Olof Palme

[Magda Hassan]

[Palme-report]
SA LINKS IN THE PALME-MURDER:
Olof Palme, the Swedish premier and leader of the Social Democratic Part was an ardent opponent of apartheid. He was gunned down on a Stockholm street (Seavägen) on February 28, 1986, after leaving a movie theatre with his wife Lisbet. A man in an overcoat approached Palme and his wife from behind, drew a Smith & Wesson revolver and shot the premier in his back.
Several leads were followed (victim of a police plot, the work of a Kurdish terrorist group or of a lone assailant with a grudge), but the police have never been able to solve the crime.
According to the journalist-researcher Sven Anér, the Africa specialist/journalist Per Wästberg told the Swedish police 5 days after Palme's murder that there could be a SA involvement, but the police didn't even border to register Wästberg's two letters. The police seemed clearly not willing to investigate the SA trail. Sven Anér is convinced that some members of the Swedish police had a direct hand in the murder of Palme [see Sven Anér: Polissporet, 1988]. Others don't believe this, although nobody denies the possibility of some involvement in a more indirect way.
Question: Why said (until very recently) the Swedish police all the time that the SA trail was not worth investigating? As we will see there were from the beginning some indications that the South Africans could have been involved in the Palme-murder:
Information from England:
1. A few days after the murder of Olof Palme. The British Intelligence, MI6, received a strange report: the man who had murdered Olof Palme had been acting under orders from the SA security police. Members of the death squad Koevoet, or COIN, were behind the murder. The SA agent, Craig Williamson, was mentioned as the designer of the plans to murder Palme, aided by Swedish police men. [Jesús Alcalá, in: Dagens Nyheter:9/10/96]
2. At about the same time, Karl-Gunnar Bäck, the GS of the Civil Defence Force Association was contacted by an old acquaintance from England. He told him that the MI6 had information on the murder of Olof Palme. The informant claimed that Palme was murdered by (members of the) SA security forces. A Swedish policeman was also indicated (to have participated). Bäck recorded the information on a cassette and send it to Säpo (the Swedish security police) in Uppsala. Months passed by and nobody got back in touch with him. But late summer 1986 Bäck was suddenly informed that "the leads had een investigated and had led to nothing". Bäck was surprised. Säpo had never bothered to speak to him and hadn't even asked for his informant's name. It is now established that the Palme-investigators neither knew of the tape, nor whether or not the lead had been investigated. Säpo claims it is impossible to find the tape. [see also Alcalá; Lars Borgnäs]
South Africa and the police-trail in Sweden:
3. The Palme-investigators received another lead on involvement from SA together with Swedish accomplices. - An informant, a known thug, who for the moment was serving a jail sentence, said that he was convinced that Swedish policemen helped SA agents in the murder of Palme. Some Swedish police men were members of the IPA, International Police Association. They ran a training camp in Rydsford and they had made several trips to SA where they had met with representatives of the SA security police (DNR 15384, record of investigation from the 15th Nov. 1995). The policemen and the IPA should also have had secret premises and weapons at a meeting place in Wallingatan 32 (Stockholm), a few blocks from the crime scene. According to an informer these policemen were nazis, bore arms while off duty and had frequent contact with South African agents [DNR 15210 Skrivelse av den 6 maj 1993, cited in Alcalá]. It was almost certain that the World anti-Communist League (WACL) had also an office in that same building.
- There has been an internal investigation of six policemen known for right-wing sympathies, who paid, on several occasions, visits to South Africa in the mid 1980s (1985-87. Is it a coincidence that the police station (called the Norrmalm ?? precinct) where they used to work is next door to the Birger Jarl Hotel where Williamson used to stay? [Madi Gray, 2/10/96]. According to Alcalá, when the police is confronted with information of undemocratic, nazi and conspiratory colleagues, they don't, which could be expected, interrogate every person available for interrogation (Question: Why ?)
- The policemen of this precinct had a record during the 1980's of being involved in police brutality: there was a so-called "baseball league" which was involved in extreme right wing politics and former policemen of that precinct left it to open up so-called private security companies and were involved in arms trade.
- This precinct covers the area where Palme was murdered. Some policemen were that night out on the streets, but nothing was seen and according to Sven Anér the police station didn't react adequately after the murder was reported. Of one policeman it is known that he was too exhausted to chase after Palme's murder due to having consumed a can of coke just before arriving at the scene of the crime [Interview Sven Anér; Alcalá]
- The newspaper photographer, Ake Malström, was the night of the murder listening in on a police radio frequency, where he claimed to have overheard a conversation between two police officers moments after the shooting. The alleged conversation ran: "It's cold up here" to which the other officer replied: "It's over now. The prime minister is dead." The photographer filed a statement, but was never called in for questioning.[ News 25/2/94]. - According to Tor Sellström [Interview], Johan Coetzee was sitting at a diplomatic function (early 1996) next to a person of the Swedish Embassy at Pretoria and when Coetzee heard that this lady was from Sweden, he said that he remembered the tough days that Sweden and SA didn't have good contacts , but that however he as commissioner of police always he had good contacts and how the Swedish police had visited SA through the IPA. Question: What did these policemen do in SA, who did they visit there etc.
- Swedish journalist who recently visited South Africa and tried to see the guestbooks of the IPA guesthouses in Cape Town, Jo'burg and Pretoria were told, that they were destroyed [see Dagens Nyheter 10/10/96:5]
Sweden and the PKK-trail:
4. -After the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme, Bertil Wedin (or "Morgan" or John Wilson, here called BW) a Swedish right-winger, who in the past had worked for Craig Williamson, acted, according to Hasselbohm, as the initiator of the PKK-lead, which soon became the main lead in the search for Palme's killer. The Kurdish PKK is the Turkish government's main enemy, which has battled Ankara security forces in Turkey since 1984. BW seems to have faked this link with the PKK and passed it to a journalist on the Turkish daily Hurriyet. He located six or seven members of the PKK-group that killed Palme. This promotion of the PKK-lead was made more than three months before Hans Holmér, Stockholm chief of police and head of the Palme murder investigation, claimed for the first time that "PKK is behind the murder of Olof Palme." This became the investigation's main lead, with police chief Hans Holmér and Ebbe Carlsson as it's promoter and lobbyist. A major police sweep of PKK sympathisers in Sweden followed but investigators later had to give up this lead.[see Hasselbohm]
- BW is a Swedish right wing extremist, and former informant for the Swedish security police. He always openly declared that he was working against the Swedish social democratic government and especially against Prime Minister Olof Palme.
He is/was a friend of Göran Assar Oredsson, leader of the neo-nazi party Nordiska Rikspartiet. BW was an officer of the United Nations peace-keeping forces in the Congo (1961) and Cyprus(1963).In Cyprus he served as a lieutenant, for several periods, on the staff intelligence unit in the UN forces.
In 1966 (the year he resigned from the Swedish army) he went to the American embassy in Stockholm and demanded to be sent to Vietnam to fight. Nothing came of this plan. - In 1967 BW was the driving force behind "The Committee for a Free Asia", a committee that was planning a counter-tribunal on Vietnam that would investigate "the murders and atrocities, committed by the communist side in the Vietnam war." At this time BW became a regular informant for the Swedish security police (Säpo). He supplied them with information on left-wing Swedes.
At the same time as he was a security police informant, BW also worked for a Swedish bank (Stockholm Enskilda Bank). BW, who now calls himself a journalist, produces the newsletter Mediasammandrag (Media Summery) for the bank. Recently BW confirmed that he had been involved in military intelligence work.
In 1976 a Swedish newspaper wrote that BW most probably was behind newspaper advertisements trying to recruit mercenaries for service in Southern Africa. The same year he moved with his family to England. On behalf of the Federation of Swedish Industries (Sweriges Industriforbund), the Swedish Employers' Federation (Svenska Arbetsgivarforeningen) and some 15 companies he arranged seminars and meetings in London, so that Swedish businessmen could met businessmen, politicians and thinkers from Britain.
- Craig Williamson (see below) recruited BW as a South African spy. BW said he had met Craig Williamson in SA in 1980. Williamson had introduced him to Peter Casselton, based in London, to whom BW had to report. Casselton was a British citizen, but a SA agent, who had given BW the codename "John Wilson".
- BW became involved in break-ins at various anti-apartheid organisation offices in London. A letter from Craig Williamson to BW resulted in a police search of the Swede's twelve-room house in Townbridge, Kent. The police found stolen material, as well as notes from documents stolen from the office of the PAC. They also found a map over the area around the PAC office, showing the way to the underground station Dollis Hill, as well as sketches of the office itself.
BW told the police that via a bank account in Switzerland, he was paid 1.000 pounds per months (much more in today's value) in salary by Williamson, plus costs. He also received camera equipment. After being interrogated at the Rochester Row police station in London, the Swede was soon released on bail.
As opposed to Casselton and Aspinall, BW declared himself not guilty at the court proceedings in Old Baily on 17 December 1982. The judge agreed that he could remain free on bail. During the trial against him in April BW claimed never to have given the SAns information. The judge noted that he then could not understand what BW had done to earn the money the SA had paid him. BW claimed that he had used the money to write a book on Soviet subversive activities, a work that to no one's knowledge was ever published. But BW admitted he had been at the PAC office on three occasions, but for the purpose of doing interviews. The map of the area around the PAC office and the underground, BW explained by saying he had "a bad memory" and needed it to find his way. He never had to account for the sketches of the inside of the office. The Swede was acquitted. - However, after being acquitted BW admitted to the press that he had supplied information to the company Africa Aviation Consultants on the Isle of Man. But he claimed to have done it in "good faith", without knowing that Williamson's and Casselton's company was a front for the SA security service. In SA the Williamson-lead London operation was regarded a greet success.
- According to Hasselbohm, in 1985 BW held a key position in an organisation called Victims Against Terrorism (VAT), a major SA propaganda operation in Europe. May 1985 VAT staged a demonstration outside the ANC office in London, accusing the ANC of carrying out acts of terror. Later another South African agent (Arthur Kemp,notes *1)became a leading figure in this organisation [Searchlight, Nov. 1996:6].
-November 1985 BW and his family flew to Northern Cyprus. On their arrival cards they declared that they were going to settle there permanently. BW was issued with a Turk-Cypriot ID-card in March 1986. On at least one previous occasion the Swede had, for unknown reasons, gone to Cyprus (using the undercover name "John Wilson") together with the SAn agent Peter Casselton. Right after his arrival in Northern Cyprus, BW was employed by the Ministry of Information there. Part of his job was to work for Radyo Bayrak, Turk-Cypriot radio. He used the radio to fire off vicious attacks against the social democrats and Olof Palme in particular. He was Middle-East correspondent for the Swedish ultra-right journal "Kontra" (Counter-guerrilla).
- It is after the assassination of Palme that BW took on his new role as the initiator of the PKK-lead. Wedin denied any involvement in the assassination of Olof Palme.
[Based on an interview with and 5 articles written by Swedish journalist Anders Hasselbohm; see also Nadire Mater: Sweden-Palme Oct. 4 Sapa-IPS].
Question: Was this PKK-trail a red herring, fed by Bertil Wedin, to conceal South Africa's role? I think it was. Because Weden was blown after his appearance in court in 1982, it is unlikely that he was directly involved in Palme's murder. BUT indirectly it looks like he was: the creation of this false trail is probably the strongest indication that something is wrong here.
Strange things in Sweden:
5. Heine Hüman (45),is allegedly a Swede of SA origen, who came to Sweden in the beginning of the 80's [Interview Tor Sellström]. To day he lives in Florida [see Expressen 29/9/96:12-13].
- During the time of Palme's murder Hüman lived in some God- forgotten-place outside Uppsala where he has some sort of car repair shop. Fourteen minutes after the murder of Palme an elderly couple in Stockholm (Bromma) received a mysterious phonecall with the message: "The job is done, Palme is dead". With the only difference of one digit in the area code (Stockholm 08; Uppsala-area 018), their number corresponded to the number of a telephone in a room of a clubhouse of which allegedly only Hüman had the key.
- Hüman left Sweden in a hurry after the Palme assassination, without saying goodbye to his neighbours. These neighbours, who were interviewed by Swedish newspapers, said that there was a lot of funny business going on at night at his place.
- Swedish journalist have tracked him down in Florida (USA) where he lives under another name in a place outside Miamy where a lot of American ex-intelligence people are retired too [Expressen 29/9/96:12-13]. Hüman denied any involvement in the assassination of Olof Palme.
- In the past Hüman claimed to be a South African agent and that he had been involved in Dulcie September's murder [Vrije Weekblad 12/1/90]. ANC intelligence officers interviewed him in Harare (Zimbabwe) but according to Tor Sellström who lived during that time also in Harare, there were doubts about Hüman's claims. He might have done something, but his stories didn't make much sense.
6. There are also reports of three men who camped out in a white combi for some weeks before the murder. It was cold that winter, with snow on the ground, but to avoid registration, they did not stay in a hotel. The camping van is believed to have come from neighbouring Finland to the east and possibly drove out via Norway in the west. It was claimed that the men were South Africans [Madi Gray]
7. Swedish newspapers [Hans Strandberg SvD 1/10/96) claim that two policemen said that South Africa's superspy Craig Williamson was in Stockholm at the time of the anti-apartheid conference (Svensk Folkriksdag mot Apartheid, 21-23 Feb.1986) and was there also on the night of the murder. Through IPA Williamson allegedly hired a room (under a false name) in a guesthouse belonging to the IPA (Kammakargatan 36), down the road two hundred meters from the spot where Palme was shot (?? I doubt it -KdJ- if this is true, because CW was too well known in Sweden).
- Craig Williamson, former major in SA's security police and since Dec. 1985 employed by military intelligence (MI), knows Sweden and Stockholm well. Williamson had infiltrated ("Operation Daisy") the Geneva-based and Swedish-funded International University Exchange Fund (IUEF). The fund had "virtually been run from Palme's office" and one of the key links was Bernt Carlsson (later killed in the Lockerbie bombing). The IUEF gave scholarships to African (especially supported hundreds of opponents of apartheid) and Latin American students who had fled from right-wing regimes. Williamson became deputy director and trusted assistant of the Swedish IUEF director, Lars Gunnar Eriksson, a friend of Olof Palme. The project of CW and his boss Johan Coetzee was to infiltrate (through the IUEF) the ANC. Eriksson was anti-communist and wanted to support a third force, especially the Black Consciousness Movement [interview Tor Sellström], which was just what the South Africans liked (Notes *2 ).
- From 1977 until his exposure as spy in 1980, Williamson visited the Swedish capital on several occasions. He had the ear of people with power and usually stayed at the Birger Jarl Hotel round the corner from the Swedish aid agency, SIDA. At least one of these visits -in April 1978- was kept secret from his usual hosts in the Foreign Ministry. Within walking distance of the Aston Hotel where Williamson was then staying, lay the ANC office, where there was an unexplained break-in. Nothing was taken, but the files were disturbed. [Madi Gray, interview}
- At a press conference in Stockholm early in 1980 Lars Gunnar Eriksson said that security police chief Johan Coetzee had approached him in a hotel in Geneva. Johan Coetzee asked Eriks son to keep Williamson's police identity a secret for another six months, so that Williamson could nestle in, closer to the ANC. The revelations shocked Eriksson, who fled to Sweden.
- When auditors checked IUEF's books, they found a financial mess. Williamson had been siphoning off IUEF funds to build Daisy Farm, in the Pretoria region. Daisy Farm focused on apartheid foes abroad. It was section A, a special unit of the SA police which was in charge of the anti-apartheid strugglers abroad and its chief was Williamson [Sapa 30/9/96].
- CW admitted that Wedin was working for him, but also another Swede. Don't know who that would be (perhaps Hüman?).
- CW admitted to be responsible for the murders of Ruth First and the wife and daughter of the ANC-activist Marius Schoon but denied any involvement in the assassination of Olof Palme.
The Swedish People's Parliament against Apartheid:
8. This "parliament" was organised by the Swedish anti-apartheid groups and announced a long time before it was actually held (from 21-23 February 1986). Among others the participation of Oliver Tambo, Thabo Mbeki and Abdul Minty of the ANC was announced as well as that of representatives of the UDF and SWAPO.
- A possible scenario?:
It is imaginable that South Africans would be interested and moved in with some agents or even a hitsquad (see point 6). Craig Williamson who knew Stockholm well, would almost certainly be involved (see point 7).
Craig Williamson said in an interview with Tor Sellström that "Sweden was badly worked and not well penetrated. So it was very much left to political contacts", which could only mean, with right wing groups in Sweden, who could function as a kind of local (sleeping) network (?? see point 3; perhaps men like Hüman and Wedin and their contacts).
- Although security would be tight (as indeed it was), it would be easy to keep track of the movements of persons like Tambo, Mbeki etceteras, because there were places they certainly would visit before, during or after this parliament: like the HQ of the Socialist Democratic Party (a place that Palme visited also regularly), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the SIDA-building, places in the Centre of Stockholm not very far from each other. [see map Expressen 29/9/96:10] It is an area Craig Williamson knew very well as well.
- A week before Palme was killed, in the meeting where he was reading his prepared manuscript, according to Madi Gray "he gestured and put the manuscript down on the desk in front of him. He raised his head (left his prepared speech) and said: We are all responsible for apartheid. If the world wants apartheid to end, it could end to morrow by simply withdrawing support to the apartheidsregime.' At the time it was such a revolutionary statement, that it took everybody's breath away". It certainly angered as well the Swedish extreme right as the South Africans.
- During this "Parliament"-period the local network and the hitsquad could have been activated against one or more of the representatives of the ANC, UDF or SWAPO (or even against Palme??). For some reason (tight security?) this plan is blown off.
- It might even that the local Swedish network than says, OK why don't you help us with something we want to be done. The whole operation was already mounted and they didn't succeed to do anything with Tambo and the others. Although the assassination of Palme is not in the prime interest of the South African's, they give their support to the local Swedes.
(this is a hypothetical scenario discussed with several informants).
- With the centre of town under surveillance, it could be known that Palme, on the night of 28/2/86 dismissed his bodyguards and went to the cinema with his family. More or less two hours to organise the killing. With a structure already in place, not much of a problem. The perpetrator could be a hired contract killer (notes *3), someone of the Swedish extreme right circles, a SA agent (White was mentioned) or even the bum Christer Pettersson (notes *4).
- The police said the murder was too unprofessionally done to be the work of agents. But, how do you hide your trail, your cover up? Perhaps the best way, is to make it look like as an unprofessional job, hiding the people behind it. Police superintendent Hans Ölvebro thought that ït was "improbable that a group could have organised itself so quickly".[News 25/2/94], but above we showed how it could have been done.
Allegations from South Africa:
9. Eugene de Kock mentioned Craig Williamson in his mitigation plea at Pretoria Supreme Court, as the one who had masterminded the assassination of Olof Palme in 1986. De Kock believed that the Swede Bertil Wedin (56 y.old) living in Kyrenia North Cyprus, was the murderer (see above). De Kock said he learned of SA involvement in Palme's killing during a meeting "in 1992 or 1993" with Philip Powell, now an Inkatha Freedom Party (IPF) senator.
10. Former hitsquad leader Dirk Coetzee said Anthony White , also a founder member of Longreach was the killer of Palme. Williamson's military intelligence front Longreach was reporting to Brigadier "Tolletjie" Botha. Coetzee first learned of the Palme link through a former agent in the Longreach outfit, "Riaan" Stander, a low ranking former security policeman. Stander made also these revelations to a Swedish journalist in 1995. He says White was assisted in the assassination by British "spy" Mike Irwin (British marines in Northern Ireland and the Falklands war) who also worked for Longreach. Peter Casselton (now living in Pretoria and visiting his friend Eugene de Kock regularly) told the Swedish state television that White had nothing to do with the killing of Palme, and that the murderer was a European living in hiding somewhere in the Mediterranean. [SouthScan Vol.11 No.37, 4 October 1996].
Question: Why did Coetzee not come earlier with these declarations? He talked so much!
11. James Anthony White (50), former Selous Scout and once a ruthless killer for Ian Smith's Rhodesia. White was one of the main killers of the Nyadzonia ZANU-camp in Mozambique (August 1976), where 600-1000 people were killed. He made also two failed attempts to murder Zimbabwean liberation leader Joshua Nkomo in Lusaka, according to a book by his former Selous Scout commander, Ron Reid-Daly. The first involved parking a car packed with explosives on a route often taken by Nkomo; the second was an attack on Nkomo's house that destroyed the building and killed several people inside - but not Nkomo [M&G 1/10/96: White tried to kill Nkomo]. White moved to SA after Zimbabwe's independence in 1980.[SAPA, 30/9/96]. He is known as a "loner" mercenary with a history of "selling to the highest bidder".
White was a founder member of Longreach. He was involved in contraband operations in the 1980's and a member of a poaching and ivory smuggling network which operated in Zimbabwe soon after the country's independence in 1980 [Sapa 30/9/96].
White was linked to both the South African and the Mozambican security services. White is running a furniture factory (a sawmill) on the outskirts of Beira in Mozambique. He is manufacturing exclusive hardwood furniture and doors through a timber concession he obtained from the Mozambique government [Sapa 30/9/96] Mozambique's Frelimo government has sheltered White for years. White became close to Frelimo during the latter stages of the war against Renamo, when he protested loudly at attempts by Renamo to extort money from businesses working in hardwood forests under Renamo control [see Paul Fauvet, Maputo 1/10/96]
- White denied any involvement in the assassination of Olof Palme.
Motives:
1. ?? South Africa ( a hypothesis): Swedes stood for more than 50% of the ANC's civilian budget in the 80's. Sweden was one of the countries that was pushing sanctions hardest and the first to carry them out ( after 1985 -when it really started). But assassinating one person doesn't make much sense. The government (neither the conservative one) didn't change its policies towards South Africa.
2. ?? Swedish extreme right-wing groups (a hypothesis): They hated Palme. But to the extend that they wanted to kill him? Might be a possibility. It is very difficult to get information about these circles. But (according to Tor Sellström) there is something that starts in Katanga and there are links to mercs in South Africa (see Lasse Berg's documentary film: "Lieutenant Erik"). It leads to Rhodesia, to the Seychelles-coup , to the World Anti Communist League and to UNITA and through that to Angola and Executive Outcomes.
3. ?? A combination of 1 and 2 (see point 8)
4. ?? Work of a lone assailant who had some reason to wish Palme dead (the view of some policedetectives)
5. ?? Other groups or organisations: Palme the victim of a police plot; of a Kurdish terrorist group; of the East German Red Army fraction; of Abu Nidal's Palestinian terrorist organisation; of the secret Iraqi secret service; of the KGB, the CIA/P2, Mossad and of international arms dealers.
Notes:
*1 According to Searchlight [Nov.1996:6] Arthur Kemp was a prime suspect in the murder of Chris Hani in 1993.
*2 According to Hasselbohm the IUEF was the architect behind a meeting between the ANC and the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), and a few other organisations. In order to hide the real purpose of Steve Biko's trip to England (planned for the autumn of 1977), IUEF had arranged for Biko to give a number of speeches. As IUEF's Deputy Directer, Craig Williamson knew that Steve Biko was to meet the ANC. Because Williamson's detailed information on the London meeting, it became possible for the regime to derail the talks in London. Only weeks before the meeting, Steve Biko was arrested at a road-block and tortured to death.
*3 Reporters-investigators as Sven Anér, Olle Alsén and Anders Hasselbohm they all believe that the murder is the work of a contract killer linked to the Swedish police (Anér); or to Gladio, the secret Nato "stay behind" network to defend Europe in the event of a Soviet invasion (Alsén) or to the South African secret police (Hasselbohm).
Hasselbohm [see his articles] mentioned the American hitman Michael Townley, who once worked for the Chilean secret service DINA, which had Olof Palme on his death list. According to Hasselbohm at the time there were close ties between the South African and Chilean security services. And there were links running from Craig Williamson (via Italy) to Michael Townley.
*4 The petty criminal Christer Pettersson, is a braindamaged drug addict, who was arrested in December 1988 and charged on identification by Palme's wife. He was tried and jailed despite protests that bungling police and intelligence services were using him as a patsy. Pettersson was acquitted after 10 months and paid massive compensation.
Recently a man, referred to as "the Chevy man", because he witnessed the murder while parked in his Chevrolet said that he was "95% sure" that Pettersson was the killer. The man hadn't positively identified Pettersson in previous interrogations because he feared for his life.
A second witness (Sigge Cedergren), also changed recently his testimony just before his death . Cedergren was Pettersson's drug dealer. On his death bed he told the police that he had supplied Pettersson with the gun (a Smith and Wesson.357 Magnum that never has been found), but had not known of Pettersson's intentions.[SAPA-AFP, Stockholm 1/10/96]
According to Bodil Dreifaldt, Palme looked just like a man to whom Pettersson owned a lot of money. Was it perhaps just a stupid accident or could it be (if Pettersson was involved) that he was made to believe that the man he had problems with, would walk at Seavägen.
Amsterdam, Nov. 1996
Postscript 1997: Since the end of 1996 some new information was published:
- According to SAPA-AFP (16/2/97) new evidence pointed to Swedish killer in Palme murder. Chief public prosecuter Jan Danielsson rejected speculation about South African involvement in the murder, saying this theory had merely served to distract the police from "a more promising lead". No South African trail.
- According to "Intelligence Newsletter" [Paris, 3/6/97] the American journalist Allan Francovich died when passing through customs at Houston airport on April 18 1997. His death was officially attributed to a heart attack. Francovich, who lived in London, had been working for several months on the assassination of Olof Palme. During the stay in the US he planned to meet the person whom his sources had indicated was the killer. Francovich had the man's name, address and picture. He had become a profession killler after he joined Savak, the former Iranian secret service, where he had been traineed by the CIA. Francovich was about to reveal that the operation to murder Palme (code name: "Operation tree")was mounted during a series of meetings staged late 1985 by an ultra secret organization within NATO." No South African trail!
- According to "Independent on line" [24/7/97] The Maputo police arrested in 1997 (July), the SA buisnessman Richard Fair in connection with espionage and possession of illegal firearms. Fair co-owns a boat transport business with Swedish national Nigel Barnett. Flair admitted in a Swedish television interview, that he once flew into Mozambique with Barnett, Anthony White and and Peter Casselton as the pilot. All three were names last year by Eugene de Kock and Dirk Coetzee as being involved with "superspy" Craig Williamson in the assassination of Prime Minister Olaf Palme. All have denied involvement in the assassination plot. Casselton died in February 1997. An police-investigation didn't shed new light on the Palme investigation.

Sources:
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Fahndung", EMP-mbH 22/2/96
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- Hasselbohm, Anders: five articles written by this Swedish journalist, translated into English by a fellow at The Norwegian Council for Africa (originally written for the Aftonbladet 1994-95):
- Smith, Alexandra Duval: "15,000 Leads to nowhere", in The Guardian, 25/2/93
- McIvor, Greg:"Palme murder close to solution' eight years on", in Eur.News 25/2/94
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- "Swedish team to go to SA in Palme case within week", Sapa-AFP, 3/10/96
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- Rodney, Derek: "Super-spy Craig Williamson involved in Swedish assassination", The Star on line 27/9/96
- "No further case on man acquitted of Palme killing", Citizen 2/10/96
- "Williamson speaks to Swedish investigators", Jo'burg Sapa, 19/10/96
- "Swedish investigators in PE to question Palme suspects", PE, Sapa, 25/10/96
- Ex-soldier is named as Palme's assassin", Independent 30/9/96
- Thornycroft, Peta: "Palme's murder still a mystery", WM&G, 4/10/96:11
- "ANC on murder of Olof Palme", ANC Press Statements, 26/9/96
- "SA Politics: Swedish police to follow up Palme murder allegations", SouthScan, vol. 11 No.37 4/10/96: 292-3
- "On the trail of Palme's assassins. The finger points South", Searchlight, Nov. 1996:3-10.
- Nicoll, Ruaridh:"The maverick, the mole and the ant. Which South African agent killed Sweden's Olof Palme?", in: The Observer, 6/10/96
- "Special measures needed if SA involved in Palme murder: Mandela", Sapa, 3/10/96
- Alcalá, Jesus: "The police did not investigate hot leads', a crude translation of a Swedish article (see Alcalá, below) 9/10/96
- "Swedish Palme murder investigators to leave South Africa, Sapa-AFP, 6/11/96
- "White did not kill Swedish PM: S. African Agent", in Sapa-AFP, 30/9/96
- "Wife denies husband killed Palme", Sapa-AFP 30/9/96
- "Palme's alleged assassin denies involvement", Sapa-AFP 30/9/96
- "Swedish investigators not hasty to go to South Africa", Sapa-AFP, 30/9/96
- "Swedes to check Palme claim- White rejects accusations", Sapa-AFP 30/9/96
- Alleged Palme killer will work for highest bidder': report", Sapa-AFP, 30/9/96
- O'Grady, Kevin & Laufer, Stephen: "Swedish, SA police to probe Palme murder", Business Day Online-News 27/9/96 - "Palme Murder: White tried to kill Nkomo", WM&G 1/10/96 - Holmér, Hans: "The Palme murder a Swedish trauma", Palme-news 1/10/96
- Mater, Nadire: "Ex-secret agent denies killing Palme for South Africa", Sapa-IPS 4/10/96
- "SA giving full co-operation to investigators probing Palme assassination", The Star 18/10/96
- "Swedish police aim to follow Palme murder trail to South Africa", Sapa-AFP 1/10/96
- Gray, Madi: "Who murdered Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986", Stockholm, 2/10/96 4 pags(roneo)
- "Palme's killer in Turkey: Report", Sapa-AFP, 4/10/96
- Hobbs, Ian: "Swedes weigh options on De Kock s testimony", Business Day on line 27/9/96
- Svensson, Niklas & Folcker, Annika: "Pale-mordet: Vad vet han om mördaren?", in Expressen, 9/10/96: 10-11
- Holte, Elisabeth: "Uklarhet om nytt Palme-spor", Aftenposten, 28/9/96
- Carlberg, Peter & Magnergard, Roger: "Pettersson polisens hetaste Palme-spar", Svenska Dagbladet 1/10-96 - Alcalá, Jesús: "Polisen utredde inte heta tips"- 1 in Dagens Nyheter 9/10/96:B2 (see above)
- Holte, Elisabeth: "Wedin:- Ville drepe meg ogsa", Aftenposten 3/10/96
- Norrman, Av Leiff: "Palme var inte sa hatad". Sydafrika. Sveriges roll överdriven", In Dagens Nyheter, 7/10/96
- Engberg, Leif; Hagersfors, Anna-Maria; Lisinski, Stefan & Norrman, Leif: "Sydafrika sopar igen sparen: Gästböcker försvinner. Swenska polisers besök före och Palmemordet gär inte att kontrollera."in Dagens Nyheter, 10/10/96: A5
- Expressen, EXTRA: " Han avslöjar namnet pa Palmes mördare" in Expressen 29/9/96;6-13 (about Dirk Coetzee; Anthony White; Craig Williamson; IPA & the Swedish Police; Heine Hüman; Bertil Wedin)
- "Palme-nytt" (a series of investigative journalism about Palme), numbers 7 (23/9/96) & 8 (2/10/96)
- "Palme-mordet- Jag mötte Williamson i Stockholm" and other articles, in Expressen, 10/10/96: 10-11(about Craig Williamson and his meeting with a Norwegian mercenary in Stockholm, february 1986 just before Palme's murder).
Books in Swedish about Palme's murder:
- Anèr, Sven: Polissparet, 1988 (about the police trail) and two other books about the Affairs Chamonix and Borlänge, denouncing the alibis of Carl Lidbom, former Swedish Ambassador to France and of the former head of the murder investigations Hans Holmèr.
- Poutiainen, Kari & Pertti: Inuti labyrinten (Within the Labyrinth) date ? (850 pages attacks upon the Stockholm police force)
- Minell, Olle ? a book about the police trail, Gothenburg.
http://web.archive.org/web/2002100304210...palme.html

[Magda Hassan]

The assassination of Olof Palme, the Prime Minister of Sweden, took place on Friday, 28 February, 1986, in Stockholm, Sweden, at 23:21 hours Central European Time (22:21 UTC). Palme was fatally wounded by gunshots while walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbet Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen. The couple did not have bodyguards at the time.
Two years after the event, Christer Pettersson was convicted of the murder. On appeal to Svea Court of Appeal he was acquitted, and a number of alternative theories as to who carried out the murder have since been proposed.

Night of the assassination

Despite Olof Palme's position as prime minister, he sought to live as ordinary a life as possible. He would often go out without any bodyguard protection, and the night of his murder was one such occasion. Walking home from the Grand Cinema with his wife Lisbet Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen, close to midnight on February 28, 1986, the couple were attacked by a lone gunman. Palme was fatally shot in the back at close range at 23:21 CET. A second shot wounded Mrs Palme.
Police said that a taxi-driver used his mobile radio to raise the alarm. Two girls sitting in a car close to the scene of the shooting tried to help the prime minister. He was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival at 00:06 CET on March 1, 1986.
The attacker escaped eastwards on the Tunnelgatan and disappeared.
Deputy prime minister Ingvar Carlsson immediately assumed the duties of prime minister and as new leader of the Social Democratic Party.

Sequence of events


Cinema decision

Palme's decision to visit the Grand Cinema was made at very short notice. Mrs Lisbet Palme had discussed seeing a film when she was at work during the afternoon, and called her son, Mårten Palme, at 5 pm to talk about the film at the Grand Cinema. Olof Palme did not hear about the plans until at home, at 6:30 pm, when he met with his wife. By which time, Palme had already declined any further personal body guard protection from the security service. He talked to his son about the plans on the phone, and they eventually decided to join Mårten and his spouse, who had already purchased tickets for themselves. This decision was made about 8 pm. The police later searched Palme's apartment, as well as Lisbet's and Mårten's work places, for wire-bugging devices or traces of such equipment, but did not find any.[1]

Grand cinema.



Grand Cinema

At 8.30 pm the Palme couple left their apartment, unescorted, heading for the Gamla stan subway station. Several people witnessed their short walk to the station and, according to the later police investigation, commented on the lack of body guards. The couple took the subway train to the Rådmansgatan station, from where they walked to the Grand Cinema. They met with their son and his spouse just outside the theatre around 9 pm. Olof Palme had not yet purchased tickets which were by then almost sold out. Recognizing the prime minister, the ticket clerk wanted him to have the best seats, and therefore sold Palme the theatre director's seats.[2]

The murder


Crossing of Sveavägen–Tunnelgatan where Palme was shot.



Tunnelgatan. The assassin's immediate escaperoute.


After the screening, the Palme family stayed outside the theatre for a while but separated about 11.15 pm. Olof and Lisbet Palme headed south on the west side of Sveavägen street, towards the Rådmansgatan subway station. When they reached the Adolf Fredrik's Church, they crossed Sveavägen and continued on the street's east side. They stopped a moment to look at something in a shop window, continued past the Dekorima shop (now renamed Kreatima) and headed for the subway station entrance. At 11:21:30 pm, half the distance across the Tunnelgatan street and only a short distance from the station entrance, a man appeared from behind, shot Palme at point-blank range and fired a second shot at Mrs Palme. The perpetrator then jogged down Tunnelgatan street, up the steps to Malmskillnadsgatan and continued down David Bagares gata [street], where he was last seen.[3]

Time line

Thanks to time stamps on records for radio and tele communication, many events have been determined with a very high precision.[4]

• 11.21:30 pm — The Palme couple are shot.
  

• 11.22:20 pm — The 90000 SOS emergency line receives a phone call. An eye witness says there is 'murder on Sveavägen', and is immediately redirected to the police. However the phone call is not redirected properly and the caller is not put through to the police.
  

• 11.23:40 pm — A Järfälla Taxi switchboard operator calls directly to the police dispatch center on behalf of one of its drivers on the scene. He can, however, not give any more details than that someone has been shot at the corner Sveavägen/Tunnelgatan.
  

• 11:24 pm (ca) — The first police patrol arrives at the scene. Stationed on Kungsgatan, a few hundred feet from the scene, the patrol is alerted by a second taxi driver who heard the emergency call via the taxi radio.
  

• 11.24:40 pm — The police dispatch center is contacted by the SOS alarm central concerning the shooting on Sveavägen. The dispatch center operator denies knowledge about any such events.
  

• 11.24 – 11.25.30 pm (ca) — A second police patrol, a patrol wagon, arrives at the crime scene. The patrol was stationed at Malmskillnadsgatan at the time of murder, not far from the perpetrator's escape route. They are ordered by the commanding officer at the scene, Superintendent Söderström, to immediately take up the hunt for the perpetrator.
  

• 11.25 pm (ca) — A patrolling ambulance is stopped at the scene and gives immediate assistance to the victims.
  

• 11.26:00 pm — The police dispatch center calls the SOS emergency center to assure them they are informed about the events on the Sveavägen/Tunnelgatan intersection.
  

• A third police patrol wagon arrives at the scene, the patrol was refueling at a gas station when they got called out to the scene.
  

• A second ambulance arrives at the scene to assist their colleagues from the first ambulance.
  

• 11.28:00 pm — The first ambulance leaves the scene, rushing for the Sabbatsberg hospital with prime minister Olof Palme and his wife. Mrs Palme, not being severely wounded, refuses to leave her husband.
  

• 11.30 pm — Superintendent Söderström, contacts the police dispatch center to inform them that it is the prime minister who has been shot.
  

• 11.31:40 pm — The SOS central is informed that the ambulance has arrived to the hospital.
  

• 00.06 am — Prime Minister Olof Palme is pronounced dead at the Sabbatsberg hospital.
  

• 00.45 am — Vice prime minister Ingvar Carlsson arrives at Rosenbad.
  

• 01.10 am — First radio broadcast about the murder.
  

• 04.00 am — First TV broadcast about the events.
  

• 05.15 am — The government holds a press conference.
  

Murder theories


People laying flowers where Palme was assassinated


Palme's assassination remains unsolved, with a number of alternative theories surrounding the murder.

"The 33-year old"

A Swedish extremist, Victor Gunnarsson (labeled in the media 33-åringen, "the 33-year old"), was soon arrested for the murder but quickly released, after a dispute between the police and prosecuting attorneys. Gunnarsson had connections to various extremist groups, among these the European Workers Party, the Swedish branch of the LaRouche Movement.[5] Pamphlets hostile to Palme from the party were found in his home outside Stockholm.
Gunnarsson later moved to the United States of America, where he was murdered. Acquaintances stated he had admitted murdering Palme.[6]

PKK

Hans Holmér, the Stockholm police commissioner, followed up an intelligence lead passed to him (supposedly by Bertil Wedin) and arrested a number of Kurds living in Sweden, after allegations that one of their organisations, the PKK, was responsible for the murder. The lead proved inconclusive however and ultimately led to Holmér's removal from the Palme murder investigation. Fifteen years later, in April 2001, a team of Swedish police officers went to interview Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan in a Turkish prison about Öcalan's allegations that a dissident Kurdish group, led by his ex-wife, murdered Palme.[7] The police team's visit proved futile.
In 2007, renewed allegations of PKK complicity in Palme's assassination surfaced during the Ergenekon investigation, which is ongoing as of October 2008.[8]

Christer Pettersson

In December 1988, almost three years after Palme's death, Christer Pettersson, a brain-damaged petty criminal, drug user and alcoholic, who had previously been imprisoned for manslaughter, was arrested for the murder of Palme. Picked out by Mrs Palme at a lineup as the killer, Pettersson was tried and convicted of the murder, but was later acquitted on appeal to the High Court. Pettersson's appeal succeeded for three main reasons:

• The murder weapon had not been found;
  
• He had no clear motive for the killing;
  
• Doubts about the reliability of Mrs Palme's evidence.
  

Additional evidence against Pettersson surfaced in the late 1990s, mostly coming from various petty criminals who altered their stories but also from a confession made by Pettersson. The chief prosecutor, Agneta Blidberg, considered re-opening the case. But she acknowledged that a confession alone would not be sufficient, saying:

He must say something about the weapon because the appeals court set that condition in its ruling. That is the only technical evidence that could be cited as a reason to re-open the case.

While the legal case against Pettersson therefore remains closed, the police file on the investigation cannot be closed until both murder weapon and murderer are found. Christer Pettersson died on September 29, 2004, of cerebral hemorrhage after injuring his head.

Apartheid South Africa


Cuban poster by Rafael Enriquez (1986).


On February 21, 1986 — a week before he was murdered — Palme made the keynote address to the Swedish People's Parliament Against Apartheid held in Stockholm, attended by hundreds of anti-apartheid sympathizers as well as leaders and officials from the ANC and the Anti-Apartheid Movement such as Oliver Tambo. In the address, Palme said, "Apartheid cannot be reformed, it has to be eliminated."
Ten years later, towards the end of September 1996, Colonel Eugene de Kock, a former South African police officer, gave evidence to the Supreme Court in Pretoria, alleging that Palme had been shot and killed in 1986 because he "strongly opposed the apartheid regime and Sweden made substantial contributions to the ANC".[9][10] De Kock went on to claim he knew the person responsible for Palme's murder. He alleged it was Craig Williamson, a former police colleague and a South African superspy. A few days later, Brigadier Johannes Coetzee, who used to be Williamson's boss, identified Anthony White, a former Rhodesian Selous Scout with links to the South African security services, as Palme's actual murderer.[citation needed] Then a third person, Swedish mercenary Bertil Wedin, living in Northern Cyprus since 1985, was named as the killer by Peter Caselton, a member of Coetzee's assassination squad known as Operation Longreach.[citation needed] The following month, in October 1996, Swedish police investigators visited South Africa, but were unable to uncover evidence to substantiate de Kock's claims.
A book that was published in 2007 suggested that a high-ranking Civil Cooperation Bureau operative, Athol Visser (or 'Ivan the Terrible'), was responsible for planning and carrying out Olof Palme's assassination.[11]

Bofors and Indian connection

In his 2005 book Blood on the Snow: The Killing of Olof Palme historian Jan Bondeson advanced a theory that Palme's murder was linked with arms trades to India. Bondeson's book meticulously recreated the assassination and its aftermath, and suggested that Palme had used his friendship with Rajiv Gandhi to secure a SEK 8.4 billion deal for the Swedish armaments company Bofors to supply the Indian Army with howitzers. However, Palme did not know that behind his back Bofors had used a shady company called AE Services — nominally based in Guildford, Surrey, England — to bribe Indian government officials to conclude the deal.
Bondeson alleged that on the morning he was assassinated, Palme had met with the Iraqi ambassador to Sweden, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf (the man who would later go on to become notorious as Saddam Hussein's Information Minister during the 2003 Iraq War). The two discussed Bofors, which al-Sahhaf knew well because of its arms sales during the Iran–Iraq War. Bondeson suggested that the ambassador told Palme about Bofors' activities, infuriating Palme. Bondeson theorised that Palme's murder might have been inadvertently triggered by his conversation with the ambassador, if either the Bofors arms dealers or the middlemen working through AE Services had a prearranged plan to silence the Prime Minister should he discover the truth and the deal with India become threatened. According to Bondeson, Swedish police suppressed vital MI6 intelligence about a Bofors/AE Services deal with India.

The Red Army Faction

The Red Army Faction (RAF) better known as the Baader-Meinhof Group of Germany claimed responsibility for the assassination of Palme via an anonymous phone call to a London news agency. They supposedly assassinated him because he was the Prime Minister of Sweden during the West German embassy siege in Stockholm in 1975 which ended in failure for the RAF. They claimed the assassination was carried out by the 'Holger Meins Commando.'

Roberto Thieme

The Swedish journalist Anders Leopold, in his 2008 book Det svenska trädet skall fällas, makes the case that the Chilean fascist Roberto Thieme killed Olof Palme. Thieme was head of the most militant wing of Patria y Libertad, a far-right political organization, financed by the U.S. CIA. According to Leopold, Palme was killed because he had freely given asylum to so many leftist Chileans following the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende in 1973.[12]

New evidence?

According to a documentary programme broadcast on the Swedish television channel SVT in February 2006, associates of Pettersson claimed that he had confessed to them his role in the murder, but with the explanation that it was a case of mistaken identity. Apparently, Pettersson had intended to kill a drug dealer who customarily walked, in similar clothing, along the same street at night.
The programme also suggested there was greater police awareness than previously acknowledged because of surveillance of drug activity in the area. The police had several officers in apartments and cars along those few blocks of Sveavägen but, 45 minutes before the murder, the police monitoring ceased.
In the light of these latest revelations, Swedish police undertook to review Palme's case and Pettersson's role. However, the newspaper Dagens Nyheter of February 28, 2006 carried articles ridiculing the TV documentary, and alleging that the filmmaker had fabricated a number of statements while omitting other contradictory evidence.[13]

Mockfjärd Gun

Swedish police, acting on tip communicated to the Expressen newspaper, retrieved a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver from a lake in Dalarna, in autumn 2006. The gun was earlier used in a post office robbery in Mockfjärd, in 1983, confirmed by the gun's serial number. The Swedish police over the years have test fired hundreds of guns of this kind, seeing if the trace on the bullets would match those found on scene of Palme's murder. The gun was transferred to the National Laboratory of Forensic Science in Linköping for further analysis. However, the laboratory concluded in May 2007 that tests on the gun could not confirm that it was used in the Palme assassination, for it was too rusty.[14][15]

Other theories

John Ausonius, "the Laser Man", also known as John Stannerman, was initially one of the suspects but it turned out that Ausonius had a solid alibi, as he was imprisoned on the night Palme was shot.

Costs

• The cost of the investigation stands at SEK 350 million, EUR 38 million or US$45 million as of February 25, 2006.[16]
  
• The total number of pages accumulated during the investigation is around 700,000.[17]
  
• The reward for solving the murder is SEK 50 million.[17]
  

Film portrayals

In the 1998 Swedish fictional thriller film The Last Contract (Sista kontraktet), Palme's assassination was portrayed as having been planned by the CIA. A Special Branch detective, Roger Nyman (Mikael Persbrandt), is on the trail of the international hitman (Ray Lambert, played by Michael Kitchen) but finds his line of inquiry is blocked by senior police officers and the Swedish establishment. The reason suggested for the murder is the firm stance taken by Palme in rejecting deployment of nuclear weapons in Scandinavia. The assassin himself is then killed, to cover any trace back to the CIA.
The Last Contract has been favourably compared to two other thriller films featuring political assassinations: The Day of the Jackal and Oliver Stone's JFK.[18][19]

References

1. ^ The investigation committee report (1999:88), p. 161. (PDF) (Swedish)
   
2. ^ The investigation committee report (1999:88), p. 162. (PDF) (Swedish)
   
3. ^ The investigation committee report (1999:88), p. 159 (PDF) (Swedish)
   
4. ^ The investigation committee report (1999:88), p. 173 (PDF) (Swedish)
   
5. ^ SOU 2002:87 Rikets säkerhet och den personliga integriteten, Swedish Government Official Report, p. 239
   
6. ^ Lindqvist, Stefan (2006-02-25). "Palmemordet — konspirationsteorier". Hd.se. http://hd.se/inrikes/2006/02/25/palmemor...nsteorier/. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
   
7. ^ Ocalan questioned over Swedish murder, BBC News.
   
8. ^ Dolmaci, Emine (2008-09-07). "Apo, Ergenekon'un Truva Ati" (in Turkish). Zaman Pazar (Feza Gazetecilik A.S.) 93. http://pazar.zaman.com.tr/?bl=5&hn=2690. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
   
9. ^ http://www.kurdistan.org/Washington/southafrica.html
   
10. ^ Daley, Suzanne (September 29, 1996). "Did Apartheid's Police Murder Sweden's Prime Minister?". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht...A960958260. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
    
11. ^ Devil Incarnate: A Depraved Mercenary's Lifelong Swathe of Destruction by Wayne Thallon
    
12. ^ New book: Chilean fascist leader killed Olaf Palme Politiken February 29, 2008 (in Danish)
    
13. ^ "Filmen om mordet på Palme ett moraliskt haveri av SVT". Dn.se. http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d...nderType=2. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
    
14. ^ Nordstrom, Louise (2006-11-21). "Swedish Police Recover Revolver Linked to Palme Murder Investigation". Associated Press. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/sum...934046_ITM.
    
15. ^ "Swedish Police Unable to Confirm Link Between Recovered Gun and Palme Murder Investigation". International Herald Tribune. Associated Press. 2007-05-27. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/2...Weapon.php.
    
16. ^ Dagens Nyheter, March 12, 2006.
    
17. ^ a b Swedish Police official site
    
18. ^ Cleveland Film Society
    
19. ^ Variety
    

Literature

• Blood on the snow: The killing of Olof Palme, Jan Bondeson, Cornell University Press, 2005.
  
• Inuti labyrinten (Within the labyrinth), Kari and Pertti Poutiainen, Grimur, 1994.
  
• Olof Palme är skjuten! Writer Hans Holmer, ISBN 9146161538 ISBN 9789146161530 Publisher Wahlström & Widstrand 1988.
  

External links

• Swedish prime minister assassinated
  
• Experts doubt Palme case to reopen
  
• Karisable. Retrieved 14 February 2005
  
• The Olof Palme murder: who covered it up?
  
• Television archive: The murder of Olof Palme (Swedish)
  

[Helen Reyes]

Good stuff. Makes a convincing case for the USA (Union of South Africa) connexion/origin. Coincidence perhaps, the alleged Swedish gunman edited a magazine called Kontra and lived in northern Cyprus while Iran/Contra was working through Nicosia in Greek Cyprus. Interesting place, also has sovereign British soil used as airbases, and lots of blue helmets deployed.

Is my memory faulty or was it made some sort of secret that the bullet that killed Palme was made of gold? Maybe that was a different assassination.

[David Guyatt]

For what little it may be worth, the picture I have formed about Palme's assassination was that Craig Williamson and others in SA were probably contracted as the facilitators but that the "client" very likely originated from the USA.

For example, Wiliamson's chums Rolf Van Rooyen and Riaan Stander etc., were regularly in and out of the USA in connections with their arms trading - but doubtless for other activities also. Van Rooyen and the late General Erle Cocke of the CIA Nugan Hand Bank fame knew each other and were in contact with each other. Cocke travelled to SA on business frequently.

One reason I hold to this view is that Chip Tatum told me that no one would ever know the real truth about Palme's assassination. I believed him then that he knew all about this and I still do.

[Jan Klimkowski]

United States recalled its Ambassador to Sweden in February 1968 in protest to Palme (then Minister of Education) participating in a demonstration in Stockholm against the war in Vietnam. In 1972 relations between Sweden and the United States were frozen for over a year after a speech by Palme (PM) comparing the US bombings of Hanoi to other atrocities such as the bombing of Guernica and extermination of Jews at Treblinka. The U.S government called this a “gross insult”. Asked about Palme, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once answered that he usually disliked the people he agreed with and liked the people he disagreed with, adding dryly: “So Palme, I liked – a lot”. Olof Palme is also remembered for his engagement in liberation of oppressed people in third world countries (South Africa, Nicaragua, Palestine, El Salvador etc.) and his harsh criticism of the Franco Regime in Spain, apartheid in South Africa. One of his most memorable visits was with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

http://secretswede.net/swedish/in-memory-of-olof-palme/

Palme may have been a genuine thorn in Their side. In which case, plenty have motive for wanting rid.

David Guyatt's comments above the potential American connection and sanctioned South Africa as, essentially, Riconosciuto's Cabazon reservation writ large, are most interesting. Palme may have been prepared to blow the whistle on some of these secret military programmes. Again, plenty enough reason for the hit.

[Peter Lemkin]

This is one I know quite a bit about and haven't said much of on internet....will get around to doing so, in part and in summary soon. It has connections back to USA [specifically those around Shackley and his Iran-Contra crew]; some possible S.A. operatives and some Swedish fascists. Pettersson was a LHO-brand patsy. The official story holds as much water as does the official Dallas story. One man I believe who would know a whole hell of a lot is one named Oliver North....but there are others too. Palme was a progressive and outspoken [against many US Foreign Policies] Social Democrat, and thus considered by the USA to be a 'communist' [and thus fair game for termination with extreme predjudice]. He, by accident, came across Sweden's largest arms manufacturer [Bofors] secretly supplying the North and Co. Iran-Contra supply network with some illegal and advanced missiles and such, and was the first prominent victim [IMO] of the Iran-Contra affair. The submarine games off the coast of Sweden at the time also play into all this.....The PKK is a blind alley constructed to lead nowhere [and leads nowhere!] - more later...

[Carsten Wiethoff]

Yeah, it is all connected.
First, Peters explanation for Palmes murder is essentially the same given by Victor Ostrovsky for Barschels murder. That is, Iran-Contra. Actually a version of Iran-Contra, that has not been admitted officially. I believe it basically, but there may be other aspects to it as well.
Then, Stoffberg is also connected to the October Surprise, which is connected to Iran-Contra.
October Surprise is connected to all sorts of things, like Russbacher, Marcos Gold and whatnot.
Stoffberg is connected to Reiner Jacobi in more than one way, who is deep in Marcos Gold, possibly on the good side.
Marcos Gold is connected to Switzerland, as is Iran-Contra and Barschel, and everything else having to do with illegal money.
Russbacher is connected to Mind Control and a million other things.
And yeah, Palmes murder is connected to Nazis, Coetzee is connected to Neethling and Wouter Basson, who, shock horror, is connected to Dr. Kellys death, and therefore to Britain, Iran War, and Anthrax. Yeah, connections to French Atomic Industry and Elf, Israel/Mossad, German (East and West) arms industry and whoever runs around in Europe, Australia and Asia can also be seen.

From http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSe...Id=2622765


South Africa

South Africa's 'own Dr Mengele' General Lothar Neethling dies of lung cancer in Pretoria

July 13, 2005 Edition 1
Max du Preez
Few of apartheid's functionaries were so admired and despised at the same time as General Lothar Neethling, founder of the South African Police forensics unit in 1971, who died of lung cancer in Pretoria on Monday.
He was a leading member of the Afrikaans Academy of Arts and Science, who gave him a gold medal. He was a respected figure in Afrikanerdom who described himself as a staunch Christian. He was a police legend who received seven SAP medals. The Taiwanese government gave him two medals.
Neethling was widely regarded as a brilliant scientist and chemist with two PhDs. But in November 1989 his dark side was exposed, and after that he was often referred to as South Africa's own "Dr Mengele".
The connection to Nazi Germany had another side to it: Lothar Paul Neethling was born in Germany in August 1935 and came to South Africa as one of many German war orphans adopted by Afrikaans couples.
In 1989 Dirk Coetzee, a former commander of the SAP's Vlakplaas death squad, spilled the beans in an interview with the anti-apartheid Afrikaans newspaper Vrye Weekblad.
He spoke in detail about Neethling's reputation as a "genius chemist" who had developed all kinds of "remedies" called "Lothar se doepa" (Lothar's Potion) to use on anti-apartheid activists.
Coetzee said he had visited Neethling at home and in his laboratory to collect "knock-out drops" and toxins which he administered to ANC cadres. (The ANC documented many cases where guerrillas died mysteriously and were later found to have been poisoned.)
Neethling denied it, saying he only did forensic work, and sued Vrye Weekblad for R1 million for defamation. The court case lasted many months.
Apart from Coetzee's evidence, a secret agent of the security forces, Leslie Lesia, testified that he was given some of "Lothar's doepa" to kill ANC activists in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Justice Johan Kriegler accepted Coetzee's version of events, found Neethling had lied in court, and dismissed the claim. Neethling took the judgment to the Appellate Division , where the judges declared they could not determine the truth, because both Neethling and Coetzee probably lied.
In a judgment labelled a blow for press freedom, they found the paper had slandered Neethling. Vrye Weekblad was ordered to pay him R90 000 with costs. This forced Vrye Weekblad to close a month later.
After the shock judgment, a Cape Town prosecutor declared Neethling had once boasted to him how he had developed a potion to mimic a heart attack.
Another policeman said Neethling offered to give him a capsule that he could use to kill ANC leader Tony Yengeni by giving him a heart attack.
During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's hearings on the former government's Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme in 1996, it became clear that Neethling was in fact the one-time mentor of Wouter Basson, the head of that programme who had earned the nickname "Dr Death".
Neethling admitted he had experimented with mind-altering drugs and other concoctions. After the TRC hearings I laid criminal charges of murder, conspiracy to murder, perjury and fraud against Neethling at the Brixton police station. As far as I know, there was never a thorough investigation.
Dirk Coetzee, who maintains his version was correct, said this week Neethling was responsible for the deaths of many opponents of apartheid.
"His death is the best news I've had for years," he said.

[Carsten Wiethoff]

http://www.geocities.com/odjobman/coetzee.htm

It is a book by Coetzee, explaining his background and one specific operation.
Probably more to be found there.

Carsten

[Peter Lemkin]

United States recalled its Ambassador to Sweden in February 1968 in protest to Palme (then Minister of Education) participating in a demonstration in Stockholm against the war in Vietnam. In 1972 relations between Sweden and the United States were frozen for over a year after a speech by Palme (PM) comparing the US bombings of Hanoi to other atrocities such as the bombing of Guernica and extermination of Jews at Treblinka. The U.S government called this a “gross insult”. Asked about Palme, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once answered that he usually disliked the people he agreed with and liked the people he disagreed with, adding dryly: “So Palme, I liked – a lot”. Olof Palme is also remembered for his engagement in liberation of oppressed people in third world countries (South Africa, Nicaragua, Palestine, El Salvador etc.) and his harsh criticism of the Franco Regime in Spain, apartheid in South Africa. One of his most memorable visits was with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

http://secretswede.net/swedish/in-memory-of-olof-palme/

Palme may have been a genuine thorn in Their side. In which case, plenty have motive for wanting rid.

The list above is a pretty good summary IMO of why he was X'd. Of course it had to be made to look false-flag and lone-nut. As to the when a 'last straw', hard to say with precision, but he was long in the 'sites' of a gun! Well before Iran-Contra was public in any way Palme learned about Bofors [Swedish arms manufacturer] supplying a shadowy network with very sophisticated arms and was about to go public with it - he never got the opportunity. I'll try to locate the article [in Danish] by Henrik Kruger on Palme, a very good Danish Deep Political researcher [he wrote a book called The Great Heroin Coup; Drugs, Intelligence, & International Fascism, in English]. I once did a translation of his article, but is on a crashed hard drive. The style of the cover-up followed the pattern we know well from Dallas, Memphis and Los Angeles et al. A group of ultra-right police intelligence officers in the Norrmalm area of Stockholm played a role in the events and in the cover-up, IMO. The same general group may also have had some overlap with the stabbing of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in Stockholm. Sept. 11, 2003. Not known to many is that while officially 'neutral' during WW2, there were large and important sectors of the Swedish elites that favored the Axis Powers, and helped arm and supply them. :flute:

[Helen Reyes]

Not known to many is that while officially 'neutral' during WW2, there were large and important sectors of the Swedish elites that favored the Axis Powers, and helped arm and supply them. :flute:

Including Sweden's SEB bank, Svenska Enskilda Bank (sp?), whose levers and debt defaults in Latvia are threatening the financial stability of the EU right now.

Is there any connexion between Palme and the attempted assassination of Kurt Waldheim?