As They Celebrate Castro's Death, Miami's Cubans Would Do Well To Remember...

Miami's Cubans whoop it up last night on Calle Ocho, downtown.




















The 73 innocent souls blown out of the sky off Barbados' southwest coast on October 6, 1976. Blown to smithereens by a cabal of anti-Castro extremists - fighting for "freedom" - but taking their wrath out on the Cuban fencing team and family. All regarded as "targets of opportunity" by Orlando Bosch, one of the masterminds, and Luis Posada Carrilles.

The true fact here? Cuba was the victim of the worst state-terror attack in the western hemisphere before 9/11 and it came from the U.S. This was instigated by the CIA on Oct. 6, 1976 using a Venezuelan- based former CIA asset (Luis Posada)  to blow up Cubana Airlines Flight 455 killing all 73 on board.

Certainly the event is just as emblazoned in Barbadian neurons as the 9-11 attack for those in New York. Maybe worse,  since the scale of Barbados is radically smaller than New York, or the U.S. On a national scale of devastation, that Cubana Airline bombing took out a percentage of people equal to 0.03% of the total populace, while numerically as a %, 9-11 took out roughly 0.0001%. Thus, in purely proportionate numerical terms, Cubana 455 was much deadlier. But sadly, it's not on most citizens' radar - certainly not in the US Of A.

I was at the Paradise Beach on the southwest coast of the island with my five nieces when it occurred. We witnessed the plane come down, and wondered what the hell had happened – then watched in horror barely an hour and a half later as bloody body parts began to wash ashore. Even now, as adult women, they're unable to venture anywhere near that particular beach.

The prevailing thought at the time was some malfunction occurred and the plane just blew up more or less by accident. It was only years later that it was ascertained that the two questioned in Barbados were hired thugs commissioned by anti-Castro extremist Cubans and the CIA . As former federal agents Warren Hinckle and William Turner noted in their excellent book, ‘Deadly Secrets: The CIA-Mafia War Against Castro and the Assassination of JFK’ (p. 384, Thunders Mouth Press, 1992):

“Two men who had deplaned in Barbados, Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo Lusano, were interrogated after joking about the bombing in a Barbados taxicab. The two were employed by Luis Posada…and confessed that Posada and (Orlando) Bosch had supplied them with two bombs, which they planted on the Cubana aircraft.”

Luis Posada  Carriles - state-sponsored  (by the U.S.) Venezuealan terrorist, who was allowed U.S. sanctuary by George Bush Jr. and never extradited for trial in Venezuela.


According to a secret CIA cable dated Oct. 14, 1976, intelligence sources in Venezuela relayed information about the Cubana Airlines Flt. 455 bombing that tied in  Alpha 66 terrorist Orlando Bosch, who had been visiting Venezuela, and Posada, who then served as a senior officer in Venezuela’s intelligence agency, DISIP. On his arrival, Bosch was met by a CIA operative and Posada, according to the report. Later, a fundraising dinner was held in Bosch’s honor. “A few
days following the fund-raising dinner, Posada was overheard to say that, ‘we are going to hit a Cuban airplane,’ and that ‘Orlando has the details,’” the CIA report said.

Meanwhile, those of us living in Barbados at the time had no remote notion of the bloody act to come, nor of the U.S. complicity in it, or that the same right wing Cuban renegades - whose associates conspired in the JFK assassination -  were part of it. The CIA Report went on to read:

“Following the 6 October [1976] Cubana Airline crash off the coast of Barbados, Bosch, Garcia and Posada agreed that it would be best for Bosch to leave Venezuela. Therefore, on 9 October, Posada and Garcia escorted Bosch to the Colombian border, where he crossed into Colombian territory.”

(Note the CIA's  sanitizing of language, the use of "crash" instead of bombing, or what we call "collateral language.)

Meanwhile, Venezuelan police began rounding up suspects. Two right wing Cuban exiles, Hernan Ricardo Lusano and Freddy Lugo, who got off the Cubana plane (Flight 455) in Barbados, confessed that they had planted the bomb and they named Bosch and Posada as the architects of the attack. A search of Posada’s apartment in Venezuela turned up bomb-making instructions, some materials as well as Cubana Airlines timetables and other incriminating documents.

Posada and Bosch were charged in Venezuela for the Cubana Airlines bombing, but the case soon became a political tug-of-war, since the suspects were in possession of sensitive Venezuelan government secrets that could embarrass President Andres Perez. Posada escaped from a Venezuelan prison where he was awaiting trial in 1985. In his autobiography, Posada thanked Miami-based Cuban activist Jorge Mas Canosa for the $25,000 that was used to bribe guards who allowed Posada to walk out of prison. Another Cuban exile who aided Posada was former CIA officer Felix Rodriguez, who was close to then-Vice President Bush.

To make a long story short, Posada became the beneficiary of assistance of not only a somnolent, uninterested media (which expressed more outrage at the Pan Am 103 downing in 1988) and a friendly Bush Junior Administration - but also Miami's Cuban community which provided safe harbor for a number of years while investigations were ongoing.

Years earlier, the U.S. had planned massive terror attacks not only on Cuban soil but in the U.S.  - to blame on Fidel Castro, in order to foment a full scale war and invasion of the island. We have the records that document  the extent of it, e.g.                                                          









































This was none other than Operation Northwoods.  In Operation Northwoods the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. military planned a campaign of terror, to include the sinking of refugee boats (carrying Cuban refugees) on the high seas, as well as the killing of innocent citizens on American cities’ streets, plus random bombings carried out in Washington, DC, Miami and other places. What was the  motivation? Author James Bamford shows (Body Of Secrets, pp. 82-83) it was to incite an invasion and war against Cuba and enable the U.S. to invade and overthrow Fidel Castro.

But the documents to support suspicions of this (failed) conspiracy were only released years later – though many smelled a ‘rat’. When I first heard of Northwoods, I had trouble processing how any U.S. government agency or entity could remotely conceive of such foul deeds, far less carry them out. Then I quickly recalled the blowing up of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 over Barbados, on October 6. 1976 by Luis Posada, Freddie Lugo and other renegades sponsored in the extremist Alpha 66 enclave by the CIA.

It is interesting, historically, to note that the bulk of Cubans who fled as refugees  after Fidel Castro overthrew the jackboots of Dictator Fulgencio Batista, were of the middle class. They fled because they were no longer able to get the easy perks they could under Batista, given Castro wanted to redistribute the island's scarce resources. And since Cuban intelligence learned of plans to try to topple Castro long before he turned to the Soviet Union, his decision was made much easier regarding which nation had his best interests at heart. Most of Miami's entitled Cubans celebrating on Calle Ocho forget that.

I  beheld these entitled Cubans when they first arrived in Miami in 1962 via "Operation Pedro Pan" - given most had been in elite Catholic schools and their parents were horrified at the prospect of a "communist education".  They arrived at my high school, Mgsr. Edward Pace, and were given free textbooks, clothing,  housing, as well as paid tuition compliments of the Miami Archdiocese. Meanwhile, I had to work after classes to pay my own tuition. Do I necessarily begrudge them? No, but I want them to stop their whining now, and disgusting celebrations on the death of a ninety year old man who - let's face it - had been literally on his death bed the past ten years. As Janice opined this morning: "Maybe if they get it all out of their system they'll behave from now on." Miami's Right Wing Cubans? No way.  They'll find some other grievance to chew on with Raul Castro, just stay tuned.

Much of the travail and Castro reprisals were due to the U.S. own attempted interventions and mischief. In each case it forced Castro to tighten the screws of security further including scoping out domestic enemies - like Orlando Bosch and cohort.  Thankfully, after the October, 1962 missile crisis, John F. Kennedy attempted to end the awful relations via rapprochement with Castro through his aide de camp Renee Vallejo and JFK's go between, William Attwood.

Attwood, a Washington lawyer, who had earlier negotiated the release of the Bay of Pigs prisoners who was to be instrumental. He was charged by JFK with becoming the first American emissary to secure Castro’s ear and trust. In particular, to show good will and good faith, Attwood arranged for $62 million in medicines and food aid as part of the prisoner deal.

 Attwood was also continually active in the spring of 1963, securing the release of other prisoners, including three CIA operatives held in Cuban jails. What derailed the effort, ending it violently with the Kennedy asssassination? Likely the CIA getting wind of the plan, especially given they were still enraged by Kennedy's reaction after the Bay of Pigs.

Probability of cross-Agency leakage would’ve occurred when ABC News reporter Lisa Howard offered herself as an intermediary, and her apartment in New York as the venue, for the first bilateral talks between U.S. and Cuban officials.   Certainly, the Agency’s eyes and ears would’ve been turned (tuned?) toward Howard after she did a fairly sympathetic TV special on Castro in April, 1963.   Might they have bugged her apartment and listened in? Possible, but they may not have had to – since a “high society” crowd attended and these may well have provided all the extra source leaks the Agency needed to plan ahead for what it wanted to do.

By September 24, 1963, Robert Kennedy had informed Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. William Atwood, that Jack might be able to meet Castro, but not in Cuba. Mexico may have been suggested as an alternative. By then many of us suspected that the conspirators had a plan afoot to possibly take out Kennedy in September. We didn't realize it already had been planned for Dallas in November, using at least one team composed of Cuban exiles from the Bay of Pigs with  vengeance on their minds.

With Trump now likely to assume office in two months,  all the progress toward Cuban relations launched recently by Obama will be upended and we 'll return to the same Cold War mentality as before. That is something, along with the memory of  their 73 countrymen blown out of the sky 40 years ago,  Miami's Cubans ought to weep over -   rather than celebrate.

See also:

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba/2016-10-06/bombing-cuban-jetliner-40-years-later

http://www.loopnewsbarbados.com/content/watch-cubana-air-bombing-remembered

And:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2016/03/what-maddow-left-out-in-her-segment-on.html

What Maddow Left Out In Her Segment On The Kennedy- Castro Rapprochement

Actress and TV reporter Lisa Howard had a major role in energizing the move to rapprochement between Kennedy and Fidel Castro's Cuba in the Spring of 1963. Rachel Maddow's segment last night did not deal with her role at all - perhaps because she was one of those mysteriously claimed by sudden death some two years later.

Very few Americans seem to be aware of recent American history especially to do with the last days of the Kennedy administration. In multiple blog posts I have tried my best to fill in these earlier blanks  (many due to our myopic media, mostly into sensationalism now) and another opportunity presents itself as we celebrate the first visit of an American President to Cuba in nearly 90 years.

 Rachel Maddow (last night) deserves kudos for finally bringing the long hidden initiative for JFK's Cuban rapprochement to light in a segment 'Everything Is Possible' - a phrase Kennedy used in a speech in Miami in 1963, otherwise noted for its Cold War tone. But always the consummate strategist, Kennedy knew he absolutely had to keep up the pose of Cold Warrior despite having changed nearly a year earlier after the horrific Cuban Missile Crisis which brought the world to the brink of nuclear extinction. (See James Douglas' section 'A Cold Warrior Turns' in his book, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died And Why It Matters)

In her segment Maddow presented letters from an autobiographical work by Attwood which clearly showed Kennedy intended to use him as an emissary to Castro, in an effort to normalize relations with Cuba. This was further reinforced from tapes Maddow re-played based on JFK's then conversations with McGeorge Bundy on Nov. 5, 1963. Kennedy later required Attwood to obtain  confirmation from Castro about his agenda, after which the actual secret talks could start. Castro's response was received Nov. 23, 1963, one day after Kennedy was killed in Dallas and there ended the rapprochement efforts.

But, in fact, the wheels had been spinning since April, 1963. Former actress and ABC News reporter Lisa Howard had offered herself as an intermediary for the first bilateral talks between U.S. and Cuban officials, in April, 1963, soon after doing a fairly sympathetic TV special on Castro the same month.  She also offered her 5th Avenue New York apartment as a venue for meeting with the Cuban Ambassador to the UN. This was already accepted by the Kennedy administration as a report in the UK Guardian notes, e.g.

The administration gave a nod to Ms Howard, who set up a chance meeting between Mr Attwood and the Cuban ambassador to the UN, Carlos Lechuga, at a cocktail party in her Park Avenue apartment.
The apartment then became a communications centre between Mr Attwood and the Castro regime. Castro's aide, Dr Rene Vallejo, called at pre-arranged times to talk to Mr Attwood, and in the autumn of 1963 suggested that Mr Attwood fly to Mexico from where he would be picked up by a plane sent by Castro.

See :
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/nov/26/cuba.julianborger

And it was at that end point that Maddow's piece picks up, basically around November 5, 1963, to Nov. 23, 1963. But left out is that the movement for rapprochement had been going on for months sub rosa.  Note also that Attwood was also involved in these early talks, i.e. with Castro's aide Vallejo. (Who also is not mentioned in Maddow's piece).  Did Maddow omit all this because many in the JFK research community believe that Lisa Howard was one of the de facto victims of the assassination, after she  continued efforts at formalizing Cuban-American relations after JFK was killed?  This is relevant given, as the Guardian put it:  "Howard continued to bring messages back to Washington from Castro."

But LBJ, especially after orchestrating Kennedy's killing to save his own political skin, was in no mood, though Castro couldn't have known that - so made his pleas to "turn the other cheek" in vain. LBJ may also have very well frowned on Howard's efforts to keep the Castro ties alive, even as he later frowned on Martin Luther King Jr. going against him on the Vietnam War. One thing we do know about "that polecat Lyndon" (Russell Long's famous onetime description) is he didn't abide anyone crossing him.

As I also wrote before, it seems highly plausible that the efforts at early rapprochement got out and found their way to the CIA teams running anti-Castro Cubans and moving the pieces in place for Kennedy's assassination. This is relevant because in the spring of 1963 we know that the Chief of Psychological Warfare branch of the CIA's JM/WAVE station in Miami (George Johannides,),  was busy “guiding and financing” members of the Revolutionary Cuban Student Directorate or DRE, one of the largest anti-Castro groups in the United States[1].  This attention included providing the DRE with up to $25,000 a month, so long as they submitted to CIA discipline[2].

At the same time it was known that Operation ZR-Rifle, an Agency project to assassinate Castro, was well underway and quite plausibly without JFK’s knowledge or approval. (Since it’s incomprehensible that Kennedy would’ve approved any Castro assassination plan while also pursuing rapprochement. He’d have to be schizoid- and hence dysfunctional. Further it would flout all the arguments to do with his “moral compass” shown by James Douglass in his book, JFK and the Unspeakable).

Thus, given Johannides’ band of DRE reprobates, it’s plausible that any debriefings done by the CIA (of Attwood- in the course of his talks in Cuba) would find their way back to those running the Johannides’ and ZR-Rifle operations. It doesn’t take a whole lot here to conjecture that – if such a leak transpired (say from the de-briefers to Johannides, or ZR-Rifle) -  the plan to assassinate Fidel Castro might be altered to target Kennedy instead. Surely, the rage would be there, make no mistake. The DRE members especially would feel betrayed, as well as the 2506 Brigade imprisoned after their capture in the wake of the Bahia de Cochinos episode.

Further probability of cross-Agency leakage would’ve occurred when Lisa Howard offered herself as an intermediary, and her apartment in New York as the venue, for the first bilateral talks between U.S. and Cuban officials. When she continued the efforts on her own, she put herself in the crosshairs and her life was suddenly ended on July 4, 1965.

All this was left out of Maddow's piece, but perhaps it shouldn't have been.
-------------------


[1]Jefferson Morley, ‘The George Johannides Cover-up’, in JFK LANCER, May 19, 2005.

[2] Morley, ibid.

Kudos to Obama For Normalizing Diplomatic Relations With Cuba

It's been over 50 years, but finally rationality and sanity have come to the fore in seeking to normalize relations with Cuba. This despite the hair on fire screeching by a lot of right wing Cubans such as Marco Rubio. Happily, Obama has the brains, courage and good sense not to pay attention to them.

First, let's get some history out of the way. Contrary to the myth that JFK began the Cuban isolation, it was in fact Kennedy who had begun a rapprochement with Fidel Castro through his aide-de-camp Rene Vallejo and Kennedy's emissary, William Attwood. This has been well documented by National Archives contributor Peter Kornbluh, and would have paved the way to normalization of relations, including trade. ('Kennedy and Castro: What Might Have Been', by Peter Kornbluh, in The Baltimore Sun, Aug. 22, 1999, p. 1C)

National Security Archivist Kornbluh showed (by reference to documents he had accessed), it was William Attwood a Washington lawyer (who had negotiated the original release of the Bay of Pigs prisoners), who was instrumental. Attwood was charged with becoming the first American emissary to secure Castro’s ear and trust in a year-long rapprochement. In particular, to show good will and good faith, Attwood arranged for $62 million in medicines and food aid as part of the prisoner deal. All this was approved by JFK and likely sealed his death warrant in the Agency. It certainly would have inflamed the passions of the Cuban right wing groups the Agency had been running since the Bay of Pigs debacle.

Recall CIA Director Richard Helms was already well aware of the bile held toward Kennedy by anti-Castro groups, especially the DRE ( Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil ) - trained by CIA operatives, David Atlee  Phillips and George Joannides with the DRE  described as: “one of the most bitter toward President Kennedy for his deal with the Russians." (HSCA, Vol. 10, 1979, ibid.). Helms, as well as William Harvey (coordinator for Staff D and the ZR/Rifle program) knew this hatred could be directed purposefully and what better way than an executive action. Since an assassination program (ZR/Rifle) had already been running since 1961, why not turn it from Castro to JFK and use some of the well motivated angry Cubans of the DRE to help carry it out?

Imagine, just imagine - how riled and furious that same Phillips-Joannides anti-Castro Cuban group would be when it learned (compliments of their CIA handlers, no doubt) that Kennedy was in the process of establishing normalized relations with Fidel via a rapprochement with his aide-de-camp. Hell, these DRE miscreants would have gone ballistic and begged Joannides and Phillips for anything they might do, any role, to exact payback.

Too extreme? They'd never do it? Hey ....this was the same basic bunch that blew a Cubana Airline plane (Flight 455) out of the skies off Barbados  SW coast on Oct. 6, 1976! If they could kill 73  innocents that day don't tell me they wouldn't volunteer to put one or more bullets into a prez that: a) they believed 'betrayed' them by not providing air cover for Operation Zapata (the Bay of Pigs invasion), and b) had begun rapprochement with Fidel - their most hated enemy.(Operation Zapata had actually been conceived in the Eisenhower administration, and Ike pushed it on Kennedy as a matter of "national security".  The CIA then lied about all aspects of it and when its final phase failed, JFK pulled all air support.).

The point is, had JFK lived we'd have had normalized relations with Cuba already. As it was, once LBJ took office he squelched the rapprochement one time, finito. Isolation and cold war opposition returned and reached its culmination with the Cubana Airliner bombing.

The nutty right wing Miami Cubans yap about Obama giving a pass to Cuban terrorism, but it was in fact American-sponsored terrorism that brought down that plane with all those people on board in 1976. 

Like an automated puppet, Marco Rubio has gone off on Obama - bawling he's "the worst negotiator ever" and gave Castro "all he wanted", also that further normalization will not be a gimme - but history will be the final arbiter. Also, it's well known that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - one of the Repukes' main cash cows- has been foursquare for normalizing economic relations.

In the meantime, we can look for an embassy to be set up in Havana, and relaxation of travel rules as well as banking regulations.

So it will be interesting to watch the Rs twist in the wind over this and get their panties all in a knot, along with the reactionary Cubans in Little Havana.

It's now time for these people to grow up, and for Marco Rubio to shut up!