Sirhan Sirhan
Sirhan Sirhan is an Arab "Palestinian" extremist and Jordanian citizen who carried out the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. It is believed that he carried out the murder because Kennedy strongly supported Israel. He was captured at the scene by Rosey Grier, a well-known NFL player.
Sirhan was active in M. T. Mehdi Arab propaganda on college. [1]
Neo-Nazis' allied Issa Nakhleh, sent by his boss, al-Husseini, the ex Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,[2] represented Sirhan Sirhan.
| “ | At an emergency meeting of the group held during the assassin's trial, Issa Nakhleh, a former senior adviser to the UN Palestinian Delegation, described Sirhan as an “Arab guerrilla” whose murder of Mr Kennedy was “motivated by political events”.
“Nakhleh informed the group that one of his aims in briefing the group was to enlist their support for a trip to the Middle East which he planned to make in order to collect funds to aid Sirhan's defence,” reads the document... It also alleges that Mr Nakhleh had in the past been accused of being a “loose handler” of funds – that he had previously raised money for various causes, but that the funds later “found a way into his pockets”.[3] |
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Contents
Ideology, hatred + grandiosity
Early life and reported ambitions
A 1968 profile published in The Sunday Sun, drawing on reporting from the London Sunday Times, described Sirhan as a child who expressed strong ambitions for personal greatness. He reportedly questioned whether he was “cleverer” than his siblings and was told by his father that he might one day attend university in England. According to the report, Sirhan reacted with excitement to this possibility, which his father described as making him “so happy” and “so big.”[4]
The same article suggested that the later contrast between these ambitions and his employment in low-wage work in Los Angeles may have contributed to feelings of frustration and resentment.[4]
Political views and reported Hitler admiration
The 1968 Sunday Sun report stated that Sirhan “often said he admired Hitler.” It quoted his father as recalling Sirhan saying:
“Hitler was a big man, a great man[sic], and he had good ideas. In the end he was wrong because he did terrible harm to his country.”[4]
The article characterized Sirhan as having a “streak of latent fanaticism,” particularly noting admiration for authoritarian figures.[4]
The U.S. congressional memorial volume for Robert F. Kennedy later referenced these reported statements in the context of warnings about extremist ideology and the spread of hate propaganda.[5] Per later witness accounts in the U. S.: Sirhan was impressed with Hitler’s 'Mein Kampf' and the Nazi leader’s ‘hypnotic control over people’.[6] Reportedly, his mother Mary Sirhan instilled hatred in him.[6]
Ideology, nationalism, and radicalization
Michael Ayton’s 2022 study compiled testimony from acquaintances and associates describing Sirhan’s political views as increasingly militant in the period following the Six-Day War.
According to these accounts, Sirhan expressed strong Arab nationalist views, hostility toward Zionism, and support for political violence as a legitimate tool.[6]
Witnesses cited in the book described him as becoming increasingly intense in political discussions and viewing himself as a revolutionary figure committed to the Palestinian cause.[6]
Anti-Semitic beliefs
The same source also reports testimony from acquaintances stating that Sirhan expressed anti-Jewish views in political discussions and believed Jews were responsible for political grievances affecting Arab populations.[6]
Some accounts describe him as increasingly rigid in his ideological views following the 1967 war.[6]
Statements made in custody
A 1970 United Press International report published in the Ludington Daily News stated that while in custody Sirhan wrote during a hunger strike:
“Hitler had more mercy than you do.”[7]
The remark was made in the context of complaints about prison conditions during his incarceration.[7]
1972+
After being convicted of the crime in 1969 and initially sentenced to death in the gas chamber, his sentence was commuted in 1972 to life in prison at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California.
See also
References
- ↑ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Jun 6, 1968.
SIRHAN REPORTED ACTIVE IN PRO-ARAB COLLEGE ORGANIZATION. Accused Assailant, Family Came to U.S. in 1957 From Jordan Village. JERUSALEM, June 5 (AP) — Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, identified in California as a man of Jordanian origin who shot Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, came from a small village of terraced Palestine near Jerusalem, Arab sources said tonight. “Records in Washington showed that Sirhan, with his father, mother, a number of brothers and a sister, arrived in New York Jan. 12, 1957—not long after one of the three Israeli-Arab wars began. Sirhan then was 12. Arab sources said other members of the Sirhan family, known in Jerusalem as Sarhan—pronounced Sakhan—still live at Silwan on the outskirts of Old Jerusalem in the West Bank sector seized by Israel from Jordan last June. There are about 250 persons named Sirhan in the village, all members of branches of the same family, the sources said. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington showed that Sirhan was born March 19, 1944. At that time, the area was ruled by Britain under the League of Nations Palestine mandate. With Britain’s blessing, Jordan became an independent kingdom in 1946. There was no known police record of Sirhan in the Jerusalem area. Authorities in Los Angeles said Sirhan had been living with a brother, Munir “Joe” Sirhan of Pasadena, a department store employe. They also mentioned another brother, Adel, as having participated in the process of identification. None of the Sirhan family in America was naturalized, the immigration department in Washington said. The secretary-general of the Action Committee on American-Arab Relations, Dr. Mohammed T. Mehdi, said in New York that Sirhan was a student at Pasadena State College and was active in the Organization of Arab Students at the college. Mehdi is known in the New York area as a propagandist for Arab causes. Mehdi said Sirhan “may have been inflamed” by a statement made last Saturday night during the broadcast McCarthy-Kennedy debate in California. Kennedy said at one point, “I think we have a commitment to Israel, for its own sake, that has to be kept.”.. Sirhan comes from a part of the world where the word “assassin” originated centuries ago. A secret order of Ismaili Moslems terrorized Christians and other enemies, while allegedly under the influence of hashish, at the time of the Crusades. They were called assassins from a corruption of the word hashish...
- ↑ Justice Department Keeps Watch on Arab Students Group As Sirhan Probe Continues. JTA, June 24, 1968
- ↑ 'Kennedy must fall': CIA releases Sirhan Sirhan diary pages and RFK assassination files.
Palestinian who emigrated from Jordan to the US shot and killed Democratic presidential hopeful in 1968.
Cody Combs, The National, June 12, 2025.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Sirhan Fits Classic Image of Unbalanced Assassin", The Sunday Sun, 11 June 1968.
- ↑ (1968) Memorial Services in the Congress of the United States and Tributes in Eulogy of Robert Francis Kennedy. U.S. Government Printing Office.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Ayton, Michael (2022). The Kennedy Assassinations: JFK and Bobby Kennedy—Debunking The Conspiracy Theories. Frontline Books. [1]
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Meanwhile, Life on Death Row…", Ludington Daily News, 24 April 1970.
