From JFK/Smathers 1957 Cuba trip, to Mas Canosa's CANF

[Robert Howard]

There is a large body of work, [as many researchers know] concerning Cuba and the events which took place there in the time frame say of, the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, all the way to the Cuba of the third millenium.

Among the most compelling Cuba related books are:

Cuba Confidential - Love & Vengeance in Miami and Havana - Ann Louise Bardach

Eisenhower & Latin America - The Foreign Policy of Anti-Communism - Stephen G. Rabe

Contesting Castro - The United States & The Triumph of the Cuban Revolution - Thomas G Paterson

The Caastro Obsession - Don Bohning

In the book Contesting Castro, [page 52] there are these passages. Warning! Even though the book was published in 1994, the passage's quoted are in keeping with the 'politically correct' treatment [circa 2006] of Democrat's as representing a 'less than impressive' moral lifestyle, it is my opinion that the passage's in question have a less than objective undertone regarding the two Senator's, but is, in keeping with the FOX News Network habit of seemingly implying that Democrat's are generally respnsible for every 'bad decision' that has taken place in the United States since the post-war era began.

"In the 1950's the Batista government vigorously promoted tourism as a hedge against the always precarious sugar trade. Fancy hotels with gambling casinos went up and U.S mobstersshared profits with government officials".........

......"In search of rum, rhumba, and much, much more, some 300,000 tourists each year flocked to the island to partake in Cuba's bustling life of outdoor cafe's, bar's, nightclubs, brothels and casinos."........

......."Like many other prominent Americans, the young Democratic U.S. Senators John F. Kennedy and George Smathers partied on the island. In December 1957, Kennedy and Smathers journeyed to Havana. They visited Ambassador Smith, a Kennedy friend from Palm Beach, and his wife and former model, Florence Pritchett Smith with whom the Massachusets politician had had a love affair some years before. The pleasure seeking senators apparently never discussed the rebellion, although Smather's, as he himself put it 'had made a career of Cuban problems.' Instead golf, sailing, nightclubs, and women occupied their time. Crime boss Meyer Lansky's widow claimed later that during that trip her husband helped locate women to satisfy Kennedy's now-famed sexual athleticism. 'Kennedy wasn't a great casino man,' remembered Samther's, 'but the Tropicana night-club had a floor show you wouldn't believe.' "

END

Less than excited about how the events presented from the pen of the author are 'recounted,' I wanted the fact that JFK had actually been to Havana to be known to those who otherwise might not have known of the trip.

While Sen. Smather's may have been JFK's 'pal' when the two went to Cuba, there is circumstantial evidence to indicate George's relationship with JFK may have had overtones remniscent of Julius Caesar and some of the honorable men i.e. [senators] back during the epic days of the Roman Empire.

Both John Simkin and Carl Oglesby [as well as others] have contributed greatly to exploring the inteconnecting relationships that existed via Miami/Havana in the last day's of Batista, through the Castro Era.

Then there is Cuba Confidential [2002] Ann Louise Bardach's book is a must read for anyone who is interested in life in the Floridian Cuban Community of the past decades, which takes the reader into the arena of Jose Marti, Luis Posada Carriles, the Elian Gonzalez episode and the so-called election of 2000.

There is rightly so a great deal of attention given to Jorge Mas Canosa. Cuba Confidential has this passage about Canosa.

"On July 15, 1960, Mas Canosa fled to Miami and immediately hooked up with several of the dozens of CIA-financed anti-Castro groups in South Florida. He would play a supporting role in the Bay of Pigs invasion as squad leader of a diversionary unit called El Grupo Nino Diaz, which returned to Miami once the invasion was deemed a failure. Following the Bay of Pigs debacle, Mas Canosa enlisted in the US Army; he was accepted as an officer candidate and was eventually commissioned as a second lieutenant. While the majority of Cuban recruits were dispatched to Fort Knox or Fort Jackson, he was dispatched to Fort Benning, which trained the exile elite, instructing them in intelligence, clandestine operations and propaganda. At Fort Benning, he became close to two men who would remain lifelong friends and associates:Felix Rodriguez and Luis Posada Cariles, both CIA assets intermittently throught the Iran-Contra affair. The former would participate in the murder of Che Guevera; the latter would be Fidel Castro's most persistent would-be assassin." [pg. 136]

Gaeton Fonzi [the stellar JFK assassination investigator for the HSCA, and author of 'The Last Investigation,' did some digging on Mas Canosa and reported that "more than $200 million of taxpayer money ended up financing Mas Canosa's crusade to topple Fidel Castro." [page 140] Interestingly enough, according to author Ann Louise Bardach, one of the CANF [Cuban American National Foundation - Established in 1981 by Jorge Mas Canosa] PAC's is called the Free Cuba Committee, [shades of Jack Ruby at the Oswald Press Conference]

"Known as 'the Foundation' in Miami and Washington, CANF received between $5,000 and $50,000 in annual dues from those sitting on its board of directors and from it's trustees. Virtually every Florida politician since CANF's inception has been enriched by hefty contributions....."

"The Israeli lobby buy's Democrat's and rents Republican's," quipped one former Bush official, "The Cuban's buy Republicans and rent Democrats."

"Soon after the founding of CANF, Ricardo said his brother began to speak of his plans for being the next President of Cuba. One businessman recalled being told by Mas Canosa the exact location and building in the Vedado district of Havana that would house his party once he took power in Cuba." [pg 140]

But as the end of 2006 appears on the horizon, the change that the Cuban exiles in Florida has yet to arrive. Mas Canosa died on November 23, 1997. As of Sunday November 26, 2006 Fidel is, still very much alive, albeit in failing health.

And what of American's, of which the whole issue of post-Castro Cuba takes a distinct back seat to issues like the preservation of constitutional liberties threatened by The Patriot Act or, the ongoing war with Iraq that was celebrated in a photo-op aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as Mission Accomplished? The Iraq that is now considered by almost anyone not a member of the Bush Administration, to be engulfed in Civil War.

Perhaps the most damning of all facts that have emerged during the Bush administration is the fact that under President Bush's leadership the world has seen the virtual tranformation of geopolitics from

the pre-9/11 world that seems light years ago, to holding the tatters of a legacy as being the statesman most individually responsible for the creation of a third-millenium version of the Crusades?

My own answer to that question is contained in the pages of Cuban Confidential......"The Cuban-born congressman [salvador Lew] had always had the ear of Jeb Bush. With his backing, Diaz-Balart and his colleague Ileana Ros-Lehtinen lobbied for and won the release from U.S. Prisons of several convicted exile terrorists. Among the most notorious were Jose Dionisio Suarez and Virgilio PazRomero, both convicted for their roles in the 1976 assassination of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letielier and his American assistant Ronnie Moffitt with a car bomb in Washington, D.C. The paramilitary zealot Hector Cornillot, convicted of several bombings and murders, also walked out of jailjust weeks before the September 11 attacks. A US Supreme

Court ruling in June 2001 found that indefinite detention of alien felons who have served prison time and are laible for deportation, but for whom no country can be found, is unconstitutional.The unstated exception is Cuba, owing to the arguments that their terrorists are patriots. Whereas child molesters are often prevented from leaving prison after their terms expire, this group of convicted killers won early release. John Ashcroft's Justice Department acceded to the request and the men resettled in the Miami area. Also on Diaz-Balart's list for release are terrorist-patriots such as Valentin Hernandez who murdered Dialogue supporter Luciano Nieves, and Eduardo Arocena, the Omega-7 bomber. The timing of the releases proved unfortunate, coming only two weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center. A double-standard on terrorism was quickly apparent: while the Justice Department announced a sweep of those 'suspected' of terrorism ---- all-Arab-Muslims ---- it was quietly releasing men who were actually comvicted of terrorism ---- all Cuban. But the administration correctly gambled that few Anericans were paying attention to the releases of a few convicted murderers. Certainly, the mainstream press accorded them scant attention." pg's 329-330

END

Edited November 27, 2006 by Robert Howard

[Thomas H. Purvis]

There is a large body of work, [as many researchers know] concerning Cuba and the events which took place there in the time frame say of, the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, all the way to the Cuba of the third millenium.

Among the most compelling Cuba related books are:

Cuba Confidential - Love & Vengeance in Miami and Havana - Ann Louise Bardach

Eisenhower & Latin America - The Foreign Policy of Anti-Communism - Stephen G. Rabe

Contesting Castro - The United States & The Triumph of the Cuban Revolution - Thomas G Paterson

The Caastro Obsession - Don Bohning

In the book Contesting Castro, [page 52] there are these passages. Warning! Even though the book was published in 1994, the passage's quoted are in keeping with the 'politically correct' treatment [circa 2006] of Democrat's as representing a 'less than impressive' moral lifestyle, it is my opinion that the passage's in question have a less than objective undertone regarding the two Senator's, but is, in keeping with the FOX News Network habit of seemingly implying that Democrat's are generally respnsible for every 'bad decision' that has taken place in the United States since the post-war era began.

"In the 1950's the Batista government vigorously promoted tourism as a hedge against the always precarious sugar trade. Fancy hotels with gambling casinos went up and U.S mobstersshared profits with government officials".........

......"In search of rum, rhumba, and much, much more, some 300,000 tourists each year flocked to the island to partake in Cuba's bustling life of outdoor cafe's, bar's, nightclubs, brothels and casinos."........

......."Like many other prominent Americans, the young Democratic U.S. Senators John F. Kennedy and George Smathers partied on the island. In December 1957, Kennedy and Smathers journeyed to Havana. They visited Ambassador Smith, a Kennedy friend from Palm Beach, and his wife and former model, Florence Pritchett Smith with whom the Massachusets politician had had a love affair some years before. The pleasure seeking senators apparently never discussed the rebellion, although Smather's, as he himself put it 'had made a career of Cuban problems.' Instead golf, sailing, nightclubs, and women occupied their time. Crime boss Meyer Lansky's widow claimed later that during that trip her husband helped locate women to satisfy Kennedy's now-famed sexual athleticism. 'Kennedy wasn't a great casino man,' remembered Samther's, 'but the Tropicana night-club had a floor show you wouldn't believe.' "

END

Less than excited about how the events presented from the pen of the author are 'recounted,' I wanted the fact that JFK had actually been to Havana to be known to those who otherwise might not have known of the trip.

While Sen. Smather's may have been JFK's 'pal' when the two went to Cuba, there is circumstantial evidence to indicate George's relationship with JFK may have had overtones remniscent of Julius Caesar and some of the honorable men i.e. [senators] back during the epic days of the Roman Empire.

Both John Simkin and Carl Oglesby [as well as others] have contributed greatly to exploring the inteconnecting relationships that existed via Miami/Havana in the last day's of Batista, through the Castro Era.

Then there is Cuba Confidential [2002] Ann Louise Bardach's book is a must read for anyone who is interested in life in the Floridian Cuban Community of the past decades, which takes the reader into the arena of Jose Marti, Luis Posada Carriles, the Elian Gonzalez episode and the so-called election of 2000.

There is rightly so a great deal of attention given to Jorge Mas Canosa. Cuba Confidential has this passage about Canosa.

"On July 15, 1960, Mas Canosa fled to Miami and immediately hooked up with several of the dozens of CIA-financed anti-Castro groups in South Florida. He would play a supporting role in the Bay of Pigs invasion as squad leader of a diversionary unit called El Grupo Nino Diaz, which returned to Miami once the invasion was deemed a failure. Following the Bay of Pigs debacle, Mas Canosa enlisted in the US Army; he was accepted as an officer candidate and was eventually commissioned as a second lieutenant. While the majority of Cuban recruits were dispatched to Fort Knox or Fort Jackson, he was dispatched to Fort Benning, which trained the exile elite, instructing them in intelligence, clandestine operations and propaganda. At Fort Benning, he became close to two men who would remain lifelong friends and associates:Felix Rodriguez and Luis Posada Cariles, both CIA assets intermittently throught the Iran-Contra affair. The former would participate in the murder of Che Guevera; the latter would be Fidel Castro's most persistent would-be assassin." [pg. 136]

Gaeton Fonzi [the stellar JFK assassination investigator for the HSCA, and author of 'The Last Investigation,' did some digging on Mas Canosa and reported that "more than $200 million of taxpayer money ended up financing Mas Canosa's crusade to topple Fidel Castro." [page 140] Interestingly enough, according to author Ann Louise Bardach, one of the CANF [Cuban American National Foundation - Established in 1981 by Jorge Mas Canosa] PAC's is called the Free Cuba Committee, [shades of Jack Ruby at the Oswald Press Conference]

"Known as 'the Foundation' in Miami and Washington, CANF received between $5,000 and $50,000 in annual dues from those sitting on its board of directors and from it's trustees. Virtually every Florida politician since CANF's inception has been enriched by hefty contributions....."

"The Israeli lobby buy's Democrat's and rents Republican's," quipped one former Bush official, "The Cuban's buy Republicans and rent Democrats."

"Soon after the founding of CANF, Ricardo said his brother began to speak of his plans for being the next President of Cuba. One businessman recalled being told by Mas Canosa the exact location and building in the Vedado district of Havana that would house his party once he took power in Cuba." [pg 140]

But as the end of 2006 appears on the horizon, the change that the Cuban exiles in Florida has yet to arrive. Mas Canosa died on November 23, 1997. As of Sunday November 26, 2006 Fidel is, still very much alive, albeit in failing health.

And what of American's, of which the whole issue of post-Castro Cuba takes a distinct back seat to issues like the preservation of constitutional liberties threatened by The Patriot Act or, the ongoing war with Iraq that was celebrated in a photo-op aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as Mission Accomplished? The Iraq that is now considered by almost anyone not a member of the Bush Administration, to be engulfed in Civil War.

Perhaps the most damning of all facts that have emerged during the Bush administration is the fact that under President Bush's leadership the world has seen the virtual tranformation of geopolitics from

the pre-9/11 world that seems light years ago, to holding the tatters of a legacy as being the statesman most individually responsible for the creation of a third-millenium version of the Crusades?

My own answer to that question is contained in the pages of Cuban Confidential......"The Cuban-born congressman [salvador Lew] had always had the ear of Jeb Bush. With his backing, Diaz-Balart and his colleague Ileana Ros-Lehtinen lobbied for and won the release from U.S. Prisons of several convicted exile terrorists. Among the most notorious were Jose Dionisio Suarez and Virgilio PazRomero, both convicted for their roles in the 1976 assassination of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letielier and his American assistant Ronnie Moffitt with a car bomb in Washington, D.C. The paramilitary zealot Hector Cornillot, convicted of several bombings and murders, also walked out of jailjust weeks before the September 11 attacks. A US Supreme

Court ruling in June 2001 found that indefinite detention of alien felons who have served prison time and are laible for deportation, but for whom no country can be found, is unconstitutional.The unstated exception is Cuba, owing to the arguments that their terrorists are patriots. Whereas child molesters are often prevented from leaving prison after their terms expire, this group of convicted killers won early release. John Ashcroft's Justice Department acceded to the request and the men resettled in the Miami area. Also on Diaz-Balart's list for release are terrorist-patriots such as Valentin Hernandez who murdered Dialogue supporter Luciano Nieves, and Eduardo Arocena, the Omega-7 bomber. The timing of the releases proved unfortunate, coming only two weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center. A double-standard on terrorism was quickly apparent: while the Justice Department announced a sweep of those 'suspected' of terrorism ---- all-Arab-Muslims ---- it was quietly releasing men who were actually comvicted of terrorism ---- all Cuban. But the administration correctly gambled that few Anericans were paying attention to the releases of a few convicted murderers. Certainly, the mainstream press accorded them scant attention." pg's 329-330

END

Robert;

Smathers appears to be a primary "link in the chain" between what JFK was doing, and what others knew about what JFK was doing and where he was going.

Smathers was extremely close to William D. Pawley.

This came about due to Smather's father Frank Smathers, being one of those who went into business with William Pawley and saved the La Gorce Country Club in Miami Beach, FL.

http://www.lagorcecc.com/fw/main/History-2.html

Among those leaders were former Governor James Cox, William Pawley, Frank Smathers, Hugh Purvis, Paul Scott, George Sally, Carl Fisher, Arthur Pancoast, Van Kussrow, Dan Mahoney, James Buchanan, Oscar Dooly, and of course, Dr. John Oliver La Gorce.

In addition, Harvey Firestone played here, and it would appear that this is where & how Pawley got into the bus line business. Later taking over the Cuban trolly car system and replacing the trolley's with Bus's, as well as the Miami/Dade County transport system which Pawley came to "own".

http://www.answers.com/topic/general-motor...tcar-conspiracy

After the "Streetcar Conspiracy" was exposed, General Motors, Firestone, and Standard Oil thereafter developed "Front Men & Front Companies" to do their dirty work and take over the electric trolley car systems.

This of course placed William Pawley dealing with the big boys of the money industry.

It is noteworthy to check out some of the names associated with the La Gorce Country Club, as they represent the money around Miami.

George Sally was the key lawyer for the Florida sugar industry, and James Cox later became highly involved in the land which William Pawley leased to sugar industry (which was associated with Cuba), and later sold to the US Government for many millions of dollars.

And, of course, Smathers was implicated in the vending machine business at which Castro gunrunner Robert McKeown was later employed after his conviction for running guns to cuba.

[John Simkin]

There is a large body of work, [as many researchers know] concerning Cuba and the events which took place there in the time frame say of, the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, all the way to the Cuba of the third millenium.

Among the most compelling Cuba related books are:

Cuba Confidential - Love & Vengeance in Miami and Havana - Ann Louise Bardach

Eisenhower & Latin America - The Foreign Policy of Anti-Communism - Stephen G. Rabe

Contesting Castro - The United States & The Triumph of the Cuban Revolution - Thomas G Paterson

The Caastro Obsession - Don Bohning

In the book Contesting Castro, [page 52] there are these passages. Warning! Even though the book was published in 1994, the passage's quoted are in keeping with the 'politically correct' treatment [circa 2006] of Democrat's as representing a 'less than impressive' moral lifestyle, it is my opinion that the passage's in question have a less than objective undertone regarding the two Senator's, but is, in keeping with the FOX News Network habit of seemingly implying that Democrat's are generally respnsible for every 'bad decision' that has taken place in the United States since the post-war era began.

"In the 1950's the Batista government vigorously promoted tourism as a hedge against the always precarious sugar trade. Fancy hotels with gambling casinos went up and U.S mobstersshared profits with government officials".........

......"In search of rum, rhumba, and much, much more, some 300,000 tourists each year flocked to the island to partake in Cuba's bustling life of outdoor cafe's, bar's, nightclubs, brothels and casinos."........

......."Like many other prominent Americans, the young Democratic U.S. Senators John F. Kennedy and George Smathers partied on the island. In December 1957, Kennedy and Smathers journeyed to Havana. They visited Ambassador Smith, a Kennedy friend from Palm Beach, and his wife and former model, Florence Pritchett Smith with whom the Massachusets politician had had a love affair some years before. The pleasure seeking senators apparently never discussed the rebellion, although Smather's, as he himself put it 'had made a career of Cuban problems.' Instead golf, sailing, nightclubs, and women occupied their time. Crime boss Meyer Lansky's widow claimed later that during that trip her husband helped locate women to satisfy Kennedy's now-famed sexual athleticism. 'Kennedy wasn't a great casino man,' remembered Samther's, 'but the Tropicana night-club had a floor show you wouldn't believe.' "

Great thread. JFK had an affair with Florence Pritchett Smith from 1944 to 1963. She was the love of his life and he would have married her during the war but for the fact that she had been married before. In 1962 Jackie came close to a nervous breakdown because of Florence.

Earl Smith was on the far right and wrote a book about what he considered to be the CIA betrayal of Batista: The Fourth Floor: An Account of the Castro Communist Revolution (1962).

See also the evidence he gave to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on 27th August, 1960.

See online seminar on Florence Pritchett Smith

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2358

See threads on:

Florence Smith

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2358

Earl Smith

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4596

George Smathers

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1113