by
Matt Blake
Daily Mail

President John
F. Kennedy secretly endorsed the release of hardened criminals to
assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro to curb the Communist threat,
a new book has claimed.

At the height
of tensions between America and neighbouring Communist Cuba in the
early 1960s, JFK was implicit in the freeing of rapists, drug dealers,
and Mafia hitmen through CIA in a bid to recruit ‘untraceable’ spies
willing to risk their lives on dangerous missions rather than go
back to jail, a new book sensationally claims.

Desperate to
remove Castro from power, the president resorted to using dangerous
criminals as operatives – rather than CIA agents – to
‘do America’s dirty work’ as they couldn’t be linked back to his
administration, it is claimed.

In one failed
plot, an ex con was smuggled into Cuba in 1962 to pose as a waiter
in Castro’s favourite restaurant where he would drop poison tablets
into the revolutionary leader’s soup.

The explosive
claims come in a new book by veteran American Journalist and author
William Deane, who claims specially-recruited criminals became ‘untouchable’
and were allowed to embark on ‘crime sprees’ in the US without fear
of prosecution.

Deane, former
assignment editor at American news networks ABC and CBS, says he
uncovered the programme – which he believes is still in operation
today – after following the ‘trail of destruction’ left by
one such operative.

Though JFK
did not order the setting up of the top secret programme, Deane
says that as president Kennedy would have ‘been aware’ of it.

‘For over 50
years, the CIA and American government has been systematically releasing
dangerous criminals back into society to work for them on secret
missions overseas,’ said Deane, whose new book Smooth Criminal details
the life of alleged CIA operative and ‘one-man American crime wave’
Dave Riley.

‘The programme
started during the Kennedy administration at the start of the 1960s
as a clandestine means of dealing with the Communist threat of Castro,
and was given the seal of approval by JFK – who was still smarting
following the political embarrassment of the failed Bay of Pigs
Invasion of Cuba in 1961.

‘Criminals
were ideal operatives as they were ruthless and willing to risk
their lives during missions rather than be sent back to prison.
They also couldn’t be officially connected with the CIA so it didn’t
matter if they were captured – there was no risk of America’s
shady policies being exposed.

‘Riley was
a typical recruit. Highly intelligent, ambitious and with no morals.
The CIA sent him on many missions abroad, including to Cuba to assassinate
Castro,’ added Deane.

‘Between missions
he was allowed to do what he liked – which generally consisted
of embezzlement, fraud, gunrunning and drug dealing – without
fear of being arrested or prosecuted.’

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the rest of the article

February
16, 2013

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