CONTINUING INTERFERENCE

Under a section entitled History of the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States has written:

The United States has carried out intelligence activities since the days of George Washington, but only since World War II have they been coordinated on a government-wide basis. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed New York lawyer and war hero, William J. Donovan, to become first the Coordinator of Information, and then, after the US entered World War II, head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942. The OSS – the forerunner to the CIA – had a mandate to collect and analyze strategic information. After World War II, however, the OSS was abolished along with many other war agencies and its functions were transferred to the State and War Departments. It did not take long before President Truman recognized the need for a postwar, centralized intelligence organization. To make a fully functional intelligence office, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 establishing the CIA. The National Security Act charged the CIA with coordinating the nation’s intelligence activities and correlating, evaluating and disseminating intelligence affecting national security.

On December 17, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act which restructured the Intelligence Community by abolishing the position of Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence (DDCI) and creating the position the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA). The Act also created the position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI), which oversees the Intelligence Community and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)

Under Todays CIA:

The CIA is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior US policymakers. The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) is nominated by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Director manages the operations, personnel, and budget of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The National Clandestine Service (NCS) serves as the clandestine arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the national authority for the coordination, de-confliction, and evaluation of clandestine operations across the Intelligence Community of the United States.

Who We Are:

*    We are an elite corps of men and women shaped by diverse ethnic, educational and professional backgrounds.

*     We conduct our clandestine mission worldwide.

*  We collect actionable human intelligence (HUMINT) that informs the U.S. President, senior policymakers, military, and law enforcement.

*     Core values guide our professional and personal actions.

Our Mission: The mission of the National Clandestine Service (NCS) is to strengthen national security and foreign policy objectives through the clandestine collection of human intelligence (HUMINT) and Covert Action. We are accountable to the U.S. President, Congress and the American taxpayer.

Human Intelligence: Vital information from human sources acquired by Core Collectors of the National Clandestine Service in response to national intelligence requirements.

Core Values: Core values guide our professional and personal actions.

•    Service. We put country first and Agency before self. Quiet patriotism is our hallmark. We are dedicated to the mission, and we pride ourselves on our extraordinary responsiveness to the needs of our customers.

•    Integrity. We uphold the highest standards of conduct. We seek and speak the truth - to our colleagues and to our customers. We honor those Agency officers who have come before us and we honor the colleagues with whom we work today.

•    Excellence. We hold ourselves - and each other - to the highest standards. We embrace personal accountability. We reflect on our performance and learn from that reflection.

Core Collectors: Core Collectors include Operations Officers (OO) and Collection Management Officers (CMO) who have successfully completed the Clandestine Service Trainee (CST) Program. Core Collectors must demonstrate the skills, abilities and personality traits necessary for operating clandestinely worldwide.

On the 31st March 1964, and before, these Core Collectors were demonstrating their skills, abilities and personality traits necessary for overthrowing the then democratically elected government of Brazil. On the night of 31 March, 1964, a military-led coup overthrew Joao Goulart. The coup installed successive right-wing hardliners as heads of state who suspended civil rights and liberties of the Brazilian people. They abolished all political parties and replaced them with only two, the military government's party called the National Renewal Alliance Party (Aliança Renovadora Nacional - ARENA) and the consented opposition Brazilian Democratic Movement (Movimento Democrático Brasileiro - MDB). However, MDB had no real power, and the military rule was marked by widespread disappearance, torture, and exile of many politicians, university students, writers, singers, painters, filmmakers and other artists.

Branco

Goulart

The United States assisted in this military coup d’etat and a brutal right wing military junta headed by Castello Branco was installed. It was strongly supported by the United States. Declassified transcripts of communications between Lincoln Gordon and the US government show that, predicting an all-out civil war, President Lyndon Johnson authorized logistical materials to be in place to support the coup-side of the rebellion. These included ammunition, motor oil, gasoline, aviation gasoline and other materials to help in a potential civil war in US Navy tankers sailing from Aruba. About 110 tons of ammunition and CS gas were made ready in New Jersey for a potential airlift to Viracopos Airport in Campinas. Potential support was also made available in the form of an "aircraft carrier (USS Forrestal) and two guided missile destroyers (expected arrive in area by April 10), (and) four destroyers", which sailed to Brazil under the guise of a military exercise.

In the telegraphs, Gordon also acknowledges US involvement in "covert support for pro-democracy street rallies…and encouragement [of] democratic and anti-communist sentiment in Congress, armed forces, friendly labor and student groups, church, and business" and that he "may be requesting modest supplementary funds for other covert action programs in the near future." The actual operational files of the CIA remain classified, preventing historians from accurately gauging the CIA's direct involvement in the coup.

On March 31, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson shocked the country by announcing at the conclusion of a broadcast address on Vietnam that he would not seek re-election. This was four years, to the day, after he backed the military coup in Brazil.

DO YOU HAVE CLEARANCE?

WHAT PRICE REPRESSION?

ROMBERG PARK MEMORIAL

ROMBERG PARK 

In the last months of the Second World War orders were issued from Gestapo main office in Münster for  a series of mass executions.  The sweep of executions during the final weeks of the war reached its climax in Dortmund, where the Gestapo maintained its head office for the eastern Ruhr. One wave of executions was carried out on the 30^th March 1945 (Good Friday) in a bomb crater near the municipal forest building in Romberg Park. The firing squads, composed of Gestapo and police detective officers, liquidated at least 42 prisoners, including members of a French theatre troupe from Iserlohn accused of espionage. In the week after Easter, also in Romberg Park, another 15 or so prisoners were shot, among them a number of female Eastern workers. Shortly after yet more were shot in the wooded area of Romberg Park.

Shortly after Easter, the 150-strong Gestapo execution commando fled via Hemer and Iserlohn for destinations all over the world. 27 of them were brought to trial in Dortmund in 1951 and 1952. 15 of the accused were found not guilty and no-one was found guilty of murder. However, 12 were found guilty of being accomplices to murder and received between 2 and 6 years in prison.

In its verdict on members of the Dortmund Gestapo, the Dortmund Provincial Court later commented:

The exact number of victims is shrouded in darkness. The horrible deeds were uncovered immediately after Dortmund was occupied…The list indicates that some 230 to 240 men and women were shot in the back of the neck by the Gestapo. Identified victims include members of the Dortmund resistance movement, members of the smaller resistance groups operating in Lippstadt and Meinerzhagen, as well as other German citizens identified by relatives and others. However, the great majority of the victims, according to consistent evidence, were labourers of foreign nationality, principally Russian workers and prisoners of war...

These barbaric acts are not unique in world history. Repressive regimes have used and misused the rule of law to impose their rule and power. After the First World War, the British in India were no exception.

On the 30^th March 1919 Mohandas Ghandi organised resistance against the Rowlatt Act. The Rowlatt Act was a law passed by the British in colonial India in March 1919, indefinitely extending "emergency measures" (of the Defence of India Regulations Act) enacted during the First World War in order to control public unrest and root out conspiracy. Passed on the recommendations of the Rowlatt Committee, named for its president, British judge Sir Sidney Rowlatt, this act effectively authorized the government to imprison for a maximum period of two years, without trial, any person suspected of terrorism living in the Raj. The Rowlatt Act gave British imperial authorities power to deal with revolutionary activities. This is an early example of Anti Terrorism Acts so beloved by Tony Blair and New Labour.

Mohandas Gandhi, among other Indian leaders, was extremely critical of the Act and argued that not everyone should be punished in response to isolated political crimes. The Act led to indignation from Indian leaders and the public, which caused the government to implement repressive measures. Gandhi and others found that constitutional opposition to the measure was fruitless, so on a "hartal" was organized where Indians would suspend all business and fast as a sign of their hatred for the legislation. This event is known as the Rowlatt satyagraha.

Hartal (also hartaal) is a term in many Indian languages for trike action, used often during the Indian Independence Movement. It is mass protest often involving a total shutdown of workplaces, offices, shops, courts of law as a form of civil disobedience. In addition to being a general strike, it involves the voluntary closing of schools and places of business. It is a mode of appealing to the sympathies of a government to change an unpopular or unacceptable decision.

However, the success of the hartal in Delhi, on 30 March 1919, was overshadowed by tensions running high, which resulted in rioting in the Punjab and other provinces. Deciding that Indians were not ready to make a stand consistent with the principle of ahimsa (non-violence), an integral part of satyagraha, Gandhi suspended the resistance.

The Rowlatt Act came into effect in March 1919. In the Punjab the protest movement was very strong, and on April 10, two outstanding leaders of the congress, Dr. Satya Pal and Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, were arrested and taken to an unknown place.

A protest was held in Amritsar, which led to the infamous Amritsar Massacre of 1919. At the Jallianwala Bagh (Garden) in the northern Indian city of Amritsar, on April 13, 1919 (which happened to be 'Baisakhi' one of Punjab's largest religious festivals) fifty British Indian Army soldiers, commanded by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer (pictured) began shooting at an unarmed gathering of men, women and children without warning. The shooting lasted for ten to fifteen minutes, until ammunition ran out. Dyer ordered soldiers to reload their rifles several times and they were ordered to shoot to kill. Official British Raj sources estimated the fatalities at 379, and with 1,100 wounded. Civil Surgeon Dr Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualties; however; the casualty number quoted by the Indian National Congress was more than 1,500, with roughly 1,000 killed.

From here 1600 rounds of bullets were fired by troops on 20,000 innocent people.

Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar

Bullet marks on the walls of the park premises

Accepting the report of the Repressive Laws Committee, the Government of India repealed the Rowlatt Act, the Press Act and twenty-two other laws in March 1922. At least they had to good grace in 1922 to have a Repressive Laws Committee. Perhaps one could be established in 2011 by the Government of Britain. It would seem about the right time. I would suggest in the meantime you stay out of any park during a troublesome demonstration.

  

SOME KIND OF A DAY

The 29th March was not a happy day. You may recall my entries for the 16th March - an equally unhappy day - and the matter of My Lai. Of the 26 officers and soldiers initially charged for their part in the My Lai massacre or the subsequent cover-up, only Lt. William L. Calley Jr was convicted. Indeed, after deliberating for 79 hours, the six officer jury (five of whom served in Vietnam) convicted him on the 29th March 1971, of the premeditated murder of 22 Vietnamese civilians.

Many people saw the actions at My Lai to be  a direct result of the military's attrition strategy with its emphasis on body counts and kill ratios, quite apart from burning down entire villages along the way.

Two years later, to the day, on 29th March 1973, two months after signing the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. troops left Vietnam when Hanoi freed the remaining American prisoners of war. Between 7000 and 8500 U.S. Department of Defence employees (Civilians, embassy guards, defence office solders) remain in South Vietnam to help aid the ongoing battle with North Vietnam.  They were later evacuated in 1975 in the largest helicopter evacuation in history, from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon the day before Saigon fell in April of 1975. The evacuation was not a pretty sight. There are a number of You Tube entries to see.

It was also on the 29th March 1951 that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.The charges related to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

They were the first civilians executed for espionage in United States history. There is and was a great deal of controversy over there prosecution. The case created a great deal of support in Europe were it was argued that the Rosenbergs were victims of anti-semitism and McCarthyism. Jean Paul Sartre called the case "a legal lynching which smears a whole nation with blood". But then the United States is clearly used to that. I am not being anti-American but history does speak for itself.

LESSONS OF HISTORY ?

During the Crimean War (October 1853- February1856) on the 28th March 1854, Britain and France formally declared war on Russia. This culminated in the Treaty of Paris which was signed on the 30th March 1856 at the Congress of Paris. The seeds of the conflict can be laid at the door of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte who had managed by means of a surreptitious coup d’état in 1851 to declare himself Napoleon III Emperor of France, attempting to emulate his uncle Napoleon Bonaparte.

Russian map of the Crimean war

This was on the face of it, a religious war, in that it involved some degree of control over the Holy Land. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. The ramifications of this war and the personalities involved affected the peace of Europe for the next century and into the present day, with killings going on in North Africa and the Middle East. It is what makes history fascinating but apparently we have learned very little by it as the killing continues. However, more of this anon…

As to the 28th March:

01:34 am 28th MARCH 1942 - OPERATION CHARIOT

The St Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a successful British amphibious attack on the heavily defended Normandie dock at St Nazaire , France during the Second World War. The operation was undertaken by the Royal Navy and British Commandos under the auspices of Combined Operations HQ. At 01:34 on 28 March 1942 HMS Campbeltown rammed the dock gate 4 minutes later than planned. The Commandos and ship's crew came ashore under heavy German fire, and set about demolishing the dock machinery. The charges in the Campbeltown exploded at noon, an hour and a half after the latest time that the British had expected them to detonate. Although the ship had been searched by the Germans, the explosives had not been detected. The explosion demolished both the front half of the destroyer and the 160-ton caisson of the drydock, with the rush of water into the drydock washing the remains of the ship into it. The St. Nazaire drydock was rendered unusable for the rest of the war, and was not repaired until 1947.

German and some French civilian casualties were over 360 dead, mostly killed after the raid when Campbeltown exploded. 169 of the raiders were killed (64 commandos and 105 sailors) out of the 611 men in the attacking force. Of the survivors, 215 were captured and 222 were evacuated by the surviving small craft. A further five evaded capture and travelled overland through France to Spain and then to Gibraltar.

To recognise their bravery, 89 decorations were awarded to members of the raiding party, including five VC's. After the war St Nazaire was one of 38 battle honours awarded to the Commandos; the operation has since become known as The Greatest Raid of All.

The whole of the documentary can be watched on You Tube.

On the 28th March 1930 the names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were  changed to Istanbul and Ankara. 

Names of Istanbul

Bysantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον, Byzántion) is the first known name of the city. Around 660 BC, Greek settlers from the city-state of Megara founded a Doric colony on the present-day Istanbul, and named the new colony after their king, Byzas. After Constantine I (Constantine the Great) made the city the new eastern capital of the Roman Empire in 330 AD, the city became widely known as Constantinopolis or Constantinople, which, as the Latinised form of "Κωνσταντινούπολις" (Kōnstantinoúpolis), means the "City of Constantine". He also attempted to promote the name Nea Roma ("New Rome"), but this never caught on. Constantinople remained the official name of the city throughout the byzantine period, and the most common name used for it in the West until the establishment of the Republic of Turkey.

By the 19th century, the city had acquired a number of names used by either foreigners or Turks. Europeans often used Stamboul alongside Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, but Turks used the former name only to describe the historic peninsula between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara. Pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu which is still in use today.

However, with the Turkish Postal Service Law of 28 March 1930, the Turkish authorities formally requested foreigners to adopt İstanbul, a name in existence since the 10th century, as the sole name of the city within their own languages.

Etymologically, the name "İstanbul" derives from the Medieval Greek phrase "εἰς τὴν Πόλιν" [is tin ˈpolin] or, in the Aegean dialect, "εἰς τὰν Πόλιν" [is tan ˈpolin] (Modern Greek "στην Πόλη" [stin'poli],  which means "in the city" or "to the city". In modern Turkish, the name is written "İstanbul", with a dotted İ, as the Turkish alphabet distinguishes between a dotted and dotless I. Also, while in English the stress is on the first syllable ("Is"), in Turkish it is on the second syllable ("tan"). 

CHANGE IN JACKSON MISSISSIPPI

FIFTY YEARS ON

On the morning of the 27th March 1961 nine students from Tougaloo College, about 8 miles north of the centre of Jackson, Mississippi, entered the main branch of the

Janice Jackson, Evelyn Pierce and Ethel Sawyer under arrest.

Jackson Public library. They looked through the card catalogue, took books off the shelves and sat at tables and began to read. The police were called. When they arrived they ordered the students to go to the "black library', the George Washington Carver Library which was the substandard branch for the black citizens of Jackson. The students refused to leave, were arrested and held for over thirty-two hours.

This simple action set off a number of protests, including a student boycott of classes at Jackson State University, and demonstrations in front of the court house where the students went on trial. The police charged the crowd and set dogs loose. In the crowd amongst demonstrators who were beaten that day was  Medgar Evers, who was shot and killed outside his home two years later.

Medgar Evers

Much has changed in Jackson Mississippi since that day. The old library building is now part of a Civil Rights Tour now taken by tourists across the city.

The main library building is now the Eudora Welty Branch. There is now a Medgar Evers Branch of the Library on Medgar Evers Boulevard.

Medgar Evers Branch

There are various branches now named after a number of black Americans including the writer Richard Wright.

It is quite a turn around from the police setting dogs on the black citizens of Jackson Mississippi 50 years ago today. Were are the Tougaloo Nine now?

And also:

On that same morning of the 27th March 1961, Paul Robeson was found in the bathroom of his Moscow hotel suite after having slashed his wrists with a razor blade following a wild party that had raged there the preceding night. His blood loss was not yet severe, and he recovered rapidly. However, both the raucous party and his suicide attempt remain unexplained, and for the past twenty years the US government has withheld documents that hold the answer to the question: Was this a drug induced suicide attempt? An interesting episode. You can watch parts 2 and 3 here, but part 1 might be a You Tube page on its own.

CATCH UP

I have been away. An attempt was made to join the happy campers with the hire of a Renault St. Michel camper van, cosily referred to as a motorhome. The weather was fantastic, if a bit nippy, and the views across Dartmoor are terrific. The campsite, for those interested, was very classy, near Whiddon Down, just off the A30 and is called Woodland Springs. No one under 18 is allowed on the site. Tee hee. As a result, very peaceful, and at this time of year, uncrowded. The facilities are such that there was no need to use the very cramped combination shower and chemical toilet situated at the rear of the van; however, the sleeping space is not good. Once the seating is folded out to form the bed, there is no room to do anything. It's hard as nails. To say that I ache all over is an understatement. Nonetheless it was an enjoyable, if not to be repeated experience. Much was learned. This is the object of adventure.

MISSING DAYS - 
In Nanterre near Paris on 22nd March 1968, things began to happen. Nanterre University, a large new campus built to cater for the increased influx of foreign students, erupted, when on the 22nd March eight students broke into the Dean's office as a way to protest at the recent arrest of six members of the National Vietnam Committee. Among these was a sociology student by the name of Danny Cohn-Bendit. He had been part of a group who organised a strike of 10,000 students in November the previous year as a protest against overcrowding. Six days after the occupation of the Dean's office the police were called in and the campus was surrounded. 500 students inside the college divided into discussion groups. Sociology students began to boycott their exams and a pamphlet was produced entitled 'Why do we need sociologists?'. The students called for a lecture hall to be permanently made available for political discussions. From then on the 22nd March movement grew into what became know as The May Revolution of 1968, of which more later. But Cohn-Bendit was back on 22nd March 2010:

On the 23rd March 1976, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) came into force. The ICCPR is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966.  It commits its parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial. As of December 2010, the Covenant had 72 signatories and 167 parties. It only took ten years to come into force, but that's pretty quick, considering the diversity of countries required to ratify any UN multilateral treaty.

The 23rd March was the day in 1957, when the United States Army sold the last of its homing pigeons.

During World War II, the United Kingdom used about 250,000 homing pigeons. The Dickin Medal, which is the highest possible animal's decoration for valour, was awarded to 32 pigeons, including the United States Army Pigeon  G.I. Joe and the Irish pigeon Paddy. This is important to note because on the 24th March, 1943, G.I.Joe, a pigeon noted for his service in the United States Army Pigeon Service, was born in Algiers.

G.I. Joe saved the lives of the inhabitants of the village of Calvi Vecchia, Italy, and of the British troops occupying it. The village was scheduled to be bombarded by the Allied forces on 18 October 1943, but the message that the British had captured the village, delivered by G.I. Joe, arrived just in time to avoid the bombing. Over a thousand people were saved.

In November 1946, G.I. Joe was presented the Dickin Medal for gallantry by the Lord Mayor of London. After World War II, he was housed at the U.S. Army's Churchill Loft at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey along with twenty-four other heroic pigeons. He died at the Detroit Zoological Gardens at the age of eighteen, and is mounted and on display at the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Museum at Fort Monmouth.

And on the 24th March 1944, 76 Allied Officers escaped from Stalag Luft Three, known as the Great Escape. It was in the German Province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan (now Żagań in Poland), 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Berlin. on Friday, March 24, the escape attempt began and as night fell, those allocated a place in the tunnel moved to Hut 104. Unfortunately for the prisoners, the exit trap door of Harry was found to be frozen solid, and freeing the door delayed the escape for an hour and a half. An even larger setback was when it was discovered that the tunnel had come up short. It had been planned that the tunnel would reach into a nearby forest but at 10.30 p.m., the first man out emerged just short of the tree line and close to a guard tower. (According to Alan Burgess, in his book The Longest Tunnel, the tunnel reached the forest, as planned, but the trees were too sparse to provide adequate cover.) As the temperature was below freezing and snow still lay on the ground, any escapee would leave a dark trail while crawling to cover. Because of the need to now avoid sentries, instead of the planned one man every minute, the escape was reduced to little more than ten per hour. Word was eventually sent back that no prisoner issued with a number higher than 100 would be able to escape before daylight. As they would be shot if caught trying to return to their own barracks these men changed into their own uniforms and got some sleep. An air raid then caused the camp's (and the tunnel's) electric lighting to be shut down slowing the escape even more. At around 1 a.m., the tunnel collapsed and had to be repaired.Despite these problems, 76 men crawled through the tunnel to initial freedom. 

On the 25th March 1969, Alan Mowbray, actor died. He was one of the best character actors in Hollywood. May he be long remembered. Here he is with Victor Mature and Henry Fonda in john Ford's My Darling Clementine.

On the 26th March 1827 Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna, and on the 26th March 1874, the poet Robert Frost was born in San Francisco. Frost was 86 when he spoke and read some of his poetry at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy on January 20th, 1961. Both he and Kennedy were to die two years later in 1963. On Frost's 18th Birthday, 26th March 1892, the then grand old man of American letters, Walt Whitman died. Frost like the late John Betjeman, was a popular and oft-quoted poet, using rural American settings in his poems to examine social and philosophical themes. He first published in 1894 and during his lifetime received four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. Kennedy was a great fan.
  

Robert Frost……………..………..…………….Walt Whitman