Page 2 Section I Portland Observer, June 1,1963
OBSERVATIONS
Rumors of CIA action persist
B a rt//
FROM THE SIDELINES
by Kathryn H at! Bogie
T
by Robert Lothian
he Northwest Afrikan Ameri
can Ballet, the first traditional
African dance company of its kind
in the Northwest, will be led by its
creator, Master Drummer Bruce
Smith, when it opens at Jefferson
High School auditorium on Satur
day evening, June I I .
The company, whose sponsors
are the M etropolitan Arts Commis
sion and the Northwest Artists
W orkshop, consists o f 16 young
dancers all invited by Smith to join
Nm in learning the traditional dances
of Africa.
"Som e o f the dancers came from
Jefferson's
dance
department,
others came from the com m unity,"
Smith said. " M y drive was to bring
a sense o f culturism to the N orth
west. Very few people," he went on,
"realize that the dances they do at
parties have been done for a thou
sand years in the different regions
throughout the continent o f Africa.
W e pay respect to these purely tradi
tional dances when we perform .
" W h y do we call it Ballet? The
word 'ballet' means. *a dance that
tells a story.* However, there is no
'point* in our performance, no
ballet slippers nor a tu-tu. W e do the
social dances o f Africa — dances
that we black Americans lost when
we were taken in slavery and were
disconnected by the system from
our past. W e are getting in touch
again this way. W e do dances that
were performed at weddings, dances
o f planting, o f harvesting and other
work days, dances o f jubilance,
welcoming, and for the recognition
o f young m anhood."
How and why did this native
Portlander build this dream into
reality? He said he had started with
a fascination with hand drums he
heard played in jazz concerts re
corded by Herbie Hancock, Miles
Davis and others. His father,
Cleophas, owned a substantial col
lection o f records, Smith said. " M y
father had records o f the great. I
heard a lot o f Dizzy Gillespie when I
was a boy. M y father had a ll of
Gillespie’s records.
" I learned a lot from these rec
ords when I was growing up and
practicing on my own. A t age 19, I
had my first drum lesson. It was Cal
Jadcr whom I cornered in his hotel
after a Portland concert. I begged
him for a lesson and offered him all
the money I had — $10.00 — to pay
for it. He gave me the lesson and
pocketed my ten.
" A t Lewis and Clark College. I
had classes in art and design, but 1
still wanted to be a percussionist.
" A t Jefferson, as students, we
had a little group that we called the
‘Soul Masters.' W e had put on a
N o rth w e s t A frik a n A m e ric a n Ballet: T ra c y S an d ers. B ruce S m ith .
(P h o to by R ich ard J. B row n )
performance in the auditorium for
the school and we called it the 'Soul
Assembly.' We wanted to establish
as much understanding between the
races as we could through music and
speeches to counteract some o f the
attitudes dividing the school and
community in the days following the
assassination of M artin Luther
King.
"A fterw ards, the Soul Masters
stuck together and we played at
churches and at nightclubs and any
where. There were Janice Poe. Greg
Talton, Donald Hepburn, Charles
Hunter and several others who be
came involved as we grew busier.
W e added horns and linked our
selves with programs at M t. Hood
Comm unity College
" I n I9 7 2 ," Smith reminisced,
"B .B . King came to town and we
opened his show at the Paramount.
W e were impressed with our oppor
tunity and we decided to tighten and
streamline our act. We became nine
members and
called
ourselves
'Pleasure.*
" F o r several years 'Pleasure'
toured around the nation and I, still
with the hand drums, met hand
drummers from Puerto Rico. Cuba
and South America. Knowing that
Africa had been the real heritage o f
these drummers, I knew that to go
to Africa was the ultimate for me.
Then I met O bo Addy, the master
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drummer from Africa, and I knew
that to become a master drummer
was the other half o f the dream.
" I went to Africa in 1981. T o
Senegal.
" I went to study dance and music
and I learned the culture, the stories
and how to make the djembe (pro
nounced 'jim b ay ') the hand drums
o f M a li, Guinea, and Senegal. The
djembe is made o f hardwood, is
shaped like a funnel and is topped
with the thin skin o f a baby goat or
an antelope to give it a high-pitched
sound. Other (ones are achieved by
using different woods and different
thicknesses o f skins.
" A ll of the drums we use in our
performance were made by me. The
garments were made by my wife,
Chonitia, from fabric that came
from Senegal and New York City. I
learned
tie-dye
techniques
in
Senegal as part o f my research and
we tie-dyed the fabrics for these
garments at my house.
" F o r the perform ance," Smith
promised in conclusion, "w e will be
playing some o f the incredible poly
rhythms I heard in Africa. African
drumming is spiritual — the spiri
tual expressions o f ancient African
life. W e will present it to Northwest
America — our Northwest Afrikan
American Ballet.
" D o n ’ t forget,” Smith ended,
"C u rta in time is 8:00 p .m ."
News o f a possible connection
between McMinnville-based Ever
green Helicopters. Inc. and the C IA
surfaced in 197$, when Evergreen
bought
lntcrmountain
Aviation
from the C IA .
lntcrmountain, headquartered ut
a 2.200 acre former military training
base near Tucson, had been one o f
several "proprietary” commercial
air operations around the world
which the C IA grouped under the
title A ir America. Its covert activi
ties included flying anti-communist
Tibetan guerrillas to their home
land, and delivering unmarked B-26
bombers to A frica (W a ll Street
Journal, Feb. IS, 1979). Intermoun-
tain's facilities included sophisticat
ed parachute technology for drop
ping people and bundles into remote
areas.
A n airfield, maintenance and test
area, several airplanes, and "con
vention-seminar"
faculties
were
sold to Evergreen. One o f the uses
Evergreen has for its Arizona base is
storage o f "vintage airc ra ft" in the
dry desert climate.
In 1979, the W all Street Journal
uncovered a lucrative auto parts
hauling scam being conducted by
the C IA through Intermountain and
Southern A ir Transport. Southern
A ir, another branch o f A ir Am eri
ca, was " a key arm for covert
operations in the C aribbean," ac
cording to the article (W a ll Street
Journal. Feb. 18, 1979).
A major part o f the two airlines'
business in the '60s and early '70s
was transportation o f millions o f
dollars worth o f auto parts for big
three automakers. The operation
yielded profits for the C IA , which
set up a Detroit bureau to oversee
the shipments.
The ostensibly legitimate business
provided the airline's commercial
cover “ when the planes weren’t
needed for clandestine operations
abroad, such as dropping supplies
by parachute in remote jungles,"
according to the article.
Former C IA director W illiam
Colby is quoted as saying, " I f
you’ re doing some kind o f legiti
mate business, you stick out too
much, like a sore thum b.”
When news o f the C I A ’s proprie
tary activities began to leak out, the
agency sold Southern A ir in 1973
and Intermountain in 1975. Southern
was sold to the man who had man
aged it for the C IA for 11 years, and
Evergreen retained some personnel
who had worked for Intermountain
under C IA management
Another company, Rosenbalm
Aviation o f M edford, Oregon,
bought several o f Intermountain's
airplanes and other equipment.
According to the
W all Street
Journal, two o f Rosenbalm's top
managers have strong C IA connec
tions. One had worked at Inter-
mountain for six years, then trans
ferred to Rosenbalm in 1973, the
same year Rosenbalm bought four
planes from Intermountain. Ever
green and Rosenbalm continued to
haul auto parts after the C IA divest
ed itself o f lntcrmountain, "inviting
suspicion that the C IA intends to re
main in the business," says the W all
Street Journal.
A Senate Select Intelligence C o m
mittee Report quoted in the article
states; " In several cases, transfer of
the entity was conditioned as an
agreement (hat the proprietary
would continue to provide goods or
services to the C I A . ” Ominously,
the C IA classified as secret a General
Accounting O ffice Report on the
sale of lntcrmountain to Evergreen
(W all Street Journal, Feb. 18, 1979).
Under Evergreen ownership, the
Arizona site became headquarters
for what the W all Street Journal
called "the nation's fastest growing
supplemental airline." Evergreen
International Airlines, Inc., a sub
sidiary o f Evergreen Helicopters.
In 1979, Evergreen International
relocated to Oregon with the help of
an Oregon Economic Development
Commission $1 million bond to help
with construction. From M cM inn-
villa. Evergreen International's 130
member staff controls world wide
flight operations. Its business be
tween major U.S. cities and Europe,
Puerto Rico and three cities on the
Yucatan Peninsula consists o f 60%
cargo and 40% passengers
The Evergreen-CIA connection
heated up again in I960 when Ever
green International flew the deposed
Shah o f Iran from Panama to Egypt.
Television commentators and the
W all Street Journal reported that
the Shah was flown on a C IA jet.
Evergreen made news again la
I960 when a 16-year-old
o f the company died in a fo rklift ac
cident in M cM innville in September
o f that year. The Oregon Wage and
H o u r Commission later charged
Evergreen with employing the youth
beyond his capacity at a hazardous
job , and with failing to obtain re
quired youth employment certifi
cates. A fter resisting, the company
finally agreed to abide by the com
mission’s ruling that it could hire
youths under 17 for office work
only (Oregonian, M ay 29, 1981;
July 22, 1961).
A t about the same time. Ever
green fired 23 workers involved in a
Machinists* Union organizing drive
at its M cM innville facilities. The
Justice Dept. later sought an injunc
tion against the company for inter
fering with employees' legitimate
right to organize. Sixteen o f the
fired employees were later awarded
$38,000 in a settlement which al
lowed Evergreen not to admit to any
wrongdoing (Oregonian, Jan. 22,
1962).
Evergreen's
spray
operations
have long involved the company in
controversy. In 1971, for instance,
the company was slapped with a suit
charging that one o f Ito copters sMa-
takenly sprayed the home a t a d a rk
County, Washington fam ily with
herbicide 2,4 -D . The suit was
denied, but not before the fam ily
claimed a variety o f medical prob
lems (Oregonian. M ay 6, I N I ) .
During the summer o f 1961, one
o f Evergreen's helicopters was hit
by gunfire as it sprayed the insecti
cide malathion over a 237 square
mile area o f Santa C lara County,
California infested with the M edi
terranean fruit fly. (Oregonian, July
30, 1961). In the spring o f 1962,
another Evergreen helicopter mis
takenly doused an 11 block strip o f
Salem homes with a cloud o f the in
secticide sevin during a campaign
against the gypsy moth (Oregonian.
M ay 22, 1962).
Home-grown Evergreen is in
volved in some heavy activity. A call
to the Agency (or International De
velopment in Washington failed to
uncover Evergreen A ID contracts
other than their current power line
repair project in El Salvador. But
A ID does not disclose contracts that
involve intelligence or national
security. W e may hear more about
Evergreen's international opera
tions in the future.
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