Hammarskjöld's plane shot down: Utoya push back?

Wreckage of Hammarskjöld's plane, Northern Rhodesia, 1961.

Evidence reported yesterday suggests that the plane that crashed in Northern Rhodesia killing UN Chief, Dag Hammarskjöld, on September 17, 1961 may have been shot down by one of the colonial powers.

According to telegrams seen by the Guardian that were dispatched in the days immediately prior to Hammarskjöld's death reveal:

US and British anger at an abortive UN military operation that the secretary general ordered on behalf of the Congolese government against a rebellion backed by western mining companies and mercenaries in the mineral-rich Katanga region.

A British-run commission of inquiry blamed the crash on pilot error.

Does the timing of this report indicate a coordinated Scandinavian push back in response to the Breivic attrocities in Norway?

Meantime, Sweden has made an offer of military assistance in the war on Libya that NATO has found it possible to refuse.

As a neutral country, Sweden has had a longstanding interest in seeing the UN work as an honest mediator of international disputes. Sweden's failure to offer anything of use in NATO's perverse interpretation of UN Resolution 1973, is not, therefore, altogether surprising.

As the toll of Libyan civilians killed by NATO bombing mounts in a fraudulently justified war for control of Libyan resources, this might be a good time for Canada to consider adopting a position of political neutrality. Not that one can expect such originality of thought either from the Tories or the pathetic pro-war NDP opposition.

Moreover, Canadian neutrality would be costly, since as a neutral, we could not expect automatic access to NATO military technology, e.g., dud British subs, or overpriced US-built F-35's.

But perhaps we could enter into some shared-cost programs with Sweden. They have a very quiet sub with an air-independent propulsion (AIP) system based on the Stirling engine, and a punchy littler fighter too.