[News] Posada Carriles Built Bombs CIA Records Reveal

[Anti-Imperialist News]

National Security Archive Update, October 6, 2009

POSADA CARRILES BUILT BOMBS FOR, AND INFORMED ON, JORGE MAS CANOSA, 
CIA RECORDS REVEAL

Proposed Posada for "responsible civil position" in post-Castro government

Declassified Documents identify Posada's Agency Handlers

For more information contact:
Peter Kornbluh - 202/374-7281
peter.kornbluh at gmail.com

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, DC, October 6, 2009 - On the 33rd anniversary of the 
bombing of Cubana flight 455, the National Security Archive today 
posted recently obtained CIA records on Luis Posada Carriles, his 
ties to "the Company" and role as an informant on other violent exile 
groups. The documents provide extensive details on a collaboration 
between Cuban-American militant Jorge Mas Canosa, who rose to become 
the most powerful leader of the hardline exile community in Miami, 
and Posada--codenamed AMCLEVE 15--who volunteered to spy on violent 
exile operations for the CIA.

The documents include a July 1966 memo from Posada, using the name 
"Pete," to his CIA handler Grover Lythcott requesting permission to 
join the coordinating junta for four violent exile groups, including 
RECE run by Mas Canosa. "I will give the Company all the intelligence 
that I can collect," Posada wrote. "I will gain a more solid position 
between the exiles and, because of that, I will be in a better 
position in the future to perform a good job for the company."

In a memo, Grover Lythcott described Posada as "not a typical 'boom 
and bang' type of individual" who was "acutely aware of the 
international implications of ill planned or over enthusiastic 
activities against Cuba." A CIA personnel record suggested that 
Posada would be "excellent for use in responsible civil position in 
PBRUMEN"--a codename for Cuba--"should the present government fall."

Both CIA and FBI intelligence records identify Posada as a mastermind 
of the bombing of Cubana airline flight 455, using a pencil 
detonator, that took the lives of all 73 passengers and crew on 
October 6, 1976. Posada has publicly admitted ties to a series of 
hotel bombings in Cuba in 1997; in November 2000 he was arrested in 
Panama City for plotting to blow up an auditorium where Fidel Castro 
would be speaking. He is currently living freely in Miami, awaiting 
trial in El Paso, Texas, early next year on charges of lying to 
immigration authorities about his role in the hotel bombings, and as 
to how he illegally entered the United States in the spring of 2005.

"The documents show Posada has a long history of trying to ingratiate 
himself with the CIA," said Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Cuba 
documentation project at the National Security Archive, "perhaps 
attempting to buy himself a degree of protection as he engaged in a 
career of terrorism." He called on the CIA "to release its entire 
operational file on Posada Carriles and his activities, to clarify 
the history of anti-Castro violence and advance the cause of justice 
for Posada's many victims."

Visit the National Security Archive Web site for more information:

http://www.nsarchive.org



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