"How good and how pleasant it could be, for God and Man, to see the unification of all Africans."
Bob Marley, Africa Unite

Part 3 of a series excerpted from the Conscious Rasta Report entitled
HIGH CRIMES OF MURDER (©1998/$10.00)
Footnoted documentation can be found on page 76 of the report.
(Take me to Part 1, Part 2 of "The CIA & Reggae)

Jamaica's high natural fertility rate, which because of the small size of the island produces a subsequently high rate of emigration, posed no small threat to other Western countries. In particular, the migration of Jamaica's sons and daughters to the cities of England, the United States, Canada and other predominantly-white countries threatens to overwhelm the current low birthrates of those country's dominant populations. To disregard the long-term consequences of this disparity in childbirths between whites and nonwhites is to perhaps miss the principal modern motivation for social engineering on such a grand scale. I have for years been describing the effect of such population wars on national affairs and how they have directly led to cultural warfare on a massive scale.

Accompanying the high number of Jamaican immigrants was the profoundly influential reggae music and Rasta culture. It is obvious that reggae has rapidly produced a distinct cultural explosion within the cities where these immigrants have largely settled, chief among them Miami, New York, D.C., Los Angeles, London and Toronto. The infectious sound of the cool reggae music combined with the enticement of "ganja" (marijuana) to produce a significant cultural influence on the sons and daughters of America's middle and upper classes; similar to the hippie movement, but more politically evolved.

Particularly threatening was the effect on America's disenfranchised classes who reflected not only artistic and fashion styles of the Rastas, but increasingly adopted a militant posture influenced by the lyrics of artists such as U-Roy, Big Youth, Culture, the Mighty Diamonds, Burning Spear, Steele Pulse, Third World and the Wailers. Of all these groups, it was the Wailers, led by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone, which became the most celebrated proponent of revolutionary Rasta music.

In the immediate aftermath of the passing of Bob, Peter and others of the "Old School" reggae generation, mainstream record companies elevated a new class of "artists" whose lyrics reflected the opposite of the powerful revolutionary message that arose from the initial Kingston wave. In comparison, "New School" reggae and dancehall styles, which reached heights of popularity championed by such performers as Yellowman, Shaba Ranks, Patra, Shaggy and numerous others, largely reflected the same obsessions with violence, drugs, sex, egoism and materialism as has become all too prevalent in "New School" rap and hip hop. Yet the voice of the sufferer and the revolutionary within reggae and Rasta music has never completely been silenced. Every few years another set of artists arrives to return consciousness to the forefront, only to be countered by subsequent rounds of disparaging popular hits promoted by the major labels.

THE CIA & ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS ON FOREIGN LEADERS: According to William Blum's 1988 book THE CIA, A FORGOTTEN HISTORY: U.S. Global Interventions Since World War 2 (Zed Books), the United States undertook to assassinate a long list of "prominent foreign individuals, including many national leaders." The list, which was published in CovertAction Quarterly in its Fall 1993 issue, included, but was not limited to:

• Jose Antonio Remon, President of Panama (1955)
• Achmad Sukarno, President of Indonesia (1950s)
• Gamal Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt (1957)
• Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Congo (1961)
• Gen. Rafael Trujillo, leader of Dominican Rep. (1961)
• Fidel Castro, President of Cuba (at least 9 separate attempts from the 1960s to the 1980s)
• Charles de Gaulle, President of France (1965-66)
• Pierre Ngendandumwe, Prime Minister of Burundi (1965)
• Che Guevarra, socialist freedom fighter (1967)
• Gen. Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama (1970s)
• Mobuto Sese Seko, Zairian Dictator (1975)
• Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica (1976-79)
• Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya (1981-87)
• and over a dozen other national leaders. By no means is Blum's list complete.

Here on the domestic front we have evidence of the complicity of CIA elements in the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (1963), black nationalist leader Malcolm X (1965), Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968) and then-presidential candidate and former U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy (1968). I believe that when the final records become available, the role of U.S. government agencies in assassinations and attempted assassinations, within this country and without, will stand to shame the American government's behavior throughout the 20th Century in a manner similar to which Germany was impugned by the actions of the Nazis.

In addition, as I will detail later in this chapter, documents have surfaced, through Freedom of Information Act inquiries, which indicate that the U.S. government had a close interest in the career and politics of Bob Marley. These documents reveal an intense concern for foreign intelligence agencies over the 1976 attempted murder of Bob along with his wife Rita and others. They hint at a likely motivation for what many are convinced was the elimination of Bob Marley in 1981 through "induced cancer." The record stands clear that the U.S., through its agencies of the State Department, the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, had the motivation, opportunity and capability of causing such a death to the world-renowned Rasta pioneer.

(Take me to Part 4 of "The CIA & Reggae")