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<dd><font size=3>THE CIA FILE ON LUIS POSADA CARRILES - A
FORMER AGENCY ASSET GOES ON TRIAL IN THE U.S<br><br>
</b>
<dd>National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 334<br>
<dd>By Peter Kornbluh and Erin Maskell<br><br>
<dd>Posted - January 11, 2011<br>
<dd>
<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB334/index.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB334/index.htm<br><br>
<br>
</a>
<dd>Washington, D.C., January 11, 2011 - </b>As the unprecedented trial
of Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles begins this week in El Paso, Texas,
the National Security Archive today posted a series of CIA records
covering his association with the agency in the 1960s and 1970s. CIA
personnel records described Posada, using his codename, “AMCLEVE/15,” as
“a paid agent” at $300 a month, being utilized as a training instructor
for other exile operatives, as well as an informant. “Subject is of
good character, very reliable and security conscious,” the CIA reported
in 1965. Posada, another CIA document observed, incorrectly, was “not a
typical ‘boom and bang’ type of individual.”<br><br>
<dd>Today’s posting includes key items from Posada’s CIA file, including
several previously published by the Archive, and for the first time
online, the
<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB334/doc08.pdf">
indictment</a></b> from Posada’s previous prosecution--in Panama--on
charges of trying to assassinate Fidel Castro with 200 pounds of dynamite
and C-4 explosives (in Spanish).<br><br>
<dd>“This explosive has the capacity to destroy any armored vehicle,
buildings, steel doors, and the effects can extend for 200 meters…if a
person were in the center of the explosion, even if they were in an
armored car, they would not survive,” as the indictment described the
destructive capacity of the explosives found in Posada’s possession in
Panama City, where Fidel Castro was attending an Ibero-American summit in
November 2000.<br><br>
<dd>The judge presiding over the perjury trial of Posada has ruled that
the prosecution can introduce unclassified evidence of his CIA background
which might be relevant to his “state of mind” when he allegedly lied to
immigration officials about his role in a series of hotel bombings in
Havana in 1997. In pre-trial motions, the prosecution has introduced a
short unclassified
<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB334/doc01.pdf">
“summary”</a></b> of Posada’s CIA career, which is included below.
Among other things, the summary (first cited last year in Tracey Eaton’s
informative blog, <a href="http://alongthemalecon.blogspot.com/">“Along
the Malecon”</a></b>) reveals that in 1993, only four years before he
instigated the hotel bombings in Havana, the CIA anonymously warned
former agent and accused terrorist Luis Posada of an assassination threat
on his life. <br><br>
<dd>A number of the Archive’s CIA documents were cited in articles in the
Washington Post, and CNN coverage today on the start of the Posada trial.
“The C.I.A. trained and unleashed a Frankenstein,” the New York Times</i>
quoted Archive Cuba Documentation Project director Peter Kornbluh as
stating. “It is long past time he be identified as a terrorist and
be held accountable as a terrorist.” <br><br>
<dd>Posada was convicted in Panama in 2001, along with three accomplices,
of endangering public safety; he was sentenced to eight years in prison.
After lobbying by prominent Cuban-American politicians from Miami,
Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso pardoned all four in August 2004. A
fugitive from justice in Venezuela where he escaped from prison while
being tried for the October 6, 1976, mid air bombing of a Cuban jetliner
which killed all 73 people on board, Posada showed up in Miami in March
2005. He was arrested on May 17 of that year by the Department of
Homeland Security and held in an immigration detention center in El Paso
for two years, charged with immigration fraud during the Bush
administration. Since mid 2007, he has been living on bail in
Miami. In April 2009, the Obama Justice Department added several counts
of perjury relating to Posada denials about his role in organizing a
series of hotel, restaurant and discotheque bombings in 1997. Since
mid 2007, he has been living on bail in Miami<br><br>
<dd>According to Kornbluh, “it is poetic justice that the same U.S.
Government whose secret agencies created, trained, paid and deployed
Posada is finally taking steps to hold him accountable in a court of law
for his terrorist crimes.”<br><br>
<dd> <br>
<hr>
<dd>Read the Documents<br><br>
<dd><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB334/doc01.pdf">
Document 1</a>: CIA, Unclassified, “Unclassified Summary of the CIA’s
Relationship With Luis Clemente Posada Carriles,” Undated.<br><br>
</b>
<dd>This unclassified summary of the relationship between Luis Posada
Carriles and the CIA, which was provided to the court by the US Justice
Department, says the CIA first had contact with Posada in connection with
planning the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. He remained a paid agent of
the CIA from 1965-1967 and again from 1968-1974. From 1974-76, Posada
provided unsolicited threat reporting. (Additional documents introduced
in court show that he officially severed ties with the CIA in February
1976.) According to this document, the CIA last had contact with Posada
in 1993 when they anonymously contacted him in Honduras by telephone to
warn him of a threat to his life. (This document was first cited last
year in Tracey Eaton’s informative blog,
<a href="http://alongthemalecon.blogspot.com/">“Along the
Malecon.”</a></b>)<br><br>
<dd><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB334/doc02.pdf">
Document 2</a>: CIA, "PRQ Part II for AMCLEVE/15," September
22, 1965.<br><br>
</b>
<dd>"PRQ Part II," or the second part of Posada's Personal
Record Questionnaire, provides operational information. Within the text
of the document, Posada is described as "strongly
anti-Communist" as well as a sincere believer in democracy. The
document describes Posada having a "good character," not to
mention the fact that he is "very reliable, and security
conscious." The CIA recommends that he be considered for a civil
position in a post-Castro government in Cuba (codenamed
PBRUMEN).<br><br>
<dd><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB288/posada3.pdf">
Document 3</a>: CIA, Cable, "Plan of the Cuban Representation in
Exile (RECE) to Blow Up a Cuban or Soviet Vessel in Veracruz,
Mexico," July 1, 1965.<br>
</b>
<dd> <br>
<dd>This CIA cable summarizes intelligence on a demolition project
proposed by Jorge Mas Canosa, then the head of RECE. On the third page, a
source is quoted as having informed the CIA of a payment that Mas Canosa
has made to Luis Posada in order to finance a sabotage operation against
ships in Mexico. Posada reportedly has "100 pounds of C-4 explosives
and some detonators" and limpet mines to use in the
operation.<br><br>
<dd>
<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB288/posada1.pdf">
Document 4</a>: CIA, Memorandum, "AMCLEVE /15," July 21,
1966.<br><br>
</b>
<dd>This document includes two parts-a cover letter written by Grover T.
Lythcott, Posada's CIA handler, and an attached request written by Posada
to accept a position on new coordinating Junta composed of several
anti-Castro organizations. In the cover letter, Lythcbtt refers to Posada
by his codename, AMCLEVE/I5, and discusses his previous involvement
withthe Agency. He lionizes Posada, writing that his ''performance in all
assigned tasks has been excellent," and urges that he be permitted
to work with the combined anti-Castro exile groups. According to the
document, Lythcott suggests that Posada be taken off the CIA payroll to
facilitate his joining the anti-Castro militant junta, which will be led
by RECE. Lythcott insists that Posada will function as an effective
moderating force considering he is "acutely aware of the
international implications of ill planned or over enthusiastic activities
against Cuba." In an attached memo, Posada, using the name
"Pete," writes that if he is on the Junta, "they will
never do anything to endanger the security of this Country (like blow up
Russian ships)" and volunteers to "give the Company all the
intelligence that I can collect."<br><br>
<dd>
<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/19720417.pdf">
Document 5</a>: CIA, Personal Record Questionnaire on Posada</b>, April
17, 1972</b>.<br><br>
<dd>This "PRQ" was compiled in 1972 at a time Posada was a high
level official at the Venezuelan intelligence service, DISIP, in charge
of demolitions. The CIA was beginning to have some concerns about him,
based on reports that he had taken CIA explosives equipment to Venezuela,
and that he had ties to a Miami mafia figure named Lefty Rosenthal. The
PRQ spells out Posada's personal background and includes his travel to
various countries between 1956 and 1971. It also confirms that one of his
many aliases was "Bambi Carriles." <br><br>
<dd><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB334/doc06.pdf">
Document 6</a>: CIA, Report, "Traces on Persons Involved in 6 Oct
1976 Cubana Crash," October 13, 1976.<br><br>
</b>
<dd>In the aftermath of the bombing of Cubana flight 455, the CIA ran a
file check on all names associated with the terror attack. In a report to
the FBI the Agency stated that it had no association with the two
Venezuelans who were arrested. A section on Luis Posada Carriles was
heavily redacted when the document was declassified. But the FBI
retransmitted the report three days later and that version was released
uncensored revealing Posada's relations with the CIA.<br><br>
<dd><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB334/doc07.pdf">
Document 7</a>: CIA, Secret Intelligence Report, "Activities of
Cuban Exile Leader Orlando Bosch During his Stay in Venezuela,"
October 14, 1976</b>.<br><br>
<dd>A source in Venezuela supplied the CIA with detailed intelligence on
a fund raiser held for Orlando Bosch and his organization CORU after he
arrived in Caracas in September 1976. The source described the dinner at
the house of a Cuban exile doctor, Hildo Folgar, which included
Venezuelan government officials. Bosch was said to have essentially asked
for a bribe in order to refrain from acts of violence during the United
Nations meeting in November 1976, which would be attended by Venezuelan
President Carlos Andres Perez. He was also quoted as saying that his
group had done a "great job" in assassinating former Chilean
ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington D.C. on September 21, and now
was going to "try something else." A few days later, according
to this intelligence report, Luis Posada Carriles was overheard to say
that "we are going to hit a Cuban airplane" and "Orlando
has the details."<br><br>
<dd><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB334/doc08.pdf">
Document 8</a>: First Circuit Court of Panama, “Fiscalia Primera Del
Primer Circuito Judicial De Panama: Vista Fiscal No. 200”, September 28,
2001.<br><br>
</b>
<dd>This lengthy document is the official indictment in Panama of Luis
Posada Carriles and 4 others for the attempted assassination of Fidel
Castro at the 10th Ibero-American Summit in November 2000. In this
indictment, Posada Carriles is accused of possession of explosives,
endangerment of public safety, illicit association, and falsification of
documents. After traveling to Panama, according to the evidence gathered,
“Luis Posada Carriles and Raul Rodriguez Hamouzova rented a red
Mitsubishi Lancer at the International Airport of Tocumen, in which they
transported the explosives and other devices necessary to create a bomb.”
(Original Spanish: “Luis Posada Carriles y Raul Rodriguez Hamouzova
rentaron en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen de la referida empresa
el vehículo marca Mitsubishi Lancer, color rojo, dentro del cual se
transportaron los explosives y artefactos indicados para elaborar una
bomba.”) This bomb was intended to take the life of Fidel Castro;
Castro was to present at the Summit on November 17th, and what Carriles
had proposed to do “wasn’t easy, because it occurred at the Summit, and
security measures would be extreme.” (Original Spanish: “lo que se
proponía hacer no era fácil, porque ocurría en plena Cumbre, y las
medidas de seguridad serían extremas.”)<br>
<dd> <br>
<dd>After being discovered by agents of the Explosives Division of the
National Police, they ascertained that “this explosive has the capacity
to destroy an armored vehicle, buildings, steel doors, and the effects of
an explosive of this class and quality can extend for 200 meters.”
Additionally, “to a human, from a distance of 200 meters it would affect
the senses, internal hemorrhages, and if the person were in the center of
the explosion, even if they were in an armored car, they would not
survive…the destructive capacity of this material is complete.” (Original
Spanish: “Este explosivo tiene la capacidad de destruir cualquier carro
blindado, puede destruir edificios, puertas de acero, y que la onda
expansiva de esta calidad y clase de explosive puede alcanzar hasta 200
metros…Al ser humano, sostienen, a la distancia de 200 metros le
afectaría los sentidos, hemorragios internos, y si la persona estuviese
en el centro de la explosion, aunque estuviese dentro de un carro
blindado no sobreviviría…la capacidad destructive de este material es
total.”) <br><br>
<dd>The indictment states that when Posada was “asked about the charges
against him, including possession of explosives, possession of explosives
that endanger public safety, illicit association, and falsification of
documents…he expresses having fought subversion against democratic
regimes along several fronts, specifically Castro-sponsored subversion.”
(Original Spanish: “Preguntado sobre los cargos formulados, es decir
Posesión de Explosivos, Posesión de Explosivos que implica Peligro Común,
Asociación Ilicita, y Falsedad de Documentos…Expresa haber combatido en
distintos frentes la subversión contra regimens democráticos, ‘quiero
decir la subversión castrista.’”) <br><br>
<dd>Posada and his accomplices were eventually convicted of endangering
public safety and sentenced to 8 years in prison. He was pardoned by
Panamanian president, Mireya Moscosa, after only four years in August
2004 and lived as a fugitive in Honduras until March 2005 when he
illegally entered the United States and applied for political
asylum.<br><br>
<br><br>
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