Dag Hammarskjöld: evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down

Dag Hammarskjöld: evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down

www.guardian.co.uk

New evidence has emerged in one of the most enduring mysteries of United Nations and African history, suggesting that the plane carrying the UN secretary general, Dag Hammarskjöld, was shot down over Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) 50 years ago, and the murder covered up by British colonial authorities.

The key witnesses were located and interviewed over the past three years by Göran Björkdahl, a Swedish aid worker based in Africa who made the investigation of the Hammarskjöld mystery a personal quest since discovering his father had a fragment of the crashed DC6.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.zambianwatchdog.com

I really would not be surprised if this was the case. The British were really quite hideous in their backing of racist regimes and through their own racist policies during this period of colonization/decolonization of Africa.

The motive- Days before his death Hammarskjöld authorised a UN offensive on Katanga – codenamed Operation Morthor – despite reservations of the UN legal adviser, to the fury of the US and Britain who were backing, along with Western mining companies and mercenaries, a rebellion against the Congolese government

This would have deeply affected the western mining companies operations in the region.

The questions are who was on that second plane? and who ordered the attack?

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

More from the report.

Dickson Mbewe, now aged 84, was sitting outside his house in Chifubu compound west of Ndola with a group of friends on the night of the crash. "We saw a plane fly over Chifubu but did not pay any attention to it the first time," Mbewe told the Guardian. "When we saw it a second and third time, we thought that this plane was denied landing permission at the airport. Suddenly, we saw another aircraft approach the bigger aircraft at greater speed and release fire which appeared as a bright light. "The plane on the top turned and went in another direction. We sensed the change in sound of the bigger plane. It went down and disappeared."

The witness accounts of another plane are consistent with other insider accounts of Hammarskjold's death. Two of his top aides, Conor Cruise O'Brien and George Ivan Smith both became convinced that the secretary general had been shot down by mercenaries working for European industrialists in Katanga. They also believed that the British helped cover up the shooting. In 1992, the two published a letter in the Guardian spelling out their theory.

www.guardian.co.uk...

Sounds pretty compelling that there was some kind of cover-up.

If it is true this is an absolutely horrendous crime committed by the British and whoever else was involved. To kill the Secretary General of the world recognised forum for dealing with conflicts, political problems, humanitarian crises is abhorrent.

Harry S Truman, former U.S. president, said, "Dag Hammarskjold was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said, `when they killed him.'"

www.trivia-library.com...

If their was a conspiracy to kill Dag, surely the CIA would have been involved?

reply to post by Peruvianmonk



From Dag's wiki page - en.wikipedia.org...

On 19 August 1998, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), stated that recently uncovered letters had implicated the British MI5, the American CIA, and then South African intelligence services in the crash.

Happy now?

Any gun could shoot down a plane, people just go around shooting things.
What did they do to his head. Tmz said something about it.
Bab news is always smoothed over.

Another 60s era assassination with possible ties to the CIA.
What a bizarre period that was in history....and certainly not material covered in school history books.

It will be interesting to see what, if any, response there is to this revelation.
Certainly, the US and Britain cannot ignore this evidence.

Originally posted by Peruvianmonk

I really would not be surprised if this was the case. The British were really quite hideous in their backing of racist regimes and through their own racist policies during this period of colonization/decolonization of Africa.

The motive- Days before his death Hammarskjöld authorised a UN offensive on Katanga – codenamed Operation Morthor – despite reservations of the UN legal adviser, to the fury of the US and Britain who were backing, along with Western mining companies and mercenaries, a rebellion against the Congolese government

This would have deeply affected the western mining companies operations in the region.

The questions are who was on that second plane? and who ordered the attack?

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

edit on 17-8-2011 by Peruvianmonk because: To include a question

All I know is from witness accounts there were two survivors to the crash, Dag and an aide. They were both again according to witnesses, summarily executed. The op leader was allegedly Theinius Swanepoel (Roi Rus) who was a merc from South Africa. The investigator was Cecil Margo, whose infamy appears to live on through not only Hammarskjold, but the Reitbok crash and the Helderberg.

This crash and its cause are interesting in that the IMF of the day were apparently using the UN to lever South Africa. It's funny that Anglo American, de Beers, Oppenheimer, the Rothschilds were all very capable of specific political pressure at that time. Anyway, what resulted from the assassination was a "blood fued" between the IMF (using the UN, marxist promotion in neighboring countries and the ANC) and South Africa.

Like I said, it's an interesting case and we'll probably hear a lot more about it. But it's just pieces on a chess board.

Cheers - Dave

Does anyone have any pictures of the crash and aftermath, and any of the characters involved?

Please post them if you do.

Bud Culligan had always claimed that he shot down Hammarskjöld's plane.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

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

Link

reply to post by Beelzebubba


I have never heard of this guy, sounds interesting though.

Is he a raving egotistical lunatic or the real deal?

On the ground Dag was tied to a tree.
Don't think we want any pictures.

Something happend to his plane and the rest of the story
seems not that nice.

I remember that a news story about this came out in the early or mid 1980s. There was some sort of investigation into reports that there was possibly some sort of explosion caused by a bomb or ordnance.

I have always had some interest in the Katanga civil war and the involvement of foreign mercenaries in this war. I remember recently reading quite a bit about this war on a website. The website indicated that the CIA was possibly also involved in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first elected PM of the Congo on Jan 17th, 1961.

www.guardian.co.uk...

I believe their may be a connection between these assassinations in the Congo and the 1963 assassination of a US President. ATS members may be familiar with a "Kennedy Wanted for Treason" poster which was circulated in Dallas the day of the assassination. It contains a mention of Katanga and alleges that Kennedy "betrayed our friends" in Katanga who were secessionists who were protecting Belgian mining companies post Congo independence. The secession involved large numbers of Belgian mercenaries.

1.bp.blogspot.com...

I doubt we will ever know the full story behind these events.

reply to post by bluestreak53


Bud Culligan had always maintained he committed the Lumumba hit...

Namebase

Popular Alienation - Steamshovel Press

Originally posted by Beelzebubba
reply to post by bluestreak53

 

Bud Culligan had always maintained he committed the Lumumba hit...

Some very interesting links there.My interest in this relates to some guys who picked me up hitchhiking the day that Martin Luther King Jr.'s mother was murdered playing organ in church. I'm pretty sure the older guy was a former mercenary in Africa and spoke with a heavy accent. For some reason I thought he had been in Katanga. They threatened first to beat me up, then threatened to kill me, but dropped me off in a quiet industrial part of the city. They claimed to have knowledge of the Kennedy and King assassinations. It was an unforgettable experience. Very scary guys. I think I was lucky.

reply to post by bluestreak53


A link with the Kennedy assasination eh?

How very intriging.

I had never heard of these posters indicting Kennedy on charges of treason. Seems like an anti Catholic, Communist under every rock kind of character.

McCarthy?