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Next in the Posada saga: a mob twist? JIM DEFEDE/COMMENTARY
Posted on Thu, Jun. 02, 2005 Luis Posada Carriles has been described as a freedom fighter and a terrorist, but was he also ''moonlighting'' for the mob? In stories detailing Posada's life, there have been brief mentions of his alleged ties to Frank
''Lefty'' Rosenthal, who reputedly represented the Chicago mob's interest in Las Vegas for nearly two decades. Rosenthal was the basis for Robert De Niro's character in the movie Casino. In an interview with The Herald earlier this year, Rosenthal admitted one of the more violent
scenes in that movie was true: He ordered his security crew to crush the right hand of a card cheat with a rubber mallet after the cheat was caught in one of Rosenthal's casinos. Although Rosenthal has always denied he was the Mafia's frontman in Nevada, the Nevada Gaming
Commission in 1988 banned him from ever operating another casino there. So where was it that Posada and Rosenthal crossed paths? Where else but Miami. Posada was here plotting the overthrow of Castro, while
Rosenthal was living in North Bay Village allegedly making his fortune as a bookie. (Rosenthal was first arrested for running an illegal gambling operation in Miami in 1960. That charge, like others that would follow, never resulted in a conviction.) Posada's and Rosenthal's names
surface together in notes taken by congressional investigators for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, created in 1978 to review the records surrounding the death of President John F. Kennedy. The investigators were given unprecedented access to classified
documents -- many of which are still kept secret to this day. They were allowed to take notes and summarize the documents they reviewed. Those notes were recently declassified and gathered by the National Security Archive, a nonprofit organization based in Washington. (The
first significant report of Posada and Rosenthal's ties based on some of these documents came in Ann Louise Bardach's book Cuba Confidential). The House Select Committee explored many conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination, including the possible
involvement of Cuban exiles and the Mafia in the president's murder. As a result, one area investigators scrutinized was records showing any relationship between Cubans and the Mafia. No one suggested Posada or Rosenthal had anything to do with
the Kennedy assassination, but their relationship is nevertheless curious. According to the notes of CIA records, Rosenthal and Posada were introduced to each through mutual acquaintances around 1965. ''Rosenthal put in touch with Posada,'' one of the
notes explains. ``Rosenthal understands Posada attached with CIA.'' At the time, Posada was working for the CIA in Miami. Another 1967 summary states: ``On station instructions, Posada cooperated with Rosenthal as
intermediary, passing hand grenades and silencers in July 1965. In Oct. '66, Posada was forced to supply Rosenthal. Under threat of bodily harm, Posada was forced to supply Rosenthal with 150 pencils and some fuses. Station only recently advised of this transaction. Items not agency origin.''
''Pencils'' are a form of detonator, often used in car bombs. A final CIA memo from 1967 ''suggests Posada may have been moonlighting for Rosenthal and only reported transactions to agency when it got hotter,'' according to the summary by House
investigators. Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst for the National Security Archive, said the picture that emerges from these notes is that Posada -- a CIA-trained bomb-making expert -- had linked up with Rosenthal, selling him devices. Posada's
attorney, Eduardo Soto, said his client was working for the CIA at the time, and could have been helping the government set up a sting: ``What I infer from the documents is that this was done at the behest of the agency to help go after Rosenthal.'' The 1967 notes claim that
Rosenthal was under investigation by the Justice Department for ``seven recent bombings in Miami area.'' Rosenthal declined to comment when contacted
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