EISENHOWER 'ORDERED CONGO ASSASSINATION'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403870002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 7, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403870002-9
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH
7 August 1981
STAT
?i
? ~ n assina on'
By HUGH DAVIE S in New '>i or1F ti
PRESIDENT Eisenhcwer native retarder `method was
personally ordered ahe suggested by the CIA"of shoot-Lumumba -.
-assassination of -.Patrice=-'. powered. with - a high
fd foreign-MA-e, rifle
Lumumba, the pro-Sovdet-.;,with telescopic.-scope'. and
,Congolese leader, 'ti- who $iienoer
vanished in. 1961, according TI All this was considered: in the
to evidence. -about ~ to 'be.,-, wake of. a meeting iof- tha
published_ia_._the. .United United'States'l\TationaI'Security
States. Council, -.which,- according to
.. Lutes. ' . s mysterious :; disc the ,book, was _ Iater"described
anate-osedsel-doect or- oo.sessionmmittes?~.-of a
appearance and presumed death;?S d
has never been.. satisfactorily -S e .'President Eisenhower,,
? pre-
eaplained. sided at the session=which was
.He was last seen stumbling`-
from a plane in EIizabethvilie, '.and by officialstmen: tC I A
Belgian Congo, now Zaire, with.. the State"Departmen.
his eves blindfolded and his ber Robert Johnson;- a -mem-
hands tied behind his back. er of the councils .-staff who
The area, Katanga, now was also present, was quoted as
Shaba, was the domain of his saying: "At some time during
arch enemy, - Moise Tshombe; that'discussiom President Eisen-
and a United Nation's investiga- bower said something-I can no
tion concluded that Tshombe longer- remember phis =e a as s an
had ordered his murder. that came across tome an
It was presumed that he had= order for the assassination of
been killed by Katangese Lumumba.
soldiers and -Belgian mercen- .'The There meeting was simp no` ly"`,mov discuedssion.
aries, possibly -'event -with on.
moment remember quite my-sense-6f
becau that
Tshombe's personal participa-',I
se
lion
statement'came
The Central Intelligence the. President's to me.
-'
Agency stated at the time that as . a great sc In fact, the ,minutes' of the
it had no hand in his death. But -
evidence is given an the meeting contained no . such
directive. Howe that;'. Mr. r the
" Congo Cables," a book written der the
by Madeleine Gelb, 'suggesting son explained d that =unu procedures then iri- effect, an
that the murder may have been,executive order of-that:'-nature
ordered from the White House.-. would either have been omitted I
Details are -given; of4~ the from -the record ?or.-"handled
arrival in .the Con go> of Joe??through some :.kind-=of;-euphe- .
from Paris,'.' a i.code name . for , mism.".
Sidney Gottlieb,--the G I A's ;top,
scientist at -the. time.-.
He came equipped with .e kit
containing -an exotic .rpoison
designed to .,produce. a: fatal.1
disease indigenous Ito: central]
Africa
rh:j
Poison toothpaste.:; 1
'The scientist told the 'C IA's
station chief-in Leopoldville,-
then capital of the Congo, that{
the substance was somehow: to
be slipped into Lumumba'sl
food. or perhaps into his tooth-
paste.
Asked by the CIA agent who
had authorised the assignment,
the scientist indicated.'the book
said. that the order- came from.
"the highest authority"
Pr?L c nt Eisenhower. .?.
While Gottlieb eventually; !
dumned. the, noison, in thq
Con^n river. beraute. it was.l
becoming "unstable,'.', an. alter
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403870002-9