in poverty and disease and misery, so long the tools ol MM ARAB-BORN YOUTH Sirhan's Diaries CAME TO U.S. IN 1957 Forecast Murder Thi Ntw Verk Timti Niwi Strvlc NEW YORK A note-book found in the Pasadena home of Sirhan Bishara han had "a direct reference to the necessity to assassinate Sen. (Robert Kennedy before June 5, 1968, Mayor Samuel W. Yorty of Los Angeles said last night. The date was yesterday, the first anniversary of the six-day war in which Israeli forces smashed Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian military strength.

Early yester-day the 24-year-old Christian Arab, who has described himself as Jerusalem-born Jordanian, was held for shooting the New York sena-tor. Justice Department records indicated Sirhan had come to the United States with his family as immigrants in January, 1957, then three months after the 1956 war over the Suez Canal. He was then 12. The family had quickly broken up in discord. The father stayed awhile in New York to work as a plumber and then went back to the family's former home in Palestine.

The mother took five children off to California and a sixth child later joined them. Police Chief Thomas Red din of Los 'Angeles described the suspect yesterday as "very cool, very calm, very stable and quite lucid." He quoted him as saying "I prefer to remain Incommunicado" when questioned about the shooting. Yorty said the suspect had a schedule of Kennedy's speaking engagements for this month, a clipping of a columnist's criticism of the New York Democrat and four $100 bills. "With the permission of one of the (suspect's) brothers, we searched the house, and in the room of the suspect, we found some notebooks in which there is a great deal of writing indicating pro-Communist sympathies, also phrases like 'long live and many statements about assassinating Sen. Robert F.

Kennedy, including one notation saying that this must be done by What makes Montclair menthols really mild? The Char-Cool contact with the State Department" but that the suspect's "nationality is not confirmed." In New York, a 39-yrar-old former Arab news agenry representative in Jerusalem, who came here in 1958 and is now working for a publishing company, said that Sirhan Sirhan's parents separated "right away after they came here." The former journalist, who asked that his name not be made public, said the father had been known as Abu Sharif Bishara Sirhan Sharif being an honorific while working as a plumber. The family, he said, was Greek Orthodox Christian. The father, he said, used to talk of his children as very nice and used to express his sorrow that they had gone off to California with the mother. The journalist sa'd that the Sirhans "don't want Israel to that's for sure," He added, however, that they were not rabidly anti-Zionist and that the father had not discussed the problem much. The father, he said, lived in a six-story building on Allen Street, in a tenement neighborhood where the residents now include Chinese, Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Albanians and Turks and the shops sell clothing at cut rates.

The father, the journalist said, went back to Jordan, and has a house in Jerusalem as well as a new home he built recently in the village ofEtTaiyiba. The village is seven miles northeast of Ranmllah on the west bank of the Jordan river and appears to be where the Sirhans grew up. It has about 2,000 residents. The Arab journal'st sa'd: "Mostly everyone the village is religious. They are very quiet and very nice.

The If He Did It Let Them Father Says Hang I Even if your house is assessed at only 50 of its value, there's a good chance you're being over charged. Read what the cause is, how to find out if you are paying too much, and what you can do about it. One of 42 articles and features in the June Reader's Digest, including: Two Great Sermons By Martin Luther King Answers To Tough Questions About Sex Can Middle Age Be Postponed? Pick up your copy today. READER'S DIGEST forth ah famaah IMLIWUmg licensed, er tthtrwiit muMtA imr frrrywy the if filter. fL June 5, 1968.

This notation is dated May 17-18. I forget which day in May of this year." Said Allah Sirhan, who identified himself as a brother of the prisoner, was reported by WCBS radio in New York as saying, "all I know is he is a nice kid." Sirhan Sirhan attended Longfellow Elementary School and John Muir High School in Pasadena. He went to Pasadena City College for at least two years, but gave up fulltime day enrollment in 1966 and was believed to have been taking extension courses there since then. The Rev. Ben Cowles, of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, where the mother works as a teacher's aide in the nursery school, said the young man was a Christian but barely attended church.

John owner of the Organic Health Food Store in Pasadena, said he had employed Sirhan Sirhan as a $2-an-hour stock clerk and deliveryman from last Sept. 24 until March 7, when supply under the British mandate rule. When their fourth son was born, the Sirhans were Jiving in a small house in tHe Ar- menian quarter of the old, walled city. Though they were Greek Orthodox Christians, they rented their house from the neighboring Armenian convent. Sirhan, along with his brothers, studied in a small school run by the Lutheran Church of the Savior inside the walled city.

Like every-one else in Jerusalem, their lives were interrupted by the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, and they moved repeatedly after that though always within the Arab sector of Jerusalem. After the British left Palestine, Sirhan took a job as a plumber for the Jordanian authorities who assumed control of Jerusalem on the West Bank. He held this job until 1957, when, in his words, "there was trouble between me and my wife" and they separated. "I haven't seen them (the children) since, and for years she would not let them write to me. Only two or three months ago I got some letters from my second son, Saidallah, asking me how I was after the war.

"He asked about me in the letters," Sirhan said, "but when I asked about him and his brothers and what their situation was, he stopped writing. I know nothing about them. I don't even know if they have gone to college or served in the Army or have gotten married or what." BORROWING DOESN'T COST PAYS Having money on hand at the right time means a good buy, or a quick profit And lending you that ready cash is our business. If you need money, and you need it now call or visit your nearest YES bank today. ALL THE BANK YOU'LL EVER NEED Montclair is air-cooled through charcoal and fresh menthol.

And Montclair has less than 12 mg of "tar." Today's Monfdair menthols give you a tonus Gifts people mostly support Socialist life." Sirhan Sirhan is 5 feet 5 inches and weighs about 120 pounds. His hair is dark and curl'-. His complexion is' swarthy. He speaks English with a slight accent. He has been living with brother Joe in Pasadena, according to Yorty.

The mayor said it was Joe who owned the gun held to have been used in the shooting, and the brother told police officers he had no- idea how Sirhan Sirhan got the weapon. Alvin Clark, a 40-year-old neighbor who is employed by the Pasadena Department of Refuge, asserted in an interview reported by United International that Sirhan Sirhan "hated Kennedy because he hated everyone with money." Clark was quoted as having said th't Sirhan Sirhan had reccivrd a SI. 100 settlement mrnlh on a claim of a head injury suffered when he wns thrown from a horse. California horse racing board records indicated he had had a license in 19S6 as an exc-ci-s boy fnd "hot walker," hut had not renewed the license. Reddin said that Sirhan Sirhan had complained about difficulty with his eyes, apparently from the asserted accident with the horse.

Mrs. Sirhan, the mother, collapsed after hearing of her son's srrest. A neighbor said Mrs. Sirhan had told her that her son had fallen from a horse recently on a ranch and "sires then I can't talk to him." PSOOCS Rent 1967 Con fordi Chtvrolefs Plymouth Dodge UNLIMITED FREE MILEAGE ttr Week RENTAL CARS fbOOOOO373-6765 Autopak'500 N.Y..N.Y. 10003 oooooor OOOOOOSl the man left "because he didn't like what I said about his work." "He was a man with principles," Weidner said.

"He didn't smoke. He didn't drink. He always said he wouldn't lie. But he was emotional. He would resent authority.

He didn't like to take orders. "When he was very young, he saw members of his family and friends killed by Israelis. My personal opinion is that I think he did something to Kennedy because-he (Kennedy) said he would help Israel." Yorty and Reddin said that the prisoner, held in $250,000 bail on six counts of assault with intent to commit murder, had been identified through two brothers. The brothers were identified as Munier also known as Joe, and Adel, who had been located by the tracing of a pistol said to have been used in the shooting. Reddin said that the identification had been confirmed through a set of fingerprints on file in Sacramento in connection with an application by Sirhan Sirhan for a job as an exercise boy for horses at the Hollywood Park race track.

The application was made some time ago while Sirhan Sirhan was a student at high school in Pasadena. In Washington, the Department of Justice said that Sirhan Sirhan was an alien on permanent resident status, On which he arrived in New York City Jan. 12, 1957. Records of the Immigration and naturalization service gave his birth date as March 19, 1944, in Jordan. Jerusalem was then part of Palestine, and part was Jordan-ruled from the end of the British Palestine mandate in 1948 until Israel took over after the war last June.

The Justice Department said that he had entered the United States with his father, identified as Bishara Salameh Ghattas Sirhan, and 1 mother, Mary Bishara Sirhan. Also arriving at the same time were three brothers, listed as Adel, Sharif and Muneir, and a sister, Ayda. Another brother, listed as Saidallah, arrived in June, 1960. At the Jordanian embassy in Washington, Dr." Waked Sadi, counsellor, said that there was no record of Sirhan Sirhan there or in Jor-d a i a consulates where Jordanian nationals are registered. Sadi said "we are very shocked" to hear of the pos- i sibility that the alleged as- sailant of Kennedy might have come from Jordan.

He said the embassy was "in PHONE TODAY FOR HOME DELIVERY OF Dade County 350-2333 The MI4MI News Ft Lauderdale. Lauderdale by the Sea, Dalian-dale. Dania, Pompano. 3-7341 Fort ED 4-1 652 Key Naples 642-E29I 3 WANTED Th Ntw York Tlmit Ntw Strvict ET TAIYIBA, Israel-Occupied Jordan Bishara Sir-nan's hands trembled as he talked about his son, Sirhan Sirhan, the accused assailant of Sen. Robert F.

Kennedy. "He was an excellent student," Sirhan said. "We have five boys and he was the best of all of them at school. He' was such an intelligent boy I had no worries about him. I was sure he would do well." Sirhan's memories of his sons are memories of 10 years ago, and when he last saw them and their mother.

After years of fierce family quarrels, Bishara and Mary Sirhan separated in 1957 and have not seen each other since. Sirhan, who lives alone in a two-story stone house in this hillside village on the occupied west bank of the Jordan River, heard the news of the shooting over the radio. But it was not until a re ri pom. uooa Tor Trading stamps or cash. Responiiblt party to make 8 payment! of $9.00 or 6 8.

20 cash on a late model. SINGER TOUCH SEW Sewing Machine 1 ZIG-ZAG included Originally lold lor $182.40. Has automatic bobbin winder twin needle Monograms designs. Call rnr. anyl'me.

4CI WE WILL GUARANTEE WE WILL DELIVER porter came to his house that he learned that his son had been arrested for the shoot-ing. At first, he Just shook his head at the news. Then he said in a soft voice: "I'm deeply sorry for both of them, for my son and for Mr. Kennedy. I admire the Kennedy family very much.

I prayed that Robert Kennedy would be elected president so he could do many of the good things for the world that his brother did." As he talked on, Sirhan dwelled on the tragedy of the shooting than on the situation of his son. He became angry as he talked and finally said: "This news made me sick when I heard it today. If my son has done this dirty thing, then let them hang him." Sirhan Sirhan was the fourth of five boys born of the Sirhans in Jerusalem, where the father was for 28 years the senior Arab officer in charge of the city water In Killing 3 Offer lubisct to CrWdilirtni I void where prohibited, does. No more guessing about 1 taxed, Ml ffliitoomiafi RFK's Thoughts Continued from Page 1 let's not talk about that." But wouldn't it be a national crisis if one of his stature were to be harmed, after the violence to his brother and to Martin Luther King "Perhaps it would, I suppose so," Robert Kennedy said. "But what can I do about that? "111 tell you one thing: If I'm elected president you won't find me riding around in any of those awful cars." He was referring to the closed, armored presidential limousine President Johnson has used since John F.

Kennedy's motorcade assassination. Bobby Kennedy would ride in open cars, he said, so the people could see their president "Of course, I worry about what would happen to my family, to the children," Kennedy mused that early spring night on the plane. "But they're well taken care of, and there's really nothing else I can do, is there? So I really don't care about anything happening to me." And then there was a long pause: "This isn't really such happy existence, is it?" Its flash automatically fires whenever light is dim enough for you to need it. And it's the only instant-loading still earner? that whether or not to switch to flash. No more bad pictures when you guess wrong.

Many Arabs Blame The flashcube goes off when you need it, and doesn't when you don't For daylight pictures there's an electric eye that sets exposure automatically. And for better pictures day or night, an optical-glass Rokkor f2.8 lens (not plastic like many instant-loaders). Costs under $50. only thing easier is not taking pictures at all. U.S.

Policy Minolta The Arab world deplored the assassination of Robert Kennedy, but the opinion was widely expressed that he died because of American policy in the Middle East, which the Arabs consider pro-Israeli. At last the "murder of the Palestinian homeland" has been brought dramatically to the attention of the American people, said one Arabic newspaper in 1313 N.W. 36tH STREET 1300 N.W. 167th STREET.

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About The Miami News Archive

Pages Available:
1,386,195
Years Available:
1904-1988