The 28th February has quite a pedigree. On this day in 1951, the Kefauvre Committee, a.k.a. the U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organised Crime in Interstate Commerce, issued its second interim report. It concluded that 'Organised Crime does exist'.
It states:
"It cannot now be denied, as will appear more fully later in the report, that the doubt which originally existed in the minds of many intelligent and careful persons as to whether crime is organized in the United States was in great measure deliberately planted there. It was created by criminals who have vast resources and incalculable power. They have amassed and hoarded tremendous wealth out of the proceeds of their criminal activities and with it they have sought to purchase respectability so that the true nature of their operations would not become known. They have insidiously cultivated the association of persons whose integrity and character are unquestionable. They have sought membership in social clubs and other organizations where they might acquire the status of respectability in their respective communities. They have been lavish in their gifts to charity and they have publicly promoted philanthropies, all in. an effort to hide their crimes behind the shielding cloak of respectability.
And to carry out this fiction, in many cases they have invested in legitimate businesses so that they could always point to these false fronts and claim that they were no longer engaged in crime in the event that a question might ever be raised as to their former criminal associations. Nor was this situation confined to any one particular community or State. It was an open secret in the State of Florida, one of the Nation's best-known playgrounds, where at certain seasons of the year affluent Americans from all parts of the country would gather for their vacations, presumably well provided with money and seeking excitement, that criminals from Chicago had moved in during the early pert of 1949 and were attempting to take control of the largest and most lucrative bookmaking operation in the entire State.
It was no secret in the State of Florida at the same time that a criminal gang basing its operations in New York and northern Now Jersey had taken control of the largest gambling casinos in Florida and New Jersey and were mulcting millions of dollars out of these gambling games from anyone who would play."
Various other matters became apparent:
It was no secret that these operations could not continue without the protection of police and with the connivance of local authorities. Yet when this committee, as one of its first official acts, wrote a letter of inquiry to municipal heads and law-enforcement officers in the States of Florida and Missouri, among others, asking for information on the subject, the reply was virtually unanimous that there was no serious crime problem whatsoever, not even in the Miami-Miami Beach area where gambling was so open and notorious as to be a stench in the public nostrils.
It was no secret in the State of Missouri, and particularly in Kansas City, that the State government and its administration had narrowly escaped falling under the control of gangsters with criminal affiliations in the election of 1948.
It was no secret in New York and in the counties of New Jersey directly across the Hudson from America's biggest city that the most notorious hoodlums in Manhattan were operating a chain of gambling houses that showed, conservatively, profits of from five to ten million dollars a year.
It was no secret in Chicago that the head of a Nation-wide wire service which furnished news of horse racing over leased wires from one corner of the country to the other was ambushed and shot after a lengthy dispute with a gang of criminals who were trying to take over control of this lucrative service.
It was no secret that this man had been threatened with death if he did not cut the organized mob in. He died because he fought the gang; after his death the mob took over and again, that was that.
It was no secret to the newspapers of the United States during the year 1949 that from time to time meetings of notorious characters with police records would be held in various places, preferably resorts like Miami Beach, Hot Springs, Ark., Phoenix, Ariz., and others.
They looked for answers:
What brought about this public state of mind that approached almost respect for these underworldcharacters? Why were they permitted to proceed with the organization and integration of their criminal activities throughout the country?
Frank Costello ……………………………. Richard Nixon
Francesco Castiglia a.k.a. Frank Costello was a New York City gangster who rose to the top of America's underworld, controlled a vast gambling empire across the United States and enjoyed political influence. He was nicknamed the Prime Minister of the Underworld and became one of the most powerful and influential Mafia bosses in American history. He died of a heart attack at a Manhattan hospital in 1973 at the age of 82.
Richard Nixon, was a Yorba Linda California politician, who rose to the top of the America's political world, and controlled a vast political machine across the United States and enjoyed underworld influence. He was nicknamed Tricky Dicky and became one of the most infamous Presidents of the United States, on the verge of impeachment he was forced to resign.
He suffered a debilitating stroke in 1994 and died at the age of 81.
He did however, during the course of his presidency, manage to travel to China and together with Henry Kissinger, China's Premier Zhou Enlai and others on the
28th February 1972 issued the
Shanghai Communiqué
Kissinger, Nixon, Zhou Enlai & ors
For its part China stated (inter alia) in paragraph 6 of the communique:
Wherever there is oppression, there is resistance. Countries want independence, nations want liberation and the people want revolution--this has become the irresistible trend of history. All nations, big or small, should be equal: big nations should not bully the small and strong nations should not bully the weak. China will never be a superpower and it opposes hegemony and power politics of any kind. The Chinese side stated that it firmly supports the struggles of all the oppressed people and nations for freedom and liberation and that the people of all countries have the right to choose their social systems according their own wishes and the right to safeguard the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of their own countries and oppose foreign aggression, interference, control and subversion. All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries…..
The United States for its part stated amongst other things in Paragraph 7:
Peace in Asia and peace in the world requires efforts both to reduce immediate tensions and to eliminate the basic causes of conflict. The United States will work for a just and secure peace: just, because it fulfills the aspirations of peoples and nations for freedom and progress; secure, because it removes the danger of foreign aggression. The United States supports individual freedom and social progress for all the peoples of the world, free of outside pressure or intervention. The United States believes that the effort to reduce tensions is served by improving communication between countries that have different ideologies so as to lessen the risks of confrontation through accident, miscalculation or misunderstanding. Countries should treat each other with mutual respect and be willing to compete peacefully, letting performance be the ultimate judge. No country should claim infallibility and each country should be prepared to reexamine its own attitudes for the common good…..
How far has China come in meeting its statement that it will "never be a superpower and it opposes hegemony and power politics of any kind", and what of the United States's infallibility?
As to sieges, on the 28th February 1993, what became known as the Waco siege began.
The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located nine miles (14 km) east-northeast of Waco, Texas. On February 28, shortly after the attempt to serve the warrant, an intense gun battle erupted, lasting nearly 2 hours. In the aftermath of this armed exchange, four agents and six followers of David Koresh were killed. Upon the ATF's failure to execute the search warrant, a siege was initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The siege ended 50 days later when a second assault on the compound was made and a fire destroyed the compound. Seventy-six people (24 of them British nationals) died in the fire, including more than 20 children, two pregnant women, and Koresh himself.
I'm not sure what all of this means, but one can find parallels in the most unlikely places.
On a happier note today 28th February is the birthday of Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Joseph Stalin is 85 today.
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