THE ASSISSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE ‘GLAMORIZING ‘ OF HIS ASSASSIN JOHN WILKES BOOTHS AND THE SUBSEQUENT ATTEMPTS ON OTHER AMERICAN PRESIDENTS

…AND DR. MAHATHIR AND HIS WIFE, EATING BOILED EGGS OFFERED BY STRANGERS.

By Mansor Puteh

Americans come from a host of backgrounds – religious, political, social, cultural, economic and artistic and also psychological backgrounds.

Many admire their president and want to treat them like moviestars, others want him to lay-in-state watching a state funeral which will surely help to paralyze their country for a while.

No wonder, the American Secret Service goes all the way to ensure that the intentions of some of their citizens are not realized.

But in the course of the history of the country, a few of their past presidents had met a violent death, and it was not John F. Kennedy who had given them such an opportunity.

They almost succeeded with Ronald Reagan and also Gerald Ford.

America has a large group of brilliant people, and some who are thought they are smarter than most, they who wanted to achieve fame by dubious means.

American presidents have not been assassinated by non-Americans. It’s the Americans themselves who had done this deed upon their own presidents, as what the history of their country has shown.

Whilst the leaders of all the other countries in the world can go about like normal citizens, including the leaders of the countries that also have veto power in the United Nations, American presidents cannot be expected to do so.

Even their close relatives are being watched closely, as do all the Secret Service officers who are some of the closest people around the president at any time.

Even all the corridors in the White House are guarded around the clock and the president has an  official photographer who records his every move, all the time, except when he is in his bedroom.

But this still did not stop Monica Lewinsky to have a special or more than cordial relations when the then President Bill Clinton which caused him his presidency.

How could this happen?

Ronald Reagan was shot outside of a hotel in Washington DC when the eyes of all the Secret Service officers were looking elsewhere. He almost died. His press secretary became paralyzed.

The Secret Service had to find other ways to ensure their president is safe from other Americans in the future.

Some analysts even dared to suggest that if their president would be assassinated, it would be in the hands of one of the Secret Service officers who have arms and who are closest to him than the others even as the controversy surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy which many analysts or conspiracy theorists dared to say was the deed of the Zionist leaders. 

The verdict on this particular case is still pending and that of the assassination of John F Kennedy’s younger brother, Robert F Kennedy, where Sirhan Bishara Sirhan has been jailed till now.

One thing’s for certain is that American presidential assassins all have such long names, including the first person to do it on Abraham Lincoln, called John Wilkes Booths.

So far they have been met with success.

But The Beast once got stuck in the driveway of the American embassy in Dublin, Ireland as the driver was trying to drive the vehicle out of the compound.

And just recently Air Force One developed mechanical problems forcing President Barack Obama to switch to the other plane.

Saddam Hussein too was said to have tried to kill former President George Bush, Senior when he visited Kuwait, and in retaliation American launched a massive attack on Iraq.

This is the only known assassination attempt on a former American president by a leader of a country.

Maybe this is just rumor and a pretext that America could use to attack Iraq as did the other reasons they cited for destroying the country and the others around it.

Barack Obama made his first trip to Malaysia recently, and all the roads from the airport to the National Palace were closed or blocked to allow The Beast and his entourage free access to the road with his schedule not made public so no one came to greet him at the airport.

Muhammad Ali came to Malaysia in 1973 and he was greeted by fifteen thousand people who had waited for hours for his arrival at the same airport where Air Force One carrying Barack Obama landed. 

In any case, the fascination to see any American president dead is mostly an American one, despite him having his fingers in the pie of every country especially the Arab ones, who may have better reasons to do the unthinkable.

But the Arabs have more domestic issues to worry about and they are also hoping that any American president to help them out because they think he has some influence on the Zionist leaders, when in fact he does not have any.

Attempts to assassinate the American president have all been conducted by individuals instead of groups or countries.

There are just a few Americans who wished to hog on the limelight by being the one to finally do it. This is the sort of mentality that they have.

They just want to do it and bear the consequence which often involves being held in prison for life with no chance of parole.

John Wilkes Booths was the first American to have done such a misdeed by killing Abraham Lincoln, for which many books have been written about him and his dubious acts.

And if the real intentions of the historians and authors of those books were to write that nasty episode in the history of their country, unfortunately, the negative effects is how they too might be a good reason for more of their presidents becoming targets by would be assassins from amongst them.

The spirit of John Wilkes Booths is still alive in the minds and hearts of some young Americans, one of whom some conspiracy theorists and security analysts say could even come from one in the presidential security staff.

It is not enough to ensure that what the president and his family eat is good, or that they travel in tight security convoys and in Air Force One jets and The Beast on streets that have been blocked.

There won’t come the time when the American president can go about his daily life living and acting like normal folks, much like the other world leaders who can, they who do not attract attention to the symbols that America had created of the White House and their president.

In Malaysia, for instance, the then Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohammad could be seen eating boiled eggs offered to him by a stranger. He and his wife thought it would be impolite not to eat them.

He did not worry if the eggs were stale or laced with poison. He and his wife just ate the two boiled eggs.

America had created a myth of itself and using their presidency to be god-like and put him on a high pedestal so much so that he becomes and inconvenient target of not only of scorn, but also of harm.