The "Letter to the Editor" below of 9th October 2023 to Kenya's Nation Media Group, regarding the serialisation of the book “Heartbeat: An American cardiologist in Kenya,” by Dr. David Silverstein, contains Kenyan and World History of the 1970s, of public interest, such as Kenya's involvement in the Entebbe Rescue Mission of 4th July 1976:
Nairobi, 9th October 2023
I refer to the second part of the serialisation of the book “Heartbeat: An American Cardiologist in Kenya,” by Dr. David Silverstein, as published in the “Sunday Nation” of 8th October 2023, and wish to make five clarifications and corrections as below:
1. Air France Flight 139 was jointly hijacked on 27th June 1976 by operatives of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also known as “Black September,” and operatives of West Germany’s “Red Army Faction,” also known as “Baader–Meinhof.” Both “Black September” and the “Red Army Faction” were well known back then, contrary to what is stated in the serialisation in the “Sunday Nation” of 8th October 2023, where it is said that the “Red Army Faction” was little known at the time of the hijacking of Air France Flight 139 on 27th June 1976.
In those days, Germany was two separate countries, namely, Capitalist West Germany and Communist East Germany, similar to how we today still have Communist North Korea and Capitalist South Korea, and similar to how, between 1954 and 1975, Vietnam was divided into Communist North Vietnam and Capitalist South Vietnam;
2. Col. Bruce McKenzie was Kenya’s Minister for Agriculture from 1963 to 1970, and was not Kenya’s Minister for Agriculture in the 1970s as stated in the “Sunday Nation” of 8th October 2023;
3. The Entebbe Rescue Mission of 4th July 1976, executed by members of Israel’s elite commando unit “Sayeret Matkal,” was led by Brig. Gen. Dan Shomron, not by Lt. Col. Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu. The latter was the deputy commander of the rescue mission;
4. The aircraft that did a reconnaissance flight over Uganda’s Entebbe Airport hours before the Entebbe Rescue Mission of 4th July 1976, was actually flown by Col. Bruce McKenzie, mentioned above, and not by a Mossad agent. Lt. Col. Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001, narrates this in a year 2000 documentary titled “Operation Thunderbolt: Entebbe.”
Col. Bruce McKenzie was born and brought up in South Africa, where he trained as a pilot with the South African Air Force, and was seconded to work as fighter pilot for Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II of 1939 to 1945.
Lt. Col. Ehud Barak, in his own right, once headed “Sayeret Matkal,” mentioned above, and during his time as Commander of “Sayeret Matkal,” presided over the rescue mission of hostages being held on Sabena Flight 571 at Lod Airport, Tel Aviv, Israel, on 9th May 1972. The said 1972 rescue mission was code-named “Operation Isotope.” Israel’s current Prime Minister, Capt. Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, was one of the “Sayeret Matkal” commandos that executed “Operation Isotope” of 9th May 1972, and Capt. Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu is the younger brother of Lt. Col. Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, mentioned above;
5.The “Sunday Nation” serialisation of 8th October 2023 states that a meeting held at the private Muthaiga residence of Kenya’s then Attorney-General, Charles Njonjo, prior to the Entebbe Rescue Mission of 4th July 1976, was attended by Charles Njonjo, Ben Gethi, the then Commandant of the General Service Unit (GSU), James Kanyotu, the then Director of Intelligence, and Col. Bruce McKenzie, mentioned above. The said meeting was actually attended by Charles Njonjo, Ben Gethi, Col. Bruce McKenzie, Bernard Hinga, the then Commissioner of Police, and two Mossad agents, namely, Mike Harari, and Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak, mentioned above. Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak was at the time Col. Ehud Barak;
Also, after the Entebbe Rescue Mission of 4th July 1976, Uganda’s then President, Gen. Idi Amin, threatened to invade Kenya owing to the support that Kenya had given to the rescue mission. As a precautionary measure, America’s then President, Gerald Ford, dispatched six American Navy ships on standby in the Indian Ocean, as well as a stealth bomber on reconnaissance patrols. Gen. Idi Amin did not make good his threat to invade Kenya.
In general, “Black September” and the “Red Army Faction,” mentioned above, feature prominently in world affairs in the 1970s, and you guys should actually do articles on both in the coming weeks and coming months.
“Black September,” also known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was formed by Dr. George Habash in 1967 as a breakaway faction from Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).
“Black September” were funded, trained and armed by the now defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and got so well trained and well armed, that they almost staged a coup in Jordan in September 1970. This is how they got their name “Black September,” a reference to the “dark” events that took place in Jordan in September 1970. After the coup attempt in Jordan in September 1970, Jordan’s then ruler, King Hassan, expelled them from Jordan, and they therefore then changed their base and operations from Jordan, in the Middle East, to Libya, in North Africa. Libya’s leader at the time was Col. Muammar Gaddafi.
It was “Black September” that killed eleven Israeli athletes, on 5th and 6th September 1972, at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, and it was “Black September” that hijacked Lufthansa Flight LH 181 on 13th October 1977, and redirected it to Aden Adde International Airport, Mogadishu, Somalia, where elite German commandos known as GSG 9, led by Col. Ulrich Claus “Ricky” Wegener, staged a rescue mission on 18th October 1977.
After “Black September” killed eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, Israel’s then Prime Minister, Golda Meir, ordered what is known as “Operation Wrath of God,” where fifteen top leaders of “Black September” were assassinated by different branches of Israel’s security organs between 1972 and 1979, the last to be assassinated being “Black September’s” Chief of Operations, Ali Hassan Salameh (“The Red Prince”), on 22nd January 1979.
“Black September” has morphed into what we today know as Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), has morphed into what we today know as Fatah in the West Bank.
You guys should also do an article on how Uasin Gishu, Kenya, was once selected as a site for the establishment of the State of Israel. This suggestion, on the recommendation of Britain’s then Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, was made in the year 1903 at the 6th Zionist Congress held in Switzerland.
After the 6th Zionist Congress of 1903, a team was sent to Uasin Gishu, Kenya, to establish the suitability of establishing the State of Israel in Kenya. The team, on it’s return from Kenya, submitted a favourable report.
The 7th Zionist Congress of 1905, also held in Switzerland, however settled for the establishment of the State of Israel in it’s current location in the Middle East, establishment that came into effect in the year 1948.
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