I
Eighty-Six Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104
AMERICAN INTERVENTION:
Funding mercenaries
for
Angola
r,
Wednesday, January 14, 1976
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Spain' sfuture: Upheaval
A NEW round of violence has char-
acterized Spain's painfully slow
disengagement from the Franco era.
Thirty-six years after the Gener-
alissimo's bloody ascension to power,
Spain's political balance has once
again taken the early appearance of
a revolutionary upheaval. Yesterday,
postal workers were driven from Ma-
drid's central telephone exchange
and post office after occupying the
key government buildings in support
of a general strike by nearly 100,000
workers.
The workers, and thousands of
Spanish students allied with them,
are demanding broader civil liberties
and an end to regressive wage con-
trols.
Madrid's industrial unions report-
edly do not have quite enough organ-
ized power to expand their struggle
to other parts of the country, and
the level of the strike appeared to
lessen yesterday after it spilled into
the streets Monday.
AN EXPLOSION damaged a major
Madrid subway line Monday. No
one was injured but eight other
bombs were found, according to the
police.
The anti-government actions will
probably take an increasingly violent
character, a fact that may lead lib-
eral Americans to pause in their sup-
port of such a movement. This re-
sponse would indicate great ignor-
ance of Spain's crisis.
Despite its promise to "hear all
grievances", the government of Juan
Carlos has offered not one shred of
commitment to civil rights or to end-
ing the remarkably unjust wage
freeze - an economic move which
saddles workers with nearly all the
responsibility for ending Spain's 15
per cent inflation spiral.
The demands of students and
workers are legitimate and long ov-
erdue. Like all governments that seek
to indefinitely stall popular move-
ments for change, the Spanish re-
gime will face a winter of violence
until it sheds the grim, trappings of
Fascism.
By MICHAEL CODEL
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (PNS)
- While the U.S. publicly pres-
sures South Africa to withdraw
its regular troops from Angola,
there are signs it is secretly
training a covert force of mer-
cenaries - including South Af-
ricans - to fight there. This
'Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger ad.
mitted in testimony be-
fore the Senate Appro-
priations Committee
Nov. 20 that because
the U.S. gives Zaire aid
and Zaire provides
economic assistance to
the FNLA, the U.S. was
in fact providing "in-
direct subsidies to pro-
U.S. Angolan insur-
gents."
would repeat the pattern of the
mid-1960's when the U.S. fi-
nanced a largely South African
mercenary army to crush a
tribal rebellion for the pro-U.S.
Congolese government.
Reliable diplomatic and con-
gressional sources have told
Pacific News that the intelli-
gence officer who directed
American financing of mercen-
aries in the Congo (now Zaire)
10 years ago has returned to
his old station in Kinshasa,
Zaire--now the base for Ameri-
ca's Angolan activities.
This man could be directing
the recruitment and supply 'of
an army of mercenaries, as he
did in the Congo fighting.
Speculation about such financing
has been widespread since Pres-
ident Ford refused to deny last
week that the U.S. is funding
the training of foreign mercen-
aries for Angola. "We are work-
ing with other countries," Ford
said, "that feel they have an
interest in giving the Angolans
an opportunity to make the de-
cision for themselves, and I
think this is a proper respon-
sibility of the federal govern-
ment."
ZAIRE, A LONGTIME sup-
porter of the pro-U.S. FNLA
(National Front for the Libera-
tion of Angola), clearly has such
an interest. It has given eco-
nomic assistance - to the FNLA
and is reported to have 1,000
of its own troops fighting with
the FNLA in northern Angola.
Secretary of State Henry Kis-
singer admitted in testimony
before the SenateAppropria-
tions Committee Nov. 20 that
because the U.S. gives Zaire
aid and Zaire provides econom-
ic assistance to the FNLA, the
U.S. was in fact providing "in-
direct subsidies" to pro-U.S.
Angolan insurgents.
The question now is whether the
aid is direct, following the pat-
tern of mercenary financing es-
tablished in 1964-66 in the Con-
go.
There we hired an army of
mainly South African mercen-
aries who battled their way
through the Congolese bush to
defeat the Simba tribe, which
threatened to break away from
the Congo. The Simbas - ma-
chete-wielding tribesmen in the
northeastern Congo who had
lined up with the Soviet-backed
government of Lumumba be-
fore he was overthrown - were
supported by Cuban advisers
and Czech arms.
LOGISTICAL support for the
mercenaries was provided by
COMISH, the United States Mili-
tary Mission to the Congo, in
the form of C-130 air transport
supplies and electronic commun-
AP Photo
SOME OF SEVEN white mercenaries and Malayan soldiers of the UN Congo force, arrested in
Katanga sit with their weapons in the back of the truck that took them to Leopoldville. Such US-
funded mercenaries may soon appear in the Angola conflict according to informed sources.
ications.
Technically, the mercenaries
were the Fifth Mechanized Brig-
ade of the Congolese National
Army (ANC), and the Congo,
then ruled by Katangan ex-se-
cessionist Moise Tshombe, was
a congressionally . approved re-
cipient of American military aid.
Thus, officially, we were pay-
ing the Congolese National
Army, which happened to have
an all-white brigade on its ros-
ters.
The mercenaries, assisted on
the ground by a Congolese bri-
gade and in theaair by COMISH,
successfully ended the Simba re-
bellion in 1965. A small band
of Simbas managed to hide in
the hills around Lake Tangan-
yika, forgotten until last sum-;
mer when they kidnapped-and
later released - four American
and Dutch students.
The scenario of 1964-66 seems
repeatable today. Funds ear-
marked for Zaire or left in the
"pipeline" for U.S. covert op-
erations in Angola could be laun-
dered through President Mobutu
for a mercenary force within
the Zaire army to be sent in
on the side of the FNLA; or
Mobutu co-ld simply finance
the training of mercenaries by
the Angolans themselves.
MERCENARIES have been
active in other African wars-
including the Biafran conflict
Howlin' Wolf passes on
and the Portuguese colonial
wars - and the kind of men
who made up the Fifth Mech-
anized Brigade (commonly
known as 5 Commando) can be
found anywhere. The proximity
of South Africa and Rhodesia
to Angola makes those coun-
tries, now as then, prime re-
cruiting grounds.
[ichael Codel, a former As-
sociated Press correspondent in
Kinshasa, Zaire and associate
edit or for African economic af-
fairs of Business Europe, bas ai-
thored two books on African
affairs and -written widely in
the American press.
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G)6 w1Lu-COWO.
OWLIN' WOLF, a patriarchal fig-
ure in the pantheon of American
blues, died relatively unheralded last
weekend. It's unfortunate that so
great a musician and so important
a figure ,in the evolution of popular
music is not widely known at the
time of his death.
Wolf, born Chester Burnett, led a
career that spanned the development
of blues-related music from its start
among the black farm workers of the
rural South to its transformation
into the sounds of such rock groups
as the Rolling Stones and Cream. He
learned to sing and play guitar as a
young man living in the Mississippi
Delta country. In the 30's he worked
for a time as a guitarist accompany-
ing Robert Johnson - the singer
who earned the reputation as the
first father of the blues with the
score or so of songs he had recorded
before his death at the age of 21..
Wolf was drawn to Chicago with
the promise of a market for his mu-
sic. There he switched from playing
acoustic to electric guitar, revolution-
izing blues guitar playing, and he
proceeded to gain popularity among
blues afficionados. He penned a slew
of tunes which have become classics,
including "Sitting' on Top of the
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Gordon Atcheson, Sara Rimer,
Stephen Selbst
Editorial Page: Marc Basson, Michael
Beckman, Stephen Hersh, Tom
Stevens
Arts Page: Kevin Counihan Jeff Sor-
ensen
Photo Technician: Steve Kagan
WE BELIEVE THAT BUSING
IS AN UNDESIRABLE MEANS TO
INTEGRATIONI THERE ARE OTHER
ALTERNATIVES!
- "
World," "Built for Comfort," and
"Little Red Roosters."
4ND JUST A FEW years ago, his
career was capped with some
commercial legitimacy when he ven-
tured to London to record an album
of his most famous songs, backed up
by a band including Eric Clapton,
Stevie Winwood, and two of the Roll-
ing Stones: Bill Wyman and Char-
lie Watts.I
The genre of music of which Wolf
was a prime exponent - rough, raw,
loud urban-style blues - is anything
but complex or intricate. And there
isn't much variety in it. In general,
it's the lyrics and not the music that
differentiates any given blues song
from all the rest, because the musi-
cal pattern is pretty rigid. But that
Wolf could make masterpieces within
the tight strictures of the blues is
quite a testimony to his talent.
Wolf's raspy voice had a tight, au-
thoritative feel, and the tough shad-
ings and nuances he used so effec-
tively are what distinguished his mu-
sic. And just as his songs have been
played by lots of big-name perform-
ers like Clapton, to name one, one
can sometimes hear echoes of his
voice in the singing of such stars as
Dylan and Mick Jagger:
aLUnS IS ONE OF America's in-
digeous art forms, and it's
something we in this country can be
proud of. We don't pay it as much
attention as we shotld.
Editorial positions represent
consensus of the Daily staff.
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Violence and gloom fill Latin America
OH? YOU MEAN LIKE ELIMINATING
SNOB ZONING? AND CREATIVE
SCHOOL REDISTRICTING?
-
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Editor's Note: Compiledr
fron Pacific News Service
dispatches, this piece is de-
signed to provide a survey of
the prevailing moods and
trends in Latin America to-
day.
BUENOS AIRES, ARGEN-
TINA, JAN. 12 (PNS) - While
observers talk of impending
civil war, details of a bloody
battle between leftist guerrillas
and security forces are begin-
ning to emerge. The Dec. 23
confrontation - the largest of,
its kind in the history of Latin
America -- occurred when guer-
rillas attacked the heavily for-
tified Monte Chingolo arsenal
near Buenos Aires.. Government
claims that over 100 guerrillas
were among the 170 dead are
disputed by witnesses who say
bodies were hastily buried after
their hands were cut off for
later identification. They be-
lieve most of the victims were
residents of a nearby slum
where fighting went on all night
after security forces in search-
light-equipped helicopters drove
the attackers out of the arsenal.
Informed sources say only 25
guerrillas died.
let was released last week in
return for what sources here
describe as a "considerable"
ransom.
MONTEVIDEO; URUGUAY-
U.S. arms captured during the
Vietnam war are finding their
way into the hands of leftist
guerrillas here via officials in
the Soviet Embassy, the head
of Uruguay's military govern-
ment has charged. President
Juan Bordaberry is expected to
expel a number of embassy of-
ficials for alleged support of
Communist guerrillas. The
arms were reportedly seized
during a recent wave of armed
forces arrests of suspected
members of the once-legal
Communist party. Two top
members of the party, includ-
ing a former member of Uru-
guay's now dissolved congress,
are now in prison.
TEGUCIGALPA, HONDUR-
AS - Corruption in this coun-
try's right-wing military gov-
ernment has been an explosive
issue since last year's revela-
tions that United Brands paid
$1.25 million to haxe the tax on
bananas reduced. The country
is the poorest in Central Ameri-
ca. Despite a bloodless coup in
the wake of the scandals last
summer, graft and embezzle-
ment apparently continue. Chief
of state Juan Melgar Castro is
calling for a new cabinet and
tough anti-corruption laws
aimed at government officials.
ASUNCION, PARAGUAY -
Poverty is no secret in this
poorest of South American coun-
tries with its predominantly
rural, Indian population. But re-
sults of a major statistical sur-
vey of income distribution by a
government center here were
closely guarded for fear of em-
barrassing the country's 40-year
old military dictatorship. Only
top government officials - and
the U. S. economic mission -
were informed of the figures,,
recently leaked to the press.
Most striking: 82 percent of
Paraguay's rural families sub-
sist entirely on what they pro-
duce, earning no income what-
soever.
CALLAO, PERU - Peru's
Communist party, generally
known for its moderate pro-gov-
ernment stance, has just led
one of the largest strikes here
in recent history. Called to pro-
test the dismissal of 170 mem-
bers of the Communist-led Gen-
eral Workers Confederation
from a factory in this Pacific
Coast port, the - one-day strike
by some 50,000 workers paralyz-
ed banks and industry in both
Lima and Callao.
SANTIAGO, CHILE - While
U. S. firms still hesitate to in-
vest in this country's inflation-
racked economy, a Canadian
company has just bought a ma-
jor stake in developing Chile's.
vast copper deposits. Noranda
Mines Ltd. has purchased a 49
percent-interest in a mixed pri-
vate- and state-owned copper
company that will survey, de-
velop and mine the Andacollo
copper denosit 280 miles north
of Santiago. The agreement is
the first between representa-
tives of the junta and a foreign
company to exploit Chile's cop-
per.
ACTUALLY, WE HAVE IN MIND A
COUPLE OF INSPIRATIONAL
SPEECHES....
Letters to the Daily
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RUMTA tM
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Revolution
To The Daily:.
THE STATEMENT in the
Daily of January 10 that Chair-
man Mao Tse-Tung and Chou
have "let the greatest revolu-
ition. The excesses of the U.S.
government to which the edi-
torial writer objects spring from
our materialistic view of socie-
ty. Most of us who struggled
against the excesses of the U.S.
Government during the McCar-
+hv-nn11e amrlthe Vietnam
Contact your
reps-
Sen. Phillip Ilart (l)em), 253 Russell Bldg., Capitol 11111,
Washington, D.C. 20S15.
Sen. Robert Griffin (Rep), 353 Russell Bldg., Capitol Hill,
I I M '-