In my position, I'm very fortunate to get to wear many hats at PSI as I oversee the association's marketing, communications and educational campaigns and programs. This gives me a chance to work closely with fellow PSI staffers, our wonderful members, PSI partners and sponsors and the media on various projects, including the PSI Certificate Program, Professional Pet Sitters Week, Take Your Dog To Work Day®, Hungry Bowl, Pet Sitter of the Year, the Get a Real Pet Sitter® and more. I'm passionate about educating pet sitters (through our magazine, e-Newsletter, blog, website, social media and most recently PSI's latest book, The Professional Pet Sitter's Startup Guide) and about educating pet owners on the importance of using professional pet sitters (through media announcements, press releases, advertisements and articles, etc.) I also manage PSI's social media accounts and plan the annual Pet Sitter World Educational Conference & Expo.

Carlos Latuff (born November 30, 1968) is a Brazilian freelance political cartoonist. His works deal with an array of themes, including anti-Zionism, anti-globalization, anti-capitalism, and anti-U.S. military intervention. He is best known for his images depicting the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and, more recently, the Arab Spring events.

Some of Latuff's cartoons comparing Israel to Nazism have been accused of being antisemitic by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and some authors. Latuff has dismissed the charges of antisemitism as "a strategy for discrediting criticism of Israel.", while book reviewer Eddie Portnoy in The Forward has stated that while his message is "furiously critical" of Israel, it is not anti-Semitic.

Latuff was born in the neighborhood of São Cristóvão in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is of Lebanese ancestry; in his own words he has "Arab roots".

Latuff started as a cartoonist for leftist publications in Brazil. After watching a 1997 documentary about the Zapatistas in Mexico, he sent a couple of cartoons to them, which received a positive response. He stated that after this experience, he decided to start a website and engage in "artistic activism". Graham Fowell, ex-chairman of the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain, compares his work to Banksy, an English-based graffiti artist, political activist and film director.

Latuff has been arrested three times in Brazil for his cartoons about the Brazilian police, in which he criticized police brutality.

In 2011, Latuff was contacted by activists in Egypt. Latuff stated that he was encouraged when he saw some of his cartoons depicted in the January 25 Egyptian protests, a couple of days after he made them. According to Reuters, this helped him become "a hero of the tumultuous Arab Spring with rapid-fire satirical sketches".

Latuff's works have been posted mostly by himself on Indymedia websites and private blogs. However, some of them have been picked up and featured in magazines such as the Brazilian edition of Mad, Le Monde Diplomatique and the The Toronto Star.  In addition, a few of his works were published on Arab websites and publications such as the Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance (JAMI) magazine, the Saudi magazine Character, the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar, among others.

Themes

A vast number of Latuff's cartoons are related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which according to Latuff : "became important to Latuff after he visited the area in the late 1990s." These cartoons are heavily critical of Israel and have drawn criticism and allegations of uninhibited utilization of "judeophobic stereotypes in the service of the anti-globalisation movement."

In his We are all Palestinians (Arabic: كلنا فلسطينيون‎) cartoon series, various famous oppressed groups, including Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, Black South Africans during Apartheid, Native Americans, and Tibetans in China, are all shown stating "I am Palestinian."

Latuff has also made a series of cartoons that portray Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, United States President George W. Bush, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and British PM Tony Blair among other politicians as monsters and as Nazis.

Latuff is also critical of US military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has made promotional cartoons for anti-US militancy as well as cartoons alleging US actions have been motivated by the chance of making profit from oil. Among the cartoons, there are also some that portray US soldiers as severely wounded, dead, or paraplegic or as harming Iraqi civilians.

In his comic series Tales of Iraq War (Arabic: حكايات من حرب العراق‎) he portrays "Juba, the Baghdad sniper", an Iraqi insurgency character claimed to have shot down several dozen US soldiers, as a "superhero". He has also made a caricature of US President George W. Bush laughing over US casualties.

Since the end of 2010, he has been consistently engaged in producing cartoons about the Arab Spring in which he openly sided with the revolutionaries. After the victory of revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya his cartoons about these countries have focused on the menace of counter-revolution or Western interference. Some of his cartoons have been displayed in mass demonstrations in Arab countries.

Alleged antisemitism

The notability of Latuff and his cartoons has drawn criticism from individuals and organizations, especially in the form of accusations of antisemitism.

His works were criticized by a writer for the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs, part of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (an Israeli NGO), for allegedly containing antisemitism and antisemitic motifs.

In 2002 the Swiss-based Holocaust survivors organization Aktion Kinder des Holocaust sued the Indymedia of Switzerland on the charge of antisemitism for publishing Latuff's cartoon titled We are all Palestinians series in their website, which depicted a Jewish boy in the Warsaw Ghetto saying: "I am Palestinian." The criminal proceedings were suspended by Swiss court.

In their 2003 Annual Report, the Stephen Roth Institute compared Latuff's cartoons of Ariel Sharon to "the antisemitic caricatures of Philipp Rupprecht in Julius Streicher's Der Stürmer." The SRI also complained over a cartoon showing Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara in a Palestinian keffiyeh.

In 2006, Latuff placed second for his cartoon comparing the West Bank barrier with the Nazi concentration camps, in the Iranian 'International Holocaust Cartoon Competition'. Latuff's entry was described as "Holocaust inversion," a "motif" of antisemitism, by Manfred Gerstenfeld.

Joel Kotek, a professor at Belgium’s Free University of Brussels, in his book Cartoons and Extremism calls Latuff “the contemporary Drumont of the internet.” Eddy Portnoy, in The Jewish Daily Forward, reviewing the book, writes that Latuff material is "often terribly obnoxious... but it is a stretch to categorize his cartoons as antisemitic, and it is a disservice to the fight against genuine antisemitism to have included [the Latuff cartoons]".

Latuff's response

In an interview with the Jewish-American weekly newspaper The Forward in December 2008, Latuff responded to charges of antisemitism and the comparisons made between his cartoons and those published in Der Stürmer in Nazi Germany:

My cartoons have no focus on the Jews or on Judaism. My focus is Israel as a political entity, as a government, their armed forces being a satellite of U.S. interests in the Middle East, and especially Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. It happens to be Israeli Jews that are the oppressors of Palestinians... My detractors say that the use of the Magen David in my Israel-related cartoons is irrefutable proof of antisemitism; however, it’s not my fault if Israel chose sacred religious motifs as national symbols, such as the Knesset Menorah or the Star of David in killing-machines like F-16 jets.

Latuff also stated that anti-Semitism is real, that anti-Semites like European neo-Nazis, "hijack" the Palestinian cause to bash Israel. To assert, however, that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic is, in his view, "a well-known tactic of intellectual dishonesty." He said that political cartoonists work by metaphors, and that similarities can be found between the IDF treatment of Palestinians and what Jews experienced under the Nazis. Such comparisons are not created by cartoonists, he added, but are made worldwide. He instanced the fact that a Holocaust survivor like Tommy Lapid reacted to the image of a Palestinian woman foraging in the rubble by thinking of his grandmother who died in Auschwitz. The use of cartoons insulting Muslims by depicting Muhammad as a bomber is defended as "freedom of speech", while using the Holocaust in drawings is deplored as "hatred against the Jews".

Latuff was included in Simon Wiesenthal Center's 2012 Top Ten Anti-Israel/Anti-Semitic Slurs list, which he considered "a joke worthy of a Woody Allen movie". He also claimed that Zionist lobbying groups try to associate him with well-known extremists and racists in order to disqualify his criticism of the Israeli government. According to him, "criticism or even attacks to the polity known as Israel do not mean hatred towards Jews because the Israeli government does not represent the Jewish people just as no government represents the totality of its people". He also pointed out that figures such as José Saramago, Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter were also accused of being antisemitic, saying that he was "in good company".

By most standards, I would consider my life as quite normal, perhaps like yours. I was born in upstate New York near Syracuse in the town of Canastota. I was born on 11/11/1948, and much later I learned that the numbers 11/11 were a sign of the angels. I would later come to see that the number 11 seemed to be evident everywhere in my life. Who would believe numbers would influence your life? I can now say that I believe that they do.

I came to northern California with my parents in 1965 and finished high school, and graduated from a nearby state college in 1970. I met my wife Carol and we were married on 8/29/1970. We are still together after all these years. By the way, I met Carol on a summer day as I drove by the front of her house. Funny, her house was 11 houses down on the same side of the street as mine! I soon was working in the discipline that consumed my life—that of a city planner. For 18 years, I worked long hours as a city planner for a local government. In 1989, I left that position and career to set up my planning consulting business which has lasted for over 20 years.

​

Until 2/9/01, everything was quite normal. That was to change that day. At about noon, I was driving in my Jeep alone on Highway 65, a four lane expressway, when a loud firm male voice called out to me inside the vehicle, SLOW TO 35. I was going 60mph in the fast lane, and I immediately slowed to 35. I learned long ago to follow my intuition. This voice was a real one—not in my mind! Within 30 seconds, a car with three young men rapidly passed me and came up to a traffic signal that was showing “green”. Instead of going through the intersection, the car stopped at the green light and then made a left perpendicular turn and stopped fully broadside in my traffic lane. I had no other alternative but to hit their car which resulted in a major accident. Both cars were demolished but we all walked away with our injuries which did not cause hospitalization. The Highway Patrolman at the scene said that if I had been going 60 instead of 35, I would certainly be dead. I did have some injuries to my chest and legs that needed healing. Amazingly, I had cheated death this time—only because the voice gave specific direction and I listened and followed. What would you do if you heard such a voice in your car? Would you have ignored it or chose to follow its direction? And what would you have thought about such an incident.

​

This accident started me on a path of exploration and adventure which resulted in a huge change in  my wife Carol’s and my lives. It started immediately when I began seeing some health professionals in acupuncture and massage to help with my injuries. These people and the people and events that I experienced over the next many years have led me to question everything about our existence and my role in that existence. In essence, I discovered the “meaning of life” for me, or you might say “my purpose in life”. I learned very quickly to follow the physical and mental messages that came to me. I also started seeing psychic professionals such as astrologers, intuitives, psychics, tarot card readers, you name it, I did it. I needed to know who and why that voice was in my car, and why I was subsequently getting all these strange messages. And why I was saved from certain death. All of these people that I met on this adventure were saying the same thing about me—that my life was about to change in a major way. At the time I felt that this did not sound right since I was happy in my life. I had a great job and a great wife and companion. Why would I want to change all that?

​

Soon, Carol and I would encounter strange incidents. We would be awakened in the early morning hours by our bedroom lights going on and off for no reason, even when some lights were not even plugged in. Our bed would be shaken violently side to side. Put yourself in our place—how would you deal with such crazy things happening and yet you could not see who or what was doing these things? We learned that these were meant to wake me up and in that state of half awake and half asleep, I started having visions in a waking state—not dreams. These visions were short but happened several times a week. They included seeing places, seeing people that I had no knowledge of, seeing people dressed in clothes of decades long ago, being told to go to a certain place, and more particularly seeing images of angels. I was being communicated with—but by who and why? What would you do if such messages came to you frequently in the middle of the night? Would or could you ignore them? Would you act on them?

​

The first angel vision was astounding, particularly since I really did not believe in their real existence. I felt that they were like mythical creatures, like Roman and Greek Gods, or dragons or fairies. This first angel vision was so clear that I could see each feather of the wings, see the clothes, the sword, the horse that he was sitting on. Soon thereafter, I went to Borders Books to find a book on angels. As I opened the book to a page in the center, by chance I found a picture of the angel. It was virtually identical to my vision of the angel. And it was no ordinary angel—it was the powerful Archangel Michael depicted on his horse with his sword. I felt that he wanted me to know of him—to confirm his existence.

By 2005, the messages were so strong and getting stronger each night. I went to a very highly respected psychic in my area for a first reading. Her name was Linda Schooler. She said that the energy was strong for me to travel extensively, first to the Southwest and then internationally. I said this could not be true since I worked so much and didnt have the time or even the interest in such travel. Within 6 months, Carol and I were traveling to Los Angeles, to Palm Springs, to New Mexico, and to Arizona. Linda was right! Later in 2007, we went to Peru, and in 2008 to England and France, to Hawaii, and then in December 2008 to Egypt. Linda was right again—this time about the international travel! All of these travels were not planned or expected. They seemed to happen for various reasons such as being invited by friends to visit or to join a sacred sites tour. For example, we went to Peru with new friends we had made in Palm Springs. We went to Egypt with another new friend on a tour. It was like these people were being sent to us to lure us to go, or to make the trip safe, fun, or easy. As it turns out, Linda was so right. How could she have predicted this so precisely? And what was the purpose to all these trips. This really opened me up to the psychic abilities and gifts of some people.

​

I saw Linda again just a month before we went to Peru. She said this time that I would paint soon after I got back from Peru. I said, this cannot be true. I last painted in kindergarten and I was nearly 59. I said this has to be wrong. She responded by saying the energy was so strong that she was absolutely certain of this prediction. Well, 2 weeks after Peru, I was walking down the street in my local area when a strong craving to paint came within my stomach area. It was like a craving for food. I immediately went to the closest art store and bought art supplies that I did not know anything about. I started painting that night. It immediately became an obsession. Carol was stunned that I would paint. Now I paint without any training whatsoever and have shows, events, etc. See the Art section of this website to see samples of my art work.

​

I have now been painting for several years without any classes or training. My paintings are selling. I am having art shows and my art is shown in many businesses. I simply cannot believe what has happened. Clearly, this art I am creating seems like channeled energy. Sometimes my hand goes where it wants, not where I want it. And every 3-4 months, the art style seems to change to something different or new. And I just love all of this creativity that has come into my life through art. But how could Linda be so accurate about my future in painting? And what is the real purpose for me painting?

​

Another amazing incident happened in the Spring of 2008 on our trip to England and France. Just before the trip, I checked with my two best psychic friends, Linda and Francie Marie, and they both, independently, saw Carol and I seeing a Stargate in France. They said it would be guarded by two angels but to honor it. They did not know what it would look like. But then it happened. Near the end of our trip, we went to St. Malo, France, a beautiful small town resort along the English Channel with a wonderful wide beach area. As we got out of our taxi, there it appeared. First, a series of clouds that were angelic in form appeared, then one with a human body form with its arm and hand and finger pointing down in the sky to the Stargate. Then we saw it…the Stargate appeared over some of the buildings along the coast—an amazing pyramid cloud that looked so unique I could not take my eyes off of it. At that moment it felt like time stopped! People walking past me didn’t look up to see it, despite it being very large in the sky and seeing me looking up taking pictures. A truly memorable event. If you were to see something like this, how would it affect your life, and your beliefs? What would you do?

Later that Spring in 2008, Carol and I went to Sedona, Arizona. What was to happen to us there was something that could have never been thought possible! During our trip we walked a labyrinth located at the St. Andrews Church. It was a big labyrinth and it took some time to walk it. As we finished, suddenly the sky filled with clouds. We looked overhead, and there it was—an angel figure shown to us in the clouds. I fortunately had my camera and took many photographs. At last, I really had the confirmation of the angels that I had been experiencing since 2001. Little did I know then it would be the cover of my first book, “Journey to the Clouds”.

After we got back from Egypt in December 2008, I got another type of craving. This time to write books. It, in fact ,happened on December 21st when I awoke to this need. This craving resulted in my first book called A Journey to the Clouds—Messages from the Sky. This book is about messages being given to us in the form of clouds. The whole book was completed and printed in 6 months which is very fast. The angels woke me every night at 2 or 3am and pushed me to work on it and complete it as soon as possible. The angels would not allow me to sleep unless I worked several hours each morning. After this book was done, the angels immediately pushed me to do the second book “Faces of the Universe—Sacred Images”, which also was done in 6 months. In my opinion, one purpose for these books being created appears to be to “slow us down” and awaken us so that we may contemplate and appreciate our world and all the visible and invisible life that is within it. The other purpose is for us to make sure we preserve and enhance our beautiful planet through “LOVE” of ourselves and all other life forms. After all we have experienced over the years, we feel it is important to share our information with you through creation of this website and our books.

​

David Love is a talk radio show host, board certified hypnotist, advanced past-life regressionist therapist, and Reiki healer.

He writes and speaks extensively on applying ancient mystical philosophy (he is a Rosicrucian and Spiritualist) as means for personal growth and development.

David’s current focus is on empowering people to develop effective personal success strategies.

He has written over ninety Internet articles on metaphysical, philosophical, and spiritual topics, along with dozens of guest media appearances.

David is the author several books including: The First Truth: A Book of Metaphysical Theories and Illusion of the Body: Introducing the Body Alive Principle.

David also co-authored a chapter for best-selling series the Adventures in Manifesting Series: Soulful Relationships (with Lynn Rose and Bob Doyle).

He is also a past article contributor to the Sedona Journal of Emergence. In December of 2015, Arielle Ford relationship expert and author of the best selling book "The Soulmate Secret", included a chapter in her new book "Turn Your Mate into Your Soulmate" about how Det David met Dr Lana Love called Soulful Synchroncities. David and Lana are honoured to have their names included in Arielle's book with other well-known public figures like Harville Hendrix, John Gray, Dr. Helen Fisher, Neale Donald Walsch, and Marianne Williamson.

David and his Australian partner Dr. Lana Love, are the hosts of Universal Soul Love, a weekly “social activist” talk radio show. They discuss topics (with celebrity guest appearances) ranging from environmentalism, animal abuse, human rights, gender equality, mental health, alternative medicine, personal development, spiritual growth, and self-sustainable living.

David has over twenty years of experience working in the America judicial system as an investigator. As a career private investigator, he specialized in criminal defense investigations (working with violent criminal offenders), domestic matters (such as infidelity surveillance, child custody, and child support collection), missing persons (including fugitive recovery), complex financial fraud, corporate investigations, and civil litigation support. His clients included corporate executives, business professionals, public figures, and political leaders.

David is a committed advocate for missing, abused, and neglected children. He is passionate in promoting civil liberties, animal rights, and environmental protection.

Matthew David Hurtado is the CEO of Network Holdings LLC.  He has been involved in fitness and health supplements since the age of 15 years old, when he first fell in love with bodybuilding.

Matthew has overcome an eating-disorder, Lyme's disease with chronic fatigue syndrome, and PTSD, as well as having endured the financial strains of illness. After becoming successful in several different ventures and running the operations of companies doing millions-of-dollars in sales, Matthew noticed things he didn't like about the supplement industry.  One common denominator and theme kept showing up -- most health-supplement companies source inferior ingredients containing toxins and sell their product for thousands of times the actual cost of producing the product to the end consumer.  To make matters worse, many of the most successful supplements are sold via the endorsement of some doctor or health guru directly tied into the profits of the company.

In 2013, Matthew decided  that it was time to invest his own money and time into researching and developing a brand of products that he would feel safe having his own kids use.  This meant that ultra-pure ingredients and world-class manufacturing would have to be the backbone of the company, and cutting-edge science and innovative thinking would be employed to make these products affordable.  After hiring an elite staff of advisors, Matthew's dream became realized with the birth of Complete Ascentials in April of 2014.

Matthew enjoys playing guitar, spending time with his family, and his work is his passion.

Brett is the author of multiple books and winner of the 1995 Paul Laurence Dunbar Poetry prize. He teaches a system of energy healing called Magical Awakening; which is a very playful and yet powerful style of energy healing. It is based in the Celtic shamanic concept of the 3 cauldrons as well as Arthurian imagery.  Brett Bevell shares an ancient system that has been tantamount to his own awakening. We also receive a short sample of a Magical Awakening healing given live by Brett. So much fantastic information shared in this intriguing episode. 

SERAH D’LAINE

Men’s Relationship Mentor, certified NLP practitioner, certified life coach, natural intuitive, actress, speaker, owner of Sovereign Alliance

Serah has always been fascinated with the deep inner working of the mind. Since the age of 13, she has been consciously studying emotional intelligence.

Having over 15 year success as an actress gave her access to in-depth experience of the full bandwidth of understanding human emotions through character development. Strengthening her skills through private education courses in psychology, NLP & multiple trusted mentors gave her a strong understanding of mindset, human behavioral patterns & relationship dynamics.

Her passion for coaching on the topic of relationships is rooted in her personal experience of overcoming her own limiting beliefs created from an unhealthy, verbally abusive relationship with an elder family member – with whom she lived with at a young age. Unaware of the impact on a young mind, the situation left her emotionally closed off from her own feelings & an unhealthy pattern of thinking that’s how love is given.  Thus, resulting in attracting a string of unhealthy, manipulative romantic relationships.

The lessons led her to deepen her understanding of herself, why she was subconsciously attracting the same partners, how to break those patterns & help others remain open to love & happiness after heartache & broken trust.

Currently Serah’s focus on coaching men provides them with powerful insights into the female mind, wants & needs leading to a mature relationship with themselves & their partner.

Paul Schrade, who was the western regional director of the United Auto Workers Union and labor chair of Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968. Paul was a personal friend of Senator Kennedy. Paul was also shot the day that Senator Kennedy was assassinated in the kitchen pantry behind the Embassy Ballroom in the Ambassador Hotel. (The reconstruction of the Embassy Ballroom is now the exact location of the Paul Schrade Library.)

Since that historic day on June 5, 1968, Paul’s mission has been to carry on Kennedy’s work. Understanding Kennedy’s passion about education, he proposed that a school be built at the site of the former Ambassador Hotel. The school would serve to relieve overcrowding and eliminate forced bussing and offer students of the historically underserved communities of Pico-Union and Koreatown a state-of-the-art educational facility.

Paul Schrade was Coordinator of the RFK-12 Community Task Force. The task force was successful in getting a 4000 seat, Kinder through 12th grade school to open in the same location where 43 years ago he lost his good friend and his life would be changed forever.

Man Shot Alongside RFK Say Sirhan Sirhan Should Be Granted Parole



By Steve Fiorina



February 11, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - "C10" -  Paul Schrade, now 91 years old, was shot in the head on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles while standing alongside Kennedy.

Schrade contends that Sirhan was not the only shooter that night. In an exclusive interview that aired on 10News Tuesday night, Schrade stated that Kennedy was actually killed by a second gunman.



Here is the full text of the statement he gave Wednesday to the parole board at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, where the now 71-year-old Sirhan is being held.

I am Paul Schrade of Los Angeles. I am 91-years-old. And back when I was 43, I was among six persons shot at the old Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at just after Midnight on June 5th, 1968.



I was shot along with Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who had just won California's Democratic Primary Election for the Presidency of the United States. Five of us survived our wounds. And as history knows, Senator Kennedy was fatally wounded.



I am here to speak for myself, a shooting victim, and to bear witness for my friend, Bob Kennedy.



Kennedy was a man of justice. But, so far, justice has not been served in this case. And I feel obliged as both a shooting victim and as an American to speak out about this -- and to honor the memory of the greatest American I've ever known, Robert Francis Kennedy.



Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was originally scheduled for release in 1984 but, after intense political pressure, his parole date was rescinded and he has since been denied 14 times.



In order for you to make an accurate determination of Sirhan Sirhan's parole, you need to know my feelings on this case and the full picture of what actually happened.



Sirhan, I forgive you.



The evidence clearly shows you were not the gunman who shot Robert Kennedy. There is clear evidence of a second gunman in that kitchen pantry who shot Robert Kennedy. One of the bullets -- the fatal bullet -- struck Bob in the back of the head. Two bullets struck Bob literally in his back. A fourth bullet struck the back of his coat's upper right seam and passed harmlessly through his coat. I believe all four of those bullets were fired from a second gunman standing behind Bob. You were never behind Bob, nor was Bob's back ever exposed to you.



Indeed, Sirhan, the evidence not only shows that you did not shoot Robert Kennedy but it shows that you could not have shot Robert Kennedy.



Gentlemen, the evidence clearly shows that Sirhan Sirhan could not and did not shoot Senator Bob Kennedy.



Several days ago, I made sure that several documents were submitted to this board for you to review. If you have not done so as yet, I would ask you to please review them very carefully during your deliberation. I will be glad to re-submit these documents to you, here today.



I believe, after you review these documents, that it should become clear to you that Sirhan Sirhan did not shoot -- and could not have shot -- Robert Kennedy. What I am saying to you is that Sirhan himself was a victim.



Obviously there was someone else there in that pantry also firing a gun. While Sirhan was standing in front of Bob Kennedy and his shots were creating a distraction, the other shooter secretly fired at the senator from behind and fatally wounded him. Bob died 25 hours later.



Gentlemen, I believe you should grant Sirhan Sirhan parole. And I ask you to do that today.



Along with what Sirhan's lawyers have submitted to you, the following are the documents that I made sure were submitted to you and which should also be factored into your decision today.



First, I want to show you this. It's a letter written in 2012 by my good friend, Robert F. Kennedy Junior. Bobby wrote this letter to Eric Holder, who was then the Attorney General of the United States. In his letter to Mr. Holder, Bobby requests that federal authorities examine the Pruszynski Recording, the only known audio recording made of his father's assassination at the Ambassador Hotel. The recording was uncovered in 2004 at the California State Archives by CNN International senior writer Brad Johnson.



This next document is a federal court declaration from audio expert Philip Van Praag, who Johnson recruited to analyze the Pruszynski Recording.



In this document, Van Praag declares that his analysis of the recording concludes that two guns were fired in the Robert Kennedy shooting.



Van Praag found a total of 13 gunshots in the Pruszynski Recording. Sirhan's one and only gun at the crime scene held no more than eight bullets and Sirhan had no opportunity to reload it.



Van Praag also found what he calls "double-shots" -- meaning two gunshots fired so close together that they could not both have come from Sirhan's Iver Johnson Cadet revolver. Van Praag actually found two sets of these "double-shots".



Additionally, he found that five of the 13 gunshots featured a unique audio resonance characteristic that could not have been produced by Sirhan's gun model, meaning those five shots were fired from a second gun of a different make.



Van Praag further found that those five gunshots were fired in a direction heading away from Pruszynski's microphone. Since the microphone was about 40 feet west of the Kennedy shooting, those five shots were fired in an eastward direction, which was opposite the westward direction that Sirhan is known to have fired his eight-shot Iver Johnson Cadet.



These documents are statements from two witnesses to the Robert Kennedy shooting, both of them assistant maître d's for the Ambassador Hotel. These two men, Karl Uecker and Edward Minasian, escorted Robert Kennedy into the kitchen pantry immediately after the Senator delivered his victory speech in a hotel ballroom for having won the California Primary. Both Uecker and Minasian say Sirhan was in front of Bob Kennedy as the Senator walked toward Sirhan, meaning that Bob and Sirhan were facing each other. Both witnesses say Sirhan was still in front of Bob as Sirhan fired his gun. And both say that after Sirhan fired his first two shots, Uecker quickly pushed Sirhan against a steam table, placing Sirhan in a headlock while grabbing hold of Sirhan’s firing arm, forcing the tip of Sirhan’s gun to point away from where Bob Kennedy was and causing Sirhan to fire blindly his remaining six bullets.



In other words, Sirhan only had full control of his gun at the beginning, when he fired his first two shots, one of which hit me. Sirhan had no opportunity to fire four precisely-placed, point-blank bullets into the back of Bob Kennedy's head or body while he was pinned against that steam table and while he and Bob were facing each other.



This document is the official Robert Kennedy autopsy report summary. It shows that all bullets directed at Senator Kennedy were fired from behind him at point-blank range. As the autopsy states, and as these drawings show, the bullets traveled from back-to-front at steep upward trajectories. One bullet struck Senator Kennedy at the back of the head, two bullets at the right rear armpit and a fourth bullet at the right rear shoulder of his jacket, which passed harmlessly through his jacket.



Again, Sirhan's bullets could not have struck the back of Bob Kennedy's head or the back of his body or the back of his jacket's right shoulder, as the autopsy clear shows took place, because Sirhan was never in a position to administer any of those four Kennedy shots. The prosecution never placed Sirhan in that location and position.



These are documents from the Los Angeles Police Department that reveal LAPD misconduct in the police investigation of the Robert Kennedy murder. They detail evidence that was destroyed while Sirhan’s appeal was still pending as well as a photograph that was acknowledged by the LAPD to be "effective rebuttal" but was withheld from the defense team.



Indeed, the LAPD and L.A. County District Attorney knew two hours after the shooting of Senator Kennedy that he was shot by a second gunman and they had conclusive evidence that Sirhan could not -- and did not -- do it. The official record shows that the prosecution at Sirhan's trial never had one witness -- and had no physical nor ballistic evidence -- to prove Sirhan shot Bob Kennedy. Evidence locked up for 20 years shows that the LAPD destroyed physical evidence and hid ballistic evidence exonerating Sirhan -- and covered up conclusive evidence that a second gunman fatally wounded Robert Kennedy.



This document is a memo written by Criminalist Larry Baggett, who investigated the Robert Kennedy shooting for the LAPD. The Baggett memo states that the bullets that hit Senator Kennedy and William Weisel, another shooting victim in the pantry, were not fired from the same gun. The memo also states that the bullet that traveled upward through Bob Kennedy's body and into his neck was not fired from Sirhan's revolver. Such a finding would be proof that Sirhan did not shoot Robert Kennedy.



Mr. Deputy District Attorney, based on all of this information and more, I ask that you inform Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey that I am formally requesting her to order a new investigation of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination. I will also be making the same request of Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.



Please note, Mr. Deputy District Attorney, that I am using the word "new" here. I am not requesting that the old investigation simply be re-opened. For that would only lead to the same old wrong conclusions. I am requesting a new investigation so that after nearly 50 years, justice finally can be served for me as a shooting victim; for the four other shooting victims who also survived their wounds; for Bob Kennedy who did not survive his wounds because his were the most grievously suffered in that kitchen pantry; for the people of the United States who Bob loved so much and had hoped to lead, just as his brother, President John F. Kennedy, had led only a few years before; and of course for justice, to which Bob Kennedy devoted his life.



Furthermore, Mr. Deputy District Attorney, I ask that you please also tell the District Attorney, Ms. Lacey, that I would appreciate the opportunity to personally meet with her in Los Angeles at her earliest convenience. Would you please convey my message to her?



I hope you will consider all of the accurate details of this crime that I have presented in order for you to accurately determine Sirhan Sirhan's eligibility for parole. If you do this the right way and the just way, I believe you will come to the same conclusion I have: that Sirhan should be released. If justice is not your aim, then of course you will not.



Again, Sirhan was originally scheduled for release in 1984 but after intense political pressure, his parole date was rescinded and he has since been denied 14 times.



The best example of this can be found in this statement of Los Angeles District Attorney John Van de Kamp.



Again, gentlemen, I believe you should grant Sirhan Sirhan parole. And I ask you to do that today in the name of Robert F. Kennedy and in the name of justice.



Thank you. That concludes my remarks.