|
named them in an interview with New York Times journalists Ann Louise Bardach and Larry Rohter! Sunday - July 12, 1998
A BOMBER'S TALE: Part I
Taking Aim At Castro
Key Cuba Foe Claims Exiles' Backing
By ANN LOUISE BARDACH and LARRY ROHTER
MIAMI - A Cuban exile who has waged a campaign of bombings and assassination attempts aimed at toppling Fidel Castro says that his efforts were supported financially for more than a decade by the Cuban-American leaders of one of America's most influential lobbying groups.
The exile, Luis Posada Carriles, said he organized a wave of bombings in Cuba last year at hotels, restaurants and discotheques, killing an Italian tourist and alarming the Cuban Government. Mr. Posada was schooled in demolition and guerrilla warfare by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1960's.
In a series of tape-recorded interviews at a walled Caribbean compound, Mr. Posada said the hotel bombings and other operations had been supported by leaders of the Cuban-American National Foundation. Its founder and head, Jorge Mas Canosa, who died last year, was embraced at the White House by Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton.
A powerful force in both Florida and national elections, and a prodigious campaign donor, Mr. Mas played a decisive role in persuading Mr. Clinton to change his mind and follow a course of sanctions and isolation against Mr. Castro's Cuba.
Although the tax-exempt foundation has declared that it seeks to bring down Cuba's Communist Government solely through peaceful means, Mr. Posada said leaders of the foundation discreetly financed his operations. Mr. Mas personally supervised the flow of money and logistical support, he said.
''Jorge controlled everything,'' Mr. Posada said. ''Whenever I needed money, he said to give me $5,000, give me $10,000, give me $15,000, and they sent it to me.'' Over the years, Mr. Posada estimated, Mr. Mas sent him more than $200,000. ''He never said, 'This is from the foundation,' '' Mr. Posada recalled. Rather, he said with a chuckle, the money arrived with the message, ''This is for the church.'' More: http://www.bardachreports.com/articles/nyt_19980712main.htmMore: CANF and AIPAC are not banned from USA, becuz they are rightwing terrorist organizations Submitted by yankhadenuf on Mon, 2008-06-30 04:55. Nonviolence "The Cuban-American National Foundation Is a Terrorist Organization by Salim Lamrani August 18, 2006
On July 22, 2006, the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Hotel Biltmore in Coral Gables. However, the most powerful US-based extreme rightist Cuban organization, shaken by a new scandal, could not enjoy that party appropriately. In fact, a month earlier, on June 22, 2006, Jose Antonio Llama, a former CANF director, revealed publicly what everyone knew for a long time: the CANF is a terrorist organization. Llama acknowledged that he, along with members of the organization´s hierarchy, had set up a paramilitary group to carry out attacks on Cuba and to assassinate its president, Fidel Castro <1>. According to "Toñin", as his friends call him, the CANF had a cargo helicopter, ten ultra-light remote-controlled planes, seven boats, a Midnight Express speedboat and an unlimited amount of explosives. "We were impatient about the survival of the Castro regime after the demise of the Soviet Union and the socialist system. We wanted to speed up democratization in Cuba using any means to achieve it," he said <2>. The 75-year-old former director explained, without omitting a detail, his terrorist career. For example, he underlined that the plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, planned in 1997 with four of his accomplices, during the Ibero-American Summit on Isla Margarita, Venezuela, was frustrated due to the interference of Puerto Rican authorities when they were on his boat La Esperanza. He and his acolytes were tried and acquitted in December 1999 due to… lack of evidence <3>. After the trial, Llama distanced himself from the CANF, as the organization refused to pay for the legal expenses resulting from his trial and that of his partners. The revelations of this personage came to light as a result of a financial conflict with the Florida-based extremist organization. In fact, Llama accuses the CANF leaders of having embezzled 1.4 million dollars that he himself had contributed to set up the paramilitary wing. "Where are the boats and planes that I financed with my money? Where did they go? Who has the original titles?", he complained <4>. Llama says that the project to organize terrorist attacks on Cuba was worked out at the CANF annual congress in June 1992. Businessman Miguel Angel Martinez presented the idea, saying that "much more than lobbying in Washington" had to be done to overthrow the Cuban government. Two presidents of the organization, Jose "Pepe" Hernandez and Jorge Mas Canosa, were appointed by other members to set up the terrorist faction. "We began to meet and consider everything we needed to buy", he recalled <5>. According to Llama, other Cuban exiles joined the paramilitary faction, including Elpidio Nuñez, Horacio Garcia and Luis Zuñiga, who abandoned the CANF in 2001 to found the Council for the Liberty of Cuba (CLC), Erelio Peña, Raul Martinez, Fernando Ojeda, Domingo Sadurni, Arnaldo Monzon Plasencia and Angel Alfonso Aleman <6>. The explosives were acquired through businessman Raul Lopez, who had participated in terrorist activities against Cuba in the 1960s. He owned a company authorized to buy explosives to open drainage canals for the sugar industry in South Florida, so he could supply dynamite to the criminal group <7>. Jose "Pepin" Pujol, 76, a close friend of the famous terrorist Luis Posada Carriles´, had been in charge of buying the boats since 1993. "The title of the Pelican was on my name. The procedure was that I searched for the boats, Toñin made the down payment and Elpidio Nuñez was the guarantor," he pointed out <8>. More: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/34430These guys have been in over their heads in terrorism since the very first. I can look for more later, believe me there's a TON of material to read on the subject. Some of their terrorism was carried out right in Miami itself to keep the flock submissive, and all dissent unexpressed. Some human rights organization stated in Miami free speech is endangered. I can get that statement, also.
|