By ART SHIELDS

Who can believe in President
Nixon’s professions of love for
“Law and Order” when Nixon
dines with an assassin? The as-
sassin is General Joseph Mobutu,
the puppet President of the Con-
go. Mobutu was an_ honored
guest, at the White House recent-
ly. And he’s turning Congo rich-
es over to Wall Street today.

Mobutu was. an agent of the
Central Intelligence Agency. He
led the bloody coup. d'etat
against Patrice Lumumba, the
Congo’s liberator and prime min-
ister in 1960. The coup had the
blessing of the Eisenhower-Nix-
on administration. ~

The CIA agent then. ‘turned
Lumumba over to the execution-
er. The executioner was Moise
Tshombe, the puppet ruler of
Katanga, the rich copper prov-
ince in which the Rockefellers
have an interest.

But Mobutu was just as guilty
as Tshombe’s_ killers. That’s
American law, as Nixon should
know. The. gangster who puts a
victim on the spot is as guilty as
the goons with the guns.

The use of assassins by the
U.S. ruling class did not start
with Eisenhower and Nixon,
however. It has a long history,
which black people know well.

Assassins have been killing
black liberators in the United
States since the first freedom
struggles began. These murders
never stopped. The blood of
Medger Evers, Martin Luther
King, the 28 Black Panthers and
thousands of other black victims
reddens the ground.

Industrial employers have
been using the secret bullet as
well. The pages of labor history
are stained with the blood of
militant unionists in the last
hundred years. The assassins’
paymasters are never punished,
however. And readers will note
that the men behind the mid-
night murders of Jock Yablonski,
the rank-and-file miners” leader,
and his wife and daughter, are
still protected,

These gentlemen, who sit in
their clubs in New York and
Washington while goons do the
killing, like to discuss brutal
deeds in polite language. Thus
the assassin’s slug is called a
“silver bullet” sometimes. And
with the birth of the CIA the
“silver bullet” began striking
the foes of American imperial-
ism in foreign lands.

Guatemalan revolutionists
in. Lumumba was

were done

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

oo

tl

murdered. Liberation leaders
were shot down in other lands.
The assassination of Fidel Cas-
tro of Cuba was on the agenda
when John F. Kennedy defeated
Nixon. And Kennedy asked a
close friend whether they should
kill Castro or not. The friend
was Senator George A. Smath-
ers, a reactionary Democrat
from Florida. Both Kennedy and
Smathers wanted to get rid of
Castro. The.question was whe-
ther to assassinate him or not.
And Smathers tells about the
discussions in a tape recording
that he made for the John F.
Kennedy Memorial Library on
March 31, 1964.

One is impressed by the cyn-
icism of the two politicians upon
reading the reports of that re-
cording.

No question of the criminal
immorality of assassination was
raised by either man. They were
only concerned with one prob-
lem: would ‘murder pay off or
not? Smathers stated:

“We had further conversations
on the assassination of Fidel
Castro ...AsI recollect he was
just throwing out a great bar-
rage of questions — he was cer-
tain it could be accomplished —
TI remember that — it would be
no great problem. But the ques-
tion was whether it would ac-
complish what he wanted it to,
whether or not the reaction
throughout Latin America would
be good or bad.”

Both Smathers and Kennedy
feared that the murder “could
be pinned on the United States.”
And Smathers insists that Ken-
nedy finally gave up the idea of
assassinating Fidel Castro.

That may be so. Kennedy
went on with: the Bay of Pigs
adventure, however. But he an-
gered the war hawks when he
promised-the. Soviet Union not
to invade Cuba any more. This
promise was made when the mis-
sile crisis was settled in 1962.
He angered the hawks again
when hé talked of improving re-
lations with the Soviet Union.
And Kennedy himself was felled
by assassins’ bullets in 1963.

The CIA was not burying its
silver bullets, however. And the
British historian, Hugh Thomas,
had this to say in the ‘New
Statesman” of London on Aug.
26, 1966: .

“A policy of assassination ap-
pears indeed to be the only posi-
tive one which the Johnson ad-
ministration has up its sleeve
where Cuba is concerned.

“A prominent academic who
worked with the Kennedy ad-
ministration and still seriously
studies South American politics
recently called me to discuss
with him ‘Cuba after Castro.’
When I suggested that it might
be premature to speak in these
terms he said he thought that a
SILVER BULLET would soon be
on its way.

“Admittedly, it may very well
be an intolerable thought to an
American liberal that Castro
should live while J. F. Kennedy
was shot, and obviously the
stray comment of an individual,
HOWEVER WELL INFORMED
should not be taken for govern-
ment policy.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1970—PAGE 6

PATRICE LUMUMBA

“On the other hand, there
have been at least two major
attempts on Cvistro’s life this
year, both allegedly sponsored
by the CIA, and the U.S. govern-
ment would obviov ; 7 be pleased
to know that Cas... was out of
the way .. .” (My emphases —
A.S.).

The founders of the CIA were
thinking of assassination from
the beginning. This was disclos-
ed by a friend of the CIA—the
U.S... News & World Report,
when the agency was born. The
CIA was born with the cold war.
It was the secret, terrorist arm
of American imperialism. It had
no moral code. And the maga-
zine said: i

“Assassination of key Com-
munists” — in certain foreign
lands — ‘‘would be encouraged”
under a plan that was being con-
sidered.

This revelation appeared in an
article on Undercover Tactics for
the Cold War on April 9, 1948,
during the Truman Administra-

MALCOLM X

tion. Six years later the Satur- -

day Evening Post reported that
CIA sabotage squads were blow-
ing up bridges in socialist coun-
tries.

The CIA plans required the
use of local assassins. And we
now return to Joseph Mobutu,
who was only a sergeant in the
occupation army of the Belgian
government — the Congo’s op-
pressor — before liberation. But
he was glad to sell out to a big-
ger white empire when the
Americans came in. And the CIA
grabbed him quickly.

The CIA found Mobutu when
the U.S. was starting its inter-
vention in the Congo, which is
the heart of Africa. Wall Street
wanted its minerals and the
products of its rich soil. But
Wall Street’s government lead-
ers — Eisenhower and Nixon —
were worried about the popular
uprising against the Belgians.
And this uprising was led by
Patrice Lumumba, who welcom-
ed Soviet aid.

I was impressed with Lumum-
ba’s independence and _ patrio-
tism when I attended his press
conference in the United Nations
Building in 1960. He would glad-
ly accept help from anyone who
wanted to help Africa, he told a
hostile Daily News man.

Lumumba must go, Washing-
ton decided. But old-style colon-
ialism had become unworkable.
A pro-American leader must be
set up in Lumumba’s place. And
— said a CIA historian — “the

CIA came up with the right man

at the right time.”

The “right man” was Mobutu,
said Andrew Tully in his book,
CIA: The Inside Story. And he
refers to Mobutu again as the
“CIA man.”

The author didnt invent this.
Tully, a friend of the CIA, said
he “owes a debt of gratitude”
to Allen W. Dulles, the CIA

director at that time, for his
help in the book. He also thanks
two Assistant Secretaries of De-
fense and McGeorge Bundy, the
special assistant to the President
for national security affairs un-

|

MEDGAR EVERS

der Presidents
Johnson.

Kennedy and

The plot that ended in Lu-
mumba’s assassination was join-
ed by other CIA traitors. The
Congo’s corrupt President, Jo-
seph Kasavubu, was. one. He
“sat at the feet of the CIA men,”
says Tully. And on September 5,
1960, Kasavubu announced that
he “deposed” the Prime Minis-
ter.

This was unconstitutional. But
the CIA traitors were backed by
Clare Timberlake, the U.S. Am-
-bassador, a tool-of Eisenhower,
Nixon and the Dulles brothers.
His support was not enough,
however. Lumumba was immen-
sely popular. And Lumumba was
about to mobilize the country
behind him when the United Na-
tions intervened.

The UN armed forces had en-
tered the Congo at Lumumba’s
request, but they were used
against him. Their boss, Dag
Hammarskjold, the UN Secre-
tary General, a former Swedish
banker, was in the American im-
perialist camp.

Hammarskjold’s American pol- -

icies were carried out by An-
drew Cordier, his executive as-
sistant, the future president of
Columbia University.

Cordier’s job was to block all
contacts between the Prime Min-
ister and his people. And when
Lumumba tried to talk to the
nation over Radio Leopoldville
he was stopped by Cordier and
the armed forces behind him.

Meanwhile, Kasavubu was fill-
ing the air with CIA lies from
the radio station in nearby Braz-
zaville, across the Congo River.
This was before the Brazzaville
revolution.

The airports were also closed
to all non-UN traffic by Cordier.
This blocked support from the
Soviet Union or from Lumum-
ba’s friends in Ghana, Guinea
and other African lands.

Thus UN treachery was deci-
sive. And Conor Cruise O’Brien,
the Irish author and diplomat,
who was then in the Congo, de-

GOOD INVESTMENT |
Nixon to Mobutu: “... Vout)

will be meeting with . . . busi]
ness leaders in New York, wh} |
may be interested in making}
an investment in the Cong?
My advice to them simp]
would be this: The Congo
a good investment...”

Mobutu to ‘Nixon: “I am sure
Mr. President, that your voice
will be heard by the Amer
cans to whom you have Sal
that the Congo is a good im
vestment. You are right .:’
we have political stability:
peace and calm in the Cong?
.. . the Congolese people a
cured of their growing
pain...” ‘

—_

scribed the disastrous effect
the UN intervention:

’ “Had it not been for Mr. C%
dier’s vigorous action, there i
little doubt that the support
mumba would have rallied #
this crucial moment would ba
been most formidable.

“U.S. Ambassador Timberlal®
himself, no admirer of the Prim
Minister, is reported to have sail
that if Lumumba walked ;
any gathering of Congolese pol
ticians as a waiter with a
on his head he would have com
out as Prime Minister.” :

These comments appear ip
O’Brien’s revealing book, To B*
tanga and Back.

Lumumba still had the Co)
golese Parliament behind hil
And Parliament voted full stalé
powers to their beloved Pri
Minister on September 13. By
Parliament was unable to hd!
out against the imperialist ff
ces. The next day Mobutu ®
solved Parliament and assum f
the role of Commander-in-Chié
of the Congo State. :

He had promoted himself ”
general by then.

One ‘of Mobutu’s first acts W#
the expulsion of all Soviet te
resentatives and airmen, and
mechanics who serviced th?
planes the USSR had furnish?
Lumumba.

Some time later Lumumb}
was arrested. He was severel!
beaten and then turned ovet ij
the killers. His blood is on t?
head of the CIA and the Eise?
hower,Nixon administration
well as on their local stooge

And Tully makes this cyn!
comment: %

“Brutal as it was, ‘however!
there is no denying that Lunw®
ba’s death cleared the air.” ;

He meant that the Congo we
made safer for the western !
perialists. ‘ il

But the African people W
never forgive Lumumba’s as5# |
sins. American imperialism Wi
pay a heavy price for, its polit
cal murders, as President Ke"
nedy feared before he was —
victim of the silver bullet hit
self. we

—Daily World Magazi

FRED HAMPTON