Yeah, They Did This

What you need to understand about the CIA is that they occasionally leak things to prove that they’re spooky and incredibly dangerous instead of merely incompetent moron mediocrities.

The CIA’s mysterious role in the arrest of Nelson Mandela
By Adam Taylor, Washington Post
May 16 at 12:35 PM

This weekend, that speculation was reignited by a report in Britain’s Sunday Times, which quoted claims made by alleged ex-CIA agent Donald Rickard that he tipped off authorities in apartheid-led South Africa to the location of the notoriously elusive Mandela, leading to his arrest in 1962.

Rickard made the claim while speaking to John Irvin, director of a new documentary on Mandela’s time as an armed rebel. Although the American was not officially associated with the CIA, the Sunday Times reports, he was an agent for the agency while he lived in South Africa as a diplomat. According to Rickard, Mandela had been posing as a chauffeur when he was stopped in Durban and arrested. “I found out when he was coming down and how he was coming … that’s where I was involved and that’s where Mandela was caught,” Rickard reportedly said.

The American also suggested that Mandela had been a target of the United States because he had been under the influence of the Soviet Union, and Washington feared a bigger conflict with Moscow if South Africa fell into civil war. Rickard apparently felt no regret. “We were teetering on the brink here and it had to be stopped, which meant Mandela had to be stopped,” he said. “And I put a stop to it.”