As Planner Of 1976 Terrorist Attack On A Cuban Airliner
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The self-confessed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles (left). Photo: Archivo
A declassified 1976 U.S. State Department document identifies Luis Posada Carriles as the most likely author of a terrorist attack on a Cuban airliner that year which took the lives of all 76 passengers aboard.
The memorandum, released June 3, illustrates the department's concern regarding ties between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and extremist Cuban émigré groups in
The note was sent by two high level CIA officials to then U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in reference to Fidel Castro's accusations of
According to the memorandum, the CIA had ties to three of the persons implicated in the attack, “but any role that these people may have had with the demolition took place without the knowledge of the CIA.”
The document details the CIA's links with “individuals allegedly involved” in sabotaging the plane - and specifically cites Hernán Ricardo Lozano, Freddy Lugo, Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, Frank Castro, Orlando Garcia, Ricardo Morales Navarrete and Felix Martínez Suárez while specifying that the CIA had only made contact in the past with Posada, Bosch and Martínez Suárez. Martínez Suárez was not involved in the bombing, according to the report.
The document is signed by Harold H. Saunders, director of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and Harry W. Shlaudeman, assistant secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs.
A heavily censured version of the memorandum was already on file at the National Security Archives, and was declassified by the State Department's historian, with a volume of other documents concerning Central America and
Posada was trained by the U.S. Army at
He continues to live in
.
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