G. Edward Griffin - The Fearful Master - PDF Archive

week after the United Nations had launched its unprovoked attack, peace once again
returned to Katanga; its green and white flag still fluttered proudly to proclaim that Katanga
remained free.
The only thing more incredible than the United Nations military action in Katanga is the
way in which it tried to justify that action. If things had gone according to schedule there
would have been little trouble. Press releases would have simply stated that Tshombe had
been replaced by "moderate" Bochely-Davidson and that after a light exchange of gunfire
"secessionist" Katanga had been brought back under the central government. The United
States President would have sent his congratulations to Dag Hammarskjold and State
Department officials would have expressed great satisfaction with this victory over
Communism. But as it turned out, the situation had "escalated," and there were just too
many newspaper reporters willing to make that hundred-mile trek to Northern Rhodesia to
get the true story out to the world. 21
At one point, the UN explained that it had initiated military action at the request of the
central government. An official spokesman elaborated: "The UN motive in complying with
the request was to avoid the alternative--invasion of northern Katanga by central
government troops and a prolonged civil war." 22 In other words, the central Government
was preparing to attack Katanga; but that would have been civil war. Therefore, the UN
attacked Katanga to save the central Government the trouble!
As the fighting spread, it became apparent that the United Nations needed another story.
As a result, it was decided to announce that the UN had nothing to do with starting the
action at all--that it was merely defending itself against Katangese aggression. And so, on
September 16, three days after the United Nations had stated it had initiated the action "at
the request of the central government," Dag Hammarskjold, at a press conference, told
this fantastic story:
In the early hours of September 13th . . . an alert was set since arson
was discovered at the UN garage. As the UN troops were proceeding
toward the garage premises, fire was opened on them from the building
where a number of foreign officers are known to be staying. UN troops
were subsequently also resisted and fired at as they, were deploying
toward key points or while they were guarding installations in the City. 23
In the words of Conor O'Brien, the man who helped plan the attack:
I have no idea what the source for the "arson" statement may be. No
such fire was ever reported by me, or to me, or ever referred to in my
presence. Nor is there any reference to such a phenomenon in the
military "situation report." Some days before, an empty UN vehicle was
upset and damaged by the "spontaneous demonstrators" outside a
garage in the town (properly speaking, there was no "UN garage"). This
incident, the nearest known to me to the "arson alarm," was no longer
present to our minds on the morning of September 13 th . 24
Just for the record, Operation Morthor comes from a Hindi word. Morthor does not mean
"Sound the alarm; there is arson in the garage" or "Let us now assist the authorities to
prevent civil war." It means smash!