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Forty Years Ago, the CIA Had Its Eye on Jamaica-and Bob Marley Got Shot
Forty Years Ago, the CIA Had Its Eye on Jamaica-and Bob Marley Got Shot
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/forty_years_ago_cia_had_its_eye_on_jamai
caand_bob_marley_got_shot_20161202/
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Posted on Dec 2, 2016
By David Cupples
<http://www.truthdig.com/images/reportuploads/Bob_Marley_singing_590.jpg>
Bob Marley was considered one of the most influential musicians of all
time. He died in 1981, at the age of 36, from metastatic melanoma, a rare
type of skin cancer. (B.javhlanbayr /
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bob-marley5.jpg> Wikimedia)
Forty years ago, on Dec. 3, 1976, Bob Marley was shot in a gangland
assassination attempt in the heat of a contentious Jamaican election
campaign pitting the United States' favorite (Edward Seaga) against the
incumbent prime minister (Michael Manley). The shooting in Marley's Kingston
home-which also wounded his wife, Rita, and at least two others-occurred 12
days before the scheduled elections and two days before a free concert
Marley had agreed to play in hopes of bringing the people together and
cooling the violence that had been occurring.
The events surrounding the "Smile Jamaica" concert make it one of the 20th
century's key moments in developing countries of the Third World. There are
indications that the United States was running a destabilization
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/01/11/quot-the-coup-lacked-professionalism
-quot/> program against the democratic socialist administration of Michael
Manley-Manley writes
<https://www.amazon.com/Jamaica-Struggle-Periphery-Michael-Manley/dp/0906495
989/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1480551553&sr=8-4&keywords=michael+manley> about
it and former CIA case officers Philip Agee
<https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1976KINGST03978_b.html> and John
Stockwell <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf2MQC4v9ts> have said
explicitly that such a program existed. Agee even named the CIA case
officers stationed in the U.S. Embassy in Kingston. (My novel "Stir It Up
<http://stiritupbob.wixsite.com/stiritupcia> " comprehensively summarizes in
narrative form the evidence for the destabilization program, including
typical CIA methods described
<http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Company-Diary-Philip-Agee/dp/0883730286> by
Agee.)
Cuba, the United States' archenemy in the Western Hemisphere, had been
invaded with U.S. backing and subjected to a crippling embargo that would
continue to the present moment. Now here was Manley buddying up to Fidel
Castro and implementing
<http://newsone.com/543415/how-the-cia-created-the-jamaican-shower-posse/>
socialist programs that were benefiting the Jamaican people rather than
American companies and investors-interests to which Manley's challenger, the
Harvard-educated Seaga, was more favorably disposed.
A destabilization program, in the immortal words of Richard Nixon, who was
directing CIA efforts (via Henry Kissinger) to undermine Salvador Allende in
Chile, is intended to "make
<https://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/10/40_years_after_chiles_9_11> the
economy scream" so the people will suffer and rise up to vote, or otherwise
boot out, the culprit-such as an Allende or a Manley. It's not a Nobel Peace
Prize-worthy endeavor, and if it doesn't work, more serious action might be
considered, such as assassination or military invasion (see the Agee
hyperlink).
For various reasons in Jamaica-including poverty and political cronyism
after four centuries of colonial rule-street gangs became affiliated with
the two major political parties: Manley's Peoples National Party (PNP) and
Seaga's Jamaica Labor Party (JLP). To call the gang lords unofficial
enforcers for the parties would not be much of a stretch. As the 1976
elections neared, the rivalry between PNP and JLP toughs escalated. The
streets and tenement yards of Kingston ran red with blood, causing
international airlines to cancel flights to the island.
Bob Marley and the Wailers were riding the crest of international fame on
the strength of the "Rastaman Vibration" album and tour. Rolling Stone named
the group the band of the year, and Time called Marley "a political force to
rival the government." The former barefoot country boy and big-city
"rudeboy" had become a populist champion of human rights and an
international symbol of struggle against the lingering structures of
colonialism. His growing fame put him in danger. The gang lords on both
sides desperately wanted him as their own.
'Smile Jamaica' and the Assassination Attempt on Bob Marley
It was of utmost importance to Marley that "Smile Jamaica" be seen as a
symbol of unification rather than an attempt to stump for Manley. A date and
venue were chosen: Dec. 5, 1976, in Kingston's National Heroes Park. Manley
called the national elections for 10 days later, and Marley's neutrality was
cast into serious doubt.
On Dec. 3, two nights before "Smile Jamaica," two carloads of armed men
drove into Marley's Hope Road yard and shot up the place. The wounded Marley
was evacuated to Island Records magnate Chris Blackwell's estate in the
hills, protected by police guard and machete-wielding Rastas. Marley
pondered the wisdom of playing "Smile Jamaica" in a nighttime, open-skies
venue with the shooters still at large.
Whether the CIA was connected to the attack is unclear. But Marley was
stirring up the populace with lyrics of resistance and revolution, inciting
the people to think breaking from "the system" was a good idea. Marley was
too much aware not to understand this-as he sang, "Rasta don't work for no
CIA" in "Rat Race."
Marley decided to play. Political violence was tearing the country apart,
and he dearly wanted to send a message of unity to the population. Although
he did not relish the idea of going onstage with a figurative bull's-eye on
his back, Marley would trust his fate to Jah
<https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=jah> and carry forth with his
mission, gang lords and the CIA notwithstanding.
As darkness fell Dec. 5, Marley was driven down from the hills to Heroes
Park at breakneck speed under police escort. The rest of the band straggled
in from their hideouts, Rita Marley arriving in her hospital gown, her head
wound hidden beneath her Rasta cap. Eighty thousand people had waited for
hours in hopes that Marley would play, and here he was, wading through the
crowd, greeting the prime minister-Manley also risked his life by showing
up-and being boosted up onstage. Marley couldn't play his guitar, because a
bullet had nicked his chest and lodged in his left forearm, where it would
remain the rest of his life. But by all reports, he and the Wailers put on a
phenomenal show.
In the morning Marley fled into exile, staying in the Bahamas briefly before
going on to London, where he worked on the "Exodus" album, which would be
chosen by Time as the greatest album of the 20th century.
Meanwhile, Manley was re-elected. The glow of humanity Marley sparked with
"Smile Jamaica" was short-lived, however, and the blood feud in the streets
soon resumed. In 1978, again in the hope of promoting unity, the "One Love
Peace <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Love_Peace_Concert> Concert" was
held, for which Marley returned from London to play. Marley even dragged
Manley and Seaga up onstage and literally made
<http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Recollections-of-the-One-Love-Peace-Con
cert_14118886> them clasp hands.
As the 1980 elections approached-a rematch between Manley and Seaga-violence
rose to truly appalling levels. Manley's programs had been doggedly
undermined
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/01/11/quot-the-coup-lacked-professionalism
-quot/> by U.S. and CIA machinations, and some feared that under the looming
shadow of Ronald Reagan's election another Manley term would bring even
harsher treatment, possibly military invasion. Seaga won in a bigger
landslide than Manley had enjoyed four years earlier.
Adhering to his U.S.-approved neoliberal leanings, Seaga went the route of
borrowing heavily from the World Bank and international lending
institutions. Soon, Jamaica was buried under a mountain
<http://www.lifeanddebt.org/> of debt from which it has never recovered.
The Wisdom of Bob Marley
For an understanding of the U.S.-dominated world system, we gain far more
insight from Bob Marley than from the entirety of the mainstream media, with
its jingoistic cheering of American interventions overseas and uncritical
swallowing of the approved U.S. version of events. Marley knew the system
was a vampire "sucking the blood of the children" ("Babylon System
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxlWsrKbWRs> "). He lived it every day of
his life.
It was a system that forced "lifelong insecurity" ("Survival / Black
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbXTSgKdDmE> Survivor") in which the "big
fish" ate the small fish in order to "materialize their every wish"
("Guiltiness <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP3VsZ7QD08> ").
It was a system that resorted to "divide and rule" ("Zimbabwe
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm9KHjxSzxw> ") and tactics like "bribing
with their guns, spare parts and money" ("Ambush in the
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMSDfpNTJB8> Night").
A system run not by renegades and rogues, but the best and brightest the
West could offer: "graduating thieves and murderers" ("Babylon System").
A system in which, Marley knew, Jamaicans and black people in general were
not invited to the party: "They don't want to see us live together/ all they
want us to do is keep on killing one another" ("Top Ranking
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZtzROiG5MM> ").
A system in which what was in plain view would be rationalized away:
"Everyone sees what's taking place/ another page in history" ("Trench Town
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAlCDaaJ9YA> ").
Marley, Pinter, Chomsky and Bernie Sanders
It's stunning to see the overlap and parallel between Marley's lyrics and
the commentary of two major 20th century thinkers, Harold Pinter and Noam
Chomsky. As Pinter articulated in his acceptance
<http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lec
ture-e.html> speech for the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature:
The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right-wing
military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I
refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the
Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the
United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never
be forgiven.
Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did
they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to U.S. foreign
policy? The answer is, yes, they did take place, and they are attributable
to American foreign policy. But you wouldn't know it.
It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening, it
wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the
United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very
few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America.
It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while
masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty,
highly successful act of hypnosis.
With his vast erudition, Chomsky
<https://www.amazon.com/What-Uncle-Really-Wants-Story/dp/1878825011>
confirms what Marley divined through firsthand experience: The world system
is set up so that the few rich may profit from the many poor, both
domestically and internationally, and great suffering will be exacted to
keep things that way.
The evils Marley struggled against remain crucially important issues in the
lives of hundreds of millions around the world-evils typically decried only
on the periphery, by independent media not beholden to corporate funding.
Neither candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election showed the
slightest inkling that the United States ought to own up to its
blood-drenched foreign policy, beyond those peccadilloes conveniently
attributable to the other party. Hillary Clinton waxed glowingly about an
American exceptionalism <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfm4unbyHV0> that
has done nothing but good around the world. Donald Trump wants to lock the
gates and go back to the good old days before all this civil rights and
multiculturalism hullabaloo.
Marley's One Love vibe calling for the unity of all peoples of good faith
was far more inclusive than anything American politics have brought forth.
It has always been too easy to write Marley off as a ganja-smoking Caribbean
radical and ignore his message-a similar fate meted out to the marginalized
and dismissed Chomsky (and Pinter's scorching comments). Much the same might
be said about Bernie Sanders, whose questioning of such sacrosanct matters
as United States support for Israel
<http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/millennials_bernie_sanders_reboots_conv
ersation_israel_palestine_20160417> 's treatment of the Palestinians was
widely hammered down in the mainstream.
But for those with the will to look, the system is there to see. As the
"Sanders Revolution" shows, the clamoring of the people for real democracy
and change is growing strong. The system, for so long hidden behind a thick
cloud of jingoism and propaganda, is emerging. In these dismal times, this
is cause for hope and fighting on.
David Cupples is the author of "Stir
<https://www.amazon.com/Stir-Up-Targets-Progressive-Government/dp/1477519890
It Up: The CIA Targets Jamaica, Bob Marley and the Progressive ManleyGovernment," a novel. Cupples can be reached at his website
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