Word: lemmer
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KENNETH G. LEMMER...
...Lemmer's story was a major factor in the arrest of six members of the V.V.A.W. in July 1972 on charges of conspiring and crossing state lines to incite a riot (subsequently, another vet and a civilian ally were also charged). Denying the charges, the defendants insisted that the arrests were purely political, designed to embarrass the leadership of the veterans and prevent their legal anti-Nixon demonstrations at the convention. Now the case of the "Gainesville Eight" has come to court as the latest -and possibly last-of the celebrated conspiracy trials of recent years. Those often traumatic...
There was a sense of déjà vu in Gainesville last week as Lemmer, the Government's star witness, took the stand. In a reminder of the Angela Davis trial, tight security was in effect at the Gainesville courtroom as more than 100 green-fatigue-clad members of the V.V.A.W., who had set up camp outside town, marched with other supporters through Gainesville chanting "Jail Nixon, Free the Eight!" Past Conspiracy Celebrities Tom Hayden (the Chicago Seven) and Anthony Russo (the Pentagon papers) flew in to condemn the trial, and Lemmer's part in the proceedings...
Fantastic Plot. In two days of testimony, Lemmer, a former paratrooper in Viet Nam, described a fantastic plot that he says he watched develop while serving as Arkansas-Oklahoma coordinator for the antiwar vets. He outlined the scheme that he says Veteran Leader Scott Camil called "Phoenix II" (named after a CIA-sponsored project to eliminate Viet Cong cadres in Viet Nam). Lemmer told the jury that early in 1972, Camil said he was conducting training operations for political assassination squads on an isolated Florida farm with facilities for rifle, pistol and mortar practice. Lemmer, who spent approximately two years...
Defense attorneys began cross-examination of Lemmer at week's end hoping to undermine his credibility by trying to prove that he has a history of mental disorders, a charge Lemmer vehemently denies. The defense would also like to show that Lemmer acted as an agent provocateur as well as an informer, planting the very type of plans he says the veterans developed. Finally, they may point out to the jury that Lemmer himself calls the disruption scheme only a "contingency plan...