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MORI DocID: 1451843

The Washington Merry-Go-Round          THE WASHINGTON POST  Monday, Jan. 13, 1975     31

6 Attempts to Kill Castro Laid to CIA

By Jack Anderson     tor before the motley invad-  icate against President  :-a. complete with secret trysta at
                    ers landed on the island. Their  nedy.                   glittering Miami Beach hotels
Locked in the darkest re-  plan was expected to touch  To set up the Castro as- - and midnight powerboat
cesses of the Central Intelli- off a general uprising, which sassination, the CIA enlisted ® dashes off the Cuban coast. One ho-
gence Agency is the story of  the Communist militia would the late Maheu, a former tally had been shot out from a
six assassination attempts    have had more trouble putting agent with shadowy connec- under the first try, the CIA's
against Cuba's Fidel Castro.  down without the charismatic tions who had handled other un- 'furnishes the details.
                             Castro to lead them.          derworld contacts for the CIA 'Attempting to slip into a
For 10 years, only a few key          After the first attempt out of his Washington public Castro's food, The voodoo was
people have known the details failed, five more assassination relations office. He later reported to have worked in the
of the secret. They have sworn attempts were set to Cuba. The moved to Las Vegas to head up past. Three days to find did
never to talk. Yet we have last team reportedly made it billionaire Howard Hughes' it, at (remaining text unclear)
learned  the details from  a toehold within shouting Nevada operations.          Maheu recruited John Roselli,
sources whose credibility is distance of Castro before they    Maheu recruited John Roselli, a supposedly handsome ex-ums of the project. to set
beyond question.            were apprehended. This time it a supposedly handsome gambler with contacts in the the facts to be the victim
                            happened around the last of Feb- American and Cuban un- of a natural, it repudiates sub.
We spoke to John McCone,   ruary or first of March, 1961. derworlds, to arrange the as-
who headed the CIA at the                                   sassination. The dapper, hawk- Roselli arranged with a
time of the assassination at-  Nine months later, Presi- faced Roselli formerly man- group called to plot of Cas-
tempts. He acknowledged that dent Kennedy was handed aged to movie actress June tro's -:-, to plant the deadly
the CIA had discussed inside down in Dallas by Lee Harvey Lang. He was a power in un- toxin in Cuba.
the CIA but insisted it had Oswald, a gambler who pre- derworld vice until his con- On Jan. : 13, 1961, Roselli de-
been "re-..e-d immedi- viously had agitated for Cas- viction with racketeers "Willie clared to return to his hotel
ately." He vigorously denied tro in New Orleans and had Bioff in non-union Holly- fact at '::mil Beach's glam-
that the CIA had ever partici- made a mysterious trip to the wood labor showdown. The orous Fontainebleau Hotel.
pated in any plot on Castro's Cuban Embassy in Mexico CIA assigned to his most      A couple c.f weeks later, just
life. Aghast whether the als City.                        trusted operatives, William after the trial for the
plots could have been made        Among those privy to the Harvey and James O'Connell, to the hus-band murder mission. Using plots, Oswald said he had in- CIA conspiracy, there is still a murder mission. Using plans they accompanded Ro-
sisted.                     nagging suspicion—unsup- names, they accompanied Ro- selli on trips to Miami to find
                            ported by the Warren Com- selli on trips to Miami to find up the assassination teams.
We have complete confi-   mission's findings—that Cas- up the assassination teams.     The full story reads like the
dence, however, in our       tro became aware of the U.S. hit and ordered a pre-emptive     a James Bond movie.
sources.                     plot upon his life and some-
                            how arranged to strike first—
The plot to knock off Castro
began as part of the Bay of
Pigs operation. The initial
to eliminate the Cuban dictator.

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