Nimrud's Wrath

By Layla Anwar, An arab woman blues

Part One
March 23, 2010

Who and What were you 6'000 years ago ? You and your nations were NOTHING, you were not even in existence... you were nothing, had nothing...not that it changed much since...

I love History, specially ancient History...History is a bit like God...it enlightens and teaches the ignorant, humbles the arrogant...but in your case, you are genetically predisposed for arrogance...and what an end yours will be !

Forget about you, you ignorant barbaric hoards, you uncultured, uncivilized, backward people...you covetous, jealous, envious, Godless people...

I hear Nimrud lamenting...you probably don't even know who Nimrud is...I can already see you all rushing to google...ah, what disgust I feel every time I see one of you around, talking with airs of knowledge, when you and I, know deep down what a failure of a human being you are ...

I said it once, you can curse the Iraqis, destroy them, rob them as much as you want, we are nothing but mud and dust, people come and go...so will you -- because you are made of the same stuff as us...you will end too one day...Insha'Allah soon...but you lay a finger on Iraq -- the concept, you lay a finger on Mesopotamia from which the Great Iraq is born and I will shred you to pieces...and am up to my promise...

You see, ignorant assholes that you are, History cannot lie...and I know how much you covet what you don't have...I am reserving a post for just that...I have studied you for so long...I know you inside out...and I know how you love to GRAB...you grab anything...you are a nation of grabbers with NO dignity...you love free meals, free rides, free anything...in fact you are nothing but a bunch of thieves, bandits...

You stole us...you stole us from everything we owned...from our daily bread all the way to our history...to our memory, to our monuments, to our artifacts, to our souls...

You stole us because you knew and you know what inferior beings you are...what empty, shallow, rootless, ignorant people you are...you stole us because you are hungry...not hungry for food, but hungry to appropriate anything that is better, BETTER than you...because deep down you know what a bunch of worthless pieces of crap you collectively are...I told you once - you are a nation of BASTARDS...you might know who your father and mother are, but you are still BASTARDS because you lost your ORIGINS...you have NONE, so like your cousins the Jews, you grab...trying to create some...

Stop deluding yourselves...you can steal all you want from our history...you are still a bunch bastards...you can hide what you stole in your museums and in your homes, but still you are nothing but bastards with no origins...those who created 6'000 years ago, can still re-create today...while you, you will keep on grabbing and what a lowly, debased sight it is...


Part two
March 23, 2010


I've been holding on to the pictures...for over 5 years now...I hid them, refused to share them with anyone...I would take them out every once in a while, study them, watch them closely, read the faces...and stack them away again...and for over 5 years, the wrenching pain, the fire I feel in my gut has not subsided not one iota...on the contrary, it keeps growing...a smoldering braise...and nothing will ever extinguish it...

There comes a point in anyone's life when one has to put an X - I have reached that point....I have put an X on you and everything you represent. EVERYTHING you represent...

The crimes have been too many - uncountable, the destruction - indescribable in words, the lies too intricate to unravel, and the pillaging, plundering, looting beyond anyone's imagination...

A nation of looters, thieves, bandits, rapists, torturers, liars, profiteers, exploiters, criminals, killers -- a nation of gluttony, concupiscence, envy, covetousness and greed...

Behind that politically correct public facade of yours, behind that veneer and the mask, behind lurks the biggest lie...behind it lurks the worshipers of dollars and gold...behind it lies miserliness, hoarding, avarice -- the mind of a cheap calculator, the mind of a miser accountant, the mind of a ravenous grabber...always avidly vying what others have, even if you are satiated to the point of exploding...but you are NEVER satiated. There are holes in your body and in your soul, and they will never be full...however much you grab, however much you loot, however much you steal, however much...however much you envy, covet and appropriate others, you will never be full...you will never be satisfied...and I now understand that this is how you've been cursed. Yes this is your Curse.


Part Three
March 23, 2010

I admit, I am having difficulty writing about the looting of Iraq's heritage...I am having difficulty writing about your pillaging our memory, our origins, our history...

I choke with sadness, I suffocate with rage, and with every word that I type, my hatred, my loathing for anything American keeps growing...unconditionally so...

I don't even know where to start...should I start with your looting MILLIONS of DOLLARS in Cash and transporting them in boxes to New York "to be counted"...

This is I saw with my own two eyes - the first loot I am a witness of was end 2003 - beginning 2004 and consisted of several wooden boxes where about 650 Million dollars were stashed by the previous regime - this money was destined for the food rationing of thousands of families that you starved with your embargo during 13 years...The Americans thieves, sons of whores put the boxes in a truck and flew them to New York....we never heard anything about this first loot since...

Since, under Bremer and under every subsequent motherfucker dog American and Iraqi puppet, BILLIONS of Dollars have been looted...under Bremer alone, 20 Billion dollars went missing. 20 Billion Dollars of IRAQI money. God how much I hate you people !

As if that was not enough, your filthy soldiers/rapists, would steal our money and jewelery when ransacking our homes...during their daily raids...

Not only, the homes of President Saddam Hussein and all of his family, members of the previous government, their houses were all looted by the Americans. Their belongings resurfaced everywhere, from the United States of Assholes to South Africa...the palaces which are the property of Iraq were looted too...and the Americans took part in the looting...

You love Cash ya awlad al kalb - I see how your eyes glitter at the sight of Cash...I have seen you drool and foam at the mouth at the sight of money...oh no, not just your soldiers, not just your representatives, but your "law abiding" "peace loving" citizens, salivating like dogs at the sight of money...

So you looted our Cash first...then you looted our artifacts, our antiquities, our heritage then you looted our oil...and now you ask us to contribute for our refugees !

I need a break...I am shaking with rage now...


Part Four
March 24, 2010

Took a break to calm myself down a little...I have to go through this, even though I have been avoiding it for the past 5 years...am not expecting that it will change anything, nor that it will make a difference, maybe am just hoping I will be released...

I will not go through every artifact that was looted...google "Iraqi antiquities" and you will have the word loot pop up with every single link...

But what I can tell you as FACT, is that the first batch of smuggled antiquities took place in the early 90's by none other than members of the WMD inspection team first led by R.Butler the CIA spy...then it continued...since these bastards had access to every single site on Iraqi soil, and they could roam and wander as they pleased...their team members were the first looters...

In 2003, the looting of Iraqi antiquities took on a more organized form, thousands of precious, irreplaceable ancient relics disappeared...some dating to the FIRST known civilization to mankind - The Sumerian one.

Damn it's coming on again...another short break.

Resuming...

I have known that Iraqi museum in Baghdad - I used to spend hours in it, studying every piece, admiring them, imagining how they came up with such genius, who inspired them, where did they get the coloring material from, how did they come up with the designs, what was their message, what were they trying to tell me about art, creativity, genius, inventions, their perception of the world, the universe, the cosmos -- and as I asked myself these questions, I was also walking in their footsteps...seeing through their eyes, and through every single piece, I felt we were related, like in a blood line...I felt they were telling me about continuity, about lineage, about origins...mine...ours...they had set the foundation for our collective memory...and they were telling me...look...you can trace back yours millenniums back to us...

So it was with the archeological sites, I would wander there, in their grounds...infusing myself with their signs, with their message, with their spirit...

And at times when I felt lost, I had a few books on antiquities, I would open them and stare at the pictures, over and over again, touching them like talismans...this is how attached I was, am, to our historical heritage...

I don't even know how to explain it in words...am searching for the right sentences to illustrate that bond...that attachment and I can't find them...it's visceral, it's archaic, it's magical...

I am not expecting Iraqis from a younger generation to understand any of it, they are too taken with Michael Jackson, Rap, and Celine Dion or whatever crap they listen to, they are too engrossed with KFC, McDonalds, and mimicking like chimpanzees the Americans of their generation...they are as hopeless as the latter...as stupid and as empty and as ignorant...these Iraqis are crass, they are garbage, like the Americans they imitate...I have no hope and no faith in them...it is not them who will keep the memory alive...and I am not sure they are any left to keep the memory alive...

I need another break...this is too painful for me...


Part Five
May 25, 2010


Finally gathered the courage to finish this post.
This subject literally tears me apart...I needed some distance, time and space distance...a cooling down period...hard to cool down when I know, that all previous historic invasions did not manage to destroy Iraq's past but this filthy anglo-american, iranian one did....

Never in the history of Mesopotamia, has Iraq suffered as much damage to its civilization and culture as it has today...not even the Moguls known for their barbarity, managed to erase so much...

It pains me a great deal...and the pain is real, very real...it is not some nostalgia... it is a raw wound covered with a red, hot rage...I will never forgive americans, brits and iranians for what they've done to Iraq. NEVER !
And I will never forgive how they destroyed our history, our archeological sites, our monuments, our archives, our libraries...I will never forgive how they smuggled, traded in our artifacts, pieces of beauty, of grandeur, of brilliance, of genius, that existed when they were still farts in the black hole of the cosmos...

And while other Arab countries are trying to secure their own ancient stories, like Egypt for instance, ours is being sold in bits and pieces at auctions in the four corners of the world...

I need not go through all the details...a simple research typing -- Iraqi artifacts, and you will get page after page of the items looted and sold to the highest bidder...from an ancient gold Sumerian pair of earrings to a statue from the Akkadian dynasty...to Babylonian manuscripts stolen to that despicable entity called the Jewish state of Israel where a special museum in Tel Aviv was erected to receive Iraq's history...

But not only the Jews plundered Mesopotamia, the Iranians did as well...many of our ancient history is smuggled to Iran, and sold for peanuts...or kept in their museums under the banner of Persian empire...(in your dreams ya dogs, in your dreams)...but not only those hoards of flea ridden scum -- the brits, the americans had a share in the plundering...

Iraq, the cradle of civilization - where all met. Centuries later, they met again in 2003...to rip her apart...and erase her story, plucking her from her roots...

I need not go into details, research yourself...I need not re-open bleeding wounds, do some reading yourself...and you will see report after report attesting that-- the damage done to Iraq's history is unrepairable...

I remember in 2003, when the museum was looted in an ORGANIZED fashion, and when the despicable filth called americans helped dynamite the bolted door of the museum....(and frankly I have NEVER HATED "a people" LIKE I HATE the americans and everything they represent - it's truly unprecedented), so when I heard the news and saw the director of the museum hitting her head, screaming at the top of her lungs --"the vase, the bowl, the statue...they're gone, they're gone ! " she was crying tears of blood...I shouted like a stabbed animal -- NO ! NO ! Not our History !

I forgot the bombs, the dead, the collapsed buildings....I turned back, back in time...8'000 years back....(and it's not 7'000 years of civilization, it's 8'000 years as the latest excavation of a fortress in the north of Iraq shows). 8'000 years ago while you were in caves, picking lice from each others head, we were building fortresses...which means we had knowledge of geometry, construction, irrigation, etc...always remember that.

And that you will never be able to defeat, nor steal, nor loot, nor plunder, nor pillage...not even kill...ingenuity is in our genes...and the one who builds a fortress 8'000 years ago, can and will DEFEAT you...and you are DEFEATED on all fronts...but most importantly you are DEFEATED morally because you have been exposed to the Light....and how sweet is your defeat. And all is downhill from now on...trust me when I say so....trust me.

You will never ever get away with it...not in 100 years...but then am sure you will not be around no more...not as a country, nor as a people...you will be replaced...so easily...so easily...

And if Mesopotamia survived 8'000 years, it is because she had something to offer, she had something to be proud of....you will not survive the 100 years because you offered nothing of true substance to the world...nothing at all. Stop deluding yourselves with your accomplishments. You will be replaced and it will be so easy to replace you....history is full of examples...

Now for the most painful part of the story...the heart wrenching, gut wrenching part of the story in full colors...

In 2003, the rabid verminous american dogs and their cohorts went looking for Nimrud's Treasures...rumors spread fast that the honorable, noble, courageous, brave, martyr Saddam Hussein and his family stole the treasures...

None of that was true. What the honorable, noble, courageous, brave Saddam Hussein and his aides did was hide the Mesopotamian treasure in Baghdad's central bank basement-- fearing that it will be looted...

Article after article in your garbage, hypocritical western press alleged that Nimrud's treasures were stolen by the Hussein "clan".

It literally took an army of men, mostly americans and their iraqi puppet dogs, to dynamite the vaulted door of the central bank...and the treasure was found...

I received these pictures some years ago...I held on to them...I was possessive...like a Mesopotamian Goddess... I did not want any of you garbage see the treasures. I did not want you to see the designs drawn 7'000 years ago, did not want you to enjoy the shapes, the forms, the colors...I did not want any of your fucked up, faggot, "creators" copy and imitate anything...and sell it as "Babylonian history" and make a profit out it and out of our corpses, blood and painful exile... I was possessive like a wild tigress protecting, safeguarding, the little we have left...the little I had left...a series of photos...

But the time has come...the time is now ripe...because, besides the designs, the shapes, the colors and the forms, there are faces in the pictures...

I study faces and I have an eye for details...for expressions, for the slightest twitch caught in a snapshot...I look at everything...everything...the face, the eyes, the mouth, the lips, the hands... I look because in the minute detail lies a story...and I can write books about this one...

This story of envy, of jealousy, of greed and of hatred...

These are SOME of the pictures I have been hiding for so long...I will NOT publish all of them...I am still a possessive wild tigress when it comes to Iraq and her history...I will show you just enough of your own ugliness...your ugly faces, your grabbing hands, your frothing greed stuck in the corner of your lips -- an ugliness contrasted with ---the luminous, with the beautiful, with the brilliance, with the genius of Iraq - of Uruk...






As I said, these are only a SAMPLE of the pictures I have...Enough for you. Did I just you see salivate like those hideous faces in the photos ?! Oh yes, I sure did...

Do you know where the Treasures of Nimrud are today ? They are in Washington D.C - LOOTED.

My Hatred for you is Infinite...like God's Infinity... beyond Uruk, beyond Sumer...



Munir Bachir - Baghdad and Babylon uploaded by Iraqart 2003.
Pictures: Courtesy of the filth american occupation and its filthy iraqi dogs.


Who am I ? The eternal Question . Have not figured it out fully yet . All you need to know about me is that I am a Middle Easterner, an Arab Woman - into my 40's and old enough to know better. I have no homeland per se. I live in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Egypt simultaneously...All the rest is icing on the cake.

University-sponsored activities there are frozen because of drug war violence. Students, faculty and Baja California officials say the policy is based on a distorted perception of the city.

By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times

May 23, 2010 Reporting from Tijuana
San Diego State is a U.S. university with one foot in Mexico. For years, students pursuing international degrees have attended the hillside campus because a study abroad experience is only a quick trip down Interstate 5.

But studies south of the border are on hold after California State University administrators prohibited all university-sponsored activities in this sprawling city. Drug war violence, they say, poses a threat to visitors. Many students think the only thing threatened now is their education.

"This ban is devastating.… It puts an end to my research here," said Alaina Gallegos, 29, a student of Latin American studies and public health.

Such students as Gallegos, along with faculty and Baja California state officials, are mounting a campaign to overturn the ban, which they say is based on a distorted picture of Tijuana. On Saturday, about 35 students and faculty held a "Solidarity With TJ Day" event in which they partook of everyday Tijuana, not the Tijuana of blood-soaked headlines.

There were no bullhorns or chants at this low-key protest walk around downtown sights, just a passion for Tijuana's diverse offerings. Protesters strolled in alleyway art galleries, picnicked in a park, listened to strolling mariachis and bellied up to taco carts.

"It is striking how normal life is, given the prohibition on working here," said Jim Gerber, director of the university's International Business program.

The cross-border classes were shut down in March by Cal State system Chancellor Charles Reed, who was prompted by a State Department travel warning that included Tijuana among several Mexican cities where U.S. citizens should exercise caution.

"It's something that the chancellor has to weigh and consider very carefully," said Erik Fallis, a Cal State spokesman. "Ultimately, it's the safety and security of students that wins out."

The ban's timing is puzzling to protesters, given that cross-border university activity wasn't banned during the worst of Tijuana's drug wars in 2008 and 2009. Also, the security situation has improved significantly since January, after the arrest of drug cartel figures who were responsible for the massacres and beheadings that dominated headlines.

The State Department's travel warning was issued after a shooting in Ciudad Juarez — across the border from El Paso — where three people connected with the U.S. Consulate were killed. It's unfair, students say, to fault Tijuana for the deteriorating situation 700 miles away.

Other universities, including UC San Diego and the University of San Diego, still sponsor cross-border activities, protesters note.

"The vast majority of crime and violence we've seen in Baja California has not affected the ordinary population," said David Shirk, director of the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute, which tracks drug cartel violence. "Unless you happen to be a drug trafficker, the odds of being killed as a result of drug trafficking-related violence remain extremely small."

The ban cuts across 13 programs and affects a few hundred students. Political science students can't visit maquiladora laborers. Religious studies students had to stall research on a project to map religious sites. Most affected are students in the Latin American studies department, who visit Tijuana to meet with politicians and human smugglers, and conduct research on drug and immigration issues.

Victor Clark Alfaro, a Tijuana human rights activist who teaches two popular cross-border classes, said the policy wipes out a resource that few other universities can offer: a laboratory for foreign study just minutes away.

"We're not going to be irresponsible as professors and put students in danger," said Clark, who said none of his students have been affected by violence since he started teaching the classes 11 years ago.

Baja California state officials are pressing Cal State administrators to reconsider their decision. They have a meeting scheduled this week, where they plan to invite Reed, the chancellor, to visit Tijuana.

It's not the scary place he perceives it to be, said student Gina Chapa.

"What's at risk is our education, not our lives," she said.

(another technique of the Amerikan government to undermine Mexico. a.m.)

And American Dogs

Posted at Abutamam blog.


This is yet another video of "Brave American" war criminals surrounding then shooting to death an unarmed old man.


U.S. Soldiers Murder Old Iraqi Man por kasman1

Don't Hold Your Breath

By William Rivers Pitt
May 15, 2010

President Obama will not get the United States out of Iraq in his first term. If he wins a second term, it is highly unlikely he will get us out of Iraq before he finally leaves office.

Print that out and tack it to your wall. Six years from now, it will still be hanging there, yellow and curled, but entirely correct. We're not going anywhere.

Yeah, yeah, I know, the word from the White House ever since Obama first began to campaign has been that we'll be out of Iraq by 2011. That was the promise, oft-repeated, and I'm here to tell you that it's a load of bull. Iraq is the 51st state, now and forever, so praise the Lord and pass the taxpayer-funded ammunition, amen.

The reasons for this grim truth are myriad, and most recently have to do with another frenzy of violence and bloodshed in that ravaged, raped nation. A parliamentary election on March 7 failed to deliver majority control to either of the two major factions - one controlled by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, the other by current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - and the resulting power struggle has spilled into the streets. Again.

On Monday, more than 100 people were killed and 300 injured after a series of bombings and assassinations rippled across Iraq. In total, it appears there were more than 60 attacks; Baghdad, Mosul, Hilla, and other cities were rent by explosions and gunfire which, according to the power players, had a decidedly political edge. Matters have gotten so dangerous there that Allawi was compelled to lash out at his own government (such as it is) for sitting on their hands while people are getting killed:

Allawi says he is under constant threat and that the government is doing little to help protect him. "We live every single day under a threat that we are going to be assassinated," he says. "I ask for support from the government, as an ex-Prime Minister ... Nobody cares a damn." Asked to specify what kind of support he has asked for, Allawi says, "Cars, communication gear, these bomb-detection, anti-detonator things ... These cost a lot of money. It's not free of charge. We need the government to protect us as they protect others. But this is not happening. I have to go to personal friends to donate a car, an armored car. It's ridiculous."

Allawi is particularly furious that the impasse has allowed other rivals to whittle away at contested seats with a campaign of "de-Baathification" - that is, purging politicians with ties to Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath Party. "This smearing campaign was something unbelievable: the Baath Party is coming back to power, Saddam Hussein is coming out of his grave and things of this nonsense," he says. (Allawi's party crosses sectarian lines, while al-Maliki's is predominantly Shi'ite.)

The violence didn't end on Monday. On Tuesday, two bombs went off in Mosul, one targeting the Iraqi police force and the other targeting an Iraqi military patrol. A suicide car bomb went off at a police checkpoint in Falluja, and hundreds of students tried to storm a local Parliament building in the Kurdish region of Iraq after the abduction and killing of a Kurdish journalist.

This would all be disgusting by itself, but is made more so by the fact that these events have become so morbidly predictable. Advocates of the war, along with a herd of "professional" pundits, would argue that things are far better in Iraq than they used to be. Those unfortunate souls who have spent the first half of this week sweeping guts and eyeballs off the sidewalks, however, would probably beg to differ.

Which brings us to why we're not leaving. According to The Associated Press:

U.S. commanders, worried about increased violence in the wake of Iraq's inconclusive elections, are now reconsidering the pace of a major troop pullout this summer, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The withdrawal of the first major wave of troops is expected to be delayed by about a month, the officials said. Waiting much longer could endanger President Barack Obama's goal of reducing the force level from 92,000 to 50,000 troops by Aug. 31.

More than two months after parliamentary elections, the Iraqis have still not formed a new government, and militants aiming to exploit the void have carried out attacks like Monday's bombings and shootings that killed at least 119 people - the country's bloodiest day of 2010.

The threat has prompted military officials to look at keeping as many troops on the ground for as long as possible without missing the Aug. 31 deadline. A security agreement between the two nations requires American troops to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.

In Baghdad and Washington, U.S. officials say they remain committed to the deadline, which Mr. Obama has said he would extend only if Iraq's security deteriorates. Getting out of Iraq quickly and responsibly was among Mr. Obama's top campaign promises in 2008. Extending the deadline could be politically risky back home - but so could anarchy and a bloodbath following a hasty retreat.

Two senior administration officials said the White House is closely watching to see if the Aug. 31 date needs to be pushed back - if only to ensure that enough security forces are in place to prevent or respond to militant attacks. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the administration's internal discussions.

Already, the violence, fueled by Iraq's political instability, will likely postpone the start of what the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. Ray Odierno, has called the withdrawal "waterfall" - sending home large numbers of troops in a very swift period.

Read between the lines of that carefully-worded report, and the reality of the situation becomes all too clear. We made such an incredible mess in Iraq that continued violence is a brass-bound guarantee. Every act of violence gives more fuel to those who argue for staying. It's a perfect circle, and it is not going to stop.

George W. Bush and his merry men got us into Iraq with the absolute intention of staying there forever. We've built a bunch of massive bases for exactly that purpose. Most people consider the Bush administration to be an abject failure, but in this they succeeded beyond even the wildest expectations. The companies that continue to rake in cash from our expenditures in that war are going to be building golden statues of Bush for a long time to come.

Whether President Obama is a prisoner of this situation, or is actively continuing the policy, is entirely irrelevant at this point. He may hate this war, or he may love it, but at the end of the day, he will continue in the manner of his predecessor.

We're there, and unless this country erupts in a frenzy of furious protest and civil disobedience, we're staying. Even that may not make the nut, but it would be awfully nice to see this country shake itself out of its stupor and do what needs to be done.

"In Elizabethville, I do not think there was anyone there who believed that his death was as accident." — U.N. Representative Conor O’Brien on the death of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld

"A lot has not been told." — Unnamed U.N. official, commenting on same

By Lisa Pease

The CIA has long since acknowledged responsibility for plotting the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the popular and charismatic leader of the Congo. But documents have recently surfaced that indicate the CIA may well have been involved in the death of another leader as well, U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. Hammarskjöld died in a plane crash enroute to meet Moise Tshombe, leader of the breakaway (and mineral-rich) province of Katanga. At the time of his death, there was a great deal of speculation that Hammarskjöld had been assassinated to prevent the U.N. from bringing Katanga back under the rule of the central government in the Congo. Fingers were pointed at Tshombe’s mercenaries, the Belgians, and even the British. Hardly anyone at the time considered an American hand in those events. However, two completely different sets of documents point the finger of culpability at the CIA. The CIA has denied having anything to do with the murder of Hammarskjöld. But we all know what the CIA’s word is worth in such matters.

In the previous issue of Probe, Jim DiEugenio explored the history of the Congo at this point in time, and the difference between Kennedy’s and Eisenhower’s policies toward it. In the summer of 1960, the Congo was granted independence from Belgium. The Belgians had not prepared the Congo to be self-sufficient, and the country quickly degenerated into chaos, providing a motive for the Belgians to leave their troops there to maintain order. While the Belgians favored Joseph Kasavubu to lead the newly independent nation, the Congolese chose instead Patrice Lumumba as their Premier. Lumumba asked the United Nations, headed then by Dag Hammarskjöld, to order the Belgians to withdraw from the Congo. The U.N. so ordered, and voted to send a peacekeeping mission to the Congo. Impatient and untrusting of the U.N., Lumumba threatened to ask the Soviets for help expelling the Belgian forces. Like so many nationalist leaders of the time, Lumumba was not interested in Communism. He was, however, interested in getting aid from wherever he could, including the Soviets. He had also sought and, for a time, obtained American financial aid.
Hatching an Assassination

In 1959, Lumumba had visited businessmen in New York, where he stated unequivocally, "The exploitation of the mineral riches of the Congo should be primarily for the profit of our own people and other Africans." Affected minerals included copper, gold, diamonds, and uranium. Asked whether the Americans would still have access to uranium, as they had when the Belgians ran the country, Lumumba responded, "Belgium doesn’t produce any uranium; it would be to the advantage of both our countries if the Congo and the U.S. worked out their own agreements in the future." Investors in copper and uranium in the Congo at that time included the Rockefellers, the Guggenheims and C. Douglas Dillon. Dillon participated in the NSC meeting where the removal of Lumumba was discussed.

According to NSC minutes from the July 21, 1960 meeting, Allen Dulles, head of the CIA and former lawyer to the Rockefellers, sounded the alarm regarding Lumumba:

Mr. Dulles said that in Lumumba we were faced with a person who was Castro or worse ... Mr. Dulles went on to describe Mr. Lumumba’s background which he described as "harrowing" ... It is safe to go on the assumption that Lumumba has been bought by the Communists; this also, however, fits with his own orientation.
Lawrence Devlin, referenced in the Church Committee report under the pseudonym "Victor Hedgman," was the CIA Station Chief in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa). On August 18th, Devlin cabled Dulles at CIA headquarters the following message:

EMBASSY AND STATION BELIEVE CONGO EXPERIENCING CLASSIC COMMUNIST EFFORT TAKEOVER GOVERNMENT.... WHETHER OR NOT LUMUMBA ACTUALLY COMMIE OR JUST PLAYING COMMIE GAME TO ASSIST HIS SOLIDIFYING POWER, ANTI-WEST FORCES RAPIDLY INCREASING POWER CONGO AND THERE MAY BE LITTLE TIME LEFT IN WHICH TAKE ACTION TO AVOID ANOTHER CUBA.

The day this cable was sent, the NSC held another meeting at which Lumumba was discussed. Robert Johnson, a member of the NSC staff, testified to the Church Committee that sometime during the summer of 1960, at an NSC meeting, he heard President Eisenhower make a comment that sounded to him like a direct order to assassinate Lumumba:

At some time during that discussion, President Eisenhower said something—I can no longer remember his words—that came across to me as an order for the assassination of Lumumba.... I remember my sense of that moment quite clearly because the President’s statement came as a great shock to me.

The Church Committee report on the Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders recorded that Johnson "presumed" Eisenhower made the statement while "looking toward the Director of Central Intelligence." With or without direct authorization, on August 26, 1960, Allen Dulles took the bull by the horns. He cabled Devlin in the Congo station the following message:

IN HIGH QUARTERS HERE IT IS THE CLEAR-CUT CONCLUSION THAT IF [LUMUMBA] CONTINUES TO HOLD HIGH OFFICE, THE INEVITABLE RESULT WILL AT BEST BE CHAOS AND AT WORST PAVE THE WAY TO COMMUNIST TAKEOVER OF THE CONGO WITH DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES FOR THE PRESTIGE OF THE U.N. AND FOR THE INTERESTS OF THE FREE WORLD GENERALLY. CONSEQUENTLY WE CONCLUDE THAT HIS REMOVAL MUST BE AN URGENT AND PRIME OBJECTIVE AND THAT UNDER EXISTING CONDITIONS THIS SHOULD BE A HIGH PRIORITY OF OUR COVERT ACTION.

Assassination requests would normally have gone to Richard Bissell. Because Bissell was away on vacation, Dulles told Eisenhower he would take care of Lumumba. According to Dulles family biographer Leonard Mosley, Dulles put Richard Helms in charge of preparing the assassination plot. A few days later, Helms produced a "blueprint" for the "elimination" of Lumumba. Although the Church Committee report includes no references to Helms’ involvement, this is certainly plausible. One of the first people involved in the plot to kill Lumumba was Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, who enjoyed Richard Helms’ patronage within the agency. As Helms moved up in the Agency, so too did Gottlieb. Gottlieb is identified as "Joseph Scheider" in the Church Committee report. Gottlieb was the grandfather of the CIA’s mind control programs, as well as the producer of exotic and deadly biotoxins for the CIA’s "Executive Action" programs.

After returning from vacation, Bissell approached Bronson Tweedy, head of the CIA’s Africa Division, about exploring the feasibility of assassinating Lumumba. Gottlieb also conversed with Bissell, and claimed Bissell had indicated they had approval from "the highest authority" to proceed with assassinating Lumumba.

By September 5, the situation in the Congo had deteriorated badly. Kasavubu made a radio address to the nation in which he dismissed Lumumba and six Ministers. Thirty minutes later, Lumumba gave a radio address in which he announced that Kasavubu was no longer the Chief of State. Lumumba called upon the people to rise up against the army. Just over a week later, Joseph Mobutu claimed he was going to neutralize all parties vying for control and would bring in "technicians" to run the country. According to Andrew Tully, Mobutu was "discovered" by the CIA, and was used by CIA to take charge of the country when the favored Kasavubu lost authority. The CIA’s relationship with Mobutu is pertinent to the ultimate question of the CIA’s final culpability in the assassination of Lumumba. Tully refers to Mobutu as "the CIA’s man" in the Congo. When Mobutu claimed power, he called on the Soviet-bloc embassies to vacate the country within 48 hours. John Prados wrote that Mobutu was "cultivated for weeks by American diplomats and CIA officers, including Station Chief Devlin."

Gottlieb was sent to the Congo to meet Devlin. The CIA cabled Devlin that Gottlieb, under the alias of "Joseph Braun," would arrive on approximately September 27. Gottlieb was to announce himself as "Joe from Paris." The cable bore a special designation of PROP. Tweedy told the Church Committee that the PROP designator was established specifically to refer to the assassination operation. According to Tweedy, its presence restricted circulation to Dulles, Bissell, Tweedy, Tweedy’s deputy, and Devlin. Tweedy sent a cable through the PROP channel saying that if plans to assassinate Lumumba were given a green light, the CIA should employ a third country national to conceal the American role. Clearly, from the start, deniability was the highest concern in the assassination plotting.

The toxin was supposed to be administered to Lumumba orally through food or toothpaste. This effort was clearly unsuccessful, if it had ever been fully attempted. Gottlieb’s and Devlin’s testimony conflicted regarding the disposal of the toxins. Both said they disposed of all the toxins in the Congo River. But if one of them did this, the other is lying, and both could be lying to protect the continued presence of toxic substances, as indicated by a cable from Leopoldville to Tweedy, dated 10/7/60:

[GOTTLIEB] LEFT CERTAIN ITEMS OF CONTINUING USEFULNESS. [DEVLIN] PLANS CONTINUE TRY IMPLEMENT OP.

In October 1960, Devlin cabled Tweedy a cryptic request for him to send a rifle with a silencer via diplomatic pouch, a violation of international law:

IF CASE OFFICER SENT, RECOMMEND HQS POUCH SOONEST HIGH POWERED FOREIGN MAKE RIFLE WITH TELESCOPIC SCOPE AND SILENCER. HUNTING GOOD HERE WHEN LIGHTS RIGHT. HOWEVER AS HUNTING RIFLES NOW FORBIDDEN, WOULD KEEP RIFLE IN OFFICE PENDING OPENING OF HUNTING SEASON.

There is no evidence to suggest a silenced rifle was or was not pouched at this point. The CIA did, however, send rifles to be used to assassinate Rafael Trujillo by diplomatic pouch to the Dominican Republic.

A senior CIA officer from the Directorate of Plans was dispatched to the Congo to aid in the assassination attempt. Justin O’Donnell, referred to in the Church Committee records as "Father Michael Mulroney," refused to be involved directly in a murder attempt against Lumumba, saying succinctly, "murder corrupts." But he was not opposed to aiding others in the removal of Lumumba. He told the Church Committee:

I said I would go down and I would have no compunction about operating to draw Lumumba out [of U.N. custody], to run an operation to neutralize his operations....

O’Donnell planned to lure Lumumba away from U.N. protection and then turn Lumumba over to his enemies, who would surely kill him. "I am not opposed to capital punishment," O’Donnell explained to the Church Committee. He just wasn’t going to pull the trigger himself.

O’Donnell requested that CIA asset QJ/WIN be sent to the Congo for his use. O’Donnell claimed he wanted QJ/WIN to participate in counterespionage. (The CIA’s IG report, however, indicated that QJ/WIN had been recruited to assassinate Lumumba.) O’Donnell’s plan, which appears to have been successful, was for QJ/WIN to penetrate the defenses around Lumumba and encourage Lumumba to "escape" his U.N. guard. Once in the open, Mobutu’s forces could then arrest Lumumba and kill him. In the end, this is exactly what appears to have happened. Although O’Donnell denied that QJ/WIN had anything to do with Lumumba’s escape, arrest and murder, a cable to CIA’s finance division from William Harvey implies otherwise:

QJ/WIN was sent on this trip for a specific, highly sensitive operational purpose which has been completed.

Another CIA operative, code-named WI/ROGUE, was dispatched to aid in the Congo operation. The CIA provided WI/ROGUE plastic surgery and a toupee "so that Europeans traveling in the Congo would not recognize him." WI/ROGUE was described as a man who would "dutifully undertake appropriate action for its execution without pangs of conscience. In a word, he can rationalize all actions."

WI/ROGUE was apparently assigned to Devlin. a report prepared for the CIA’s Inspector General described the preparation to be undertaken for his use:

In connection with this assignment, WI/ROGUE was to be trained in demolitions, small arms, and medical immunization.

While in the Congo, WI/ROGUE undertook to organize an "Execution Squad." One of the people he attempted to recruit was QJ/WIN. QJ/WIN did not know whether WI/ROGUE was CIA or not, and refused to join him. Both O’Donnell and Devlin claimed WI/ROGUE had no authority to convene an assassination team. But that assertion seems hard to believe, given that a capable assassin was assigned to a group plotting the permanent removal of Lumumba. And given that WI/ROGUE was to be trained in "medical immunization" it seems possible WI/ROGUE was to administer the poisons brought to the Congo by Gottlieb.

The CIA, while accepting responsibility for plotting to kill Lumumba, disavows responsibility for his eventual murder. The Church Committee bought this line from the CIA and concluded the same in their report. Yet within the report and elsewhere on the record are events that belie that conclusion. For example, a cable from Devlin to Tweedy implies possible CIA foreknowledge of Lumumba’s escape which led to his death:

POLITICAL FOLLOWERS IN STANLEYVILLE DESIRE THAT HE BREAK OUT OF HIS CONFINEMENET AND PROCEED TO THAT CITY BY CAR TO ENGAGE IN POLITICAL ACTIVITY.... DECISION ON BREAKOUT WILL PROBABLY BE MADE SHORTLY. STATION EXPECTS TO BE ADVISED BY [unidentified agent] OF DECISION MADE.... STATION HAS SEVERAL POSSIBLE ASSETS TO USE IN EVENT OF BREAKOUT AND STUDYING SEVERAL PLANS OF ACTION.

The Church Committee believed that one CIA cable seemed to indicate the CIA’s lack of foreknowledge of Lumumba’s eventual escape. But in another instance they cited this troubling passage, which indicates likely CIA involvement in his capture:

[STATION] WORKING WITH [CONGOLESE GOVERNMENT] TO GET ROADS BLOCKED AND TROOPS ALERTED [BLOCK] POSSIBLE ESCAPE ROUTE.

According to contemporaneous cable traffic, the CIA was kept informed of Lumumba’s condition and movements during the period following his escape. Some authors believe that the CIA was directly involved in his capture. Andrew Tully acknowledges that "There were reports at the time that CIA had helped track him down," but adds, "there is nothing on the record to confirm this." However, nearly all authors agree that Lumumba was captured by Mobutu’s troops, and Mobutu was clearly, as Tully called him, "the CIA’s man" in the Congo.

By January of 1961, Devlin was sending urgent cables to CIA Director Allen Dulles stating that a "refusal [to] take drastic steps at this time will lead to defeat of [United States] policy in Congo." That particular cable was dated January 13, 1961. The very next day, Devlin was told by a Congolese leader that the captive Lumumba was to be transferred to a prison in Bakwanga, the "home territory" of his "sworn enemy." Three days later, Lumumba and two of his closest supporters were put on an airplane for Bakwanga. In flight, the plane was redirected to Katanga "when it was learned that United Nations troops were at the Bakwanga airport." Katanga claimed, on February 13, 1961, that Lumumba had escaped the previous day and died at the hands of hostile villagers. However, the U.N. conducted its own investigation, and concluded that Lumumba had been killed January 17, almost immediately upon arrival in Katanga. Other accounts vary. Some accounts indicated that on the plane, Lumumba and his supporters were so badly beaten that the Belgian flight crew became nauseated and locked themselves in the flight deck. Another account indicated that Lumumba was beaten "in full view of U.N. officials" and then driven to a secluded house and killed. But a contradictory version indicated that U.N. officers were not allowed in the area where the plane carrying Lumumba landed, and that the U.N. officials only had a glimpse at a distance of the prisoners when they disembarked. By all accounts, however, this was the last time any of the prisoners were seen in public alive.

In a bizarre footnote to this story, former CIA man John Stockwell wrote of a CIA associate of his who told him one night of his adventure in Elizabethville (now Lubumbashi), "driving about town after curfew with Patrice Lumumba’s body in the trunk of his car, trying to decide what to do with it." Stockwell added that his associate "presented this story in a benign light, as though he had been trying to help." And in a similarly incriminating statement, CIA officer Paul Sakwa remembered that Devlin subsequently "took credit" for Lumumba’s assassination. In an open letter to CIA Director Admiral Stansfield Turner, Stockwell wrote:

Eventually he [Lumumba] was killed, not by our poisons, but beaten to death, apparently by men who had agency cryptonyms and received agency salaries.

From the CIA’s own evidence, the CIA sought to entice Lumumba to escape protection. They then monitored his travel, assisted in creating road blocks, and when he was captured, encouraged his captors to turn him over to his enemies. The CIA had a strong relationship with Mobutu when Mobutu had the power to decide Lumumba’s fate. And then there are the admissions reported by Stockwell and Sakwa. How can anyone, in the light of such evidence, claim the CIA was not directly responsible for Lumumba’s murder?
Hammarskjöld’s Last Flight

The CIA could not have been satisfied solely with the death of Lumumba. One of the barriers to completing the takeover of the Congo remained the United Nations, and more specifically, U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.

Dag Hammarskjöld’s heritage stemmed from that of a Swedish knight. Subsequent generations had served as soldiers and statesmen. It seemed only fitting that with such a heritage, Hammarskjöld would be drawn to a life of governmental service. He grew up in the Swedish capital among a group of progressive economists, intellectuals, and artists. He sought out companions and mentors from these fields. But Hammarskjöld was on a strong spiritual quest as well, seeking his own divine purpose and contemplating the sacrifices of others for the common good. He was an intensely private man who never married. Because of this, many assumed he must have been a homosexual. Hammarskjöld always denied this, and once wrote a Haiku addressing his frustration at having to deal with this constant accusation:

Because it did not find a mate
they called
the unicorn perverted.

Speaking four languages and having a reputation as an agile negotiator, Hammarskjöld was a natural choice for the United Nations. Always gravitating toward roles of leadership, he came ultimately to serve in the highest position of that body during one of the most difficult periods in its existence.

When he took office, the United States was embroiled in virulent McCarthyism. His predecessor at the U.N. had bent over backwards to please American sponsors by expelling suspected communists from the ranks of the U.N. When Hammarskjöld took his place, his first acts focused on rebuilding badly damaged morale among the U.N. workers. Once in office, he traveled the world seeking peace and reconciliation among warring factions. He felt that dispatching U.N. troops on peacekeeping missions was a necessary, if poor substitute for failed political negotiations. In 1958, Hammarskjöld was unanimously reelected to a second five-year term as Secretary-General.

By far, Hammarskjöld’s biggest challenge was the Congo. Hammarskjöld understood the complexity of the political situation there and resisted moves that would put the people in that country at risk of exploitation. When Katanga seceded, the Soviets were furious that Hammarskjöld didn’t send troops in to prevent the secession, and claimed Hammarskjöld was siding with colonialists. Lumumba too lashed out at Hammarskjöld for not responding in force. Hammarskjöld’s hands were tied, however, by the American, British, French and Belgium factions which wanted to see Katanga secede in order to maintain access to the great mineral wealth there. But Hammarskjöld did not give in completely to these non-native interests, and sent U.N. troops between the warring Congo and Katanga forces to see that one side did not annihilate the other. Hammarskjöld had originally been impressed with Lumumba, but his opinion of him declined as Lumumba increasingly acted in an irresponsible manner. The country virtually fell apart in September when first Kasavubu (another Congo leader in the CIA’s pocket), then Lumumba, and ultimately Mobutu claimed to be the country’s leader. One of the few world leaders openly supporting Hammarskjöld’s policy in the Congo was President John Kennedy.

Hammarskjöld died in a plane crash sometime during the early morning hours of September 8, 1961. He was flying aboard the Albertina to the Ndola airport at the border of the Congo in Northern Rhodesia, where he was to meet with Tshombe to broker a cease-fire agreement. The pilot of the Albertina filed a fake flight plan in an attempt to keep Hammarskjöld’s ultimate destination hidden. Despite this and other measures taken to preserve secrecy, less than 15 minutes into the flight the press was reporting that Hammarskjöld was enroute to Ndola.

At 10:10, the pilot radioed the airport that he could see their lights, and was given permission to descend from 16,000 to 6,000 feet. Then the plane disappeared. It was found the next day, crashed and burnt at a site about ten miles from the airport. The unexplained downing of the plane gave rise immediately to rumors of attack and sabotage.

Two of Hammarskjöld’s close associates, Conor O’Brien and Stuart Linner, had been targets of assassination attempts. Several attempts had been made in Elizabethville on O’Brien. And gunmen tried to lure Linner to Leopoldville, then under Kataganese control. One gunman even made his way into Linner’s office before being apprehended. Forces both inside and outside the Congo made clear that they did not approve of the U.N.’s handling of affairs there. U.N. forces were continually attacked. And Hammarskjöld himself had received various threats. Because of this obvious animosity, it was no stretch for people to believe Hammarskjöld’s death was no accident.

The origin of the plan to meet at Ndola was itself under dispute. O’Brien asserted in print on three different occasions that the location had been chosen by Lord Lansdowne. As one author noted,

He was doing more than accuse Lansdowne of not telling the truth. He was implying the Britisher was partly responsible for a journey that ended in disaster.

The British government has always insisted the choice of Ndola was Hammarskjöld’s. But the British were clearly working against Hammarskjöld by siding with Katanga. The British colony of Northern Rhodesia also sent food and medical supplies to Katanga. Rhodesia’s Roy Welensky served as a media conduit for Tshombe. Clearly, the British had a motive to get rid of Hammarskjöld, who stood in the way of Katanga’s independence, and therefore their denial regarding the choice of Ndola should be weighted accordingly. In fact, leaders from around the world accused Britain of being directly responsible. The Indian Express, India’s largest daily, wrote, "Never even during Suez have Britain’s hands been so bloodstained as they are now." Johshua Nkomo, President of the African National Democratic Party in Southern Rhodesia, said "The fact that this incident occured in a British colonial territory in circumstances which look very queer is a serious indictment of the British Government." The Ghanian Times ran an editorial headed "Britain: The Murderer." Note that this prophetic piece was written in 1961:

The history of the decade of the sixties is becoming the history of political and international murders. And one of the principal culprits in this sordid turn in human history is that self-same protagonist of piety—Britain.

Britain was involved, by virtue of her NATO commitments, in the callous murder of the heroic Congolese Premier, Patrice Lumumba.

But Britain stands alone in facing responsibility for history’s No. 1 international murder—the murder of United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.

Due to public interest and obvious questions, both the British-contolled Northen Rhodesian government and the U.N. convened commissions to investigate the incident. Two of the earliest claims regarding the crash were given focus by both commissions: reports of a second plane, and reports of a flash in the sky near the airport. Seven different witnesses told the Rhodesian commission of a second plane in the vicinity of the Ndola airport. In Warren Commission-like fashion, the Rhodesian authorities waved away these sightings under various excuses. The only plane officially recorded to be in the vicinity was Hammarskjöld’s, therefore the witnesses had to be wrong. But the airport was not using radar that night, and another plane could easily have been in the area. One witness chose not to talk to the Rhodesian authorities and went directly to the U.N.. He too had seen a second plane, following behind and slightly above a larger plane. After the plane crashed and exploded, he saw two Land Rover type vehicles rush at "breakneck speed" toward the site of the crash. A short time later, they returned. Asked why he hadn’t shared his account with the Rhodesians, the witness replied simply, "I do not trust them." The U.N. report theorized that perhaps people had seen the plane’s anti-collision beam and thought it represented a second plane. However, some of the witnesses claimed the second plane flew away from the first after the crash, negating that theory. Earwitness evidence was also suggestive. Mrs. Olive Andersen heard three quick explosions at the time when the plane would have passed overhead. W. J. Chappell thought he heard the sound of a low-flying plane followed by the noise of a jet, followed later by three loud crashes and shots as if a canon was firing.

Assistant Inspector Nigel Vaughan was driving on patrol that night about ten miles from the site of the crash. He told investigators that he saw a sudden light in the sky and then what seemed to be a falling object. But he placed the sighting an hour after the plane disappeared, and so his testimony is ignored. However, other witnesses also claimed to see a flash in the sky that night, including two police officers, one of which thought the sighting important enough to report to the airport.

Adding to suspicion of a broader plot was the fact that, despite the Albertina’s having announced its arrival at the airport, no alarm was raised when the plane did not land. In fact, Lord Alport sent the airport people home, claiming the Albertina’s occupants must have simply changed their mind and decided not to land there. No search and rescue operation was launched until well into the following morning.Later examinations of the bodies showed that Hammarskjöld may well have survived the initial crash, although he had near-fatal if not fatal injuries. There was a small chance that had he been found in time, his life may have been saved.

Royal Rhodesian Air Force Squadron Leader Mussell told the U.N. commission that there were "underhand things going on" at that time in Ndola, "with strange aircraft coming in, planes without flight plans and so on." He also reported that "American Dakotas were sitting on the airfield with their engines running," which he imagined were likely "transmitting messages."

Beyond the strange circumstances surrounding the downing of the plane, the plane itself contained interesting, if controversial evidence. 201 live rounds, 342 bullets and 362 cartridge cases were recovered from both the crash site and the dead bodies. Bullets were found in the bodies of six people, two of whom were Swedish guards. The British Rhodesian authorities concluded that the ammunition had simply exploded in the intense heat of the fire, and just happened to shoot right into the humans present. But this contention was refuted by Major C. F. Westell, a ballistics authority, who said,

I can certainly describe as sheer nonsense the statement that cartridges of machine guns or pistols detonated in a fire can penetrate a human body.

He based his statement on a large scale experiment that had been done to determine if military fire brigades would be in danger working near munitions depots. Other Swedish experts conducted and filmed tests showing that bullets heated to the point of explosion nonetheless did not achieve sufficient velocity to penentrate their box container.

If someone aboard the plane fired the bullets found in these bodies, who would it have been? P. G. Lindstrom, in Copenhagen’s journal Ekstra Bladet, wrote that one of Tshombe’s agents in Europe told him that an extra passenger had been aboard who was to hijack the plane to Katanga. No evidence of an additional body was found in the wreckage, however.

Transair’s Chief Engineer Bo Vivring examined the plane and noted damage to the window frame in the cockpit area, as well as fiberglass in the radar nose cone, and concluded that these injuries were likely bullet holes. He told the Rhodesian commission months later, "I am still suspicious about these two specimens."

In their final report, the Federal Rhodesian commission concluded that the incident was the result of pilot error, and denied any possibility that the plane was in any way sabotaged or attacked. The U.N. took a more cautious stance, declining to blame the pilot. But they were unable to pinpoint the cause, and refused to rule out the possibility of sabotage or attack. In contrast, the Swedish government, along with others carried the strong opinion that the plane had been shot from the ground or the air, or had been blown up by a bomb.

And there the matter lay, as far as the public was concerned. No one would know for sure. Some had suspicions. In a curious episode, Daniel Schorr once questioned whether the CIA was behind the murder. The question must be set in its original context.

In January of 1975, President Ford was hosting a White House luncheon for New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, among others, when the subject of the Rockefeller commission came up. One of the Times’ editors questioned the overtly conservative, pro-military bent of the appointees. Ford explained that he needed trustworthy citizens who would not stray from the narrowly defined topics to be investigated so they wouldn’t pursue matters which could damage national security and blacken the reputation of the last several Presidents. "Like what?" came the obvious question, from A. M. Rosenthal. "Like assassinations!" said clumsy ex-Warren Commission member Ford, who added quickly, "That’s off the record!" But Schorr took the question to heart, and wondered what Ford was hiding. Shortly after this episode, Schorr went to William Colby, then CIA Director, and asked him point blank, "Has the CIA ever killed anybody in this country?" Colby’s reply was, "Not in this country." "Who?" Schorr pressed. "I can’t talk about it," deferred Colby. The first name to spring to Schorr’s lips was not Lumumba, Trujillo, or even Castro. It was Hammarsköold.

Is there any evidence of British or CIA involvement in Hammarskjöld’s death? Sadly, the answer is yes. Of both. In 1997, documents uncovered by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission indicated a conspiracy between the CIA and MI5 to remove Hammarskjöld. Messages written on the letterhead of the South Africa Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR), covering a period from July, 1960 to September 17, 1961, the date of Hammarskjöld’s crash, discussed a plot to kill Hammarskjöld named Operation Celeste. The messages, written by a commodore and a captain whose names were expunged by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, reference Allen Dulles. According to press reports, the most damning document refers to a meeting between CIA, SAIMR, and the British intelligence organizations of MI5 and Special Operations Executive, at which Dulles agreed that "Dag is becoming troublesome...and should be removed." Dulles, according to the documents, promised "full cooperation from his people." In another message, the captain is told, "I want his removal to be handled more efficiently than was Patrice [Lumumba]."

Later orders to the captain state:

Your contact with CIA is Dwight. He will be residing at Hotel Leopold II in Elizabethville from now until November 1 1961. The password is: "How is Celeste these days?" His response should be: "She’s recovering nicely apart from the cough."

According to the documents, the plan included planting a bomb in the wheelbay of the plane so that when the wheels were retracted for takeoff, the bomb would explode. The bomb was to be supplied by Union Miniere, the powerful Belgian mining conglomerate operating in the Katanga province. However, a report dated the day of the crash records that the "Device failed on take-off, and the aircraft crashed a few hours later as it prepared to land."

A British Foreign Officer spokesman suggested to the press that the documents were Soviet disinformation. The documents were also dismissed as fakes by a former Swedish diplomat, but according to news reports, "they bear a striking resemblance to other documents emanating from SAIMR seven years ago ... These documents show the SAIMR masterminded the abortive 1981 attempt to depose Seychelles president Albert René. It was also behind a successful 1990 coup in Somalia."

The reference to cooperation between MI5 and CIA is not farfetched either. British and American interests worked together to defeat Mossadegh in Iran. In his book that was originally banned in Britain for revealing too many state secrets, former MI5 officer Peter Wright described how William Harvey, the head of the CIA’s "Executive Action" programs, accompanied by CIA Counterintelligence Chief James Angleton, visited MI5 in 1961 to ask for help finding assassins. And according to Paul Lashmar in his book Britain’s Secret Propaganda War 1948-1997, the British secretly aided in the overthrow of Sukarno in 1965, a coup for which the CIA bears a great deal of responsibility.

Brian Urquhart, a former U.N. Under-Secretary-General and the author of an extensive biography of Dag Hammarskjöld, stated that "The documents seem to me to make no sense whatsoever." He praised Bishop Desmond Tutu for saying there was no verification for the authenticity of these documents. But Urquhart went too far when he said, "Even supposing there was any such conspiracy, which I strongly doubt, there is no conceivable way they could have got within any kind of working distance of Hammarskjöld’s plane in time." In fact, the plane was left unguarded for four hours. There was general security at the airport, but anyone who knew what they were doing would have no trouble gaining access to the plane. The cabin was secured, but the wheelbay, hydraulic compartments and heating systems were accessible. Urquhart also contends that saboteurs would have attacked the wrong plane, as Lansdowne and Hammarskjöld switched planes that day. But if the saboteurs were as sophisticated as the CIA was with Lumumba, that information would have been known in advance by the necessary parties. What if the plotters themselves occasioned the switch of the planes? Urquhart shows himself to be a man of limited imagination in this regard. Urquhart caps his comments by adding that he had seen "20 or 30 different accounts" over the years of how Hammarskjöld was killed, and that "if one is true all the other 29 are false." In the words of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Does the word ‘duh’ mean anything to you?" There can be only one truth. Having 29 false leads would not negate the truth of the remaining one.

While Bishop Tutu conceded the documents may be disinformation, he added the following qualifier:

It isn’t something that is so bizarre. Things of that sort have happened in the past. That is why you can’t dismiss it as totally, totally incredible.

In the Independent of 8/20/98, author Mary Braid wrote that "In 1992, ex-U.N. officials said mercenaries hired by Belgian, U.S. and British mining companies shot down the plane, as they believed their businesses would be hurt by Hammarskjöld’s peace efforts." The key here is to understand that these assertions are not mutually exclusive. The CIA has shown its disdain for official government positions on more than several occasions, and has a long track record of working with private corporations to effect a foreign policy dictated more by business needs than political ones. In the Congo, we saw that the CIA apparently pursued a triple track. They planned poison, gun, and escape-capture-kill plans as they sought to remove Lumumba from the scene. If they were intent on getting rid of Hammarskjöld, as the Truth Commission discoveries suggest, the CIA may have employed both bomb planters and mercenaries.

Has anyone ever claimed responsibility for Hammarskjöld’s death? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. A longtime CIA operative claimed he personally shot down the plane.
Confessions of a Hitman

In 1976, Roland "Bud" Culligan sought legal assistance. After serving the CIA for 25 years, Culligan was angry. He had performed sensitive operations for the company and felt he deserved better treatment than to be put in jail on a phony bad check charge so the agency could "protect" him from foreign intelligence agents. He had been jailed since 1971, and now the agency was disavowing any connection with him. His personal assets had mysteriously vanished, and his wife Sara was being harassed. But Culligan had kept one very important card up his sleeve. He had kept a detailed journal of every assignment he had performed for the CIA. He had dates, names, places. And Culligan was a professional assassin.

Culligan sought the aid of a lawyer who in turn required some corroborative information. The lawyer asked Culligan to provide explicit details, such as who had recruited him into the CIA, who was his mutual friend with Victor Marchetti, and could he describe in detail six executive action (E.A.) assignments. Culligan answered each request. One of the executive actions he detailed was his assignment to kill Dag Hammarskjöld.

Culligan described first in general terms how he would receive assignments:

It is impossible, being here, to recall perfectly all details of past E.A.’s Each E.A. was unique and the execution was left to me and me alone. Holland [identified elsewhere as Lt. Gen. Clay Odum] would call, either by phone or letter memo. At times I would be "billed" by a fake company for a few dollars. The number to call was on the "bill." I have them all. I studied each man, or was introduced by a mutual friend or acquaintance, to dispell suspicion. I was not always told exactly why a man was subject to being killed. I believed Holland and CIA knew enough about matter to be trusting and I did my work accordingly.... By the time I was called in, the man had become a total loss to CIA, or had become involved in actual plotting to overthrow the U.S. Gov, with help from abroad. There were some exceptions.

...When an E.A. was planned, I was given all possible details in memo form, pictures, verbal descriptions, money, tickets, passports, all the time I needed for plan and set up. I and I alone called the final shot or shots.

Culligan matter-of-factly described five other EAs. But when he told of Hammarskjöld, it was out of sequence and in a different tone than the other descriptions:

The E.A. involving Hammarskjöld was a bad one. I did not want the job. Damn it, I did not want the job.... I intercepted D.H’s trip at Ndola, No. Rhodesia (now Zaire). Flew from Tripoli to Abidjian to Brazzaville to Ndola, shot the airplane, it crashed, and I flew back, same way.... I went to confession after Nasser and I swore I would never again do this work. And I never will.

Culligan did not want his information released. He only wanted to use it to pressure the CIA into restoring his funds, clearing his record, and allowing his wife and himself to live in peace. When this effort failed, a friend of Culligan’s pursued the matter by sending Culligan’s information to Florida Attorney General Robert Shevin.

Shevin was impressed enough by the documentation Culligan provided to forward the material along to Senator Frank Church, in which he wrote,

It is my sincere hope and desire that your Committee could look into the allegations made by Mr. Culligan. His charges seem substantive enough to warrant an immediate, thorough investigation by your Committee.

Culligan was scheduled to be released from prison in 1977. He wrote the CIA’s General Counsel offering to turn in his journal if he was released without any further complications. But once out of jail, Culligan found himself on the run continuously, fearing for his and his wife’s life. A friend continued to write public officials on Culligan’s behalf, saying,

There are forces that operate within our Government that most people do not even suspect exist. In the past, these forces have instituted actions that would be repugnant to the American people and the world at large. I have always wanted to see this situation handled quietly and honorably without a lot of publicity. Unfortunately, the agencies, bureaus, and services involved are devoid of honor. This story is extremely close to going public soon and when it does, I fear for the effect upon our Country and her position in the world community.

The story never did go public, until now. And this is only a piece of what Culligan had to say. You can’t see all of what he had to say. These files remain restricted at the National Archives, withdrawn by the CIA, unavailable to researchers. Not even the Review Board could pry forth the tape Culligan made in jail detailing his CIA activities. And no wonder. Want to hear one of Culligan’s bombshells? In the list of Executive Actions Culligan detailed, three related to the Kennedy assassination. Culligan wrote that he was hired to kill three of the assassins who had participated in, as he called it, the "Dallas E.A." Apparently, the three were asking for larger sums to cover their silence. Culligan recruited them for a mission and told them to meet him in Guatemala. When they showed up, he killed all three.

Is Culligan to be believed? Why can’t we know for certain? Where are the leaders who are not afraid to confront the demons of the past, to genuinely seek out the truth about our history? Who will take this information and pursue it where it leads? Because no one pursued the truth about Lumumba at the time, and no one found the truth about Hammarskjöld’s death, assassination remained a viable way to change foreign policy. Malcolm X, the two Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King fell prey to the same forces. When will the media serve the public, instead of the ruling elite, by finally reporting the truth about the assassinations of the sixties?

John Pilger