REMEMBERING MALCOLM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650020-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: February 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

1 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 :CIA-RDP90-009658000402650020-6
ntaTlr~F ~PPEAREQ ~'~
,, .. ~ n ,:
~:~ ~':~~~ ?' `~ 26 February 1985
say Mai Hentoff .
It was before A4alcolm X's picture had
been in the white press. ,Indeed, very lit-
tle about Elijah Muhammad's Lost-
Found Nation of Islam had appeared in
the white media when I first went to see
A4alcclm in the mid-1y50's. I knew some-
thing of the Black Muslims because I
read the black press and because a n~im-
her of jazz musicians had been talking
about the growing, disciplined ranks of
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's
straight backed legions. And they had
been talking about this tall, lean prince
of the Nation of Islam, this Malcolm X,
who was one hell of a soloist.
I had never seem Malcolm afraid be-
fore. Ihad never seen any fear in him.
But fear was in him that afternoon. He
told me he did not ezpect to live much
longar. And the last thing he said. to me,
"Whatever happens, it won't be Elijah."
He didn't say any. more. What I
thought he meant then, and what I still
' 1? he meant was that the CIA. had_
targeted him. ~Salcolm had been -wire-
tapped and surveiled by the FBI ~in the
interests of "national security" from the
time he had become. reasonably promi-
nent, and .probably before. He .said he,
was certain the CIA was on his trail in
Africa: tifaIcola% afier ell, was becoming
more and more a figure of symbolic sig-
ni.ficsnce in the Third World, and he.had._
plans to become a familiar presence -at`
the United Nations. ~ _ -
Twelve dBVS before his assassination,
`lalcolm Bras scheduled to_ speak..at::s~:
nee: as is Paris, bL-t the French gocern-
.:.e1~c refined his nuance es an "unde-
ai_-able" Frnac's as::.horities ezplained
?. :ac ~SakaL.,'a apeec}i could. ~ pr,p.- .
~~ird deno~stioos tm~dex--....fining "tom
pc:blic ordcL" -
In his 1~';3 book, Ti.~ Deer. and Lire
of ~falcoim X (Harper d: Row), Petez
Goldman speruiates that bialcoim was
barred liam France because the French
had "acted on the representation of two
of their lately liberated colonies, Senegal
and the Ivory Coast; that Malcolm-sid-
ed and abetted by ?v'asser and Nkzu-
mah-might try to overthrow moderate
pro-Western governments like their
own."
If the .French- believed Malcolm was
that mighty a wind of disruption, the CIA
might well have also been convinced that
Malcolm was becoming too formidable to
be endured. And, as we leased-much
later, the-CIA. was accountable to no one
but itself during .this, period. -
I b8ve been-a journalist -too lung to be .~
infat~sted.witb canspuacy`theories.Ieite.
the CIA possibility heie because of what
Malcolm said to me and because of what -~
the CIA's record during the 1960's says ,
about the CIA. We shall r-~bably never
know if there was any CIA involvement,
in the murder of Malcolm; this is not the'
kind of information that comes pouring;
forth when you make a request under the
Freedom of Information Act.
Despite what Malcolm said about not
having long to live, his murder stopped'
me cold. Having taken my two young ;
daughters home, I was walking along up- j
per Broadway listening to a transistor ra= ~~
_dio:.And there it'wea. I was in a daze for
some time. All that intelligence, energy,
passion, and leadership gone. In the years
since, I have often thought of what might
have been if Malcolm had been organiz-
ing and analyzing and teaching all these i
years. Maybe, among other things, be
could have taught and organized leaders
to come. Ain't many of them now.
VILLAGE VOICE
There have been enough pieces about
the aftermath of the murder and the slip-
pery failwe of police and press to follow
through on who ordered the killing. I just
want, however, to point out once more i
that there were a lot of undercover
cops-with guns-in the Audubon Ball- ~
room in Harlem on that Sunday after-
noon. On February 23, the New York
Herald 7}ibune quoted a "high police '
official" as saying that several members '
of the city's Red Squad, the Bureau of '
Special Services (BOSS) were in the
room when Malcolm was killed. Them
also had to be FBI undercover men pees ,
eat, and maybe some from the CIA. Yet
there was no rush by these agents of the ,:
state to go after the assassins, let alone to
protect Malcolm once the first shot had
been fired.
The easy-ezplanation=accepted by the
vast majority of the press and by those of '
its readers who still have an interest in
the case-is that Malcolm was cut down
by followers of Flijah Muhammad in
punishment for Malcolm's having so pub- ~
licly broken with the shepherd of the Na? ~
tion of Islam. But just as Malcolm alive ;
was not an easy man to figure out, so the 1
agents behind the agents of his death
remain difiicult.to identify,
The one element of his death that
would have caused Malcolm acute em-
barrassment was the photogzaph, shown
widely around the world, of his body-
guard, on the ground, apparently trying
to give Malcolm. artificial respiration.
Malcolm prided himself on being able to
detect not only ordinary phonies, but also
the most dangerous of the breed-under-
cover cops.. He used to tell me how care-
ful he was to screen everyone who worked
closely with him. .
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 :CIA-RDP90-009658000402650020-6