CLEMENCY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700580006-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2004
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: August 11, 1967
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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Approved For Release Q5_/Q~ 5 : CIA-R ..(~07 ''
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The horrors of Vietnam, the scars of the Middle East
war, the news of poison gas employed in Yemen, the
anonymous victims of tyranny and misery throughout the
world make us pause before we would condemn the inter- : , .
national kidnapping, the irregular trial, the dubious extra-
dition process, and the threatened execution of Moise
Tshombe. Why Tshombe? The African leader has been
willing to exploit the Congo's troubles for personal gain;
': ? he was not known for mercy towards his political adver-
saries; and many Africans believe that the death of
Patrice Lumumba rests on Tshombe's shoulders.
Why Tshombe? The question should be widened. Why
anyone? Why protest the treatment of Regis Debray, the
~. young French Castroite intellectual, awaiting trial and
possibly execution in Bolivia? Why protest the mysterious
removal of South Korean students from West Germany
August 11, 1967
6CILMMEN CY
and their sudden return to Korea? Why center concern
on this or that individual when so many are suffering?
And why play favorites? Some intellectuals seem to
'specialize in protesting Communist miscarriages of jus-
tice, some do sentry-duty only over the. West. The Pope
.intercedes on behalf of Debray (who comes from a dis-
tinguished Catholic family). Cardinal Spellman inter-
cedes for Tshombe.
The answers to such questions can only be found in
to Washington.
Mobutu can extricate themselves from the course of
events. Perhaps . the most disturbing aspect of this dis-
turbing intrigue is the possibility that.the U.S.'s plea for
mercy may be pure hypocrisy. There is considerable /
evidence that the C.I.A., which has backed Mobutu with,
men and advice for over five years, authored the entire
operation. Maybe, pleas for clemency should be directed '
The request should be honored, although it is difficult to
see how either Algeria's Boumediene or the, Congo's
destinies of all men. We must begin somewhere--or'
everywhere. What happened to Tshombe, as his lawyer
has pointed out, could happen to Svetlana Alliluyeva.
His treatment, like the use of gas in Yemen, is another
crack in the feeble structure of international procedures.
The United States has asked clemency for Tshombe.
that network of human relationships which links the
Approved For Release 2005/01/05 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000700580006-9