Watched "The Real Story" on the Smithsonian Channel, about the inspiration for "The Bourne Identity"

[marmar]

........ the story of Patrice Lumumba, the assasinated prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yet another vivid example of what the CIA and the West have in store for leaders who decide the natural resources of their countries actually belong to their people.

.........


more from the Guardian UK:


Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was assassinated 50 years ago today, on 17 January, 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed.

Ludo De Witte, the Belgian author of the best book on this crime, qualifies it as "the most important assassination of the 20th century". The assassination's historical importance lies in a multitude of factors, the most pertinent being the global context in which it took place, its impact on Congolese politics since then and Lumumba's overall legacy as a nationalist leader.

For 126 years, the US and Belgium have played key roles in shaping Congo's destiny. In April 1884, seven months before the Berlin Congress, the US became the first country in the world to recognise the claims of King Leopold II of the Belgians to the territories of the Congo Basin.

.....(snip).....

With the outbreak of the cold war, it was inevitable that the US and its western allies would not be prepared to let Africans have effective control over strategic raw materials, lest these fall in the hands of their enemies in the Soviet camp. It is in this regard that Patrice Lumumba's determination to achieve genuine independence and to have full control over Congo's resources in order to utilise them to improve the living conditions of our people was perceived as a threat to western interests. To fight him, the US and Belgium used all the tools and resources at their disposal, including the United Nations secretariat, under Dag Hammarskjöld and Ralph Bunche, to buy the support of Lumumba's Congolese rivals , and hired killers. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/patrice-lumumba-50th-anniversary-assassination

[RKP5637]

1. Thanks! I've got it bookmarked to watch! n/t

[kelliekat44]

2. Thank you. nt

[kydo]

3. I really like the Smithsonian Channel

They show some pretty good programs.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Only the film, as far as I can tell

The synposis for the book mentions Vietnam and Carlos the Jackal, but nothing about anywhere in Africa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bourne_Identity_%28novel%29 . The sequel seems to stay in Asia.

I wouldn't say the real life of Patrice Lumumba was 'inspiration' for The Bourne Identity, then. It's something the screenwriters put in for interest. But looking it up, plot summaries say Wombasi is an exiled Nigerian dictator. Where does Lumamba come into it? A summary says " Wombosi was threatening to cause the CIA problems by revealing information regarding the United States involvement in Africa". Does he threaten to talk about Lumumba? (I'm not watching 45 minutes of the History Channel to find out, but if you can point to where in the video it's explained, I'll watch).

[marmar]

5. the last 15 minutes

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Doesn't seem to be much like Lumumba, then

Lumumba was a democratically elected PM, who was in dispute with his president and with a province that declared independence with Belgian backing. The military took over, and he ended up in the hands of the Katangan rebels, who killed him, apparently with Belgian (and likely American) backing. The CIA agent says he was told to kill Lumumba before that, but he refused because it would plunge the country into chaos.

In the Bourne story, it's a deposed Nigerian dictator in exile in France who has information the CIA doesn't want to get out, and Bourne won't kill him because his children are there, and he develops a conscience. That's got very little at all to do with Lumumba.

[avebury]

6. Boomark to watch later. Thanks for posting! ng

[Blue_Tires]

8. I have a really hard time calling it

"the most important assassination of the 20th century"

Archduke Franz Ferdinand has long since retired that #1 spot...

[Ramses]

9. Never heard of this and Ive followed stuff like this for years

Will read and research more. Thanks

[ND-Dem]

10. and ever since, congo has been in eternal war. and the us government has had a huge hand

if it. deaths reaching holocaust levels. but they're just Africans, so we don't talk about it.