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|| * -- SPECIAL -- * June 30, 1998 * -- EDITION -- * ||
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* SPECIAL EDITION *
* * *
* THE CONSORTIUM *
For Independent Journalism
Web: http://www.consortiumnews.com/
Tel: (703) 920-1580
E-mail: rparry@ix.netcom.com
- Volume 3, No. 13 (Issue 65) - June 29, 1998 -
-----
_________________________________________________________________
UNCLE SAM'S FAVORITE TERRORISTS
_________________________________________________________________
By Jerry Meldon & Robert Parry
- June 24, 1998 -
* * *
The Cold War ended nearly a decade ago. Pope John Paul II
prayed last January for an end to the 37-year-old U.S. trade
embargo of Cuba. And the Pentagon in May finally acknowledged the
obvious: that Cuba's emaciated army is no threat to the security
of the United States or any other nation in the Western
Hemisphere.
But old obsessions die hard, as the United States again
finds itself serving as a base for terror attacks against Cuba.
In the past year, American soil has been used for staging
commando raids reminiscent of an earlier era of assassination
plots against Fidel Castro and sabotage against Cuba's economy.
Like those older operations, the new attacks have targeted
both Castro personally and civilian economic facilities inside
Cuba. In spring and summer 1997, a dozen or so bombs rocked Cuban
hotels and restaurants. Last fall, an alleged Castro
assassination plot failed when a yacht carrying the would-be
attackers nearly sank off Puerto Rico.
The bombers apparently sought to scare away European and
Canadian tourists who have been flocking to the Caribbean island
in record numbers. Last Sept. 4, bombs exploded at three hotels
on the Havana waterfront -- the Copacabana, the Chateau and the
Triton. At the Copacabana, an Italian businessman named Fabio
diCelmo was hit in the throat by debris and died.
After the Sept. 4 bombings, Cuban police broke the case.
They arrested Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, a member of a Salvadoran
stolen car ring who admitted his role in the terror campaign.
Since then, the mastermind has been identified as CIA-trained
Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, with money for the operation
traced to Miami and New Jersey.
TERRORIST ART
Yet, despite evidence of U.S. connections to the
conspiracies -- and a federal criminal investigation that is
reportedly under way into the assassination plot -- this dramatic
story of politics and terrorism has drawn only spotty and often
ambivalent coverage in the American news media.
When the Miami Herald reported that Posada, a renowned
anti-Castro extremist, was implicated in the hotel bombings, a
headline made light of his reputation as a painter as well as a
terrorist. "Exile conspirator's art is on canvas, in bomb plots,"
a headline read. [MH, June 7, 1998]
During the bombing spree last year, other U.S. press outlets
mocked Cuban charges of American complicity and incorrectly
framed the story as evidence of internal divisions within
Castro's government. A Journal of Commerce story even pondered
whether "the dastardly deeds" were the work "of the Cuban
government willing to harm its own economy so it has an excuse to
crack down." [July 15, 1997]
A St. Petersburg Times story saw the attacks as a sign of
Castro's decaying government. "The bombings, and Cuba's apparent
inability to catch the perpetrators, are attracting the attention
of political analysts and security experts who say Cuba may be
witnessing the first signs in decades of a home-grown terrorist
assault against the Fidel Castro regime."
That same article quoted leaders of the influential
Cuban-American National Foundation as denying a hand in the
bombings, but declaring solidarity with "any act of internal
rebellion" against Castro. "We don't consider these actions as
terrorism because people fighting for liberty cannot be limited
by a system that is itself terrorist," declared CANF president
Francisco Hernandez. [St. Petersburg Times, Sept. 5, 1997]
Last summer, the Clinton administration also disparaged
Cuba's assertions about a U.S. role. But in recent months, the
administration has clammed up about the mounting evidence that
American territory, in fact, did serve as a logistical base for
both the bombing attacks and an assassination plot against
Castro.
FISHING TRIP
A federal criminal investigation is focusing quietly on
secret links between armed terrorists and the CANF, including its
president, Francisco Hernandez. The New York Times reported that
Hernandez and another CANF leader have been informed that they
are targets of a probe into the 1997 assassination plot against
Castro. Such a warning often precedes an indictment. [NYT, May 5,
1998] The CANF, a 50,000-member political powerhouse in the
Cuban-American community, appears to be implicated in supporting
Posada as well.
But only luck put the current wave of anti-Castro terrorism
into focus. The federal criminal investigation started last Oct.
27 when a Miami-based cabin cruiser, named "La Esperanza," was
foundering off Puerto Rico and radioed for help. The Coast Guard
responded and escorted the yacht to safety.
The Coast Guard grew suspicious because the four Cuban
exiles on board insisted they were on a fishing trip, although
the fishing gear was still in plastic wrap. They also claimed
they had sailed the 900 miles from Miami in a single day, an
impossible trip.
Suspecting drug smuggling, federal authorities searched the
yacht. Under a loose plank, they found a hidden compartment
containing a cache of military supplies: ammunition, fatigues,
night-vision goggles, sophisticated communications gear, tripods
and two .50-caliber semi-automatic rifles capable of firing
flat-trajectory bullets one mile.
According to a U.S. Custom investigator, crew member Angel
Alfonso Aleman blurted out that the weapons were his and that
they were intended for Castro's assassination. The crewman later
denied making the confession, but the yacht's navigational
coordinates were set for Margarita Island near Venezuela, where
Castro was expected for a summit of Latin American leaders.
The political sensitivity of the case escalated when
authorities discovered that one of the rifles belonged to CANF
president Francisco Hernandez. "La Esperanza" was owned by Jose
Antonio Llama, a Bay of Pigs veteran who sits on the CANF
Executive Committee.
The assassination case -- and the earlier string of bombings
-- suggest that some anti-Castro Cubans again are turning to
violent tactics, similar to those employed by Cuban exiles and
their CIA sponsors in years past. Since its founding in 1981, the
CANF officially has favored a strategy of using its money and
voting power to force tougher anti-Castro policies, while
eschewing violence.
But with its founder, Jorge Mas Canosa, dying of lung cancer
last year, the group appears to have grown impatient and switched
to more aggressive tactics. In Miami, there was speculation that
the Castro assassination plot might have been an attempt to
fulfill Mas's deathbed wish of outliving his longtime nemesis.
But Mas died on Nov. 23, at age 58, having failed in his dream of
ending Castro's rule of Cuba.
The CANF had no comment about the reported criminal
investigation.
CIA-TRAINED TERRORIST
The discovery of Posada's role in the 1997 bombing attacks
added more fuel to the politically incendiary mix. Posada was a
CIA-trained intelligence operative who had been jailed in
Venezuela on suspicion of masterminding the mid-air bombing of a
Cuban civilian airliner in 1976, killing 73 people.
In 1985, with the reported help of Miami-based Cuban-
Americans, Posada escaped from prison. He traveled to Central
America where he joined Oliver North's secret Nicaraguan contra
supply operation. After that White House activity was exposed in
fall 1986 -- along with Posada's connection -- Posada fled to
Guatemala.
In Guatemala City, Posada was wounded in a shooting but
recovered. In his 1994 memoirs, The Ways of the Warrior, Posada
recounted how his friends in the CANF paid the $22,000 hospital
bill. As Posada hopscotched among Central American cities, he
continued to be supported by Miami-based Cuban exiles, who
contributed to Posada's welfare by paying top dollar for his
paintings.
Posada also appears to have benefitted from the Cuban-
American community's political clout. Though his whereabouts were
exposed in 1986, the U.S. government took no noticeable action to
help bring the accused fugitive terrorist to justice. Not
surprisingly, once he recovered from his wounds, Posada returned
to his long-held passion for anti-Castro terrorism.
In 1994, Posada reportedly plotted to assassinate Castro
during a trip to Cartagena, Colombia. Posada and five cohorts
reached Cartagena, but the plan flopped when security cordons
prevented the would-be assassins from getting a clean shot at
Castro, according to a Miami Herald article by Juan O. Tamayo and
Gerardo Reyes. [MH, June 7, 1998]
Another Posada plan to use Honduras as a base for commando
attacks against Cuba fell through in 1994 after four Cuban exiles
met in Miami with Pinel Calix, head of Honduran military
intelligence, the Herald reported. The Cubans apparently
distrusted the corrupt Honduran military and Pinel Calix
reportedly was unimpressed with the Cubans.
In the same article, the Herald detailed Posada's role in
the 1997 bombing campaign against popular Cuban hotels and
restaurants. The story cited documentary evidence that Posada
arranged some payments to conspirators from accounts in the
United States. "This afternoon you will receive via Western Union
four transfers of $800 each ... from New Jersey," said one fax
signed SOLO, one of Posada's aliases.
Much of the Herald story, however, focused on the mishaps of
the clumsy conspirators who used diapers and shampoo bottles to
smuggle plastic explosives from Guatemala to Cuba for another
round of bombings scheduled for last fall. "The plan was a bust,"
the Herald stated. "The explosive was apparently old and failed
to explode in tests."
The Herald noted that Posada was disappointed even with the
results of the earlier explosions. To minimize panic, Cuba's
government-controlled press had given the bombings little notice.
"If there is no publicity, the work is not useful," Posada
lamented.
But the Herald observed that the bombings had one unintended
benefit. They touched off rumors in Havana and elsewhere that the
explosions reflected a split inside Castro's security forces and
a possible challenge to Castro's leadership. The speculation
seeped into the U.S. press coverage and ended only last September
when Cuban police arrested Posada's Salvadoran collaborator.
PROVOCATIONS
Posada's bombing spree and the muted U.S. reaction to it
reveal anew Washington's ambivalence toward acts of terrorism
that are useful to American geopolitical aims. For nearly four
decades, the United States has tolerated and even sponsored acts
of political violence against Cuba, with the goal of bringing
down the Castro government by nearly any means necessary.
In line with that strategy, U.S. presidents from Dwight
Eisenhower to Bill Clinton have granted the anti-Castro Cubans
leeway that few other violent movements have enjoyed. That's
partly because the CIA recruited thousands of Cuban exiles into
the shadow war, a strategy that has always skated on the edge of
state-sponsored terrorism.
Recently declassified U.S. documents reveal that Kennedy
administration planners dreamt up a wide range of violent schemes
to justify an invasion of Cuba in the early 1960s. Brig. Gen.
Edward G. Lansdale, chief of the CIA's Operation Mongoose and one
of President Kennedy's favorite officers, drafted the top-secret
plans and presented them to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on March 1,
1962.
One of the schemes was a "Remember the Maine" incident in
which "we could blow up a U.S. warship in Guantanamo Bay and
blame Cuba," the memo stated. "We could develop a Communist Cuban
terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and
even in Washington. ... The terror campaign could be pointed at
Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States. We could sink
a boatload of Cubans enroute to Florida (real or simulated)."
Another standby plan, called Operation Dirty Trick, proposed
blaming Castro if John Glenn's Mercury space flight crashed. The
manufactured story of Cuban sabotage would generate fierce public
anger as well as political demands for invading Cuba, the
planners thought.
Though the Joint Chiefs endorsed Lansdale's plots as
"suitable for planning purposes," it is not clear how far the
planning went. They did mesh, however, with other conspiracies,
some involving the Mafia, to murder Castro or, at least, to
arrange his public humiliation. [For more details, see NYT, Nov.
19, 1997.]
BUSINESS & POLITICS
In that over-heated climate of anti-Castro scheming, hard-
core paramilitary operatives rubbed shoulders with supposedly
non-violent political leaders. Mas Canosa, for instance, built
his "closest links to the American intelligence community
[through] two of the CIA's most effective and lethal operators,"
Felix Rodriguez and Posada, according to a lengthy Mas
biographical article in Esquire. [Jan. 1993]
Mas and Posada each joined Representacion Cubana en Exilio,
which congressional investigators later linked to the CIA. An FBI
report identified Mas as one of its leaders, who supervised
anti-Castro propaganda and planned military raids on Cuba. He
allegedly once handed Posada $5,000 to blow up a ship in the
Mexican port of Veracruz.
But Mas channeled his energies into building a thriving
business, too. In 1971, he borrowed $50,000 and bought a small
construction company which he renamed Church and Tower. He got a
break when Southern Bell contracted with his firm to lay cable
and erect telephone poles, the first step toward a personal
telecommunications empire worth an estimated $100 million.
Mas's focus on business drew complaints from some of his old
comrades that he was insufficiently militant. When an explosion
shattered the legs of a newsman who had criticized terrorism, Mas
felt threatened enough to start carrying a gun and driving an
armored car.
But Mas also helped out Cuban exiles implicated in
terrorism. When Jose Dionisio Suarez Esquivel was connected to
the 1976 car bomb that killed Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier
and his co-worker Ronnie Moffitt in Washington, Mas defrayed
Suarez's legal bills. Mas also contributed to the attorney fees
for Guillermo and Ignacio Novo, two other exiles accused in the
Letelier/Moffitt murders.
After the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, Mas saw a new
opening for his political ambitions. With White House blessing,
Mas launched the Cuban-American National Foundation as a
political force to support aggressive anti-Castro legislation and
policies. Mas rapidly emerged as the Cuban exile to see in the
hotbed of Miami politics, a kind of modern caudillo.
The Reagan administration collaborated with Mas despite his
strong authoritarian streak. "He would lash out at anyone who
appeared soft on Castro," observed Alvin A. Snyder, who was a
senior USIA official in the 1980s. Mas demonstrated his clout
when the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture in Miami auctioned
works by some Cuban artists who were selected by museum director
Ramon Cernuda for their talent, not their political views.
"Jorge Mas saw this as subversive behavior and publicly
threatened to use his Washington connections to have Cernuda
'investigated'," Snyder wrote in his book, Warriors of
Disinformation. "Customs officials raided Cernuda's home and
office and seized some 200 paintings whose importation they
claimed had violated the trade embargo against Cuba."
Through a variety of projects, the Reagan-Bush
administration funnelled millions of dollars to CANF. One of the
biggest boondoggles was a $20 million-plus-a-year scheme to beam
U.S. propaganda -- as well as TV programs such as "Alf" and
"Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" -- to the people of Cuba.
Called TV Marti, the project never succeeded in breaking through
simple Cuban jamming procedures, but continued because few
Washington politicians dared to challenge Mas's political clout.
Politically savvy, Mas also understood the need to feather
both the Republican and Democratic sides of his Washington nest.
In 1992, when Bill Clinton emerged as a likely winner against
George Bush, Mas raised $300,000 for the Democratic contender at
a single lunch.
CLINTON'S GOAL
Four years later, running for re-election, President Clinton
recognized the political advantage in placating the potent
Cuban-American voting blocs in the swing states of Florida and
New Jersey. Clinton got his chance when Cuban pilots shot down
two unarmed Cessna planes flown by exiles who ignored warnings
against buzzing the Cuban shoreline. An outraged Clinton threw
his support behind the hard-line Helms-Burton embargo bill.
But this year, Clinton has seen reasons to lighten up on
Cuba. First, Pope John Paul II visited the island and urged an
end to the punishing embargo. Then, on May 6, the Pentagon issued
a report declaring that Cuba's military was no longer a threat to
its neighbors. Its size had been cut by 50 percent and its
readiness had been reduced by a lack of supplies. The Cuban
military is now "a stay-at-home force that has minimal
conventional fighting ability," the report said.
So, with Cuba a toothless relic of the Cold War, Mas dead
and his CANF veering toward violent extremism, Clinton is faced
with a new challenge. He can demonstrate U.S. intolerance of any
terrorism launched from American soil while opening economic
doors to Cuba -- or he again can turn a blind eye toward the
exile violence and continue the economic stranglehold.
Clinton's choice could mark either an end to a long era of
U.S.-Cuban hostility, or it could be one more chapter in
Washington's near-four-decade determination to crush Fidel
Castro, with the ends justifying the means.
Copyright (c) 1998
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