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In my June 17 column headlined 'Who first gave them Guns', I suggested that based on the CIA's activities in using covert actions to engineer regime changes thought favourable to the USA in countries across the globe, from Iran (1953), the Congo (1961), Indonesia (1967), Chile (1973), it would have been foolish for anyone to believe that the eruption of gun violence and the rise of the high-powered assault rifle in the period after 1976 to 1980 was without the involvement of the CIA.
At that time Michael Manley saw Fidel Castro, an avowed communist and arch enemy of the USA, as a person with whom he would 'walk to the mountaintop'.
My basic theory was that America could not and would not stand by while little Jamaica in its 'democratic socialist' experiment became another Cuba.
At that time, the conservative Opposition JLP was allied to the USA while the PNP with Manley at its helm was threatening to 'go rogue'.
Last Thursday, Eddie Seaga, former prime minister (1980 to 1989) debunked that theory by stating the following in an article.
"The repetition of that propaganda is intended to imply that the CIA played a role in the JLP victory in the 1980 General Election. This propaganda lost its currency 32 years ago based on Michael Manley's own statement which dispelled all versions of CIA stories in relation to the JLP and the CIA as related in my autobiography, My Life and Leadership. Volume 1:
"An article, 'Dangerous Dishonesty', by Gleaner top investigative columnist Wilmot Perkins on July 8, 1980, disclosed that Michael Manley had admitted in different interviews, including to Newsweek magazine in February 1977, and in an interview on a WIRT Television Florida Forum, according to the January 18 issue of The Gleaner, that government had no evidence of CIA involvement in any attempt to destabilise Jamaica or overthrow the government, and that he had said so publicly and was happy to say that now. The arguments of Agee and others, therefore, were of little substance. Minister of National Security Keeble Munn also told the House of Representatives that 'the Government had never accused the CIA of involvement in the destabilisation activities which took place in Jamaica last year (1976)', contrary to the argument of Philip Agee promoted on JBC and in the Daily News. Munn thought it was, perhaps, the Mafia'."
I must confess that I rather like the last sentence, 'Munn thought it was the Mafia.'
Without getting into too much details about something that neither Seaga nor myself has any hard evidence about, the real question must be, how did the sudden influx of guns come about?
An important question for Mr Seaga is, did the JLP directly supply or in any way support the guns which were in the hands of JLP goons in the period leading up to 1980?
Certainly, Michael Manley, a politician who must have known that his political viability would lead him back towards doing business with the USA would have reason to backtrack on statements he had made earlier. Politicians all over the world do that every day.
Just ask Mitt Romney.
The fact is, in the period in question goons allied to the JLP and the PNP were adequately supplied with firearms, many of them, high-powered rifles. Plus it was always thought that although the PNP outnumbered the JLP gunmen, when it came to ferocity and firepower, the JLP gunmen were tops.
Many years ago Eddie Seaga found in the late JLP don good favour but could not see his son Dudus in the same light.
Why was this so, seeing that both of them were Sunday school teachers? What was it that made one favourable but the other a pariah?
One would have expected more of an answer from so eminent a personage as Eddie Seaga than the really lame, 'Munn thought it was the Mafia.'
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz201bw7AtJ
At that time Michael Manley saw Fidel Castro, an avowed communist and arch enemy of the USA, as a person with whom he would 'walk to the mountaintop'.
My basic theory was that America could not and would not stand by while little Jamaica in its 'democratic socialist' experiment became another Cuba.
At that time, the conservative Opposition JLP was allied to the USA while the PNP with Manley at its helm was threatening to 'go rogue'.
Last Thursday, Eddie Seaga, former prime minister (1980 to 1989) debunked that theory by stating the following in an article.
"The repetition of that propaganda is intended to imply that the CIA played a role in the JLP victory in the 1980 General Election. This propaganda lost its currency 32 years ago based on Michael Manley's own statement which dispelled all versions of CIA stories in relation to the JLP and the CIA as related in my autobiography, My Life and Leadership. Volume 1:
"An article, 'Dangerous Dishonesty', by Gleaner top investigative columnist Wilmot Perkins on July 8, 1980, disclosed that Michael Manley had admitted in different interviews, including to Newsweek magazine in February 1977, and in an interview on a WIRT Television Florida Forum, according to the January 18 issue of The Gleaner, that government had no evidence of CIA involvement in any attempt to destabilise Jamaica or overthrow the government, and that he had said so publicly and was happy to say that now. The arguments of Agee and others, therefore, were of little substance. Minister of National Security Keeble Munn also told the House of Representatives that 'the Government had never accused the CIA of involvement in the destabilisation activities which took place in Jamaica last year (1976)', contrary to the argument of Philip Agee promoted on JBC and in the Daily News. Munn thought it was, perhaps, the Mafia'."
I must confess that I rather like the last sentence, 'Munn thought it was the Mafia.'
Without getting into too much details about something that neither Seaga nor myself has any hard evidence about, the real question must be, how did the sudden influx of guns come about?
An important question for Mr Seaga is, did the JLP directly supply or in any way support the guns which were in the hands of JLP goons in the period leading up to 1980?
Certainly, Michael Manley, a politician who must have known that his political viability would lead him back towards doing business with the USA would have reason to backtrack on statements he had made earlier. Politicians all over the world do that every day.
Just ask Mitt Romney.
The fact is, in the period in question goons allied to the JLP and the PNP were adequately supplied with firearms, many of them, high-powered rifles. Plus it was always thought that although the PNP outnumbered the JLP gunmen, when it came to ferocity and firepower, the JLP gunmen were tops.
Many years ago Eddie Seaga found in the late JLP don good favour but could not see his son Dudus in the same light.
Why was this so, seeing that both of them were Sunday school teachers? What was it that made one favourable but the other a pariah?
One would have expected more of an answer from so eminent a personage as Eddie Seaga than the really lame, 'Munn thought it was the Mafia.'
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz201bw7AtJ
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