“The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?”
Bob Marley
Smile Jamaica concert
(Dec. 5 1976)
December 3 2023 — On December 3, 1976, two days before the Smile Jamaica concert, seven men with guns raided Marley’s house at 56 Hope Road around 8.30 pm. Marley’s wife, Rita, was shot in the head. The gunmen shot Marley in the chest and arm. His manager, Don Taylor, was shot in the legs and torso. Astonishingly, there were no fatalities. Over the years, many have alleged that the CIA was behind the assassination plot. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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“I don’t see why we need to stand idly by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.”
Kissinger
UPDATE (December 5 2023) — Think like Henry Kissinger!
“The Yale University historian Greg Grandin, author of the biography Kissinger’s Shadow, estimates that Kissinger’s actions from 1969 through 1976, a period of eight brief years when Kissinger made Richard Nixon’s and then Gerald Ford’s foreign policy as national security adviser and secretary of state, meant the end of between three and four million people. That includes ‘crimes of commission,’ he explained, as in Cambodia and Chile, and omission, like greenlighting Indonesia’s bloodshed in East Timor; Pakistan’s bloodshed in Bangladesh; and the inauguration of an American tradition of using and then abandoning the Kurds.” [RollingStone : Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies]
On September 4, 1970, Chileans elected the socialist Salvador Allende as their president. In Chili, 80 percent of copper production was controlled by American corporations firms Anaconda Copper and Kennecott. Allende nationalized mining assets held by the two companies. Kissinger ordered the CIA had to overthrow Allende. On September 11, 1973, a military junta took power. About 3,200 Chileans died violently under the 17-year regime of Augusto Pinochet.
In December 1976, Henry Kissinger was serving as the United States Secretary of State. He held this position from September 22, 1973, until January 20, 1977, serving under both Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
The attempted assassination of Bob Marley on December 3, 1976, was linked to political tensions in Jamaica at the time. The country was in the midst of a highly polarized political climate between the two major political parties, the Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP). And of course, Marley was widely perceived as sympathetic to the PNP’s cause.
In Jamaica during the 1970s, two major U.S. company were involved in bauxite mining. The Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) had operations in Jamaica through its subsidiary, Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica. The Reynolds Metals Company had operations through its subsidiary, Reynolds Jamaica Mines Limited.
The late 1970’s were marked by rising inflation, increasing public debt, and a balance of payments crisis. The government implemented austerity measures and sought financial assistance from international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The economic challenges of the time contributed to social and political unrest in Jamaica.
Surely, Kissinger was concerned that Jamaica could “go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.” Do you think that he would “stand idly” watching the nationalization of US mining assets in Jamaica?
END of UPDATE
“I cannot prove in a court of law that the CIA is here… strange things are happening in Jamaica that we have not seen before.”
Michael Manley — Leader of the Jamaica PNP
The 1976 elections marked the beginning of a period of political violence in Jamaica.
A State of Emergency was declared by Michael Manley’s party (the PNP) in June and 500 people, including some prominent members of the JLP, were accused of trying to overthrow the government and were detained, without charges, in the South Camp Prison at the Up-Park Camp military headquarters.
Reggae musician Bob Marley announced plans to hold a concert in an attempt to quell the violence.
Politicians from both parties were hoping to capitalize on Marley’s support.
While Marley remained neutral, many viewed him as tacitly supporting Manley and the PNP.
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Former CIA agent Philip Agee has revealed that the CIA was using the JLP as its instrument in the campaign against the Michael Manley government.
“I would say that most of the violence was coming from the JLP, and behind them was the CIA in terms of getting weapons in and getting money in.”
According to Covert Action, the CIA had 9 officers working in Jamaica at the time of the event. They were at least 15 by 1980.
In 1977, two reporters uncovered a “destabilization program” against Manley’s PNP government, allegedly organized by the CIA’s Jamaican station chief, Norman Descoteaux.
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According to Gary Webb’s book Dark Alliance,
“The campaign included covert shipments of arms to Manley’s opponents, the use of selective violence, bombings, and assassinations, covert financial aid to the conservative Jamaica Labour Party, the fomenting of extensive labor unrest, and bribery.”
One of the CIA agents who would later play a key role in the Contra project, Luis Posada Carriles, a Bay of Pigs invasion and Operation Condor veteran, was spotted in Jamaica near the scene of one of the bombings.
Timothy White, the author of Catch a Fire, claimed that information he received from JLP and PNP officials as well as US law enforcement officials led him to believe that Carl Byah “Mitchell,” a JLP gunman, was contracted by the CIA to organize the Marley shooting and that Lester Coke, aka Jim Brown, led the charge on Hope Road.
Don Taylor, Marley’s manager, claimed that both he and Marley were present at a ghetto court in which the gunmen who shot Marley were tried and executed.
According to Taylor, before one of the shooters was killed, he admitted the job was done for the CIA in exchange for cocaine and guns.
Bob Marley died on May 11 1981 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami (now University of Miami Hospital), aged 36. The spread of melanoma to his lungs and brain caused his death. He received a state funeral in Jamaica on May 21 1981.
PS — There is not a shred of evidence to the recently reported stories that Marley has been poisoned by a CIA agent. Can you guess the purpose of this disinformation?
“Some see the incident as an attempt by JLP gunmen to halt the concert, which would feature the ‘politically progressive’ music of Marley and other reggae stars. Others see it as a deep-laid plot to create a progressive, youthful Jamaican martyr to benefit of the PNP. Those holding the latter view note that the four persons shot, three of them including Marley, only suffered minor wounds.”
US Embassy Cable
Bob Marley – Interview About assassination Attempt
Bob Marley & The Wailers – No Woman, No Cry
(Live At The Rainbow 4th June 1977)
No, woman, no cry
‘Cause I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown
Oba observing the ‘ypocrites
Mingle with the good people we meet
Good friends we have, oh, good friends we’ve lost
Along the wayIn this great future, you can’t forget your past
So dry your tears, I sehNo, woman, no cry
‘Ere, little darlin’, don’t shed no tears
No, woman, no cryEverything’s gonna be all right
REFERENCES
Bob Marley assassination attempt — Wikipedia
Jamaica’s Shower Posse: How The CIA Created “The Most Notorious Criminal Organization” — Global Research
AGEE PRESS RELEASE AND LIST OF ALLEGED CIA AGENTS — WikiLeaks
“I WOULD LIKE TO CALL THE ATTENTION OF THE JAMAICAN PRESS AND PEOPLE TO THE FACT THAT THE CURRENT CIA CHIEF OF STATION HERE [NORMAN DESCOTEAUX], AND TWO OF THE OPERATIONS OFFICERS ARRIVED IN KINGSTON DURING THE MIDDLE AND LATTER PART OF LAST YEAR PRIOR TO THE INITIATION OF VIOLENCE.”
AGEE PRESS RELEASE (September 17 1976)
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On This Day — Bob Marley Assassination Attempt (December 3 1976) [Was the CIA involved?]
On This Day — Bob Marley Assassination Attempt (December 3 1976) — Was the CIA involved? [Think like Henry Kissinger!]
“His voice was an omnipresent cry in our electronic world. His sharp features, majestic looks, and prancing style a vivid etching on the landscape of our minds. Bob Marley was never seen. He was an experience which left an indelible imprint with each encounter. Such a man cannot be erased from the mind. He is part of the collective consciousness of the nation.”
Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga
Funeral eulogy
(May 21 1981)
Intel Today 