CTKA: Review 'The French Connection'.

[Jan Klimkowski]

So what is the involvement of QJ/WIN, Mozes or Moise Maschkivitzan, in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba believed to consist of?

The following is from Lisa Pease's Murder in the Congo article:

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."16 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....17

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.18) 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.19

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."20

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.21

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.22

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.23

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."24 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."25 And in a similarly incriminating statement, CIA officer Paul Sakwa remembered that Devlin subsequently "took credit" for Lumumba's assassination.26 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.27

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?

So, rather than being a hitman, a sniper, is the role of the cultured, multi-lingual, QJ/WIN more one of enticing the Congolese leader into his orbit and away from his bodyguards/protection?

What could QJ/WIN offer? Some lucrative international smuggling proposal involving diamonds, copper, minerals?

By this interpretation, Moise Maschkivitzan seems closer to a George De Mohrenschildt figure than a Lucien Sarti.

Until we get to Stockwell's claim that "Eventually he [Lumumba] was killed, not by our poisons, but beaten to death, apparently by men who had agency cryptonyms and received agency salaries", which suggests QJ/WIN and WI/ROGUE physically assaulted Lumumba until his heart beat no more.

This latter suggestion seems straight out of Goodfellas.....

As a final, confusing, footnote, Mary Ferrel provides us with this February 1964 document:

1. QJ/WIN HAS BEEN TERMINATED. [ redacted ] TOLD HIM ON 21 APRIL
THAT THE OPERATION IN WHICH HE WAS TO PLAY A ROLE HAD BEEN SHELVED
AND THEREFORE HIS CONTRACT, WHICH RAN OUT ON 29 FEBRUARY, WAS NOT RENEWED.
HE WAS REASSURED THAT THIS ACTION DID NOT RESULT FROM ANYTHING HE HAD DONE
AND HIS PAST COOPERATION WAS APPRECIATED. IT WAS MENTIONED AS CONCEIVABLE
THAT THE OPERATION MIGHT HAVE BEEN OFF AND RUNNING HAD HE BEEN ABLE TO
ESTABLISH HIS COVER LAST YEAR. QJ/WIN ACCEPTED THE REASON FOR
TERMINATION AND SAID HE WOULD ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE IF HE COULD BE OF ANY
ASSISTANCE. IN DISCUSSING HIS FUTURE, [ redacted ] SUGGESTED, NOW THAT HE HAS RECEIVED
ALL THE NECESSARY AUTHORIZATIONS FOR DOING BUSINESS IN GERMANY, HE SERIOUSLY
CONSIDER GOING AHEAD WITH THE VENTURE IN COLOGNE. QJ/WIN SAID HE WOULD
DISCUSS THIS WITH HIS WIFE. HIS ONLY HESITATION IS IN COMMITTING HIMSELF TO A
LONG LEASE ON A SHOP.

2. SINCE JANUARY 1962 ( SEE PARAGRAPH 6, [ redacted ] OF 15 DECEMBER 1961 QJ/WIN's ONLY ASSIGNMENT
HAS BEEN TO ESTABLISH COVER. THIS REQUIREMENT WAS CONFIRMED BY DIR-12541 OF 28 MAY 1962
AND DURING [ redacted ] DISCUSSIONS IN HEADQUARTERS IN JULY 1962. 27 MONTHS AND SOME $18,000
LATER HE IS STILL NOT redacted IN PLACE. ALTHOUGH [ redacted ] MADE AN ISSUE OF THIS WITH HIM IN AUGUST
1963. WHETHER HE EVER REALLY INTENDED TO COMMIT HIMSELF TO THIS ASSIGNMENT REMAINS A
QUESTION. [ redacted] HAS STRONG DOUBTS.
QJ/WIN's PERSONAL HISTORY REVEALS MAJOR INSTABILITY AND THE HABIT OF HEDGING HIS BETS
IS UNDOUBTEDLY PART OF HIS CHARACTER. THIS DOES NOT IMPLY A SECURITY BREACH. THERE IS
NOTHING TO INDICATE THAT HE HAS DISCUSSED HIS KUBARK RELATIONSHIP WITH ANYONE, EXCEPT,
PERHAPS HIS WIFE.

3. [ redacted ] IS KNOWN TO QJ/WIN BY TRUE NAME. [ redacted ] USED THE NAME PIERRE WITH HIM, BUT
IT IS ASSUMED THAT HE HAS IDENTIFIED [ redacted] TRUE NAME. QJ/WIN KNOWS THE TELEPHONE NUMBER OF THE STATION OUTSIDE PHONE, BUT THIS PHONE IS BEING DISMANTLED IN OCTOBER OF THIS YEAR.
ADDRESSES ARE FORWARDED UNDER SEPARATE COVER
DATE 24 APRIL 1964

QJ/WIN did not want to commit himself to a long lease on a shop in Cologne????