cC05096288 Approved For Release 2007 /0~2f'J:~\A~\)Yt%498ROOOrD0_0_0_1 0-1-6-9--6_.;....._ _____ __, '

ARTICLE } .. .t'PEA.RED ON PAGE ~Q "1..{_3

THE WASHINGTON MONTHLY July/August 1980

and he said, 'Lers ~o to · Kata11:ga'

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Th~ flight, in a seasoned four-engme \ propeller plane, took nearly 30 hours, At the ti~e, the Katanga trip sèemed including stopovers ·in f\lgiers and Knno, . merely a bJzarre adventure somethino­

The cast of chaïacters at Kinshasa's Nigeria. The stopover in Algiers was mem- worth telling about back in T~nnessee .. Bu~ .l:)y· Jan Knippers Bla~k

Intercontinental Hotel was worthy of orable because it set the tone for the entire as the ye~rs went by 1 became more and Graham Greene: mission aries and. merce- ad,ierin1re;. The- plane was surrounded by more .cun~ùs about the intrigue in wliich I : i1aries, newsmen and con men, diplomatie l surly policemen who kept their machine had _be~n mvolve,d. A State Department' troubleshooters ançl Middle East oil mag- . guns poii1ted at the cabin door, and we 1 of_fi~Jalm Hong Kongtold !TIC Seven Seas . 11ates. Encountering thismotley ~::ollection \ \:er~ riot ·allowed to disembark. The front j AirJmes re~!ly had be_en wbrki~g for the in Zaire so!Tle months ago, I had a pow~r- l sec_ t1~n of the plane, filled with crates of 1 Umted NatiOns. A busmessman m Moroc­ful sense of deja vu. In many ways, it was a howlmg dogs, adqed a touch ofsurrealism. co t~ld me Seven Seas really had been r~plax.. of a scene in which l had ~ppea!ed I don't remember · wh y· the dogs werc . workmg for Tshombe. And th en I ran; nearly 2Q years earlier as a perplexed walk- aboard. I'f!I not sure any body knew. : ~c:os_s. the. son, of the man . who had i on. Act ors. and scripts may change, but My introduction tÇ> the complex conflict Identlfled lwn_se,f to me as the manager of , roles and plots se~m to rernain the·same, in the Congo began at the Elizabethville Seven Seas .. fhe s~n ~onfirmed what I;

( confirmlng for me that the United States is ' airport, where we were met by United already suspected: h1s father, now re ti red,' congênita\ly incapable of learning any- :Nations troops. Th~ soldiers were fair- was a career CIA officer. J3oth Interconti- : thing from past experience. . haired and pink-cheèked confused and nental and _Seven Seas had belonged to the

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In the summer of 1961, a naiye 21-year- o'bviously frighterÏed Eur~pean· boys eve;n CIA, he satd, an~ on th at ciccasiol}- in 1961 : old woman from rural Tepnessee vaga- younger than I was. They were full of Seven Seas had mdeed been under overt : bonding acr?~s Europe, 1 stumbled up_on. a nor~or st?ries about ~uns _being chopped charter to the U .N.,but covertly-without: 1

nest of Amencans at the Ho tel Dolphm m to p1eces m broad dayhght m the middle of the knowl~~ge even of most State Depan-:

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Luxembourg. They turried out to be the the city. This gave me pause, but I was stiJl n~ent offJcJals-had been put at the :' manag~r~ and crewmen of two_ non.,sched- a~~_ious tÛ'get out into the countryside. M~~ d:sposal . of T~~ombe. He recall~~ ~Y. uled a!rlmes called lntercontme~tp.~ and a1rhne posts, ]1owever,.kel(_~ me on a short e:,Capade, he sa1d the U.S. authont1es m 1 Seven _s;as. F_or severa!_ da ys, l sat m the leash. I ~hought our hotel-the Leopold,~ Ka~a~g~ ~~d' been mu ch embarassed by, Dolphm s ba~ at cockta1l ho~r. ent~anc.eq busy but elegant arid unfrenzied place- their mab!lJt) to tellTsh_ombe who I was, \ by the spectacle ?f th~ cr~ws staggénng m,; was ~ltogether too sa fe to be interesting. It · and, aft:r my unaJJthonzed departure, 1! .. ~otter th an a p1stol m Smgapor~today, was blowri up a few weeks lat er. · . · was declared persona non grata. !·

they would say. Or: "Y ou hav.en'~. se~h a ~ The first probl~m arose. when we made J mob s~e!le un til you ve ~een Ca1ro. fmal- ready_ to.leave. EltzabethvJlle. There were .i1 ly, one of t~e Se'ven Seas CCl-pilots, a~used . few flights out of the country (planes had a . . ! atmy~ide~yeqwonder,turnecpomeahd habit ohtinning·jnto bullets on take-off) Et Tu, Mobutu?· ; as~ed tf l'd hketo go to Kat~n~a ... Sure," 1 land there_ was a long list of whitès waiting sa1d. "Where·s than" . · . desperately to get out. I had no ticket and In May 1978, the Congo...Sno'v Zaïre-....: .

They told me, more or !f!SS, but time was ·nci_apparent reason for being there in the and its secessionist province, Katanoa­sqort and there wei-e things to do. l was ~rst place. This brought me to the atten- ~ow Shaba-were once agai~ in the h~ad­rushed intq Brussels for a "isa and a yellow hon of the local troops working for MoiSe ~mes. Lund a _ and Baluba tnbesmen bad fever sl!ot, back-dated. 1 asked abo\.lt a Tsho.mbe, who controllëd-the breakaway ~nv~de_d Shaba'!'a.nd from the crv.thatwent ticket. No problem, they sa id; I would be a provmce of Katanga, and they treated me t m ~he Wh! te House_ y ou m1ght have : gu est cif the airlïrie. This is ~errific, 1 with; suspicion. 1 learned ·th at 1 was to be

1 . - 0?gh~ they_ were marchmg on A~Janta. A · ·thought. N9body bothered to tell me there· detamed. At the last minute, the Seven ~::::ll~~nvasiOn ofShaJ;a the prevJOus ye~r wàs a war going on in Katanga. . . Seas crew found me a stewardess uniform \V . ~ed ~ardly a ~1pple ?f concen; m

. . . and put me abmird the plane. I played my i. an~m!:!ton. Why should t_hiS la test tnbal . role gratefully, spilling coffee and wind all ! co_n_ tct m _the h~art. of Afnca be se.en as a

over the passengers cin the 30-hour trip 1 cns•s for the Umted States? back to Lu~embourg. , · / · · .