Trump admin releases MLK Jr. FBI surveillance files despite family’s objections – National & International News – MON 21Jul2025

 

 

Trump admin releases MLK Jr. FBI surveillance files despite family’s objections

Pilot says he was forced to make “aggressive maneuver” to avoid collision with B-52 in North Dakota

 

 

Trump admin releases MLK Jr. FBI surveillance files despite family’s objections

The Trump administration has released over 240,000 pages from the FBI files on civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968 while supporting a sanitation workers’ strike. Researchers working for King’s surviving children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, received the files in advance of the release and were still combing through the massive trove when the publication was announced.

In a lengthy statement, the Kings asked “those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief”. The statement urged the public to view the files’ contents in their “full historical context”. Previously released documents revealed that King was the subject of an intensive and invasive surveillance program, personally orchestrated by then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The records revealed a campaign against King that included wiretapping his phones, bugging his hotel rooms, paid informants and blackmail. The King family’s statement says the aim of this surveillance was “not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement”. 

The files were originally ordered to be released in 2027, but the Department of Justice requested that the seal placed on them in 1977 be lifted early.

Despite the invasive nature of some of the material contained in the release, the family is hopeful that the files may yield “additional insights beyond the findings our family has already accepted” regarding King’s assassination. The statement refers to a 1999 civil case in which a jury unanimously found that King’s death was brought about by a wider conspiracy and that James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin, did not fire the shot that killed King.

Ray pleaded guilty to the murder in 1969, but later recanted his confession. His conviction has since been upheld in court multiple times. He died while still incarcerated in 1998, aged 70.

 

Pilot says he was forced to make “aggressive maneuver” to avoid collision with B-52 in North Dakota

On Friday, a SkyWest flight with 76 passengers and four crew members aboard was approaching Minot International Airport in North Dakota. The plane was forced to make a sudden hard turn to avoid a collision with an approaching B-52, according to the pilot. Following the incident, the pilot can be heard in a video recorded by a passenger explaining the situation over the intercom.

The pilot said he had been instructed by air traffic control to turn in order to avoid another plane when suddenly a B-52 appeared headed toward the path of the passenger plane. SkyWest, a regional carrier for Delta, said this forced the pilot to perform a sudden “go-around” maneuver to get out of the B-52’s path. “Sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise,” the pilot can be heard saying. “This is not normal at all. I don’t know why they didn’t give us a heads up”.

The pilot also noted that the small airport does not operate radar and instead directs flights visually. The FAA announced today that they would be investigating this incident. They later clarified that air traffic services at the Minot airport were provided by a private company. “These controllers are not FAA employees,” the agency said.

It’s been nearly 6 months since an American Airlines regional jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, DC, killing all 67 people on both aircraft.

 

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“Cosby Show” star Malcolm-Jamal Warner dies by drowning at 54.

Ex police officer sentenced to 33 months in prison for involvement in Breonna Taylor’s death. DOJ had asked for one-day sentence.

Detainees forced to kneel and eat “like dogs”, other horrors reported at Florida ICE facilities.

Pentagon withdraws 700 Marines from Los Angeles amid reports of poor morale among troops sent to support ICE.

Fears that new Chinese dam project could leave parts of India and Bangladesh high and dry.