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THREATS ON Miami’S CHANNEL 41
Basulto confesses to having fired
on a Havana hotel
• Recounts other acts of
terrorism with the aid of the CIA and without
being bothered by the FBI
BY
JEAN-GUY ALLARD — Special for Granma
International
José
Basulto, head of the organization Brothers to the
Rescue, openly bragged on a recent Miami Channel
41 program “A Mano Limpia” (Straight Talk) hosted
by Oscar Haza, of having fired a 22mm cannon from
a speedboat on a hotel in Havana, and that “so
far” the FBI has not even questioned him about it.
In
an act of blatant threat to the U.S. authorities,
he also freely said that the CIA not only trained
him but also directed terrorist activities by
Cuban-American groups against Cuba.
The program on which Basulto made this admission
was dedicated to the trial of his buddies Santiago
Alvarez Magriñá and Osvaldo Mitat, two Miami
extremists recently arrested for possession of
illegal weapons. Santiago Alvarez is the
“protector” of Luis Posada Carriles and it was he
who facilitated the latter’s illegal entry into
the United States from Mexico.
On
August 24, 1962 the terrorist, trained by the CIA
in the use of arms and explosives along with Luis
Posada Carriles, fired on a Havana hotel
supposedly frequented by President Fidel Castro
with a canon from a boat some 200 meters offshore
in the Miramar neighborhood of the capital,
hitting the building and spreading terror among
the guests.
“In 1962, I fired a canon at a hotel in Cuba and
so far no one has come to question me,” Basulto
stated in answer to a question from Haza during
the December 6 edition of this widely popular
Miami program.
José Basulto, a former member of the Operation 40
terrorist commandos set up by the CIA, and founder
of Brothers to the Rescue, was accompanied on the
program by Santiago Alvarez’ son; Arturo Hernández,
one of Alvarez’ three lawyers; Francisco Pepe
Hernández, president of the Cuban-American
National Foundation (CANF) who financed and
oriented Posada’s criminal activities; and Julio
González Rebull, member of the 2506 Brigade that
invaded Cuba with U.S. government backing and is
currently headed by Félix Ismael Rodríguez
Mendigutía, a notorious CIA agent, torturer and
assassin.
“The U.S. authorities themselves trained me in the
use of the cannon” at CIA bases, Basulto
shamelessly recalled, “and they supplied me with
weapons on another occasion,” he affirmed.
Santiago Alvarez Magriñá and Osvaldo Mitat were
found in possession of a cooler full of automatic
rifles with the registration numbers removed,
silencers, grenades and grenade launchers.
The attorney general has requested that the trial
take place in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County
instead of in Miami, thus triggering an angry
response from the terrorist Miami mafia. A support
committee of various figures in the Cuban American
community whose links with terrorism are amply
documented has been formed.
At
an earlier point, González Rebull himself
described Santiago Alvarez as “a comrade of our
(2506) Brigade,” referring to the mercenary troops
defeated at the Bay of Pigs, to which Basulto and
Pepe Hernández also belonged. He recalled that
before the CIA-planned intervention, “we had eight
bases in the cays from where we carried out
missions to Cuba and had all kinds of weapons, and
that was with the blessing of the U.S.
government.”
THE U.S.
SUPPORTed, TRAINED AND EVEN DIRECTED ALL THIS
Basulto claims to not know “what the origin of
this political action against Santiago Alvarez
is.” However, upon confirming that the Miami
terrorists have always enjoyed the tolerance of
the FBI and legal authorities, he added: “I could
say that I know of many other similar cases that
have been resolved in an amicable way, with the
weapons being confiscated or something like that,
or the person in question being scolded and that’s
the end of it.”
“Because it was the United States itself that
started all this, with support, training and even
direction,” the terrorist ringleader declared.
“We had that support, those weapons; elements that
today are considered inappropriate.”
During the show Basulto even compared the
anti-Cuba acts of terrorism launched in Miami to
the “use of weapons to invade Iraq.”
Basulto aired his suspicion that in the case of
Alvarez “there is an enemy somewhere that has
pushed some button setting off this process, this
series of events.”
“That is who we want to identify,” he added.
“There are several people in the Prosecutors
Office itself who are aspiring to the district
attorney position here.” (Currently held by
interim Attorney R. Alexander Acosta.) Basulto
went on to explain: “Most likely he hasn’t got
along well within the system and they have simply
thrown this at him to trample him underfoot.”
José Basulto called for political pressure to
release Alvarez.
“There are elected officials at national, local,
and state level who have been cited in this
document; we are not ordering anyone, we are only
reminding them of their responsibility, because
when elections come everyone remembers Cuba but
when the administration changes and isn’t their
own, then they go into hiding,” he said, openly
confirming the weight of political intervention in
the U.S. legal procedure.
with POSADA, BOSCH, AND FELIX RODRIGUEZ…
José Basulto was a member of Operation 40,
organized by the CIA to provide a commando of
agents trained in terrorism for the mercenary Bay
of Pigs invasion. He was training at Fort Bragg,
North Carolina and Fort Benning, Georgia and later
participated in criminal actions along with Félix
Rodríguez Mendigutía, Luis Posada Carriles,
Orlando Bosch, Virgilio Paz, José Dionisio Suárez,
Antonio Veciana, Ricardo Morales Navarrete, the
Novo Sampoll brothers, Gaspar "Gasparito" Jiménez
Escobedo, Nazario Sargent, “Tony” Cuesta, Eladio
del Valle, Herminio Díaz, Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz and
Rafael "Chichi" Quintero.
Notorious CIA officers like David Morales, David
Phillips, Howard Hunt, William Harvey, Frank
Sturgis, Gerry Hemming and even Porter Goss,
current head of the agency, have directed the
Cuban Americans.
Basulto collaborated with the fascist military
regimes of Chile and Argentina and financed
several of its operations through drug trafficking
activities.
There is a common point shared by Osama Bin Laden,
presumed author of the catastrophic attacks in New
York and Washington; a Posada Carriles or Bosch,
who blew up a civilian Cuban airplane in full
flight; and José Basulto, who dispatched his
Cessnas on numerous provocative flights over
Havana, and that is their terrorist training at
the hands of the CIA.
Meanwhile, five Cubans who have risked their lives
in Miami heroically counteracting the criminal
plans of these same terrorists remain in five
prisons scattered throughout the immense U.S.
territory.
Throughout the trial of these five Cuban
anti-terrorists, the prosecution and Héctor
Pesquera, then FBI chief, one of the most corrupt
police officers in southern Florida, used José
Basulto as a consultant and the trial ended with a
public embrace between the federal attorney and
the self-confessed terrorist. Government
representatives, police officers and elements of
the terrorist mafia all attended the celebration
party afterwards.
Sentencing of two of the five Cubans, Judge Joan
Lenard came to this curious conclusion, barely
three months after September 11: "As a further
special condition of his supervised release the
defendant is prohibited from associating with or
visiting specific places where individuals or
groups such as terrorists, members of
organizations advocating violence, and organized
crime figures are known to be in or frequent.”
In his own voice, Basulto has now confirmed the
origin of so many precautions in favor of
individuals whose terrorist activities have been
widely demonstrated for a long while, and against
those who tried to deter their plans.
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