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WJL: The purpose of the meeting, Sir?
JEH: Lucifer requested it. He wants to discuss my attacks in the press. Lyle Holly has informed me that Lucifer has correctly added two and two and has determined that I've run black-bag operations against him, which must vex him as well.
WJL: How did he learn? Do you suspect a leak?
JEH: No. I publicly referred to information that Lucifer disseminated in private and betrayed bug and tap placements in that ma
WJL: I concluded that, Sir.
JEH: Lucifer, Rustin and the others now shut their mouths in hotel rooms. Lucifer has confined his sexual antics to beds outside my electronic range.
WJL: You're implying a larger design here, Sir.
JEH: You are correct. I am going to drastically upscale my operations against Lucifer and the SCLC. You are to stop donating organized-crime money to the organization, but to continue to meet with Bayard Rustin. You will continue to portray yourself as an ardent supporter whose Mob pilfering source has run dry. You will wear wires to your meetings with Rustin. You will wheedle him into suggesting meetings. You will exploit his homosexuality and susceptibility to sincere and politically unstable men.
WJL: Yes, Sir.
JEH: This endeavor will be Stage-1 Covert. I have dubbed it OPERATION BLACK RABBIT. The title bows to the sex drive, prowess and heedlessly puerile demeanor of our long-eared friends. You will receive copies of most memoranda, because you are a deft extrapolator of complex data. Code names have been assigned to the key perso
WJL: You've whetted my appetite, Sir.
JEH: Martin Luther King will be RED RABBIT. Bayard Rustin will be PINK RABBIT. Lyle Holly will be WHITE RABBIT. You will be most appropriately known as CRUSADER RABBIT.
WJL: It's a witty touch, Sir.
JEH: I want you to learn what King has pla
WJL: You've targeted the Klan, Sir? For mail-fraud indictments?
JEH: I've targeted the most violent, inept, felony-prone and altogether outlandish Klan groups in that three-state vector. God will punish them for lynchings and castrations, should He lapse on the side of compassion and find them unjustified. I will punish them for Federal Mail Fraud.
WJL: You've divided the punishment well, Sir.
JEH: The Cointelpro will begin in June, '65. Your old chum Wayne Senior has recruited a man to form his own splinter Klan. The man will return from Army service and begin his assignment in May.
WJL: Will Wayne Senior run-
JEH: Wayne Senior will be code-named FATHER RABBIT. The Klan ru
WJL: The name packs a punch, Sir.
JEH: You're being egregiously flip, Mr. Littell. I know you are delighted, and I know you disapprove as well. Do not underline the latter.
WJL: I apologize, Sir.
JEH: To continue. Both operations will be run by Dwight Holly, who will be code-named BLUE RABBIT. Dwight has resigned from the U.S. Attorney's Office and has transferred back to the Bureau. I chose him because he is a brilliant operative. He is also Lyle Holly's brother, and Lyle knows the SCLC better than any white man alive.
WJL: I'm confused, Sir. I thought Dwight was estranged from Wayne Senior.
JEH: Estrangement comes and goes. Dwight and Wayne Senior have reconciled. The Negroes that Wayne Junior killed were simply a temporary roadblock. Wayne Senior is estranged from Wayne Junior now, in the ma
WJL: Will I need to deal with Wayne Sen-
JEH: Not directly. You trumped him on your courier arrangement, and he's sustained a simmering grudge.
WJL: Dwight Holly has never been a friend to me, Sir.
JEH: Dwight acknowledges your gifts, however reluctantly. You saved him face on the dead-Negro front, which indebted him to you. That said, I must observe that Dwight Chalfont Holly hates indebtedness and was having you spot-tailed by agents of the U.S. Attorney's Office, as part of an ill-conceived plan to build a derogatory profile against you. He considered you a dangerous presence in Nevada.
WJL: Given Dwight's nature, that's a compliment.
JEH: It pained him to pull the tails. lle gives up very badly. You share that trait.
WJL: Thank you, Sir.
JEH: Thank me with hard work on OPERATION BLACK RABBIT.
WJL: I will, Sir. In the meantime, would you like me to pull any of the bugs you've placed against the SCLC?
JEH: No. They might get careless and talk.
WJL: That's true, Sir.
JEH: Lucifer has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It infuriates me as much as I'm sure it moves you.
WJL: I'm moved, yes.
JEH: Those three words define your value to me.
WJL: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Learn your rabbit codes.
WJL: I will, Sir.
JEH: Good afternoon, Mr. Littell.
WJL: Good afternoon, Sir.
_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 12/2/64. Washington _Post_ article.
HOOVER MEETS WITH KING; AIDES DESCRIBE "TENSE
CONFRONTATION"
Washington, D.C., December 1.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Assistant Director Cartha DeLoach today met with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his aides Ralph Abernathy and Walter Fauntroy. The meeting took place in Hoover's office at FBI Headquarters.
A range of topics were discussed, including the alleged presence of Communists and Communist sympathizers within the civilrights movement and the FBI's handling of police brutality charges levied by Negroes and civil-rights workers in the south. King clarified recent statements he had made pertaining to the conduct of FBI agents in Mississippi and their alleged fraternizing with local law-enforcement officials. Hoover countered with a recitation of recent FBI successes in Mississippi and Alabama.
It was expected that rumors of FBI bugs and wiretaps, allegedly deployed against King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, would be discussed. "This was not the case," Dr. Abernathy said. "The dialogue was increasingly subsumed by Mr. Hoover's monologues against Communists and his repeated contention that 'in due time' attitudes and practices in the south would change."
"Mr. Hoover encouraged Dr. King to 'get out the Negro vote," Mr. Fauntroy said. "He did not offer a substantive pledge of support for civil-rights workers in great peril at this very moment."
Both aides described the meeting, which lasted one hour, as "tense." Following the meeting, King met with reporters and stated he believed that he and Mr. Hoover had reached "new levels of understanding."
Hoover declined to comment. Assistant Director DeLoach issued a press release that covered the topics discussed.
_DOCUMENT INSERT_: 12/11/64. Los Angeles _Times_ article.
KING ACCEPTS PEACE PRIZE;
Oslo University. Oslo, Norway December 10.
With Norwegian royalty and members of the Norwegian Parliament in attendance, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. stepped on stage to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.