BB-29-qq
From: Prokes
Tuesday, May 19 Meeting with Carl Blackmun [Blackman] (Prokes, Tim Carter, and Debbie T.):
We went in to tell Blackmun about Hamlulidin [Mohamed Hamaludin] and the possibility of him doing a story on us (re: “concerned relatives”) for Cana and Reuters. Hamaludin saw us as we were going into Blackmun’s office, so Debbie and I went over to his desk and I asked him when we could talk with him. He said he was busy with Parliament but he did want to talk because he had “a row with us” over something we told a government official (he meant [Vibert] Mingo but he didn’t name him). He said he was contacted by government officials who asked him why he was harassing us. I told him we never used the word “harass” but did mention during the course of another conversation that he (hamaludun) was planning to do a story and what it was about. I proceeded to tell him that he was being “taken in” by the conspiracy against us which is using fascist reporters in the states to do its dirty work. I said how the reporters would print a bunch of lies have been given a few quotes from us as a cloak of objectivity. I didn’t call him a fascist, of course, but I’m sure he got the point. He didn’t seem to know what to say. He backed off and said that he had not made up his mind to do a story – he hadn’t even read the materials he gave us yet. He said he thought it might be useful to do something on it in such a way that it would discredit what the conspiracy was trying to do. He said, at any rate, he would not do anything without first talking with us. We said when and he said he didn’t want to set a day or time because with his schedule, he might have to cancel the appointment and we might think he was running us around. He said he would call us, so we left it at that. I did tell him that I thought if he tried to do something on this, even if it was in our favor, some people would tend to believe the worst about people, thinking that where there is smoke, there must be some fire, etc. He said he didn’t feel that was necessarily true but we laughed at him for trying to make such an argument and I think he saw the folly of it. We also said that it would just bring an adverse reaction to our work and cause us to be diverted to deal with it. He ran out of things to say, but was pleasant and said he would call. I told him that we told the person we talked with about him that we had a good relationship with him and respected him.
We then met with Blackmun. He had one of his senior editors in the room, [handwritten addition: “Harper”], who mostly listened. I gave Blackmun the background on Hamaludun and he said he couldn’t do anything about it because it didn’t affect his paper. I said that we wanted him to have the background, nevertheless, and we were seeking his advice on the matter. He said that he had received negative stuff about us (not the latest re: “concerned relatives”) but when he even thought about doing a story, he got called from the Foreign Minister and the Ministry of Information saying he was harassing us. He said he was also told to lay off us because we were Ptolemy Reid’s project. Later he said that they’ve gotten hate mail against us but never did anything with it because it maligns. But he said it puts him in a difficult position when he is asked to print our releases about us because it reflects the Chronicle’s stamp of approval, and since he has not even seen the project, it isn’t “objective reporting.” I couldn’t believe he said that after I had, a few minutes earlier, run down the conspiracy to him and showed him how we were part of the same conspiracy that goes after all black elected officials (I showed him the book) and organizations. Debbie reminded him that Steve Narine had been to the project twice, which took him back a bit, almost as if he hadn’t known about it. He said it was no plot against us that the Cultural Show story didn’t get in right away. He said that the guy who went to it from the Chronicle, Osmond [handwritten notation: “he wrote smear articles for Guyana Graphic on healing service”] is an Assemblies of God man and he used Sunday as his day off, as an excuse not to do it. We asked him if Osmond didn’t like us and he said he didn’t think that because he knew Osmond like the show, except for all the introductions of people’s undesirable pasts. He said
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