From: Ralph McGehee Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy Subject: CIA Ops in Tibet, Sudan and Cuba Message-ID: /* Written 9:16 AM Jan 1, 1997 by rmcgehee in igc:alt.pol.org.ci */ /* ---------- "CIA Ops in Tibet, Sudan and Cuba" ---------- */ "Western intervention in the affairs of other civilizations is probably the single most dangerous source of instability and potential global conflict in a multi-civilizational world." S. Huntington, 1996. NEW CIA COVERT OPERATIONS It appears that former DCI John Deutch is getting his wish and the CIA is conducting or escalating yet another paramilitary and political action operation, this time in Tibet. The CIA also runs paramilitary operations in The Sudan, Libya, Iraq and probably many others. In Tibet, it appears that the Agency is using the cover of Fulbright Scholarships that will be soiled by the presumed or real linkage to the Agency. There is also compelling evidence that the CIA has and continues to use the International Committee of the Red Cross to support paramilitary operations. Covert operations against Tibet have been conducted at least since the mid 1950s but they now again appear to be gaining in momemtum. One wonders what the CIA expects to accomplish -- there is no chance of imposing U.S. will over China, it can be upsetting to China but at the cost of many Tibetan lives and damage to U.S. relations with China. The recent information says: A bomb expoded in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on 12/25/96 and marked a violent upturn in the formerly low-key resistance to Chinese rule. A device detonated ouside a government office -- believed to be base for operations against the Tibetan movement. A Chinese radio broadcast said it was "an appalling act of terrorism" and "yet another counterrevolutionary bombing staged by the Dalai clique." The London-based "Tibet Information Network," said Chinese authorities were caught off guard by the explosion. This is the third bomb known to have been detonated this year. Washington Times 12/30/96 A13. Earlier it was reported that China jailed a Tibetan music expert touring the Himalayan region on a U.S. scholarship for 18 years for spying. Ngawang Choephel, was traveling as a Fulbright scholar to "produce a documentary about traditional music and dance." He confessed to having been sent to Tibet by the Dalai Lama clique on behalf of a foreign country to conduct espionage -- in a thinly veiled references to the United States. Washington Times 12/28/96 A5. Another citation re Choepel said confessed to (spying) on behalf of an unnamed country. Choepel had studied and taught at Middlebury College in Vermount from 93-94 on a U.S. government-sponsored Fulbright scholarship. He was affiliated with the Tibetan Institute for the Performing Arts in Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama's government is based. Washington Post 12/28/96 A19. Other indications of U.S. support for operations in Tibet are: A group of marchers trekking seven hours a day from the Chinese embassy in Washington to New York City. The walk was sponsored by the International Tibet Independence Movement, the U.S. Tibet Committee, the Tibetan Women's Association, and Students of Free Tibet. The group was led by Thubten Jigme Norbu, the Dalai Lama's eldest brother and Palden Gyatso. In 1959, Gyatso organized 500 monks against the Chinese invasion of Tibet's capital. Larry Gerstein, a coordinator of the march for Tibet's independence said, "`We' are not interested in negotiating with China, we're interested in a free and independent Tibet." The Progressive 5/96 16. (Comment: In 1956 the American Society for a Free Asia, a CIA front organization, sponsored a U.S. lecture tour by Thubten Norbu. Prados, J. (1986). Presidents' Secret Wars 154). Radio Free Asia (RFA) started broadcasting to China 9/30/96. RFA, which eventually intends to also broadcast to Tibet, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam, is the result of the U.S. International Broadcasting Act of 1994 (PL 103-236, title III): "the continuation of existing U.S. international broadcasting, and the creation of a new broadcasting service to people of the People's Republic of China and other countries of Asia, which lack adequate sources of free information and ideas, would enhance the promotion of information and ideas, while advancing the goals of U.S. foreign policy." (sec. 302(4). 100662.3356 compuserve.com 9/30/96. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a CIA surrogate, is also active re Tibet (as it is in approximately 90 other countries). A NED grant to the Tibet Fund of $35,420 to distribute cassettes, videotapes and booklets on Democracy in Tibet, and among Tibetan exile communities in India and Nepal. National Endowment for Democracy annual report 94 49. NED funded "Tibet Voice," to produce tapes for distribution. Tapes included multiple addresses by the Dali Lama. National Endowment for Democracy Annual Reports 1994 and 1995. A NED grant to the International Campaign for Tibet $25,000 to enhance Chinese knowledge of Tibet by contributing articles about Tibet to newspapers and magazines within China and abroad; to arrange meetings among key opinion makers; and to translate books about Tibet into Chinese. National Endowment for Democracy Annual report 95. The International Campaign for Tibet was involved with a meeting of more than 400 Chinese students, scholars, and prominent Democracy activists who gathered at Faneuil Hall in Boston for the largest meeting ever held between the Dalai Lama and Chinese activists to discuss a democratic future for China and Tibet. Newsletter of NED winter 96. Paramilitary Operation in The Sudan -- the International Committee of the Red Cross Another paramilitary operation, this time in The Sudan, recently escalated and hit the news when in early December 1996 the New York Times reported, a John Early, an American pilot - a four-year veteran of the special forces in Vietnam, with a five-year tour with the Rhodesian air force and 10,000 flight hours as a bush pilot for the Red Cross in Sudan, Somalia and Rwanda, led a Red Cross team that was captured by a rebel group in Sudan. He and his co-pilot were returning five of (CIA-backed rebel leader) Garang's wounded rebels from a field hospital in northeast Kenya to their base 60 miles northeast of Gorgial when ambushed and captured. Congressman Bill Richardson, bribed the rebel leader to release the group. The Red Cross said it suspended its operations in the Sudan after the three workers were captured. New York Times 12/9/06 A1,6. Possibly another indication of the involvement of the Red Cross in clandestine activities was the murder of six Red Cross workers in Chechnya on 12/18/96 probably due to suspicion of spying -- "Slain Red Cross Aides Lived with Danger." A few weeks before the killings armed men robbed the hospital complex and left a note saying that [they] "were spies and hypocrites." New York Times 12/19/96 A1,10. The Washington Post editorialized and said unidentified murderers killed six workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) a Swiss organization partly funded by the United States. Washington Post 12/20/96 A26. Such operations appear similar to the 1980s long-term operation in Pakistan and Afghanistan -- paramililtary operations need huge support mechanisms such as those put together for the massive operation in Afghanistan and in this case apparently used the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organizations to handle the wounded and dying and to conduct general support tasks: USSR, Afghanistan, Pakistan, 81-92 The Regan Administration linked up several countries in its efforts in Afghanistan -- England, Sweden, Germany and France. The Swiss, had a viable operation through the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) that had large hospitals for Afghans in Peshawar and Quetta. The Swedish committee, ran a large medical aid program inside Afghanistan and assistance projects in refugee camps. Little aid at first but five years later, ninety percent of funding came from U.S. through U.N. or USAID. CIA also funding. Covert military aid of CIA was public knowledge, humanitarian aid was almost deep cover. Distribution of humanitarian aid and covert action of CIA frequently became so intertwined that it was difficult to separate them. Gerald Helman, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva coordinated worldwide humanitarian efforts working more for CIA than the State Depaartment. He brought the effort under umbrella of U.N. The French organizations Medicin Sans Frontier (MSF - Doctors Without Borders) set up operations in Peshawar. England's Afghan Aid had government funding in addition to massive amounts from USAID. Several people known connected with MI6, later SIS, British Intel service. Afghan Aid provided everything from medical to agricultural aid. Lohbeck, K. (1993). Holy War, Unholy Victory 89-91 Political Action Operation Aimed at Cuba After a United States "diplomatic" representative was thrown out of Cuba in 1969 for supporting Cuban dissident groups, the U.S. took a different direction in its nearly forty year effort to overthrow Castro's government. This time it apparently must try to subvert through European organizations: U.S. envoy, Stuart Eizenstat, discussed with Europeans creation of a ``Cuban Democracy Fund'' to help independent groups in Cuba. Idea is part of a ``mosaic of measures'' discussed with governments and nongovernmental (NGOS) groups during a swing through Europe. A well-placed U.S. official said ``dozens and dozens'' of suggestions were discussed during Eizenstat's meetings with 18 governments and two or three dozen NGOS. Proposals included a ``code of conduct'' for Europeans investing or doing business in Cuba, not unlike the guidelines that U.S. companies accepted for operating under South Africa's white apartheid regime. The Coordinating Committee for International NGOs wants to participate in programs to strengthen civil society and human rights in Cuba. The International Conferences on Cuba, to be held in Europe and Latin America. Most controversial is the proposal for a Cuban Democracy Fund to help finance civil society programs inside Cuba and underwrite NGO activities in Europe and Latin America regarding Cuba. German government officials seemed less critical of idea, and there may be support for it within the Spanish government. Eizenstat told Europeans the idea for fund came from Oxfam-Canada, a NGO that sponsors community development programs in Cuba and is highly critical of U.S. policies. But Oxfam-Canada's Mark Freid angrily denied this. The proposal was endorsed by the Trans-Atlantic Business Council, a group of 100 top corporate executives from Europe and America, and a Dutch organization representing 85,000 private companies. The Miami Herald 12/29/96. I quoted from Huntington at the beginning of this piece but a fuller citation seems appropriate. A book review in the New York Times Book Review of, THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF THE WORLD ORDER, by Samuel Huntington [one of the fiercest hawks re Vietnam] says the war of ideologies and interests was over. The war of cultures -- Western, Eastern Orthodox, Latin America, Islamic, Japanese, Chinese, Hindu and (possibly) African, had begun. He said Jews lined up with Judeo-Christian heritage of the West. These were the real actors to now watch. Realist analysts of international affairs had neglected these deeply buried religious allegiances during the Cold War. Now, "Western intervention in the affairs of other civilizations is probably the single most dangerous source of instability and potential global conflict in a multi-civilizational world." Western intervention is also useless -- problems, for example, between Islam and Orthodoxy aren't susceptible to Western mediation (differences have existed for centuries). "Core states [must] abstain from intervention in conflicts in other civilizations." Huntington's argument that the West should stop intervening in civilizational conflicts it doesn't understand makes a powerful claim that internationalists cannot easily ignore. When we consider that the CIA surrogate, the National Endoment for Democracy, conducts political action operations in approximately 90 countries; and, that those operations often overlap with the clandestine operations of the CIA, we get an appreciation of the impact of the CIA on the rest of the world. When we consider the CIA's inability to accurately measure the societies of other countries as it blindly implements covert operations, we can better estimate the potential for disaster from this very flawed institution. Ralph McGehee CIABASE