“It will be necessary to find some way of pulling Hammarskjold up short.”

Harold Macmillan 
UK Prime Minister
(September 13 1961)

*** *** ***

“Hammarskjöld was at the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him’.”

Harry Truman
US President
(September 19 1961)

March 31 2021 — On 31 March 1953, the Security Council voted 10-0-1 to recommend Hammarskjöld to the General Assembly, with an abstention from Nationalist China. Shortly after midnight on 1 April 1953, Hammarskjöld was awakened by a telephone call from a Stockholm journalist with the news, which he dismissed as an April Fool’s Day joke. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

RELATED POST: One Year Ago — Dag Hammarskjold Investigation Reauthorized by U. N. Secretary General

RELATED POST: Dag Hammarskjold — Belgian Intel Agency Fabricated Mercenary Alibi

RELATED POST: Biography — Jan Van Risseghem [Prime Suspect in Hammarskjold Cold case]

“One of the most enduring mysteries in United Nations history – the 1961 plane crash that killed Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and all on board as he sought to broker peace in the Congo – will linger on, with a new assessment announced on Friday suggesting that specific and crucial information continues to be withheld by a handful of Member States.”

UN Affairs (October 18, 2024)

UPDATE (March 31 2025) — According to the UN’s Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, “significant new information” has been submitted to the inquiry for this latest update.

This included probable intercepts by Member States of communications related to the crash, the capacity of Katanga’s armed forces, or others, to mount an attack on SE-BDY and the involvement of foreign paramilitary or intelligence personnel in the area at the time.

The latest UN report assesses that it is “almost certain” specific, crucial and so far undisclosed information exists in the archives of Member States.

The United Kingdom and the United States have been identified as possessing undisclosed documents pertinent to the case. Despite requests from UN-appointed investigators, these nations have not fully cooperated in releasing relevant materials.

And one should also be suspicious of Belgium’s role, especially considering its colonial history in the Congo and its connections to mining interests like Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK).

It is very likely that the Belgian Sate and UMHK still hold unreleased files on Congo’s decolonization and Katanga’s secession.

Judge Othman’s latest report, submitted in October 2024, indicates that significant new information has been obtained, including evidence suggesting the plausibility of an external attack or threat as a cause of the crash.

In December 2024, the General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/79/244, which authorized the continuation of the inquiry and the reappointment of Judge Mohamed Chande Othman as the Eminent Person leading the investigation.

As I have explained long ago, all Crypto AG machines delivered to the UN — including the one used by Hammarskjöld during his visit to Congo — had been rigged at the request of the NSA.

RELATED POST : Dag Hammarskjöld — US, UK and South Africa still withholding crucial information [UPDATE : Will the UN finally investigate Crypto AG?]

And despite this information, the UN investigators did not interview the managers of CRYPTO AG and they did not request legal help from Switzerland.

Sixten Svensson passed away in June 2024. During his last months, he had organized all his files and documents to be as useful as possible to the investigation. In one of his last messages, he told me that he had not been interviewed by the UN investigators. Why on earth not?

END of UPDATE

“There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.”

Harry Truman
(December 22 1963)

“There must be no stone unturned to get at the truth. The suspected murder of a UN secretary general is a crime too grave to be obliterated by time.”

Paul Boateng
Former UK high commissioner to South Africa
March 2024

UPDATE (March 31 2024) — University researchers are accusing the US and UK of obstructing a United Nations inquiry into the 1961 plane crash that killed the UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld.

A conference in London heard an update from the UN assistant secretary general for legal affairs, Stephen Mathias, on progress in the inquiry, which is seeking archive documentation from member states.

“While Belgium, Sweden and Zimbabwe demonstrated serious efforts, the US and UK responses were wholly inadequate and showed contempt for the UN inquiry,” said the organisers of Thursday’s conference, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and the Westminster United Nations Association. [UK and US accused of obstructing inquiry into 1961 death of UN chief]

This is quite sad but hardly surprising considering that the US and the UK have refused to sponsor the most recent General Assembly resolution to renew the investigation.

Paul Boateng, the former UK high commissioner to South Africa, said: “The work must continue because it is part of a wider struggle to support democracy, the international rule of law, and the UN, all under increasing threat.”

RELATED POST : Crypto AG — The Ghost of Danny Casolaro

As I wrote earlier, the investigation is unlikely to progress as long as it fails to address the Crypto AG connection. Maybe, the ghost of Danny Casolaro will help the investigators? Stay tuned!

END of UPDATE

“As we perceive it, your failure to honor the service and sacrifice of our loved ones is consistent with the indifference that the United Nations has shown to uncovering the truth about the cause of the crash.”

Hynrich Wieschhoff

Letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres
December 2021

UPDATE (March 31 2022) — More than 60 years after the deaths of the U.N. chief and his team, the victims’ families believe the answer may lie in Washington’s and London’s archives. [Foreign Policy — Feb. 15 2022]

The vast majority of the descendants of the victims of the crash believe that the plane was brought down by foul play, most likely attacked by a European mercenary group employed by a Belgian mining company in support of a secessionist rebellion in the mineral-rich Congolese state of Katanga, according to two family members. Hammarskjold was on his way to mediate an end to the secession and civil war in the breakaway state when he was killed in the crash.

They fear they are running out of time to get to the bottom of what happened. Key witnesses from the time period are dying off, and the U.N. inquiry, led by former Tanzanian Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman, is set to conclude in September without having established conclusively the circumstances of how the plane crashed. Othman has been investigating the case on and off for the U.N. since March 2015.

Sven Goran Hallonquist was 10 when his father, Per Hallonquist, piloted Hammarskjold’s plane on its final flight. Through most of his life, he said, he has been unable to say with certainty whether the crash that killed his father was an accident or if the plane was brought down by hostile forces. That all changed about six or seven years ago, when the son of the plane owner’s chief engineer provided him with a copy of the original Rhodesian technical report, which indicated that the plane made an erratic maneuver shortly before it crashed, suggesting it was evading a potential threat.

“I think that is the most probable thing—that it was shot down by another plane,” Hallonquist said, noting that the vast majority of victims’ families believe so, too. Hallonquist said he and other relatives of the victims want the U.N. to pursue the case more vigorously and the U.N. chief to take a more personal role in seeing the case through.

“We think we need to put pressure on him to try to pressure the United States and Britain and South Africa for more resources to search their archives,” he said.

In his two previous reports, issued in 2017 and 2019, Othman said that the “burden of proof” was on member states to demonstrate that they have conducted a thorough review of their records and archives, particularly from their intelligence agencies.

“The continued non-disclosure of potentially relevant new information in the intelligence, security and defence archives of Member States constitutes the biggest barrier to understanding the full truth on the event,” Othman wrote in his 2017 report.

“The historical record strongly suggests that Governments, including the United States, which had a presence in and around the Congo region at the time, may hold such evidence,” Othman wrote in an annex to his 2019 report.

So far, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has made no pledge to personally press key governments, including the United States and Britain, to release all relevant documents in their archives.

END of UPDATE

“Information of the type requested is the missing link that makes the present picture incomplete, and its conspicuous absence from the record means that conclusions about the cause of the crash cannot yet be reached. South Africa, the UK and the US must be almost certain to hold important undisclosed information.”
Tanzanian lawyer Mohamed Chande Othman — UN Report

UPDATE (March 31 2021) — Life, Soren Kierkegaard wrote, must be lived forwards even if it can only be understood backwards. So true, on both counts…

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the ceremony to commemorate the fifty-ninth anniversary of the death of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, in New York on September 15 2020.

“Today, we gather to remember Dag Hammarskjöld and pay tribute to his accomplishments. 

On this fifty-ninth anniversary of his death, we celebrate his life.  Although he had a diverse diplomatic career and was a man of many interests, Dag Hammarskjöld’s name is forever linked to the United Nations. Until his tragic passing, he led our Organization with courage and purpose, and we owe him a lot.

I welcome the General Assembly’s resolution in December 2019 to continue the inquiry into the causes of the plane crash.  We have a responsibility to all the victims and their loved ones to learn the truth of what happened, and I would like to reiterate my personal commitment to that quest.”

This sounds pretty nice but just ask yourself one question. What has been achieved by the UN inquiry so far? What has been done in the last 12 months? Short answer: nothing. Nothing at all! And this time there is really no excuse…

After the recent revelations regarding Crypto AG and CIA/NSA Operation Rubicon, there is no excuse for not solving this crime. Everyone one should feel angry. Flashback.

Fact #1 — A decade ago, I argued that Crypto AG had rigged the equipment used by diplomats around the world allowing US Intelligence Agencies to decode their messages in real-time.

The piece (The NSA-Crypto AG Sting — For years US eavesdroppers could read encrypted messages without the least difficulty) is still available online and its relevance to the Lockerbie case could play a major role in the upcoming appeal.

On February 11 2020, I was finally vindicated when Swiss broadcasting company SRF, German public broadcaster ZDF and the Washington Post confirmed most details of the story after gaining access to a classified, comprehensive CIA history document summarizing Operations “Thesaurus” and  “Rubicon”.

RELATED POST: Crypto AG — Belgium Intelligence Committee Launches Investigation

Fact #2 — On November 2 2017, I suggested that Belgian mercenary Jan Van Risseghem may be responsible for the death of Dag Hammarskjold. The story was based on the testimony of a very credible source who had accepted to talk to Intel Today.

On January 12 2019, The Guardian confirmed that Belgian mercenary Jan van Risseghem was indeed the person responsible for the death of Dag Hammarskjold and his crew.

RELATED POST: EXCLUSIVE — Belgian Mercenary Killed Dag Hammarskjold // UPDATE — Story Confirmed!

Amazingly, The Guardian forgot to tell its readers that the story had been published on this blog more than a year before. Even the pictures of Jan van Risseghem published by The Guardian were initially published on this blog.

Intel Today readers were not amused, and a few did not hesitate to tell The Guardian how they felt about this affair.

But not only had the “Guardian story” been stolen from this blog, the authors — Emma Graham-Harrison, Andreas Rocksen and Mads Brügger —  failed to understand a key point.

As I wrote on the day the story was posted by The Guardian,

“Journalists are still missing the importance of one critical aspect of this story: the role of CRYPTO AG.” [Intel Today – Jan 12 2019]

And this brings us to the next issue…

Fact #3 — On January 17 2019, I posted a story titled: Boris Hagelin — The Swiss Businessman Who Sold The World Out.

In that story, I explained that all the Crypto AG machines delivered to the UN — including the one used by Hammarskjöld during his visit to Congo — had been rigged at the request of the NSA.

I concluded the piece with the following statement:

“After his initial visit to Boris Hagelin in Zug, NSA William Friedman wrote in his report:

‘The NSA has now complete control over Crypto AG. Spying can start on an industrial scale.‘

So much for Swiss neutrality…”

And yet, despite all this information, the UN investigators did not interview the current managers of CRYPTO AG and they did not request any help from Switzerland.

What on earth is going on? Those (UN investigators) who investigate the death of Dag Hammarskjöld do not want to know about Crypto AG and those who report on Crypto AG (The Washington Post) do not mention once the United Nations scandal.

We know that the US hold important undisclosed information regarding the Hammarskjöld case and we know that they refuse to share this information with the UN investigators.

Why do you think the US has been withholding this information?

END of UPDATE

“Journalists are still missing the importance of one critical aspect of this story: the role of CRYPTO AG.” [Intel Today – Jan 12 2019]

The exchange between the journalist and Hammarskjöld was rather comical…

Journalist: “We understand you’ve been designated Secretary-General of the United Nations.”

Hammarskjöld: “This April Fool’s Day joke is in extremely bad taste: it’s nonsense!”

Dag Hammarskjöld finally believed the news after the third phone call. The Swedish mission in New York confirmed the nomination at 03:00 and a communique from the Security Council was soon thereafter delivered to him.

After consulting with the Swedish cabinet and his father, Hammarskjöld decided to accept the nomination.

Hammarskjöld was sworn in as Secretary-General on 10 April 1953. He was unanimously reelected on 26 September 1957 for another term, taking effect on 10 April 1958.

Background

On 10 November 1952 Trygve Lie announced his resignation as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Several months of negotiations ensued between the Western powers and the Soviet Union, without reaching an agreement on his successor.

On 13 and 19 March 1953, the Security Council voted on four candidates. Lester B. Pearson of Canada was the only candidate to receive the required majority, but he was vetoed by the Soviet Union.

At a consultation of the permanent members on 30 March 1953, French ambassador Henri Hoppenot suggested four candidates, including Hammarskjöld, whom he had met at the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation.

The superpowers hoped to seat a Secretary-General who would focus on administrative issues and refrain from participating in political discussion.

Hammarskjöld’s reputation at the time was, in the words of biographer Emery Kelèn, “that of a brilliant economist, an unobtrusive technician, and an aristo-bureaucrat”.

As a result, there was little to no controversy in his selection. The Soviet permanent representative, Valerian Zorin, found Hammarskjöld “harmless”. Zorin declared that he would be voting for Hammarskjöld, surprising the Western powers.

The announcement set off a flurry of diplomatic activity. British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden was strongly in favor of Hammarskjöld and asked the United States to “take any appropriate action to induce the [Nationalist] Chinese to abstain.” (Sweden recognized the People’s Republic of China and faced a potential veto from the Republic of China.)

At the U.S. State Department, the nomination “came as a complete surprise to everyone here and we started scrambling around to find out who Mr. Hammarskjold was and what his qualifications were.”

The State Department authorized Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the US Ambassador, to vote in favor after he told them that Hammarskjöld “may be as good as we can get.

“With strong feeling personal insufficiency I hesitate to accept candidature but I do not feel I could refuse to assume the task imposed on me should the [UN General] Assembly follow the recommendation of the Security Council by which I feel deeply honoured.”
Dag Hammarskjöld  (April 1, 1953)

Mysterious Death 

On September 18 1961, Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane mysteriously crashed, killing Hammarskjöld and the 15 people on board.

It’s understood that because Hammarskjöld was, at the time, advocating for Congo’s independence (against the wishes of European mining companies and other powerful entities), the “crash” was an assassination.

RELATED POST: UN REPORT — External Attack Probably Caused Dag Hammarskjold’s Plane to Crash

RELATED POST: NEVER FORGET — Suspicious Aviation Tragedies: 1961 — Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash [UPDATE: UN REPORT Sept 26 2017]

In 2019 the documentary film Cold Case Hammarskjöld alleged that a Belgian pilot, Jan Van Risseghem, has been named as a possible attacker.

Van Risseghem had extensive ties to Britain, including a British mother and wife, trained with the RAF and was decorated by Britain for his service in the Second World War.

The Film-makers investigating the 1961 crash found a friend of Van Risseghem who claimed the pilot confessed to shooting down the UN plane.

Dag Hammarskjöld’s inaugural speech on 10 April 1953

United Nations, New York – A short video piece of inaugural speech of H.E. Mr. Dag Hammarskjöld took oath of office as Secretary-General on 10 April 1953.

REFERENCES

U.N. Renews Push to Solve Its Biggest Mystery: Hammarskjold’s Death — NYT

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On This Day — UN Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld for Secretary-General (March 31 1953)

On This Day — UN Security Council Nominates Dag Hammarskjöld for Secretary-General (March 31 1953) [2020]

On This Day — UN Security Council Nominates Dag Hammarskjöld for Secretary-General (March 31 1953) [2021]

On This Day — UN Security Council Nominates Dag Hammarskjöld for Secretary-General (March 31 1953) [What Really Happened to Dag Hammarskjold’s Plane?]