“This is an open wound in Swedish society. It is extremely important that this is solved.”
Sweden Prime Minister Stefan Lofven (May 2018)
“The Anti Apartheid Conference in Stockholm, it is suggested by our Swedish Sources in Uppsala, would present the ideal opportunity to take the necessary action against Mr. Palme and it would be possible to ensure that the action be attributed to other groups.”
South Africa Military Intelligence Report (October 15 1985)
“Reading and thinking about Palme makes you wonder who you are. And who you might have been, but weren’t. And where your moral courage went when it was needed. You ask yourself what power drove him – golden boy, aristocratic family, brilliant scion of the best schools and the best cavalry regiment – to embrace from the outset of his career the cause of the exploited, the deprived, the undervalued and the unheard?”
David Cornwell (John le Carré ) — Olof Palme Award acceptance speech (January 30 2020)
February 28 2019 — The murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme on February 28 1986 shocked Sweden and had a great impact across Scandinavia. If we can solve today the mystery of the 1961 murder of UN Secretary Dag Hammarskjold, then surely we must be able to identify the killer(s) of Prime Minister Olof Palme. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today
RELATED POST: The VELA Incident: Declassified Files Shed Light on the Nuclear Test Controversy
RELATED POST: UN REPORT — External Attack Probably Caused Dag Hammarskjold’s Plane to Crash
RELATED POST: On This Day — Benazir Bhutto Is Assassinated (December 27 2007)
RELATED POST: Rwanda — French Investigators Drop Habyarimana Plane Shooting Probe
RELATED POST: WORMWOOD — Seymour Hersh : “Frank Olson was a man profoundly distressed about what he was learning… And he was dangerous.”
RELATED POST: 2020 Olof Palme Prize Ceremony — John Le Carré : “And how would I like to be remembered?” (30 January 2020)
UPDATE (June 10 2020) — At 9:30 a.m. this morning, Krister Petersson [the case’s chief prosecutor], announced that the case is closed because the ‘main suspect’ Stig Engström had died in 2000.
The press conference was truly disappointing. For months, investigators had promised to tell who killed Olof Palme.
But in truth, they just recalled the long list of suspects. They have no actual evidence against any of them.
They added that the main suspect died 20 years ago, and thus they are closing the investigation. This is not going to be accepted by the Swedish people.
Engström, who was one of some 20 people who witnessed the assassination, killed himself in 2000.
In 2018, his ex-wife told the Expressen newspaper that she had been questioned by detectives in 2017.
At the time she said the suspicion of his guilt was out of the question. “Stig Engström was too much of a coward. He wouldn’t harm a fly,” she said.
UPDATE (May 8 2020) — Swedish Police will make an announcement regarding the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme before June 30 2020.
Some newspaper have reported that they will name the murderer. This may, or may not, be true. It is still unclear what this announcement is really about.
There are rumors that the Police has concluded that Stig Engström is the assassin. I hope this is no more than a rumor because I find that theory almost implausible.
However, I also understand that the Police has been recently re-investigating Bertil Wedin, a former Swedish secret service agent. This is very interesting. Stay tuned!
UPDATE (February 28 2020) — Stieg Larsson, author of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” became one of the world’s most famous crime novelists with a trilogy that has sold more than 80 million copies.
But before that success, Larsson spent years researching the assassination of Sweden’s prime minister, the left-wing social Democrat Olof Palme, who was gunned down on the streets of Stockholm on February 28 1986.
“When this sheet metal door rolled up, and I saw these 20 boxes full of papers, full of Stieg’s documents, that was the start of a journey. That day, I realized he had a real theory in who killed our prime minister.” Jan Stocklassa
More than 30 years later, journalist Jan Stocklassa has used Larsson’s archives to crack open the cold case.
Gaining access to Larsson’s archival material — maintained by the anti-racist magazine Expo he founded in 1995 — Stocklassa closely examines the work Larsson did on the Palme case and picks up the thread where it was left off, delving even deeper into the mystery.
“Stieg Larsson thought that it was South Africa that instigated the murder, and for reasons connected to the weapons trade all over the world that was going on at the time, connected to the Iran-Contra affair.
That was the motive behind it. There was a war going on, the end of the Cold War, and one of the places where they were carrying out the war was South Africa.” [Jan Stocklassa — Author : “The Man Who Played with Fire.”]
Craig Williamson — a longtime military and intelligence spy for South Africa’s apartheid government — denies any involvement in the Palme assassination.
Police has claimed for years the case had been solved despite the original conviction being overturned. Today, they have finally admitted that Christer Pettersson did not commit the murder.
So, we now know that Stieg Larsson thought that it was South Africa that instigated the murder.
As I wrote long ago, there is no doubt whatsoever that, with a bit of help from the South Africa government, this crime could be solved.
Larsson and I could have been good friends. I am glad that we agree on the Palme’s Affair.
STIEG LARSSON: THE MAN WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE by Henrik Georgsson (Official International Trailer HD)
A documentary about “The Girl Who Played With Fire” trilogy author Stieg Larsson and his pioneering work in fighting right wing extremists and neo-Nazis -an obsession that ultimately had fatal consequences.
END of UPDATE
A local convict and addict Christer Pettersson was originally convicted of the murder but was acquitted on appeal. The crime remains unsolved to this day.
Now, a document from South Africa Military Intelligence clearly indicates that the Apartheid regime’s spooks are almost certainly the culprits of this odious assassination.
On February 18 1986, just before midnight, Olof Palme was walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbeth Palme in the central Stockholm street Sveavägen when he was shot in the back at close range. A second shot grazed Lisbet’s back.
The Prime Minister was pronounced dead on arrival at Sabbatsbergs sjukhus hospital.
A South Africa Military Intelligence Report — dated October 15 1985 — appears to solve this three-decade old cold case.
The report concludes that Mr. Palme must “now be seen as an enemy of the State.”
South African spies in Sweden are aware that an “Anti Apartheid Conference” will be held in Sweden in February 1986.
The report recommends that “the previously suggested action against Mr. Palme should now receive urgent attention.”
Finally, the report concludes that:
“The Anti Apartheid Conference in Stockholm, it is suggested by our Swedish Sources in Uppsala, would present the ideal opportunity to take the necessary action against Mr. Palme and it would be possible to ensure that the action be attributed to other groups.”
Following the death of Prime Minister Olof Palme, the CIA wrote a document — dated March 6 1986 — which summarizes his “Foreign Policy Positions“.
Regarding the Swedish-Soviet relations, the CIA wrote:
“Palme believed his official visit to Moscow scheduled for April 1986 would significantly enhance the Swedish-Soviet dialog.”
The Document
Several readers have raised questions regarding the authenticity of the SA Military Intelligence document.
Others wonder why Palme was ‘suddenly’ branded an “ENEMY of the STATE” in late 1985?
Authenticity — There is absolutely no doubt that this document is genuine. Intel Today received this document from Swedish journalist Anders Leopold.
Leopold obtained this document — and a few others — from Deborah Matthews, archival coordinator at the South African History Archive (SAHA), Johannesburg, South Africa.
These documents were donated by the South African journalist and author De Wit Potgieter, who found some them among the remains of the South Africa Military Intelligence Service (MI) archive.
A large part of this secret documents archive was unfortunately destroyed in 1994 when the apartheid regime broke down.Many files are therefore missing and/or incomplete.
Enemy of the State — One need to look back at the historical context to understand why Palme — and his government — was indeed a “clear and present danger” to the survival of the apartheid regime.
By 1986, the anti-apartheid movement was at its strongest in Europe. There was a permanent (24/7) demonstration outside South Africa House in London.
Many companies had been persuaded to disinvest from South Africa. meanwhile, South Africa’s “slave states” of Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and others were seeing a rise in resistance movements with world-wide support.
One of those prominent anti-apartheid supporters was — of course — Olof Palme. He was strongly opposed to apartheid and the SA government at a time when Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan strongly supported them.
Sweden had also welcomed many US draft-dodgers and escapees from the Vietnam war and the Swedish government strongly opposed US aggression in Central America.
[Indeed, a young fellow by the name of Bill Clinton attempted to obtain Swedish citizenship!]
Some investigators have suggested that Palme was about to blow the whistle on the Iran-Contra scandal.
At that time, many idealistic liberals in Europe saw Sweden under Palme as a haven against Thatcherite and Reaganite aggressive capitalism and military interventions in poor countries. It was no secret that Thatcher and Reagan hated Palme.
According to Anders Leopold’s own analysis, there was no ‘special trigger’ in 1985 that precipitate the decision to assassinate Palme.
“It was nevertheless a time when Palme was leading the boycott against South Africa and got the whole world with him,” Leopold told Intel Today.
“In the Nordic program, importers and exporters were recommended to seek out new markets and prevent procurement of South African products.
In Sweden, a ban was imposed on imports of agricultural products from South Africa, largely prohibiting imports of consumer goods from South Africa. PW Botha was furious.
So when signals came from the United States that they wanted to remove Palme — fearing that he, as a peace maker in the Iran / Iraq war was about to expose the United States illegal arms trade with Iran — the South Africa’s military security service was commissioned to stop him.”
One wonders why the Main Stream Media — even in Sweden — have not investigated and reported this amazing breakthrough?
Recently, I asked Swedish author and journalist Sixten Svensson why the story is downplayed even in Palme’s country?
His answer was as simple as it is sad.
“Today, the news are not coming from AP or Reuters anymore. News come from lonely digging journalists!”
The mystery surrounding the killing of Prime Minister Olof Palme continues to fascinate the Swedes.
In May 2018, Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven commented on the case on Swedish TV.
“This is an open wound in Swedish society. It is extremely important that this is solved.”
There is no doubt whatsoever that, with a bit of help from the South Africa government, this crime could be solved once and for all. The sooner, the better!
The Assassination of Olof Palme
REFERENCES
Olof Palme — Wikipedia
How novelist Stieg Larsson may have cracked the unsolved murder of a prime minister — CBS News
=
Olof Palme — South African Spies Likely Murdered Sweden Prime Minister
TOP INTEL TODAY 2018 STORIES — #9 : “Olof Palme — South African Spies Likely Murdered Sweden Prime Minister”
Remembering Olof Palme (January 30 1927 – February 28 1986)
Remembering Olof Palme (January 30 1927 – February 28 1986) [2020]
Remembering Olof Palme (January 30 1927 – February 28 1986) [UPDATE]
Remembering Olof Palme (January 30 1927 – February 28 1986) [UPDATE : Swedish prosecutors close Olof Palme murder inquiry]
Intel Today 