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????

[Charles Drago]

Within the context of the JFK assassination, ZR/RIFLE and its colorfully named human assets may be most accurately appreciated as what is termed "fictive architecture" and cogently described by Australian architect Simon Thornton thusly:

"I know of three meanings of the term 'fictive architecture'. The first is invented architecture described in a novel. The second is speculative or imaginary architecture on paper or in cyberspace. The third use is the one which interests me: it is architecture which is built and exists, and which embodies fictional ideas."

Given their criminal and/or mercenary backgrounds and multi-faceted social and operational milieus, I submit that the commonly referenced candidates for WI/ROGUE and QJ/WIN would be among the last candidates to be chosen for Facilitator and/or Mechanic roles by high-level JFK assassination Facilitators.

But if we stipulate that patsies were selected for all three levels of the JFK conspiracy, then we must be on the lookout for FALSE Mechanics as well as FALSE Sponsors and FALSE Facilitators.

An example: When we consider the possibility that Lucien Sarti was a Dealey Plaza shooter, we must seek evidence to support the notion that Sarti was an expert sniper -- a world-class marksman who could be relied upon to hit his presidential target.

I know of no such evidence.

A killer? Most likely. A sniper with the skills of a Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev, Matthaus Hetzenauer, or Zhang Taofang? Not likely.

I am not suggesting that ZR/RIFLE, WI/ROGUE, AND QJ/WIN never existed. I am, however, asking us to consider the possibility that ZR/RIFLE, its assets and, by extension, its creators and directors were patsied in the Dealey Plaza operation.

[Jan Klimkowski]

In the account below, Belgian police commissioner Gerard Soete admits disposing of Lumumba's body in grisly fashion. My emphasis in bold.

'History will one day have its say'

Finally the chickens are coming home to roost. Thirty-nine years after the Congolese prime minister, Patrice Lumumba was assassinated on 17 January 1961, the truth is finally emerging. A book based on newly declassified Belgian archives has firmly pinned Belgium in the dock. The revelations, including the fact that Lumumba's body was cut into pieces and doused in sulphuric acid to erase the evidence, are so startling that the Belgian parliament decided on 9 December 1999 to set up a commission of inquiry into Lumumba's death and Belgium's responsibility in it. A can of worms, likely to touch Washington, is about to be opened, writes our Brussels correspondent, Francois Misser.

"My dear wife,
I am writing these words not knowing whether they will reach you, when they will reach you, and whether I shall still be alive when you read them.
All through my struggle for the independence of my country, I have never doubted for a single instant the final triumph of the sacred cause to which my companions and I have devoted all our lives. But what we wished for our country, its right to an honourable life, to unstained dignity, to independence without restrictions, was never desired by the Belgian imperialists and their Western allies who found direct and indirect support, both deliberate and unintentional amongst certain high officials of the United Nations, that organisation in which we placed all our trust when we called on its assistance.
They have corrupted some of our compatriots and bribed others. They have helped to distort the truth and bring our independence into dishonour. How could I speak otherwise?
Dead or alive, free or in prison by order of the imperialists, it is not I myself who count. It is the Congo, it is our poor people for whom independence has been transformed into a cage from beyond whose confines the outside world looks on us, sometimes with kindly sympathy but at other times with joy and pleasure.
But my faith will remain unshakeable. I know and I feel in my heart that sooner or later my people will rid themselves of all their enemies, both internal and external, and that they will rise as one man to say no to the degradation and shame of colonialism, and regain their dignity in the clear light of the sun...
As to my children whom I leave and whom I may never see again, I should like them to be told that it is for them, as it is for every Congolese, to accomplish the sacred task of reconstructing our independence and our sovereignty: for without dignity there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence there are no free men.
Neither brutality, nor cruelty nor torture will ever bring me to ask for mercy, for I prefer to die with my head unbowed, my faith unshakeable and with profound trust in the destiny of my country, rather than live under subjection and disregarding scared principles.
History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that is taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or in the United Nations, but the history which will be taught in the countries freed from imperialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history, and to the north and south of the Sahara, it will be a glorious and dignified history.
Do not weep for me, my dear wife. I know that my country, which is suffering so much, will know how to defend its independence and its liberty. Long Live the Congo. Long Live Africa!"

The wife to whom this letter was addressed in mid-January 1961 was Pauline Lumumba. The writer was Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first prime minister who was weeks away from death. "Do not weep for me, dear wife...[for] history will one day have its say," Lumumba had written. That "one day" is about to dawn.

The decision by the Belgian parliament to set up the official inquiry into Lumumba's assassination followed recommendations made by both the Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt and foreign minister Louis Michel. Both men had been shocked to their boots by the revelations in Ludo de Witte's new book, De Moord op Lumumba (written in Dutch, published by Van Halewyrck, Louvain, Belgium).

Though a French translation is just about to come out, and an English translation is nowhere on the horizon, the Dutch original has caused so much consternation in the Belgian media that Prime Minister Verhofstadt and his foreign minister Michel could not help but do something.

De Witte, a sociologist, takes no prisoners in his book. He says matter-of-factly that "Belgium bears the greatest responsibility in [Lumumba's] murder. Belgians had the leadership of the whole operation - from [Lumumba's] transfer to Katanga, to his execution and the disappearance of his body."

According to De Witte who had unprecedented access to declassified Belgian national archives, the decision to assassinate Lumumba was taken by Belgian officials a few weeks after Congo's independence on 30 June 1960. By 14 July 1960, Belgium's ambassador to NATO at the time, was telling participants in a North Atlantic Council meeting that: "The situation would be better if the Congolese president, prime minister and minister of information all disappeared from the scene".

Obviously the authorities in Brussels could not forgive Lumumba's hard-hitting independence day speech delivered in the presence of King Baudouin of Belgium (see p22-23), in which he accused the Belgians of having brought "slavery and oppression to the Congo" and described the people's struggle for independence in terms of "tears, fire and blood".

To be fair, Lumumba had been sorely provoked by King Baudouin's insensitive speech moments earlier. Every Congolese present was angry, and Lumumba only gave vent to his people's feelings.

Brussels again could not forget Lumumba's dismissal of Belgian officers from the Congolese army, and his subsequent demand for the immediate withdrawal of Belgian troops who had bombarded the port of Matadi on 11 July 1960 after some Europeans had been killed in the town.

Belgian feelings were very much shared by the US government which, itself, was eager to prevent Lumumba from calling on Soviet troops to help him retake the secessionist provinces of Katanga and Southern Kasai which declared unilateral independence on 11 July and 8 August 1960 respectively.

The American president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, had long given the green light for the CIA to plan the elimination of Lumumba, according to Madeleine Kalb in her book, Congo Cables, published by Macmillan in 1982 based on leaked State Department cables.

Kalb wrote that Robert Johnson, a member of the US National Security Council, testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975, revealed that during a meeting of the NSC on 18 August 1960, "President Eisenhower said something - I can no longer remember his words - that came across to me as an order for the assassination of Lumumba."

Minutes of the NSC subcommittee on covert operations of August 1960 were more categorical: "It was finally agreed that planning for the Congo would not necessarily rule out 'consideration' of any particular kind of activity which might contribute to getting rid of Lumumba."

On 26 August 1960, says Kalb, Richard Bissell, the CIA special operations chief, asked his special assistant for scientific matters, Dr Sidney Gottlieb to prepare biological materials for possible use in the assassination of an unspecified African leader. Gottlieb arrived in Kinshasa on 26 September but the plan eventually failed.

Gottlieb later told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had dumped the poison in the Congo River on 5 October, because the CIA station chief in Kinshasa had been unable to find a secure enough agent with the right access to Lumumba, and also because there were concerns about the potency of the poison which should have been put into Lumumba's food or in his toothpaste.

Last year the American author, Adam Hochschild, revealed in his book, King Leopold's Ghost, that President Eisenhower had personally given his approval for the assassination of Lumumba.

According to Hochschild, "Richard Bissell later said: 'The president would have vastly preferred to have him taken care of some way other than by assassination, but he regarded Lumumba as I did, and a lot of other people did, as a mad dog...and he wanted the problem dealt with'. After being arrested and suffering a series of beatings, [Lumumba] was secretly shot in Elisabethville in January 1961. A CIA agent ended up driving around the city with Lumumba's body in his car's trunk, trying to find a place to dispose of it."

Clearly there were two plans running concurrently to eliminate Lumumba, but either the Belgians did not know about the American plan (which is unlikely), or they preferred to do it all alone.

Lumumba's nationalism was too much for the Belgians and their Western allies who considered him a communist. In those Cold War years, Lumumba was seen as a threat to the Belgian, American, French and British companies that controlled Congo's national economy, including the strategic minerals - uranium and cobalt in Katanga; and the copper, diamond and rubber plantations in Southern Kasai.

The Belgian foreign minister at the time, Pierre Wigny, was absolutely unequivocal about his intentions. In a letter dated 10 September 1960, he instructed that "the authorities have the duty to make Lumumba unharmful", De Witte reveals in his new book.

Three days later, the Belgian military adviser to the then Colonel Mobutu, sent this telex to the Belgian African affairs minister, Harold d'Aspremont Lynden: "Plan of action is being examined in Leo [for Leopoldville] with Ileo's government approval."

The "plan" was not cancelled even after Mobutu, fronting for the CIA, staged a coup on 14 September - the very first coup in independent Africa - to "neutralise" the Congolese politicians. Somehow, the Belgians were not confident in Mobutu's ability to keep the situation under control, even though they had contributed 20 million Belgian francs to Mobutu to pay the Congolese soldiers who were on strike for the non-payment of their salaries by the outgoing Belgian colonial government. The payment was meant to strengthen Mobutu's hand as chief of staff.

According to De Witte, Mobutu's Belgian military adviser had prepared an alternative plan called "Operation Barracuda" with another Belgian officer based in Elisabethville, the capital of Katanga, "without the participation of [Mobutu's] government".

The plan envisaged a direct Belgian hit to eliminate Lumumba following instructions contained in a telegram sent on 6 October 1960 to the Belgian consulates in Brazzaville and Elisabethville, in which the African affairs minister, d'Aspremont Lynden, had written: "The main objective to be pursued in the interest of Congo, Katanga and Belgium is obviously Lumumba's definitive elimination."

Until the end of October, says De Witte, Belgian diplomats were still debating the need to organise a direct commando operation on Lumumba's residence which was protected by Ghanaian UN troops and surrounded by Mobutu's soldiers under instructions to arrest him.

Lumumba was under house arrest at the time and was feeling powerless by the hour. He desperately wanted to end his isolation. To compound his misery, the UN General Assembly under American direction had rejected his delegation, and instead given the Congolese seat to Kasavubu's delegation. It was a bit much for the beleaguered prime minister.

"On the night of 27 November, while a thunderstorm raged over Leopoldville, Lumumba slipped past the double ring of UN and Mobutu troops guarding his house, and drove away in a dark car with a few friends", writes De Witte. Lumumba's intention was to go to Stanleyville (now Kisangani), then held by his supporters.

American diplomats were the first to react to Lumumba's escape. They alerted Mobutu, and the hunt was on! Four days later, the suspense was over. Lumumba was arrested by Mobutu's soldiers on 2 December at Port Francqui (now Ilebo) on the Kasai River.

According to De Witte, the Ghanaian UN troops based at Port Francqui did not oppose Lumumba's arrest. They were following orders given to them by the Swedish general, Karl von Horn, who himself was obeying instructions from the UN high command in New York not to intervene "to hinder Lumumba's pursuers" or take him into "protective custody."

Lumumba was beaten by Mobutu's troops who transferred him to the Camp Hardy military barracks in Thysville (now Mbanza Ngongo) where he wrote the letter to his wife quoted above.

After his arrest, the plan then shifted from a "direct action" against Lumumba to his "transfer" into the hands of his worst enemies in Southern Kasai or Katanga as suggested on 24 December by the Belgian consul.

But Vandeen Bloock, the Belgian diplomat in Elisabethville objected on the grounds that Belgium could easily be accused of complicity if Lumumba was sent to Elisabethville. Bloock also feared that "an embarrassing prisoner" like Lumumba would further damage Katanga's credibility among the Afro-Asian coalition at the UN. Instead, according to De Witte, Bloock suggested that Lumumba be transferred to Bakwanga, capital of Southern Kasai, whose army was headed by the Belgian colonel, Gillet (nicknamed "Big Kangaroo") but where the Belgian presence was less noticeable.

This idea, says De Witte, was endorsed by Larry Devlin, the CIA chief in Leopoldville, and by Mobutu's government which, though wanting to get rid of Lumumba, yet left the dirty job to be done by others.

From a Belgian perspective, Southern Kasai, led by Albert Kalonji, was a good choice since Kalonji and other Baluba politicians had a grudge to settle with Lumumba over the massacre of more than 1,000 Balubas by Lumumba's troops at Tshibombo, Banzolo and Kasengulu between 24 August and 4 September 1960.

However, there was an inconvenience. The Bakwanga airport was in the hands of Ghanaian troops who could have decided to protect Lumumba, if they had been left free to decide. To solve the problem, the Belgian African affairs minister, d'Aspremont Lynden, sent this telegram to his consul in Elisabethville: "Foreign minister Aspremont urges personally President Tshombe that Lumumba should be transferred as soon as possible to Katanga."

Everybody knew that Lumumba would not survive a transfer to Katanga, says De Witte. But to Katanga, he was sent!

On 31 January 1964, three years after Lumumba's death, Tshombe wrote to Lumumba's friend, President Nkrumah of Ghana, denying any involvement in the assassination. "I have the honour to inform you that I always took great care to avoid being in any way responsible for the tragic death of H.E Patrice Lumumba," Tshombe told Nkrumah. "I think that the time has come to throw full light on the matter, and I can no longer continue to allow myself to be regarded by Africans and indeed the world at large, as guilty of that crime."

But Nkrumah did not believe Tshombe. Because the Ghanaian president had in his possession a copy of a letter written by Tshombe on 13 January 1961 addressed to Justin Bomboko, Lumumba's foreign minister who had defected to his enemies, in which Tshombe had categorically stated: "Mr President [at the time Bomboko was president of the Commissaires Generaux in Leopoldville], following the message just received, we advise you of our agreement to transfer the communist Lumumba immediately to Elisabethville. This must be done secretly. Can you let me know of his arrival with the minimum of delay?"

Nkrumah published a photocopy of the letter in his book, Challenge of the Congo (published in 1967 by Panaf, London).

Lumumba's transfer into the den of his arch-enemies in Katanga was effected on 17 January 1961. He was sent there with two companions, Maurice Mpolo (a minister in Lumumba's government elected from Katanga) and Joseph Okito (deputy president of the Senate).

With their hands tied behind their backs and beaten mercilessly, the three men were shot on the same night. In her book, Congo Cables, Madeleine Kalb says Washington had known since 14 January about the plan to kill Lumumba and his companions but did nothing to prevent it. Tshombe's secessionist government took nearly a month to announce Lumumba's death (on 13 February 1961).

De Witte reveals in his new book that Belgian officers were not only involved in the preparation of the murder plan, they also took part in the final execution. When Lumumba landed at Elisabethville airport, he was immediately taken into custody by officers from Tshombe's Katanga gendamerie. Six Swedish UN soldiers were present when Lumumba was taken away from the airport.

But hours before they were shot, Lumumba and his two companions were transferred to Belgian custody around 10pm, says De Witte. They were driven in a jeep to a place, 50km away from Elisabethville. The driver of the jeep was a Belgian police commissioner. He brought Lumumba, Mpolo and Okito, one after another, to the murder squad commanded by a Belgian captain. The three men were shot. Lumumba was then 36 years old.

Four days after the killings came the final disposal of the bodies. The dirty job fell to the Belgian police commissioner Gerard Soete and his younger brother. Their superiors wanted the three corpses to disappear. Soete and his brother, therefore, cut up the bodies of Lumumba, Mpolo and Okito into small bits and dissolved them in sulphuric acid to obliterate the evidence. The acid was contained in a tank owned by the mining giant, Union Miniere du Haut Katanga.

In a recent interview on Belgian TV, Gerard Soete confessed that he sawed the bodies of Lumumba and his companions, and dumped them in an acid bath. "I am still haunted by this nightmare," he said on TV.

But Soete was not finished. He had one more macabre detail to reveal. He told his shocked national audience that he had kept for many years "as a souvenir" two of Lumumba's teeth which he eventually threw away in the North Sea, between the coasts of Belgium and England.

By the time you read this, the Belgian commission of inquiry may have started its work. Prepare to be shocked even more!

[Vasilios Vazakas]

i would argue that not only ZR/RIFLE, but its manager William Harvey was also patsied as a false facilitator. I know most of my friends on
this forum would disagree with me. But would you trust an alcoholic like him to plan the assassination of the century and then send him to
Florida to meet Rosselli and charge all expenses to QJ/WIN project? I believe they were meeting to plan Castro's assassination.

[Jan Klimkowski]

I am not suggesting that ZR/RIFLE, WI/ROGUE, AND QJ/WIN never existed. I am, however, asking us to consider the possibility that ZR/RIFLE, its assets and, by extension, its creators and directors were patsied in the Dealey Plaza operation.

I agree.

Given the involvement of QJ/WIN in the assassination plots which eventually led to the slaughter of Patrice Lumumba, if he was patsied as a JFK assassination conspirator this would automatically trigger National Security State coverup.

As QJ/WIN leads to the assassination of a foreign leader ordered by an American President - with the CIA (and MK-ULTRA) tasked with the deed.

In this context, whether the CIA, its assets, or its allies, murdered Lumumba is beside the point.

QJ/WIN led directly back to an American President ordering the assassination of another President.

In the aftermath of the assassination of JFK, this could not be allowed to stand as historical fact.

[Greg Burnham]

I am not suggesting that ZR/RIFLE, WI/ROGUE, AND QJ/WIN never existed. I am, however, asking us to consider the possibility that ZR/RIFLE, its assets and, by extension, its creators and directors were patsied in the Dealey Plaza operation.

I agree.

Given the involvement of QJ/WIN in the assassination plots which eventually led to the slaughter of Patrice Lumumba, if he was patsied as a JFK assassination conspirator this would automatically trigger National Security State coverup.

As QJ/WIN leads to the assassination of a foreign leader ordered by an American President - with the CIA (and MK-ULTRA) tasked with the deed.

In this context, whether the CIA, its assets, or its allies, murdered Lumumba is beside the point.

QJ/WIN led directly back to an American President ordering the assassination of another President.

In the aftermath of the assassination of JFK, this could not be allowed to stand as historical fact.

Me too.

[Phil Dragoo]

The Zen which can be named is not the true Zen

Lucien Sarti pictured on page 122 of Bond of Secrecy by Saint John Hunt, designated in the bottom box on the facing page's table of organization of the "chain of command" as French Gunman Grassy Knoll cannot be anything but a Potemkin Patsy

Jean Rene Soutre aka Michel Victor Mertz aka Michel Roux folds out like a paper doll cut with deft hacks of blunt scissors in the hands of Michael Benson

Consider Lawrence or Larry Devlin's nom de guerre Victor S. Hedgeman.
Is he hedging or fudging: limited hangout or black propaganda.

Gerard Soete's acid trip for Lumumba, a terrible mistake or policy Ike as a goodfella grandfather from the generation of vipers Dulles, Hunt and Helms oh my.

When they say there was no actual CIA agency in the Lumumba murder it is in the sense that Lansdale didn't garrot and machinegun Diem and Nhu, only directed the generals in intercepting the two

Whether there is a Mozes or Moises Maschkivitzan a stateless person (the Prouty descriptor) or whether the Helms to Harvey to Roselli hand-off was a fake

Oh wait

What in this Potemkin agency has not been a fake

Roselli confides in Jack Anderson and has more fun than a barrel full of monkeys

The month after Harvey falls and can't get up

A time when both men are wanted by the diligent blindfolded mice of Congress

Hunt, in Dallas with Phillips, assures us through his powdery son Sarti from Harvey from Cord from Landslide

We may safely lift the plastic cover of our Magic Slate and begin anew

Eschewing even a Prouty who assures us it was Lansdale by the Depository by the actors

The play's the thing
with its exotic foreign assassin
(derived from hashish)
to make us forget
the cinematic Jackal remained anonymous

The Zen that can be framed
will be


I am a patsy

http://news.yahoo.com/santa-fe-police-ge...46443.html

[Peter Lemkin]

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

LaFitte was almost for sure one of the MANY [repeat, MANY] available contracted/contacted-as-needed, but pre-cleared mechanics for assassination used by the CIA, MIA, and their off-the-shelf ops. Lafitte at times ran a restaurant and was its owner/chef. Yes, these guys likely got a small retainer monthly or every so often from Kubark to keep them onboard, but often chose to or needed to have businesses of their own...to not go bonkers and to earn the kind of money they liked. Most, it seems were into drugs and weapons dealing - but many also seem to have had at least one 'legit' business, likely both as cover and to keep income coming when deals were not being made....likely also an 'innocent' place to meet people and store illegal items or have them transported, etc. These types also did their own illegal drug, arms or 'wet operation' deals with other groups, agencies or on their own. Some were used only once...others were regularly used [it seems QJ/WIN was]. For a 'job' they were handsomely paid, I'm sure....but those were only from time to time and couldn't be depended upon as income.

We know the name or cyptonym of a few of these people from this rather large stable of assassins - many were under JR/RIFLE, others were under other program names or under no name. As Mockingbird [and Agape, etc.] would command, the very people who sent the actual assassins would themselves quietly flood the researchers and media with the names of others NOT involved to confuse and muddy the waters...making all the 99.9% fakes and 0.1% real impossible to separate. It is likely that we've never heard the names of any of the real gunmen or their timers and spotters in the Plaza....or maybe we have..... Prouty, who knew specifically about how these types were trained and maintained, generally [and hinted he knew specifically in the case of Dallas], said they were kept well-trained, well maintained and happy, far off of American shores, stateless, and with fake identities and occupations - which all often changing. When they were needed they were secretly moved by high speed methods [often military jets and such] into the general location, then moved into place under disguise and by innocent looking cover - but always well protected. After the 'event' they were just as quickly removed after [sometimes] a very brief stay in a safehouse of some kind. Few were discovered during or after the act. Some who were were 'eliminated' or put out to pasture under disguise for the rest of their lives. Others were recycled over and over again for such operations. These types still exist and are used.

While interesting, it is NOT important IMO to know the exact names of the gunmen [for them it was just a 'job' and they may not have even had any animosity against the target - might not even know who the target was until the last moment]. To know how many there were and who ultimately sent them is much more important. The smoke and mirror apparatus is still in full gear on Dallas, and will be cranking up and oiled to perfection for the 50th. :curtain:

[Phil Dragoo]

A very interesting and useful discussion, Peter.

Such men would have operations to provide a constant income, a base for interaction, a floating pretext for plausible denial.

That they would be housed and handled, and behave as professionals is quite apart from the wild passions and matinee action of Cubans or goodfellows.

That the propaganda arm will be at DefCon Silver on the Fiftieth explains the seeding of dissonance where none is required.

[LR Trotter]

A very interesting and useful discussion, Peter.

Such men would have operations to provide a constant income, a base for interaction, a floating pretext for plausible denial.

That they would be housed and handled, and behave as professionals is quite apart from the wild passions and matinee action of Cubans or goodfellows.

That the propaganda arm will be at DefCon Silver on the Fiftieth explains the seeding of dissonance where none is required.

Reading the second sentence of Mr Dragoo's post, I'm reminded of that fellow "hanging around" Dealey Plaza on 11/22/'63 a little after noon, needing a "phone to borrow" in the Dal-Tex Building. Ole what's his name. Maybe Jim, or Eugene, or Hale or Gene, Brading or Bradley? Had connections, and was in "the oil business". At least in between reporting, or not, to a parole officer somewhere. Was he surprised as well at 12:30pm CST? Maybe? Maybe not?
:nuke: