According to the justice department in George Bush Sr's administration, Orlando Bosch had participated in more than 30 terrorist acts. He was convicted of firing a rocket into a Polish ship which was on passage to Cuba. He was also implicated in the 1976 blowing-up of a Cubana plane flying to Havana from Venezuela in which all 73 civilians on board were killed.
In 1990, George Bush Sr. pardoned Orlando Bosch. Bosch was being held in a Florida prison after illegally entering the U.S. in 1988. Bosch was released and permitted to reside in Florida under an extraordinary deal with the Bush Justice Department.
Much of the credit went to the terrorist mass murderer's best-connected White House lobbyist --- who at the time was a budding local politican. His name - Jeb Bush.
The following intriging article is from PERIÓDICO 26 (Cuba).
What did Bush Sr. Know?
REINALDO TALADRID HERRERO
On October 6, 1976, the worst terrorist act in the history of Latin America took place when a Cuban airliner was blown up in mid flight off the coast of Barbados. All 73 passengers and crew members died.
George Bush Sr. never answered the questions he was asked at the Senate hearing on the matter. To the contrary, over a decade later as president of the United States, he arrogantly pardoned Orlando Bosch, a scenario that is very likely to be repeated by his son with another Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.
In October 1976, the CIA Director was George Hebert Walker Bush, father of the current president of the United States. Recently declassified documents prove that he was well aware of how these monsters had masterminded the plane explosion.
What in fact did the CIA and the US Intelligence Community know at that time about this terrorist act?
Specifically, what did the Director of the CIA know?
Twelve years later, on September 7, 1988, during a US Senate hearing, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), took the floor to ask several questions to then vice president and presidential candidate George H.W. Bush. He asked:
“Mr. Bush, when you were CIA Director in 1976, did you ever investigate the role of Posada and others in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner?
“Mr. Bush you were the director of the CIA when the sabotage took place and 73 people lost their lives and you took a personal interest to look into that and a the chain of related anti-Castro bomb explosions that shocked the hemisphere in 1976.
“The bombing of the plane in 1976, according to federal officials in Miami, was undertaken by a coalition of anti-Castro paramilitary groups known as CORU.
“Concerned with this wave of attacks, you, Mr Bush, as Director of the CIA, made a week-end trip in early November of 1976 to Miami, accompanied by a seasoned FBI officer, reportedly, to look into the Cuban connection with the sabotage against the plane and the assassination of (Orlando) Letelier here in Washington.”
George Bush Sr. was very well aware of the whereabouts of these characters when they blew up the Cuban Airliner with the 73 people on board. As Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Bush received all secret wires that kept the US government informed of what was going on with these two people.
“The real question is, given the former links of Posada with the CIA, the knowledge of the CIA with the Cuban connection between the sabotage against the plane and the attempt against Letelier in 1976, why, as Director of the CIA were you not aware of the role played by Posada in all this at that time? Why wasn’t there any action taken at that moment?”
The senator’s questions were never answered and they hardly got any attention from the press.
The truth is that today they still have not been answered by Bush Sr.
However, recently declassified documents by the National Archives of the George Washington University may shed some light about what Bush Sr. did know at that time.
As senator Harkin revealed, Bush Sr. did travel to Miami in November of 1976, accompanied by an FBI high-ranking officer, according to the information disclosed in those documents, he already knew that Posada and Bosh were responsible for the sabotage.
Let us take a look, according to US government documents, what he knew about this terrorist act before travelling to Miami:
A CIA document dated June 22, 1976, and classified by the agency as “delicate source of intelligence information” reads:
Subject: Possible plans by Cuban exile extremists to blow up a Cubana airliner.
Source: A businessman with close ties with the Cuban exile community. He is usually a reliable source.
A group of extremist Cuban exiles under the direction of Orlando Bosch plans to plant a bomb in a Cubana de Aviacion airlines flight operating between Panama and Habana. According to the initial plans for that operation, two bombs were required to be planted on Cuban flight 467 of June 21, 1976, that was scheduled to depart Panama at 11.15 AM Panama local time.
On October 8, 1976, and with the terrorist act on the Barbados plane having already taken place, in Washington the Director of the FBI sent a secret document described as "top level and of the highest priority" to 14 high ranking officials , among the director of the CIA. The text stated:
On October 7, 1976 the confidential source also said that on account of the arrest of Vazquez and Lugo in Trinidad, (here the text was covered over), Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch’s departure from Venezuela as soon as posible was coordinated. The source practically admitted that Posada and Bosch had been the architects of the in-flight blowing up of the aircraft, and promised to provide more details about the events of October 6, 1976.
The confidential source is (here the document was again .... crossed out)
From the statements by (crossed out) it seems almost sure that the (crossed out) knew about the activities of Posada and Bosch and that now was trying to disassociate himself from them…
Another CIA secret document, dated October 13, 1976 addressed to the FBI Intelligence Division states:
"Subject: Clues about the persons involved in the Cubana airliner accident, that occurred on October 6, 1976.
1. This Agency has carried out an investigation about the names of the persons that presumably participated in the blowing up of the Cubana de Aviacion flight.
2. We have determined that this Agency was linked to one person whose name has been mentioned in relation with the notified explosion.
The employer of Lugo and Lozano in Caracas was Luis Posada Carriles... Posada is an ex agent of the CIA. He was dismissed on amicable terms in July 1967, but in October 1967 reestablished contact.... we continue making occasional contacts with him.
But there is still more:
There is an Intelligence Information cable from the CIA Directorate of Operations dated October 14, 1976, classified as "priority" and sent to 14 high level officials, where the following is stated:
"The source is an ex-official of the Venezuelan government who still keeps close ties with government officials. In general the information provided by him is reliable."
In a $1,118 dollars a plate fund raising banquet for Bosch at that took place at the home of Hildo Folgar, a Cuban exile and well known surgeon, Bosch, stated: "Now that our organization has come out in good standing after the Letelier job, we are going to attempt something else."
Some days after the fund raising banquet, Posada was heard saying the following: "We are going to bring down a Cubana plane, Orlando has the details."
After the Cubana aircraft crashed near the coast of Barbados on October 6, Bosch, Garcia and Posada, agreed that it would be better that Bosch left Venezuela.
... Garcia talked to Legatt Sunday morning, October 10th, and during the afternoon of the October 12 and told him in unofficially that the President will be communicating to me shortly that Bosch will be handed over to the United States.
A secret dispatch of the FBI San Juan, Puerto Rico office , addressed to the FBI director was also declassifed. In it can be read:
"On October 20, 1976, a confidential source, who has provided reliable information
on previous occasions, communicated the following:
CORU member Secundino Guerra, who recently returned from a trip to Miami where he held consultations with members of CORU, admitted that CORU was responsible for the bombing of the Cubana de Aviacion DC-8 plane on October 6, 1976. Carrera declared that as far as he was concerned the bomb attack and the deaths it caused where fully justified because CORU was at war with the regime of Fidel Castro...
Carrera noted that CORU was pleased with the publicity that the presumed participation of the US government in the attack was given, because that publicity has served to somewhat reduce the "pressure" on CORU."
Lastly, there is a secret high-level report of November 2, 1976 from the FBI director in Miami. It states the following:
“On November 1, 1976, a confidential source who has furnished reliable information in the past advised that on October 23-24, 1976, Ricardo Morales Navarrete, comisario in charge of section D54, a counterintelligence section of DISIP (Venezuelan intelligence service), furnished the following information to source:
“Some plans regarding the bombing of a Cubana Airlines airplane were discussed at the bar in the Anauco Hilton Hotel in Caracas, Venezuela, at which meeting Frank Castro, Gustavo Castillo, Luis Posada Carriles and Morales Navarrete were present. This meeting took place sometime before the bombing of the Cubana Airlines DC-8 near Barbados on October 6, 1976.
“Morales Navarrete told the source that another meeting to plan the bombing of a Cubana Airliner took place n the apartment of Morales Navarrete in the Anuco Hilton. This meeting was also prior to the bombing of the Cubana airliner on October 6, 1976. Present at this meeting were Morales Navarrete, Posada Carriles and Frank Castro. According to Morales Navarrete, at this meeting there was some disagreement as to who would take part in the various phases of the operation, and who would claim credit for the bombing. Frank Castro said the FLNC (National Liberation Front of Cuba) would take credit.
“Morales Navarrete said that after the Cubana airliner crash, Hernan Ricardo Lozano telephoned Orlando Bosch from Trinidad stating "A bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff and all got killed."
Bosch, knowing that many phone calls are tapped by the Venezuelan government, pretended he did not know what Hernan Ricardo Lozano was talking about.
“Source said that in a conversation with Orlando Garcia Vasquez, Minister Counselor on Security Matters to Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez, Garcia Vasquez told source that shortly after the Cubana crash, Vasquez talked to Carlos Fabri, the bomb expert for DISIP. Garcia Vasquez told Fabri that he would have to testify at any trial in this matter regarding bombs and their components. According to Garcia Vasquez, Fabri became very nervous and Garcia Vasquez told source he believes that Fabri either made the bomb for this Cubana bombing, instructed persons on how to make it, or at least had prior knowledge of the bombing.
“Source said that he also conversed with a member of the Venezuelan Policia Tecnica Judicial (Judicial Technical Police) (PTJ) in Caracas. This member, whose name source does not recall, but who has a Polish name, said that after the Cubana airliner crashed, the PTJ knew who was involved and therefore wanted to handle the investigation. However, the PTJ was denied the investigation and DISIP took over the matter "to cover it up". This PTJ member also told source that if Carlos Fabri did not make the bomb, then he at least had prior knowledge of the matter.
“Source said that Fabri and Posada Carriles are good friends and that Fabri and Posada had actually been arrested a couple of years ago by Venezuelan authorities after it was learned they provided false documentation and explosives to Dr. Orlando Bosch Avila in Venezuela at that time.
“Source is Raul Diaz, Organized Crime Bureau, Dade County Public Safety Department, who traveled to Venezuela on October 22, 1976, in an attempt to convince Morales Navarrete to testify in the November 15, 1976 state trial of Rolando Otero for nine bombings in Miami, including that of the Miami FBI office.
“Raul Diaz asked that the name of the source not be revealed… It should be pointed out that Raul Diaz is a friend of Morales Navarrete.”
George Bush Sr., then the CIA director, was aware of all of the previous information before going to Miami to investigate the situation along with a veteran FBI officer.
It was never revealed what they learned or investigated on that trip to Miami in November 1976.
But if we look at the addressees of the cables and reports, all or almost all of what Bush Sr. knew in October, 1976 apparently was known at the highest levels of the US government.
Shortly after the US government told the Venezuelan authorities that they did not have any information about the bombing to use in the trial against the accused authors of the terrorist act.
Just days after Senator Harkin asked his questions at the Senate hearing, George Bush Sr. was elected President of the United States.
Shortly after, Bush Sr. granted a presidential pardon to Orlando Bosch.
He never answered Sen. Tom Harkin’s question. Why?
Dear reader, its up to you to draw your own conclusions.
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