CIA Director Richard Helms on Ways to Kill Castro

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thefilmarchive
October 25, 2009

Many assassination ideas were floated by the CIA during Operation Mongoose. The most infamous was the CIA's alleged plot to capitalize on Castro's well-known love of cigars by slipping into his supply a very real and lethal "exploding cigar." http://secretsofthecia.blogspot.com/s... Other plots to do in Castro that are ascribed to the CIA include, among others: poisoning his cigars (a box of the lethal smokes was actually prepared and delivered to Havana); exploding seashells to be planted at a scuba diving site; a gift diving wetsuit impregnated with noxious bacteria and mould spores, or with lethal chemical agents; infecting Castro's scuba regulator apparatus with tuberculous bacilli; dousing his handkerchiefs, his tea, and his coffee with other lethal bacteria; having a former lover slip him poison pills; and exposing him to various other poisoned items such as a fountain pen and even ice cream. The US Senate's Church Committee of 1975 stated that it had confirmed at least eight separate CIA run plots to assassinate Castro. Fabian Escalante, who was long tasked with protecting the life of Castro, contends that there have been 638 separate CIA assassination schemes or attempts on Castro's life.

The CIA operation was based in Miami, Florida and among its other aspects enlisted the help of the mafia to plot an assassination attempt against Castro; William Harvey was one of the CIA case officers who directly dealt with the mafioso John Roselli.

William King "Bill" Harvey (September 13, 1915 in Danville, Indiana - June 1976) was a CIA officer, best known for his role in Operation Mongoose. He was known as "America's James Bond."

Harvey was the son of Sara King Harvey, professor at Indiana State Teachers College in Terre Haute, Indiana, now Indiana State University. He graduated from Wiley High School in Terre Haute in 1931, eventually enrolling at Indiana University and then graduated from Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington. He married the daughter of a lawyer from Maysville, Kentucky but, after that marriage ended in divorce, he joined the FBI in December 1940. He resigned from the FBI in July 1947 after breaking a FBI regulation and refusing a resulting re-assignment to Indianapolis, Indiana. He joined the CIA shortly thereafter.

Operation Mongoose was a CIA operation from Miami, Florida, that enlisted the help of the Mafia to plot an assassination attempt against Fidel Castro, the Cuban president. Harvey was one of case officers who dealt with John Roselli.

Harvey was also posted to Berlin, Germany as station chief in the 1950s, where he led the operation that built an underground tunnel to the Russian sector, to spy on Russian communication channels. This operation was called PBJOINTLY.

Harvey died in 1976 from a heart attack. The previous year he testified before the Church Committee on the some of the CIA's past operations.

John "Handsome Johnny" Roselli (July 4, 1905 - August 9, 1976) (sometimes spelled Rosselli), also known as "John F. Stewart" (July 4, 1905 to sometime between July 28 and August 9, 1976) was an influential mobster for the Chicago Outfit who helped them control Hollywood and the Las Vegas Strip. Roselli was also involved with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plot to kill Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro in the early 1960s. Some conspiracy theorists believe he was also involved with John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban politician, one of the primary leaders of the Cuban Revolution, the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976, and then the President of the Council of State of Cuba until his resignation from the office in February 2008. He is currently the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.

He was born into a wealthy family and acquired a law degree. While studying at Havana University, he began his political career and became a recognized figure in Cuban politics. His political career continued with nationalist critiques of Fulgencio Batista, and of the United States' political and corporate influence in Cuba. He gained an ardent, but limited, following and also drew the attention of the authorities. He eventually led the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks, after which he was captured, tried, incarcerated, and later released. He then traveled to Mexico to organize and train for an assault on Batista's Cuba. He and his fellow revolutionaries left Mexico for the East of Cuba in December 1956.

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CIA Assassination plot Kill Fidel Castro death Richard Helms Warren Commission President United States government National Security Council Department of Defense wetsuit clam shell poison pills Agency killing congressional hearing perjury lying invasion Cuba Bay Pigs JFK John F. Kennedy blow up power plants sugar mills foreign policy Mafia crime William K. Harvey Roselli Florida Havana shot officer agent Paris device exploding cigars femme fatale AMLASH Senator Christopher Dodd

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