FlashBack: The Bush’s, The CIA, and their Terrorists Friends in Miami

GRANMA July 16, 2002

BUSH’S LIASONS The scandalous release of Letelier’s killers

HOW José Dionisio "Bloodbath" Esquivel and Virgilio Paz Romero were able to personally express their gratitude to their master . As CIA head, George Bush Sr. never had to explain his role in this dirty story of murder and disinformation . A few weeks before September 11, President Bush released two dangerous terrorists, who are also CIA collaborators and CANF mercenaries

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD (Special for Granma International)

PRESS headlines called it one of the worst acts of state terrorism ever to take place in U.S. territory. They were referring to the horrific killing in broad daylight of Orlando Letelier, former ambassador and minister, and his assistant Ms. Ronni Moffit, a human rights activist, in the heart of Washington’s diplomatic district.

It was September 21, 1976. A powerful incendiary device placed under the victims’ car was detonated by remote control. The vehicle, a Chevelle 1975, exploded in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, Embassy Row, one of the capital’s most prestigious districts.

There was an extraordinarily lengthy and complex investigation.

The assassination had considerable political impact. In Chile, fascist general Augusto Pinochet was in power and political repression had reached unprecedented levels. The secret police - the sinister DINA - were systematically eliminating any opposition. In a murky conspiracy between the extreme right regimes of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, in cahoots with the CIA and its Cuban- American mercenaries in Miami, a plan was hatched to exterminate leftwing activists. It was called Plan Condor, and with the CIA’s blessing it extended beyond Latin American borders.

In Langley, George Bush - former CIA agent in Miami, son of a banker sanctioned for his financial links with Hitler’s Germany and subsequently elected to the Senate - was running the company with extraordinary Machiavelianism.

Of course, his agents were the first at the scene of the crime, as well as the FBI and various federal police agents from the District of Colombia.

Letelier enjoyed great prestige; he had held important posts in Salvador Allende’s constitutional government: ambassador to the United States, minister of the interior, minister of international relations, and minister of defense when the putsch occurred. He was detained on the very day of the coup and sent to Dawson Island, close to the Antarctica, for an already planned execution. But thanks to strong international pressure he was released and deported to Venezuela, traveling on to the United States. There he immediately took up the struggle against Pinochet’s dictatorship.

After Letelier’s horrific assassination, many individuals and organizations demanded to know the full facts of the case. Whilst the public, various publications and Letelier’s own collaborators pointed the finger at the Pinochet regime, some unexpected theories - denying that connection - were suddenly published in the press...on the personal orders of George Bush, as was discovered some years later.

Utilizing allegedly exclusive sources, the well-known magazine Newsweek published revelations that shocked everyone. Incredibly, Letelier and Moffit were not murdered in a plot schemed up by Pinochet’s henchmen. The weekly cited a CIA "secret report" to the FBI concerning an attack mounted by leftwing extremists who wanted to kill Letelier to create a martyr for themselves.

It emerged much later that because George Bush was dissatisfied with that press campaign he personally disinformed Secretary of State Henry Kissinger - the head of U.S. diplomatic relations - who then met with Pinochet in Chile and confirmed the "authenticity" of Newsweek’s theories and the DINA’s innocence.

After a laborious search, thousands of interviews and hundreds of false leads planted by the CIA itself, five suspects of Cuban origin were arrested by the FBI.

The five individuals - brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo, José Dionisio "Bloodbath" Suárez Esquivel, Virgilio Paz Romero and Alvin Ross Díaz - all belonged to CORU, an infamous terrorist group. It was created in the Dominican Republic in 1976, on the orders of killer doctor Orlando Bosch, following a CIA initiative aimed at bringing together various mercenaries and anti-Castro killers in one sole organization. Over the years, CORU has been responsible for hundreds of crimes: against Cuba, Cuban objectives, and leftwing persons and groups from various countries.

The FBI already knew about Ignacio and Guillermo Novo. In 1964, the two men fired a bazooka at the United Nations building when "Che" Guevara was addressing the General Assembly. The Novo brothers were arrested... sentenced...and finally pardoned at a second trial; their defense lawyers employed various devices to refute the prosecuting attorney’ s key evidence. Yet another CIA- inspired trick to rescue its collaborators.

Shortly after their release, Ignacio and Guillermo Novo were contracted by the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), headed by Jorge Más Canoso, to take charge of the group’s information committee.

Suárez and Paz disappeared for 12 years until they were caught by the authorities. The FBI acknowledged that the two men were so dangerous that they even circulated Paz’s [description] on the TV program "America’s Most Wanted". (The most dangerous criminals on U.S. territory sought by the police are described in the program.)

Both men admitted they had participated in the double murder and were duly sentenced...to 12 years each in jail.

The truth about those responsible for the Letelier-Moffit murders was not to be revealed until almost 25 years after the event. On September 18, 2000, a 21-page CIA report to Congress confirmed for the first time that Manuel Contreras, intelligence chief of the DINA, Pinochet’s secret police force, headed the conspiracy.

Contreras’ "terrorist boss" was Michael Townley, a U.S. citizen who was both a DINA agent and an active CIA collaborator. He and Armando Fernández, an officer in the Chilean army and a DINA agent, illegally entered the United States (using Paraguayan passports authorized by dictator Stroessner at the special request of Pinochet) to meet and collaborate with CORU leaders. Guillermo Novo and his brother personally guaranteed cooperation and got their own killers to provide all the necessary materials and help.

On September 19, 1976, Townley, "Bloodbath" and Paz went to Orlando Letelier’s house in Bethesda, Maryland, where Townley attached the device under the former ambassador’s car. It was detonated on September 21.

Townley immediately called up the Novo Brothers, advising them that something had gone down in the District of Columbia. He left for Chile on the September 24.

The CIA also confessed to prior knowledge of Contreras’ intentions, for in addition to being a Pinochet spy, he also appeared on their books. Townley was later extradited from Chile in 1978, and served five years in a U.S. prison, while cooperating with the FBI. He was finally released and now lives under another name thanks to the witness protection program...in spite of his numerous crimes.

Guillermo Novo is currently in detention in Panama along with Luis Posada Carriles, whom The New York Times called one of the most dangerous terrorists in the hemisphere. With other accomplices the two men attempted to detonate a powerful explosive device in the middle of a student gathering where Cuban President Fidel Castro was scheduled to talk during the November 2000 Ibero-American Summit.

Released from a federal jail, as Cuban citizens, "Bloodbath" Suárez Esquivel and Virgilio Paz Romero were handed over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), an organization whose responsibilities include expelling ex-jail bird foreigners in irregular situations from the U.S. territory.

But thanks to the intervention of CANF - always at the ready to rescue its cronies - George W. Bush himself authorized the release of the two dangerous criminals in the summer of 2001.

Virgilio Paz left the INS Bradenton Detention Center on July 25, and Dionisio Suárez was back on the streets on August 14. Just a few weeks away from September 11!

The depth of disgrace however, came on May 20, 2002, when George W. Bush was in Miami speaking to the most representative elements of the anti-Cuban mafia. The two terrorists were present, frenetically applauding his words.

"Bloodbath" Suárez Esquivel and Virgilio Paz Romero, now at liberty to resume their professional terrorist activities, took the opportunity not only to listen to their master’s voice talking about his "dreams" of a "new Cuba", but to thank him for their freedom.

There we have it - American justice in all its splendor.

George Bush Sr. never had to explain his role as CIA chief in this dirty story of murder and disinformation.

Nor has his son, that great denouncer of universal terrorism, ever been questioned - not even by the supposedly free press - concerning his motives for freeing such riffraff.

Meanwhile, the five individuals who assassinated the high-ranking Chilean politician and his assistant - and remember it was called one of the worst acts of state terrorism ever witnessed in the United States - have benefited from all the U.S. legal system’s favors, making a mockery of all those people who are demanding and will continue to demand justice for the five imprisoned Cuban patriots. These five men, sentenced for attempting to counteract activities by precisely those minuscule anti- Cuban terrorist groups, are currently being held in five different prisons in the empire.

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Terrorist Connections Resurface In Florida by Jane Franklin June 29, 2002 Z-Magazine Governor Jeb Bush is about to choose a Florida State Supreme Court judge. There are five finalists and his deadline is August 12. Since there is no Hispanic on the Court, most people expect Jeb Bush will want to name a Hispanic. There is only one Hispanic among the finalists. That one Hispanic is of course a Cuban- American. He is Raoul Cantero III, a corporate lawyer for a Miami firm, Adorno & Yoss—the only one of the five who is not a judge.

Governor Jeb Bush might consider it more important for a Supreme Court judge to have Cantero’s experience working for Hank Adorno, who had a long association with the family businesses of Jorge Mas Canosa and his son Jorge Mas Santos, late chair and current chair, respectively, of the Cuban American National Foundation, the wealthiest and most influential right-wing Cuban- American organization.

Is Raoul Cantero ready to enforce the law even against Cuban- American terrorists? This is a matter of major importance because terrorism against Cuba is one of the issues that confronts the Florida court system with astonishing regularity. The U.S. Neutrality Act forbids launching military expeditions from U.S. territory against any nation with which the United States is at peace. Nevertheless, in Florida, the prevailing jurisprudence is that it’s o.k. to commit terrorist acts against Cuba. In Florida courts, those who carry out armed attacks against Cuba are treated as freedom fighters. Contrariwise, anyone tried for attempting to find out about those plans and warn Cuba about them is quite likely to end up in prison, as have five Cubans recently sentenced to long prison terms, including life behind bars.

Now that White House Resident George Bush is supposedly waging a War on Terror, one might think that brother Jeb would not want to select anyone with a record that suggests approval of terrorism.

This one Hispanic on the final list for Florida’s Supreme Court just happens to be the grandson of former Cuban dictator, General Fulgencio Batista. And his father served under Batista as an intelligence officer in the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities or BRAC, notorious for torture and assassination. Of course it would not be fair to assume that Raoul Cantero shares the politics of his father and his grandfather Batista. But his own record indicates that he is continuing the family tradition of favoring terrorism against the Cuban people.

Back in 1989 Orlando Bosch, one of the two most notorious Cuban-American terrorists (the other is Luis Posada), was in prison in Florida. He had returned from Venezuela and was being held on a parole violation. The United States Justice Department ruled that Bosch should be deported because of his terrorist activities. The deportation order cited FBI and CIA reports that Bosch "has repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death," including 30 acts of sabotage in the United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Panama from 1961 through 1968. In the worst charge against Bosch, 73 people were killed when a bomb blew up a Cuban passenger jet. Acting Associate Attorney General Joe Whitley wrote in his decision to deport Bosch:

"The October 6, 1976, Cuban airline bombing was a CORU operation under the direction of Bosch. CORU is the name of Bosch’s terrorist outfit." That bombing marked the first time that a civilian passenger jet was turned into a weapon of terrorism.

Interestingly, it occurred in 1976 when George Bush the elder was head of the CIA; Orlando Bosch had been and maybe still was an agent of the CIA.

By 1989 George Bush the elder had become president. A campaign was launched to get his administration to reverse the Justice Department’s decision to deport Bosch. That campaign was successful and Bosch walks free today in Miami. Among the leaders of that effort to turn the convicted terrorist into a hero were Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who was running for Congress, and her campaign manager, Jeb Bush, son of the president. A primary spokesman for Orlando Bosch was one of his lawyers, the same Raoul Cantero now being considered for the Florida Supreme Court by Jeb Bush.

Contrary to the Justice Department’s statement that Bosch had "repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death," Cantero told the media in 1989 that Bosch had never engaged in indiscriminate violence. Evidently Cantero considered blowing up civilians some kind of discriminating violence. According to Cantero, Bosch was conducting "a counterrevolutionary war." "What was considered back then to be a heroic fight against the terrorism of Fidel Castro," he declared, "has suddenly come to be seen as anti-American terrorism."

The issue here is not a matter of the attorney-client relationship in which an attorney should not be held accountable for his client’s actions; every accused person has a right to legal representation. The issue is whether a person who justifies terror against civilians (including blowing up an airliner) as part of a "heroic fight" against the Cuban government belongs on the Florida Supreme Court.

One thing is certain. Whether or not Jeb Bush chooses Cantero for the Supreme Court, the terrorist connection may now be an issue in the Florida gubernatorial race. People are asking questions about the role that Jeb Bush played in getting Orlando Bosch released from prison when the Justice Department, the CIA, and the FBI had all declared him a terrorist. Jane Franklin is the author of "Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History."

Cantero, a spokesman for jailed terrorist Orlando Bosch, advocated to reverse Bosch’s deportation. This, after the US Justice Dept. ordered Bosch deported for FBI and CIA reports that he blew up a passenger jet plane, killing 73 people in the first time anyone turned a civilian jetliner into a terrorist weapon. FBI and CIA also cited Bosch for 30 acts of sabotage.

Cantero is the grandson of former Cuban dictator General Batista; his father served as intelligence officer under Batista in the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities, notorious for its torture and assassinations. Not to judge another Floridian elite by only his family ancestry. Cantero worked for Hank Adorno, a longtime business associate of Jorge Mas Canosa, leader of the Cuban American National Foundation, the richest most right-wing Cuban group in America.

Franklin recently brought attention early on to this story of Cantero’s background when she alerted Francisco Aruca, news Radio Progreso http://www.rprogreso.com in Florida.

See Jane Franklin’s Z Magazine article at http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=2049

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December 22, 2000 Connections of CANF’s treasurer

BY JANE FRANKLIN (Special for Granma International)

THE Cuban American National Foundation is well-represented on the GOP’s list of presidential electors from Florida by CANF’s treasurer, Feliciano M. Foyo, who happens to be a good friend of Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Foyo has another friend named Luis Posada Carriles, one of the most notorious terrorists among Cuban expatriates. In an autobiography published in Honduras in 1994, Posada names Feliciano Foyo as one of his financial backers. What does it mean to be one of Posada’s financiers?

Posada, along with three other well-known terrorists, was detained by Panamanian authorities November 17 for an alleged plan to assassinate President Fidel Castro while the Cuban leader addressed thousands of students at the University of Panama. If the plastic explosive discovered in Panama had been used, hundreds of people could have been killed or injured. But Posada does not seem bothered by "collateral damage."

Posada has previously aimed to kill Castro in several countries, including Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Peru. A sales representative for Firestone Tire and Rubber in Cuba, Posada started working for the CIA at least by 1960. Found out and forced to flee, for years he led raids carried out by Alpha 66, a terrorist organization that continues raids to this day-with impunity.

In June 1976, while George H. W. Bush (the elder) was head of the CIA, a CIA operative, Cuban expatriate Orlando Bosch, founded and led the Commanders of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU). Posada was one of those "commanders." As revealed later in FBI and CIA documents, CORU was soon involved in more than 50 bombings and, quite likely, political assassinations. Venezuelans and U.S. authorities reported that a network of terrorists carried out a "vast" number of attacks in seven countries against Cuba and against countries and individuals considered friendly to Cuba. This reign of terror culminated in October 1976 when a Cubana passenger plane was blown up after it took off from Barbados headed for Cuba, killing all 73 people aboard, including 57 Cubans.

With overwhelming evidence against them, Posada, Bosch and two Venezuelans were arrested and held in Venezuela. Military courts in Venezuela acquitted them, not a surprising development since the CIA in 1967 had transferred Posada to Venezuela, using him as a leader of terrorist activities against Cuba in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the Interior Ministry, he ran the Intelligence and Prevention Services Division (DISIP), which persecuted, interrogated and tortured Venezuelan citizens. Awaiting retrial, in 1985 Posada walked out of the prison.

According to Posada himself, his guards were bribed with money from Miami. One of the couriers of such financing was Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, one of the terrorists now held in Panama. From Venezuela, Cuban expatriate Félix Rodríguez, another notorious terrorist, took Posada to El Salvador where Rodríguez was working with Col. Oliver North in supplying Contras against the Sandinistas government of Nicaragua. The exposure of that operation led to the Iran-Contra hearings of 1987. At those hearings before Congress, Rodríguez was asked about "Ramón Medina." He replied that Medina was an alias in El Salvador for Posada, a "good friend of mine," an "honorable man." He testified that he brought Posada to El Salvador from Venezuela, claiming that Posada "deserved to be free." Not another question was asked about Posada. Instead Rodríguez was complimented on his role by Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fl), one of his questioners. Rep. Peter Rodino (D-NJ) also told him that we all appreciate his fighting against communism.

Two years later, in a speech on the Senate floor, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said the American people "deserve a full accounting of [then Vice President] Bush and the vice president’s office and its knowledge of Luis Posada’s role in the secret contra supply operation." In his testimony before Congress, Rodríguez had bragged about meeting with Vice President Bush (he showed Bush a picture of himself with captive Che Guevara in the hours before Che was executed). Senator Harkin wondered "why Bush never bothered to use his good offices to investigate charges of Posada’s links with the supply operation and Félix Rodríguez even after the press reported them in late 1986."

After El Salvador, Posada spent time in terrorist activities in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Money from Miami, said Posada, was used to finance the 1997 bombings aimed at the tourist industry in Havana-bombings that killed an Italian tourist, Fabio di Celmo, and injured several people. Posada admitted paying Salvadorans to go to Cuba to plant those bombs. After Posada and three of his cohorts were detained in Panama, Justino di Celmo, father of the dead tourist, appeared on Cuban television to appeal to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso not to release Luis Posada. The families of the 57 Cubans killed in the 1976 explosion of the passenger jet are pleading for justice. Time will tell if Posada’s financiers can pay his way out of this one. Jane Franklin is the author of Cuba and the United States: A Chronological

Original Link: http://www.freethefive.org/bushconnection.cfm

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