Tim Gratz Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 Castro: Cuba warned of Reagan assassination plot Posted on Wed, Sep. 12, 2007 BY ANITA SNOW Associated Press HERALD STAFF President Ronald Reagan speaks to the Cuban American National Foundation during a visit to Miami in this undated file photo. HAVANA -- Fidel Castro says that Cuba once saved the life of U.S. President Ronald Reagan by giving American officials information about an assassination plot. The essay published Wednesday in the Communist Party daily Granma appeared to be Castro's first public description of the matter. It seemed to be aimed at showing that Cuba had cooperated with the United States in the past. Castro wrote that a Cuban security official stationed at the United Nations told U.S. mission security chief Robert C. Muller about an extreme right-wing group that was planning to assassinate Reagan during a planned trip to North Carolina in 1984. ''The information was complete: the names of those implicated in the plan; day, time and hour where the assassination could occur; the type of weapon the terrorists had and where they kept their arms; and along with all that, the meeting place of those elements planning the action as well as a brief summary of what had occurred in said meeting,'' Castro wrote. Castro wrote that Cuban authorities learned later that the FBI had arrested several people in North Carolina and he said that several days after that, Muller expressed America's thanks to the Cuban official over lunch in a U.N. dining room. The Cuban leader also wrote that when Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981, Havana formally condemned the act during a meeting with the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba. Castro also accused the U.S. government of misleading the public about the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington six years ago. ''It is now known there was deliberate disinformation'' about the attacks, the Cuban leader wrote. ``We were tricked like everybody else on the planet.'' Castro's ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, also has promoted the idea that that the U.S. government was somehow involved in planning the terrorist attacks, despite wide evidence to the contrary. Castro has not appeared in public since mid-2006, when he underwent intestinal surgery and ceded power to his younger brother, Raúl. In late March, he began writing occasional essays, most on international themes. Wonder whether this report can be verified? Of course the Kennedy brothers were far more active in attempting to remove Castro than RR ever was. What is interesting is if this is true, whether RR was ever informed that Fidel had (at least possibly) saved his life. Carrying this out to an extreme is interesting. If, as I believe, RR deserves substantial credit for the victory of the West in the Cold War, then it can be argued that Castro's magnanimous action helped bring about the fall of communism. Of course I would like to see some verification of the story, e.g. the arrest records of the people involved. Also, why has Cuba not tried to use this incident to its advantage before this time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Speer Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 Tim, I suspect there's a lot of wink-wink between the U.S. and Castro, and has been since almost day one. As with Saddam (prior to Bush) he's the monster we know. The Republican Party has paid lip-service to the anti-Castro crowd since Ike, afraid the whole time that if they help to over-throw him, and end up with a Bautista or a Papa Doc, they'll look pretty foolish. No one wants that. The Repubs NEED Castro in order to insure the support of the Florida Cubans, who have REGULARLY voted against their interests in hopes the Repubs will get rid of Castro. Bush and Cheney would never have been able to go into Iraq and create the current clustermuck, if their party (and family members) hadn't been blowing smoke up the anti-Castro crowd's rump form the past 30 years. Sickening. But...that's politics. One could make pretty much the same claim about the Dems and the poor. They have done almost nothing for the poor because if they did there would be no poor for them to rally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Kelly Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 Castro: Cuba warned of Reagan assassination plot Posted on Wed, Sep. 12, 2007 BY ANITA SNOW Associated Press IS THIS TRUE OR FALSE? - HAVANA -- Fidel Castro says that Cuba once saved the life of U.S. President Ronald Reagan by giving American officials information about an assassination plot. The essay published Wednesday in the Communist Party daily Granma appeared to be Castro's first public description of the matter. It seemed to be aimed at showing that Cuba had cooperated with the United States in the past. Castro wrote that a Cuban security official stationed at the United Nations told U.S. mission security chief Robert C. Muller about an extreme right-wing group that was planning to assassinate Reagan during a planned trip to North Carolina in 1984. ''The information was complete: the names of those implicated in the plan; day, time and hour where the assassination could occur; the type of weapon the terrorists had and where they kept their arms; and along with all that, the meeting place of those elements planning the action as well as a brief summary of what had occurred in said meeting,'' Castro wrote. Castro wrote that Cuban authorities learned later that the FBI had arrested several people in North Carolina and he said that several days after that, Muller expressed America's thanks to the Cuban official over lunch in a U.N. dining room...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Gratz Posted September 14, 2007 Author Share Posted September 14, 2007 Query how Cuban agents would learn of a right wing plot to kill RR. Most of us refute the LN theory that Oswald was a "nut". But these proposed assassins must have been nuts if they were indeed extreme right-wingers. Most extreme right-wingers sort a' liked the guy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dolva Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 (edited) trpl post Edited September 14, 2007 by John Dolva Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dolva Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 (edited) trpl post Edited September 14, 2007 by John Dolva Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dolva Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 This database includes speeches, interviews, etc., by Fidel Castro from 1959 to 1996. All texts are in English http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/cb/cuba/castro.html 1975 INTERVIEW CONFIRMS CIA ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS -DATE- 19750710 -YEAR- 1975 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- INTERVIEW -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- CONFIRMS CIA ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS -PLACE- SANTIAGO DE CUBA -SOURCE- MEXICO CITY INFORMEX -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19750711 -TEXT- FIDEL CONFIRMS CIA ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS Mexico City INFORMEX in Spanish 2201 GMT 10 Jul 75 LF [Text] Havana, 10 Jul (INFORMEX)--Exonerating the late President John Kennedy and his brothers Robert and Ted, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro today confirmed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made numerous attempts on his life. Castro--speaking to correspondents of the Western press in Santiago de Cuba where he is accompanying Jamaican Prime Minster Michael Manley--said there have been some 60 attempts on his life. He stressed that one of the plots to which he was subjected was perpetuated when he visited Chilean President Dr Salvador Allende in 1971. He explained that at that time an attempt was made to kill both heads of state with arms hidden in movie cameras. He reported that an attempt to assassinate him was made in 1961 with a poisoned chocolate milkshake, but the poison had lost its potency when frozen. Castro also said the CIA made attempts on the lives of other officials such as Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, currently vice prime minister for foreign affairs. Regarding the late President John F. Kennedy and his brothers, Castro said he had no reasons to assert they were aware of the plans of the espionage agency. 1984 INTERVIEW NEWSWEEK INTERVIEW -DATE- 19840210 -YEAR- 1984 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- INTERVIEW -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- NEWSWEEK INTERVIEW -PLACE- BOHEMIA VERSION -SOURCE- HAVANA BOHEMIA -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19840413 -TEXT- FURTHER DETAILS ON CASTRO NEWSWEEK INTERVIEW Havana BOHEMIA in Spanish No 6, 10 Feb 84 pp 46-57 [bOHEMIA version of 9 Jan 84 NEWSWEEK interview with Question: The Reagan administration insists you are a Soviet puppet and henchman. How do you answer that accusation? What exactly is your relationship with the USSR? Answer: Anyone who has observed the history of our revolution and understands its origin will see that our revolution is a truly autonomous revolution. We did it ourselves. We did not even have relations with the USSR when our revolution triumphed. Therefore, the interpretation of our revolution's doctrine was our own interpretation; the style and the road we followed were truly ours. It was fortunate for us, though, that the USSR existed. What would have happened if the USSR had not existed? What would have happened to Cuba when the sugar quota was suspended? The country would have died of starvation. What would have happened when the oil supply was suspended, when the spare parts for all the U.S.-made equipment could not be acquired, when the United States imposed the blockade? We would not have been able to survive if we had not found a market for our sugar, if we had not had access to fuel and oil for our country, if we had not had access to the armaments we needed for defense against the threats of an invasion--like Playa Giron--assassination attempts and acts of sabotage. It was a privilege for us to find a friendly country to help us confront all those difficulties. Never, in 25 years, have the Soviets tried to interfere in our affairs, in our policy or in our conduct. They have been very respectful. Not even when we were critical of some concepts were they tempted to hurt us economically. They were always very respectful. They never publicly criticized us. Relations between the USSR and Cuba have been exemplary. They were based on a policy of independence and mutual respect. Don't forget that while we were fighting against U.S. imperialism under particularly difficult conditions, the USSR maintained relations with the United States and traded with the United States. Reagan's statements don't bother me since he is an absolute xxxx. It is a traditional accusation against us. We are not willing to become enemies of the USSR and sacrifice the excellent relations we have with them in order to demonstrate that we are not Soviet puppets. We do not have any puppet complex. We consider ourselves solidly independent, masters of our country, our destiny and our policy. 1988 INTERVIEW INTERVIEW WITH MARIA SHRIVER -DATE- 19880228 -YEAR- 1988 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- INTERVIEW -AUTHOR- F.CASTRO -HEADLINE- INTERVIEW WITH MARIA SHRIVER -PLACE- HAVANA -SOURCE- HAVANA TELEVISION SERVIC -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19880303 -TEXT- Castro Interview With NBC Reporter Shriver FL291408 Havana Television Service in Spanish 0134 GMT 28 Feb 88 [interview with President Fidel Castro by NBC reporter Maria Shriver on the night of 24-25 February in Havana; questions in English with Spanish translation; answers in Spanish with English translation--recorded] [shriver] Let me switch gears a moment. Back in the early sixties there were reports about many assassination plots against you. Who do you hold responsible for those? [Castro] You've asked a difficult question. I believe Kennedy had bad advisers. Someone advised him badly. That's my opinion. Or perhaps people who interpreted some remark by Kennedy. I don't know if Kennedy might have said once: We have to get rid or Castro. Perhaps Kennedy said it in political terms. We have to get rid of Castro politically. But maybe some people thought that meant getting rid of Castro physically. Those were the first reports we heard. However, the assassination attempts began before the Kennedy administration. The CIA started the dirty war in the Eisenhower years. Kennedy did not start the dirty war against Cuba. Eisenhower, the CIA, the Pentagon started it a long time before Kennedy came to office. What has been historically proved is that there were plans to physically eliminate Cuban leaders, myself included, during the Kennedy administration. That was confirmed. What hasn't been confirmed is that Kennedy gave the order. What hasn't been confirmed is that Kennedy had that intention. The talk is about interpretations of things (?that are not certain). I want to tell you... [shriver, interrupting] What do you think? [Castro] I find it difficult to believe that Kennedy might have assumed that responsibility. It doesn't fit the image I have of him, his character. It doesn't fit. I feel there might be a problem of interpretation and there might have been actions taken by people who wanted to resolve the problem along those lines. Anyway, we must consider the following, as I was telling you this afternoon: Kennedy inherited the Giron invasion. It was not his idea. He did not organize it. After the Bay of Pigs he was very angry. In a way, he felt humiliated. We were not to blame for that. What we did was defend ourselves. So all this anger might have created an atmosphere conducive to plans of this nature. Independently of what might have happened, it does not change my opinion of Kennedy. I have a positive opinion of Kennedy. He was an intelligent, truly brilliant man. After Roosevelt, he was the only president of the United States who had a Latin American policy; the Alliance for Progress. It was an intelligent policy seeking to check the spread of the Cuban revolution. The trauma produced by the Cuban revolution, the fact that a revolution had taken place so close to the United States, awakened the fear that there might be objective conditions for revolution in Latin America. Kennedy did not conceive a repressive strategy. Instead, he came up with a strategy of social reform to check revolution in Latin America. He spoke of agrarian reform, fiscal reform, education and health programs--many of the things that we have done. He offered economic aid--$20 billion. Latin America did not owe a single cent then. The problems of Latin America are bigger now. It has double the population, $400-billion debt. It is a volcano where problems are accumulating. There's no policy for Latin America. Kennedy was the last president to have a policy for Latin America. 1988 INTERVIEW CASTRO INTERVIEW WITH NBC REPORTER SHRIVER -DATE- 19880228 -YEAR- 1988 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- INTERVIEW -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- CASTRO INTERVIEW WITH NBC REPORTER SHRIVER -PLACE- CUBA -SOURCE- HAVANA TELEVISION SVC -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19880303 -TEXT- Castro Interview With NBC Reporter Shriver FL291408 Havana Television Service in Spanish 0134 GMT 28 Feb 88 [shriver] Let me switch gears a moment. Back in the early sixties there were reports about many assassination plots against you. Who do you hold responsible for those? [Castro] You've asked a difficult question. I believe Kennedy had bad advisers. Someone advised him badly. That's my opinion. Or perhaps people who interpreted some remark by Kennedy. I don't know if Kennedy might have said once: We have to get rid of Castro. Perhaps Kennedy said it in political terms. We have to get rid of Castro politically. But maybe some people thought that meant getting rid of Castro physically. Those were the first reports we heard. However, the assassination attempts began before the Kennedy administration. The CIA started the dirty war in the Eisenhower years. Kennedy did not start the dirty war against Cuba. Eisenhower, the CIA, the Pentagon started it a long time before Kennedy took office. The assassination plans began before Kennedy came to office. What has been historically proved is that there were plans to physically eliminate Cuban leaders, myself included, during the Kennedy administration. That was confirmed. What hasn't been confirmed is that Kennedy gave the order. What hasn't been confirmed is that Kennedy had that intention. The talk is about interpretations of things (?that are not certain). I want to tell you... [shriver, interrupting] What do you think? [Castro] I find it difficult to believe that Kennedy might have assumed that responsibility. It doesn't fit the image I have of him, his character. It doesn't fit. I feel there might be a problem of interpretation and there might have been actions taken by people who wanted to resolve the problem along those lines. Anyway, we must consider the following, as I was telling you this afternoon: Kennedy inherited the Giron invasion. It was not his idea. He did not organize it. After the Bay of Pigs he was very angry. In a way, he felt humiliated. We were not to blame for that. What we did was defend ourselves. So all this anger might have created an atmosphere conducive to plans of this nature. Independently of what might have happened, it does not change my opinion of Kennedy. I have a positive opinion of Kennedy. He was an intelligent, truly brilliant man. After Roosevelt, he was the only president of the United States who had a Latin American policy: the Alliance for Progress. It was an intelligent policy seeking to check the spread of the Cuban revolution. The trauma produced by the Cuban revolution, the fact that a revolution had taken place so close to the United States, awakened the fear that there might be objective conditions for revolution in Latin America. Kennedy did not conceive a repressive strategy. Instead, he came up with a strategy of social reform to check revolution in Latin America. He spoke of agrarian reform, fiscal reform. education and health programs-many of the things that we have done. He offered economic aid-$20 billion. Latin America did not owe a single cent then. The problems of Latin America are bigger now. It has double the population, a $400-billion debt. It is a volcano where problems are accumulating. There's no policy for Latin America. Kennedy was the last president to have a policy for Latin America. I do not have a bad personal opinion of Kennedy. I am not telling you this because you are a relative. If you have read other interviews, my statements, you will see that I have always spoken of Kennedy with respect. As I was telling you this afternoon, I must acknowledge that he did not commit the worst of mistakes. That would have been sending the Marines to Cuba. That is, I must acknowledge that he acted calmly, serenely, and that he did not make that big mistake. He might have erred in not stopping the invasion, because he did not yet have enough authority, enough experience. He did not stop it. That could have been his mistake, but he avoided a much bigger mistake. He could have sent the Marines in. [shriver] There are theories that have existed for years that you knew about the assassination plots in the early sixties, that you held President Kennedy responsible, and that you, in turn, were involved in his assassination. Did you have anything to do with it? [Castro] I believe... [changes thought] I can't answer that question because I can't accept such an accusation or doubt. Therefore, I will not stoop to deny it. What I can tell you is the following: News reached us daily of CIA assassination plans before and after Kennedy. I can even tell you the following: First, to plan an action against the president of the United States was an irresponsible, insane action. I believe it would be farfetched to think that a responsible leader, a revolutionary who is aware of his responsibilities, would come up with such madness because this would be political madness. It's not just a question with ethical, moral implications. It's a question with serious political implications. A leader of a small country who would plan the elimination of the president of the United States would be acting irresponsibly. It can never be said that the leaders of the Cuban revolution have acted irresponsibly. They are firm, brave, determined, but never irresponsible. I can tell you that. Second, the day Kennedy was assassinated, I was meeting with a Kennedy envoy. He was a French journalist, (Jean Daniel), who had spoken at length with Kennedy. That was months after the October crisis. Kennedy was still feeling the trauma of the grave danger experienced in those day. So, Kennedy wanted to get in touch with me. He sent me a message with this journalist. He told me he had a message from Kennedy. That same evening I took him with me to Varadero, so we could talk at our leisure there. We were talking. He was telling me all about Kennedy's conversation, when we heard the news of Kennedy's assassination on the radio. What I can tell you is that I felt very bad. Kennedy's death hurt. I saw in Kennedy an intelligent, capable adversary. I felt an emptiness the day Kennedy was killed. I was really hurt. I must tell you in all honesty. It seemed to me that it was a death with no dignity, an unfair death. Time passed and strange, odd things occurred. Oswald's murder. Oswald in jail, Oswald killed. I later read a book-I think it was Sorensen's--about the death of the president. It was Sorensen, wasn't it? Yes. A long book. I read a thousand pages, because I wanted an explanation. Now, when Oswald's name came up, someone reported that an individual with the same name had tried to visit Cuba and had asked for a visa at the Mexican Embassy. It was a routine request. I never knew anything about it. The Foreign Ministry was informed. We were denying all those visas because we were mistrustful. Here's an American wanting to come to our country. What is he coming for? Who is he coming? Unless it was someone well known, we were not granting visas. So this individual went there. He asked for a visa but he was denied a visa. No one thought about it again. But then the name started to appear. On top of it, this man was married to a Soviet woman. So, imagine! What if this man had come to Cuba on a routine visit and then had gone back to the United States and assassinated Kennedy? They would have tried to implicate us. I sometimes ask myself if someone, diabolically, did not plan all this, someone half mad, someone mentally ill. He might have been manipulated. No one can tell, no one can tell if it was an individual reaction. It seems that he was the one who shot him. It seems. It might have been the act of an individual. However, there are people like this who can be manipulated. There are people who act on their own. This young man who tried to assassinate Reagan apparently acted alone. It was said that he was in love with an actress, that it was a case of unrequited love. He wanted to be famous. He almost killed Reagan. This kind of madman can exist anywhere. Now, the most probable thing is that if we had heard that someone was planning to assassinate Kennedy, we would have alerted the U.S. Government. We would have warned them about the danger. That's the most probable thing. It did not happen that way because we never heard about it. But I don't want to talk about our conduct in that respect, how we interpret our obligations. If we hear that someone is trying to assassinate Reagan, you can rest assured that we will alert Reagan. You can be assured that we will alert Reagan, because I feel a responsible government cannot hear of such a report, learn of such a report and not warn somebody. You can rest assured. And I believe the U.S. Government knows it. I think there cannot be any sane, serious person in the United States who can believe that Cuba had anything to do with Kennedy's death. Not even Batista. We were the enemies of Batista. We could have killed Batista. However, we are politically against tyrannicide; we never practiced tyrannicide. We never believed that the death of a man would change a society. Therefore, we had the strength to attack the Moncada Barracks with 160 men, to wage war. We could have ambushed Batista and killed him. There's not a single indication in the entire history of the revolution that the 26 July Movement, which we organized and led, had planned to assassinate Batista. And yet Batista had killed thousands of our comrades. Therefore, in philosophical terms, we have never contemplated tyrannicide. Never. If we did not do it with Batista here--it would have been easy-why do it with a president of the United States. Men have their ideas, convictions, history. That cannot be ignored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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