New book claims Fidel Castro knew about Kennedy assassination plot beforehand

Before you get too excited about this, realize it is a tired old lie being recycled from the day of the assassination, when it was meant to frame Oswald and to be used as a justification to invade Cuba. But, even before Castro could have heard about Oswald’s threat to kill Kennedy (interestingly called a plot here, doesn’t that usually involve more than one person?), the FBI, the CIA and other intelligence agencies knew about it from real time photo and sound surveillance of the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City. They soon knew that the “Oswald” who visited these places and made the threats was not Lee Harvey Oswald but someone who did not look or sound a bit like him. J. Edgar Hoover announced in a memo that someone was impersonating Oswald in Mexico City.

This incident and its implications are outlined meticulously in John Newman’s Oswald and the CIA, and in my view in the details of the Operation Northwoods and subsequent plans by CIA and Pentagon to create an incident that would traumatize the American public and which could plausibly be blamed on Fidel Castro in order to launch an invasion of the island and the removal of Castro. Troops were loaded onto planes and Navy Seals were positioned off-shore Cuba on November 22, 1963 for just such a result of the successful telling of this lie.

It would be instructive also to read Fidel Castro’s comments only days later about the assassination, as well as first-hand reports of his immediate chagrin at hearing of the event, when he realized he was being set up to take the blame. His analysis appears in Martin Schotz’s excellent book, History Will Not Absolve Us. This link of Oswald to Castro was clearly orchestrated by some segment of US intelligence just weeks in advance of the assassination of Kennedy. That is the foreknowledge that counts. It is one thing not to prevent something, even if you could, and quite another to plan for it.

This lie was the first cover story put out by the media and the Dallas police, For a detailed analysis of the “Phase One” lie and its sources, see Peter Dale Scott’s Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, and Deep Politics II. His most recent analysis of the role of the Dallas police and Army intelligence in the deception was presented to COPA at our 2010 conference and can be seen at our YouTube page or posted as an article in our archive.

Also recycled here is the notion that Fidel Castro wanted Kennedy assassinated, belied by all the available evidence. This author openly admits he cannot find any evidence proving Castro plotted the assassination in retaliation for plots on his own life that Kennedy had called a halt to. Kennedy also turned down the Northwoods plots when the Joint Chiefs presented them. Through back channels, JFK was trying to normalize relations with Cuba and end the Cold War and the nuclear arms race in favor of real peace. The author admits there is nothing to indicate Castro was using Oswald as an assassin. So, he is left with asserting a motive for Castro that flies in the face of the historical facts. In doing so, he joins the ranks of some of the worst researchers and authors about the assassination who have perpetrated this lie which provides cover for the CIA’s real role in the murder.

It is no surprise that the source for this current re-interment of a long-discredited canard is himself a former CIA operative in Latin America. David Atlee Phillips, who was in charge of the Western Hemisphere operations in the early 1960s was very close to the anti-Castro plots and operations, and who ran intelligence agents including Lee Harvey Oswald, according to several sources who spoke to the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigators. Latin America was certainly part of Phillip’s turf. The propaganda machine is alive and well.

Here are more comments on this review by several researchers in the COPA community:

I do believe that Castro was probably aware that there were attempts being planned to assassinate Kennedy, but so did Kennedy. Certainly Kennedy knew about the Chicago plot. Several foreign intelligent agencies probably knew too, but nothing to do with Oswald. Richard Case Nagell’s story is supportive of this. Cuban intelligence kept Castro alive with various warnings of CIA attempts to kill Castro, so they must also have also penetrated US intelligence agencies/military operational plots to kill Kennedy. Just logical.

This doesn’t mean that Castro wanted Kennedy killed, nor that he was afraid of Kennedy. Quite the opposite. When Castro was informed that JFK was shot, he said “now everything has changed”, because he knew his and Kennedy’s hopes for normalization of Cuba/US relations were now unlikely.

Michael Nurko, New York

I agree [with Nurko], if Castro knew it was from the double agents he had that penetrated DRE and JMWAVE, and not from any personal desire to see JFK killed.

We know of Castro’s immediate response upon learning of the assassination from Jean Daniel’s article in the New Republic, as he had been asked to visit the White House by JFK before he went to Cuba to interview Castro, and he conveyed JFK’s interest in reestablishing rapport, which was also the message being sent back-channel via the UN (Lechuga).

Daniel said that Castro’s reaction was one of shock and horror and exclaimed that “this was very bad,” not the reaction that the Mockingbird “journalist” author from the University of Miami (aka JMWAVE) said was one of glee.

And the whole story of Castro’s radio operator told to listen for “Texas” doesn’t make any sense, as the Soviets had a very high tech listening post set up at Lourdes, which most certainly targeted and intercepted the Air Force One radio transmissions, and would probably turn them over to US if we asked them for it, since our guys say they lost our copy.

Bill Kelly
JFKcountercoup

New book claims Fidel Castro knew about Kennedy assassination plot beforehand
Author was former head of CIA’s Latin American intelligence; claims former Cuban spies told him Castro knew of Oswald’s plot
By Philip Caulfield / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, March 18, 2012, 2:33 PM

PHOTO
Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro delivers a speech during the 50th anniversary of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, CDR, in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2010.(AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
Javier Galeano/AP

A new book by an ex-CIA intelligence officer says Cuba’s Fidel Castro knew about Lee Harvey Oswald’s plot to assassinate John F. Kennedy.

A new book by an ex-CIA spook claims that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro knew about Lee Harvey Oswald’s plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy and did nothing to stop it.

Author Brian Latell was the agency’s former national intelligence officer for Latin America and is now a senior research associate in Cuban American studies at the University of Miami.

In the upcoming volume, “Castro’s Secrets: The CIA and Cuba’s Intelligence Machine,” Latell writes that on Nov. 22 1963, Castro ordered his intelligence officers in Havana to drop their normal responsibilities and pay close attention to communications coming out of Texas — “any little detail small detail from Texas,” The Miami Herald reported.

Latell also writes that Oswald became frustrated after Cuban embassy officials denied his attempts to travel there, and told Cuban intelligence officials he would kill Kennedy to prove his allegiance to Castro and the communists.

“Fidel knew of Oswald’s intentions and did nothing to deter the act,” Latell writes.

Latell’s account is based on interviews with Cuban defectors, former FBI and CIA informants and declassified documents from the CIA, the FBI and the Pentagon, The Herald reported.

“There’s virtually no speculation,” Latell told the newspaper. “I don’t say Fidel Castro ordered the assassination, I don’t say Oswald was under his control. He might have been, but I don’t argue that, because I was unable to find any evidence for that.

“But did Fidel want Kennedy dead? Yes. He feared Kennedy. And he knew Kennedy was gunning for him. In Fidel’s mind, he was probably acting in self-defense.”

The new book, billed as an in-depth look into Castro’s intelligence operations, also details the CIA’s failed attempts to kill Castro using everything from poised cigars and pens to exploding sea shells.

The book hits shelves next month.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/book-claims-fidel-castro-knew-kennedy-assassination-plot-article-1.1041778#ixzz1pXFsv2JJ