Wim Dankbaar on Luis Posada Carriles, reflections from a foreigner.
Why does this terrorist get such protection from Bush? Here is the story!
“Without the support from higher powers, Posada Carriles would just be a pawn. A pawn who would not have been able to bribe his escape from prison, to plan and execute terrorist attacks, and to slip through the mazes of Homeland Security. In other words, Posada and his friends need finance, backing and guidance”, says Wim Dankbaar, the Dutch specialist on Kennedy’s assassination. “So let’s have a look at where his support comes from.”
We must go back in time. Where did it all begin? Well, we need a history lesson that Americans did not get in school. We must go back to the first major effort to overthrow Castro’s Cuba in a CIA sponsored invasion. An invasion that failed and is now known as the infamous Bay of Pigs. An invasion that failed because Kennedy did not back it all the way. That is at least the resentment that still lives on in the anti-Castro cummunity. The operational base in Florida to train this army, was only outmatched in size by the US Navy. It was codenamed the JM/Wave station. The commanding officer of this station was Theodore Shackley, who later became the deputy director of the CIA under George Bush senior. One of the men who worked under Shackley at JM/Wave is your present CIA director Porter Goss.
Washington Post, interview with Porter Goss: click here
The architects for this clandestine invasion were CIA director Allen Dulles and then vice president and later president Nixon. Luis Posada Carriles was recruited for that invasion. He was trained in Fort Benning as an assassin and an expert in explosives. But what many Americans do not know, is that from that army, a number of men were selected to form a secret group of assassins. This group was called Operation 40, and the CIA code name was ZR/Rifle. This is the stuff that American media do not report. The mission of Operation 40 was to assassinate Fidel Castro. It may be no surprise that Luis Posada Carriles was selected for Operation 40. I will give you the names of some more members of this assassination group. And it is important to remember these names, because they will get back in the story later on. One of those members was Felix Rodriguez. He was also trained in Fort Benning, along with Posada.
Felix Rodriguez and Luis Posada Carriles: Veterans of the Bay of Pigs, members of Operation 40, friends, anti-Castro Cuban exiles, CIA assets, trained assassins and operatives for Iran Contra.
Another member was Frank Sturgis, who later gained notoriety in the Watergate scandal. He was one of the Watergate burglars. There were also the brothers Ignacio and Guillermo Novo Sampol. There was Pedro Diaz Lanz, Castro’s former Air Force Chief. And another was a Cuban physician named Orlando Bosch. He later earned the nick name “Dr. Death” for his record of terrorist acts. Members of Organized Crime were tossed into the mix. John Roselli from the Chicago mafia is just one example. They also recruited Castro’s former mistress Marita Lorenz.
One of the supervisors for Operation 40 was E. Howard Hunt, another CIA agent whose name became headline news when the Watergate scandal broke. He was the boss of the so called Watergate plumbers. Another supervisor was David Atlee Phillips. Mr. Phillips was, as declassified files of Cuban State Security have shown, along with declarations of anti-Castro operatives, the direct superior of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of president Kennedy. Phillips eventually became the CIA chief for operations in the Western Hemisphere.
It is now part of the public record that both Phillips and Hunt worked in tandem to orchestrate the CIA coup of 1954 in Guatemala that ended the government of Jacobo Arbenz. Let me emphasize that this was a democratically elected government.
But back to the Bay of Pigs and Operation 40. Who financed that? Well, it was financed by a group of Texan businessmen, headed by Mr. George Bush senior, the former president. What they did not tell you in school, is that Mr. Bush was closely associated with Dulles and Nixon. In fact, Nixon was the protegé of his father, senator Prescott Bush. Prescott Bush was responsible for Nixon’s political career, and he also contributed to his campaign against Kennedy. And contrary to what Bush Sr. may want to tell you, he worked for the CIA as far as back as the Bay of Pigs. This is why his name appears in a declassified FBI document of J. Edgar Hoover about the reaction of the Cuban exiles to the Kennedy assassination.
We are talking about the period that Bush’s friendship with the Cuban exile community in Miami began. It is the period wherein he befriended Felix Rodriguez. Felix Rodriguez is a close associate of Luis Posada Carriles. They ended up working side by side in el Salvador in an operation that eventually became known as the Iran-Contra scandal. This operation was also directed from the White House, when Bush was vice president. Felix reported directly to him. But their history goes much farther back. Remember that Felix Rodriguez was also recruited for Operation 40, some sources say by Bush personally. Whatever the case, and despite the fact that your media don’t write about it, Bush hardly makes a secret of his friendship with Felix Rodriguez. They appear together in numerous photographs and there is also correspondence to testify to their warm relation. And just last year, Felix openly campaigned for the election of George W.
Ernesto “Che” Guevara has become an icon in the world, right or wrong. A symbol of the fight for freedom. But what is less known is that Felix Rodriguez was part of the CIA team that tracked him down in Bolivia, which ended with his murder. There is even a photograph of Rodriguez with a captured Che. These are all hard historical facts. If you weren’t aware of them, you can find them on my website.
George and Felix chilling in the VP’s office.
Above is a picture of Felix Rodriguez with a captured Che Guevara. Rodriguez still shows Guevara ‘s Rolex watch and the transcripts of the interrogations to intimate friends in his Miami home, which is decorated with photos of him and his old friend George. Below a 1988 Christmas note from George to Felix referring to Iran-Contra hearings.
George and Felix
So, your former president is not ashamed to support and protect known assassins and terrorists. You will start to see a pattern here. Let us have a look at Orlando Bosch. As we have seen, Bosch was also a member of Operation 40. In 1976, the year that Bush was appointed director of the CIA, Orlando Bosch unites the anti-Castro groups into one organisation. This group was called CORU, or Commanders of United Revolutionary Organizations. They planned terrorist attacks against Cuba and other targets. Of course, Felix Rodriguez and Luis Posada also joined this group, as well as their fellow Operation 40 classmates Ignacio and Guillermo Novo Sampol.
Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada were then caught and imprisoned in Venezuela for their part in the bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane. On October 6 of 1976, 73 people were killed in that mid-air explosion. Also, just a few weeks earlier on September 21 of that year, the former minister of Salvador Allende, Orlando Letelier was assassinated in the streets of Washington DC. His car was blown up in broad daylight. The explosion killed him and his young secretary, Ronni Moffit. Her husband Michael, also an American citizen, was severely injured, but he survived. All the evidence points out that both these jobs were masterminded by CORU. One can only guess what information Mr. Letelier did possess to assassinate him. But it is now clear that the CIA had a heavy hand in the coup that brought down the democratic government of Salvador Allende, and installed dictator Augusto Pinochet. If your Government would open all its files on “Operation Condor”, we would get more insight than we already have. But I guess they don’t want to highlight this at a time that you are asked for support to remove brutal dictators, not install them.
Both CORU terrorists Ignacio and Guillermo Novo Sampol were indicted, convicted and sent to prison for their part in the assassination of Orlando Letelier, but eventually their CIA sponsored lawyers came to their rescue and managed to overturn their conviction on appeal. The strategy that every covert CIA agent learns: “Deny, deny, deny, we’ll get you off the hook later”, clearly worked. It doesn’t always work. Especially if you didn’t do it to begin with. It didn’t work for Lee Harvey Oswald.
For their part in the Cuban airline bombing, Bosch and Posada spent years in jail. But in 1985, again trough his CIA sponsored contacts, Posada was able to bribe his way out of his Caracas prison. He was then given another identity to join Felix Rodriguez for Iran Contra in Llopango, El Salvador. Posada was using the name of Ramon Medina and Rodriguez called himself Max Gomez.
And what happened to Orlando Bosch? Well, he was released in 1987 and he returned to Miami as a result of diplomatic pressure from Otto Reich and Jeb Bush. Reich was then the US ambassador for Venezuela and we all know who Jeb Bush is. Mr. Reich is now U.S. Special envoy to the Western Hemisphere, appointed by your current government. Mr. Bosch was subsequently pardoned in 1990 by then President Bush. Dr. Death walks the streets of Miami as a free man. As of this moment there is much indignation and publicity about the case of Luis Posada Carriles, but we must not forget that Orlando Bosch is just as much a terrorist, guilty of the same crimes. The airline bombing is just one in a row. Posada and Bosch blew up give or take 5 targets a year.
To illustrate further the US protection that these characters enjoy, we must make a jump in time to the year 2000. In november of that year, Castro was scheduled to speak in Panama on a summit. The Panamese authorities detected just in time a plot to assassinate him with explosives. If the plot had been carried out succesfully, then not only Castro, but hundreds of innocent people would have been blown to pieces. Who were arrested and convicted for this plot? They are familiar names by now: Luis Posada Carriles, Guillermo Novo Sampol and two more of their Cuban exile friends, Pedro Remón and Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo. Guillermo Novo, remember him? He was the Operation 40 and CORU member, convicted for the killing of Orlando Letelier, untill he got off the hook by his Cuban American attorneys, only to be allowed to continue his terrorist career. The same is of course true for Luis Posada Carriles. And what happens then? Well, last year, the Bush administration intervened and bribed the outgoing President of Panama, Mireyas Moscoso, to release and pardon all these guys. Did you hear about this on CNN? Did you hear that Novo, Remón and Escobedo where escorted back to Miami? Did you hear how they were welcomed, how they were heralded as freedom fighters? Maybe you did hear about it recently, now that the asylum case of Luis Posada has made the headlines as a result of the international public opinion.
So let us ask ourselves why President Bush exposes himself to the public embarrasment of protecting this criminal? Despite the media brainwash and apathy, it is now recognized that indeed Posada is a terrorist by all standards. Including the standards of the American people and even the most right-wing newspapers. Even the Cuban American National Foundation is shy to openly voice their support for Posada Carriles. It just cannot be sold. Fighting Castro is okay, but not with terror. Not in this age, where we condemn Al Qaeda.
Well, I say the answer to the question can be found in another crime of 42 years ago, the assassination of one of your most popular Presidents, John F. Kennedy. He had just initiated diplomatic contacts for a co-existence with Castro’s Cuba. I have told you about Operation 40 that was desgined to assassinate the Cuban leader. It was a CIA group that was secretly assembled from elements of organized crime, cuban exiles and other figures willing to operate outside the Constitution. We all know about the CIA/Mafia plots to kill Castro. They tried to kill him with the most outrageuos methods, from poison pills to exploding cigars, to outright assassination by rifle shots. They even tried to kill him with a cancer causing agent, a method that Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassin Jack Ruby claimed was eventually used on him.
Of course your schools still teach that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. And right after the assassination, the CIA disinformation machine even cranked out stories that he was one of Castro’s agents, in order to put the blame on Cuba. But as the evidence mounted that Lee Harvey Oswald had in fact been an agent for the CIA, that he was actually fiercely against the Cuban revolution, it was realized that this lie could not be pushed anymore. Thus he became a lone nut.
Could it be that these plans that were put in place to assassinate Castro, along with the opposing forces to Kennedy, backfired and were then used to assassinate him? Well, one of those opposing forces, who is still hostile towards Cuba, was certainly George Bush and his associates. It is actually kind of strange that the vast majority of the Americans now believes that Kennedy’s murder was a conspiracy involving elements of the CIA or mafia or both, yet the official position of your government is still that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. “We know better than you”. Not a great example of democratic principle, is it? Now I understand where the saying comes from: “I love my country, but I don’t trust my government.”
Let us have a look at some of the evidence that is now known, but not well known. The evidence that they never teach your children in school. The evidence that your mainstream media don’t tell. Let us have a look at the testimony under oath of Castro’s mistress Marita Lorenz, who after that short romance, was recruited by the CIA to kill him. This is under no dispute whatsoever.
You may recall E. Howard Hunt, the supervisor for Operation 40 and the chief of the Watergate burglar team. Well, in 1985 Hunt has fought a libel suit against a magazine that had printed allegations that he was involved in the conspiracy to kill President Kennedy. Hunt lost this suit and he was unable to convince the jury that he had not been in Dallas. During that trial Marita Lorenz gave testimony that she had worked for the CIA and that she had been part of Operation 40. She further testified that in the week prior to Kennedy’s assassination, she had travelled from Miami to Dallas with a group of fellow members of Operation 40. This group travelled in two cars with weapons in the trunks. She claimed that she was not told about the mission of this journey, other than that it was confidential. She was told so by Frank Sturgis, who was now her boy friend. Wether her taste had improved or not, is not for me to judge, but there is apparently room for romance even in covert operations:
Marita and FrankTo see Marita on film with Frank Sturgis and other members of Operation 40: click here
She identified her other travel companions as characters that may now sound familiar to you: Pedro Diaz Lanz, and the brothers Ignacio and Guillermo Novo Sampol. She also mentioned that the group was operating under guidance from none other than Orlando Bosch. In fact, she said that a few weeks before, she had been present at a meeting of this group in a Miami safe house, where Orlando Bosch and Lee Harvey Oswald were also present. Lorenz was reluctant to mention these names, but was induced to do so under questioning by Hunt’s lawyers. Her story then went on to say that the group took refuge in a Dallas motel, where they were visited first by Hunt and then by Jack Ruby. When she started to question the involvement of the mobster, she was then sent back by Frank Sturgis, who said that he had made a mistake in bringing her along. She took a plane back to Miami the day before Kennedy was killed.
Whether her story is true or not, the fact is that her testimony was given under oath. Thus at the risk of being prosecuted for perjury. It is also fact that her testimony is not widely known to the American public. It is a further fact that Hunt lost the lawsuit and that all the persons she mentioned, had proven connections with the CIA and covert operations, some of which are pure terror. Her testimony has been largely ignored by american mainstream media, and the coverage that was there, have mainly been attempts to discredit it. But another fact, one that that is never emphasized, is that none of these dangerous characters who were mentioned by Lorenz, have ever taken steps to prosecute her for perjury, libel or defamation. This is strange, as none of us would take it lightly to be implicated in the murder of a President. It may well be that publicity opens a can of worms that they rather keep closed. I bet they neither like the publicity that we now see about Posada Carriles.
What about Howard Hunt himself? Well, Mr. Hunt is still around and was recently interviewed for Slate Magazine by Ann Louise Bardach. She asked him for his thoughts on the accusation that his partner David Phillips had been involved in the Kennedy assassination. You know what he said? I”ll give you the exact quotes:
Slate: I know there is a conspiracy theory saying that David Atlee Phillips-the Miami CIA station chief-was involved with the assassination of JFK.
If the story is true, it is all the more evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was one of their own ranks, selected to be “a patsy”. Just like he said on television. It is also evidence that Jack Ruby, who silenced him before he could say more, was part of the conspiracy.
What is at least undisputed, is that the accused assassin was friends with one George DeMohrenschildt, who was an oil geologist in Dallas with proven CIA connections. That much we know. But what the public in general does not know, is that Mr. Demohrenschildt was also a personal friend of George Bush senior. It is a friendship that Bush himself has never disclosed. Mr. Demohrenschildt’s address book and correspondence have disclosed it. Is it just a coincidence that he reportedly killed himself in 1977, just one day after he was located by investigator Gaeton Fonzi from the House Select Committee that re-examined the assassination of Kennedy?
“And we shall vote for you when you run for President. Your old friend G. De Mohrenschildt.” See De Mohrenschildt’s letter here (1) and here (2)
Why was James Files not killed?, is what many researchers ask me. Well, he was never called to testify. Neither were Bosch, Novo and Posada. Besides, you can’t keep killing them all, or it may become too obvious. Ignoring or discrediting them, is just as effective. And Chauncey tells he was warned that they were looking for him. By Regis Blahut, the CIA liasion on the House Select Committee on Assassinations. He was appointed to “assist” them in their investigation.
Finally, there is another man alive and well, a former CIA contract pilot, who declares to have flown John Roselli to Dallas on a CIA supported flight. This man has given testimony before on government commissions, like the Church Committee, some of it is still classified. There are many documents that testify to his past and credibilty. Again, the US Government has shown no interest in the information of this man.
This history may shed light on why anti-Cuba terrorists, like Posada, Novo and Bosch, enjoy so much protection from the US authorities. It may well explain the lies and the obvious farce of Posada’s detention. Consider that the US Government intervened to get Posada and his three terrorist acomplices, pardoned and released from Panama. And now they want to have us believe that they did not follow Posada’s movements after that? That they were not aware of his whereabouts? That he slipped into the country undetected? That he was not caught in the tight net of Homeland Security for which you pay millions of tax dollars? That they only became aware of him just recently? I am asking: How dumb do they think the American people are? It’s very simple. Posada was picked up because of international pressure and publicity. They knew exactly where he was and they knew excactly how he entered the country. They helped him do it.
On May 20, Bush received a small delegation of the Cuban-American National Foundation, a known and proven backer of Posada Carriles, he even said that himself. But the subject of Luis Posada Carriles was not discussed. How many lies do they think you can take?
Posada’s benefactors and protectors have got him off the hook for every crime he did. Whoever thinks that he will be extradited for crimes he did on their behalf, is naïve. This guy knows way too much to let him go outside their control.
The Government has declared that Posada is not wanted for any crime in the US. But that is just because they don’t tell you about all his crimes. This includes crimes against your own system. The assassination of your elected president, is a crime against your freedom and your Constitution. Maybe that will get you mad. If a lone nut did not do it, as most of you believe, then it was coup d’ etat. A coup d’ état that changed history and destiny. A coup d’ etat in what they say is the freest country in the world. The example for all democracies. It is a crime against the same freedom they make you fight wars for in far away countries, sacrifycing your soldiers. Maybe the American democracy should first clean out its own closet?
It would be advisable, that as long as Posada is not extradited, to question him about the assissination of your President. To scrutinize his alibi for that date in November 1963. And that of Orlando Bosch, Guillermo Novo and others as well. Buying their stories that they were sound asleep or watching televison at home, is just not good enough. As a matter of fact, it may be a better idea to NOT extradite Posada ……. but try him right within your own borders. In Dallas, Texas, to be precise. That is, if you still care about your Constitutional laws. Laws that command that, contrary to what the Warren Commission did, an unsolved homicide should be handled under he jurisdiction of the state where it happened. You’ve got a new sheriff there. She is female, mexican, democrat and lesbian. All the things that George loves. Circumstances have never been better.
Wim Dankbaar, May 25, 2005
” The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.” –J. Edgar Hoover
This article may be reprinted without permission. It may be picked up by the newswires, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Miami Herald , The LA Times and all other media.
• The United States yesterday rejected Venezuela’s initial efforts to extradite a Cuban exile wanted for a 1976 airliner bombing that killed 73 people. The Bush administration told Venezuela its request that Luis Posada Carriles be arrested with a view to extradition was “clearly inadequate” because it lacked supporting evidence, the State Department said.- Reuters
State Dept. Daily Press Briefing May 23, 2005 Wednesday, 25 May 2005, 11:31 am Press Release: US State Department
QUESTION: Can we hold Venezuela?
MR. BOUCHER: Ma’am.
QUESTION: He also said that if U.S. don’t extradite Posada Carriles, he’ll think about reviewing the diplomatic relations, even shut down the U.S. — the Venezuelan Embassy here in the U.S. So would you — do you have any comment? This is one more of —
MR. BOUCHER: The question of an extradition, the question of all the matters facing Mr. Posada Carriles, this is a legal matter. It’s not a political matter. It’s not a question of diplomatic relations. It’s a legal matter. And that as we look at his status here or we look at the provisional request for arrest, we’ll look at it based on the legal facts. Our judicial system will deal with it, our Justice Department will deal with it. Any future requests, anything that goes on in that matter, needs to be based on a legal case and the facts of the matter. It’s not a issue of political pressure or diplomatic pressure or threats to do this, that or the other. We’ll look at it based on a legal situation.
QUESTION: Well, what about the, they say, threat of reviewing diplomatic relations with —
MR. BOUCHER: It has nothing to do with legal case. The legal case will be the legal case and that’s how we’ll look at it.
QUESTION: But this is one more, they say, one more of Mr. Chavez’s, they say, statements against the United States or trying to push the United States to come up with — is one more Mr. Chavez’s statements.
MR. BOUCHER: So?
QUESTION: So? What do you have to say about that? Is it —
MR. BOUCHER: Nothing particular. It’s one more of his statements. It’s not relevant to the matter at hand so I don’t think I need to deal with it.
QUESTION: Is there any way Mr. Chavez’s public statements can sway the U.S. Government in the case?
MR. BOUCHER: As I said, it’s a legal matter. What happens here in terms of our own situation with regard to status or any other matters before the U.S. courts will be made on the legal case. If the Venezuelan Government presents such a case, we’ll look at it completely and fairly. But what we decide to do will be based on the legal — on a legal basis, not on threats, not on diplomatic arguments, not on statements, not on outbursts or whatever you call them. It’s going to be a legal matter.
Marita and FrankTo see Marita on film with Frank Sturgis and other members of Operation 40: 
