How CIA's `QRHELPFUL' Covert Action Program Helped Polish `Solidarity' Group In 1980s: Part 5

During the 1980s a group in Poland that Lech Walesa led, called "Solidarity," was apparently secretly supported by the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] of the Republican Reagan administration. As the Chair and Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies [CSIS]'s Transnational Threats Project, Seth G. Jones, recalled in his 2018 book, A Covert Action: Reagan, The CIA, and The Cold War Struggle in Poland:

"...The 4-page weekly Tydognzk Mazoustoe...received...covert assistance from the CIA...Solidarity's...transmitters filled the airwaves with messages...On April 12, 1982...citizens in Warsaw heard the inaugural broadcast of Radio Solidarity...Supported by covert CIA funds, Radio Solidarity went on the air from multiple, roving locations...Two CIA-supported publications, Kultura and Aneks, opened their pages...

"...The CIA entrusted...a few Catholic officials to bring money into Poland as part of QRHELPFUL...By late 1984, QRHELPFUL's infrastructure was operating at full capacity. Within the International Activities Division at CIA headquarters, Dick Malzahn remained head...He would eventually be replaced by Boyd Bishop...The CIA ramped up its media campaign to aid Solidarity. The CIA's International Activities Division boasted a worldwide covert action infrastructure of media assets and outlets to distribute a pro-Solidarity message. Malzahn's group aimed to organize political demonstrations inside--and outside--Poland..."  (end of Part 5)

Murdered At Howard Beach

(chorus)
Murdered at Howard Beach
By a band of white youths with bats
Murdered at Howard Beach
While people stood by and watched.

(verses)
Their car broke down on the wrong side of town
And a police tow truck never arrived
And so they walked in the dangerous dark
To the pizza place where racists hide. (chorus)

There are no police in Howard Beach
To protect a young Black man
And if you flee to the Belt Parkway
A cop's son may mow you down. (chorus)

Michael Griffith is dead after being stranded
And cornered in a white neighborhood
Racists rule New York, and they won't let you walk
Until power rests in Black hands. (chorus)

Griffith's car broke down on the wrong side of town
And a police tow truck never arrived
And Sandiford walked in the dangerous dark
To the pizza place where racists hide. (chorus)

There are no police in Howard Beach
To protect a young Black man
And Griffith escaped to the Belt Highway
But Dominick Blum mowed him down. (chorus)

Michael Griffith was corned and now he lies dead
And the D.A. won't jail his killers
Racists rule New York, and they won't let you walk
Until Black power arrests murderers. (chorus)

And people mow march and people now chant
From Howard Beach to Boys and Girls High
"No cover-up" is the shout and again people fight
For freedom right now and tonight. (chorus)