Cuba 'paid Oswald to kill Kennedy'

Herald Sun ^ | 5 January 2006 | Mark Trevelyan

[Aussie Dasher]

CUBA lay behind the 1963 assassination of President John F Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald and its agents provided the gunman with money and support, an award-winning German director says in a new documentary film.

Wilfried Huismann spent three years researching Rendezvous with Death, based on interviews with former Cuban secret agents, US officials and a Russian intelligence source, and on research in Mexican security archives.

The film, shown to journalists in Berlin, says Oswald travelled to Mexico City by bus in September 1963, seven weeks before the Kennedy shooting, and met agents at the Cuban embassy there who paid him $US6500 ($8790).

Oscar Marino, a former Cuban agent and a key source for the documentary, told Huismann that Oswald himself had volunteered for the assassination mission and Havana had exploited him.

"Oswald was a dissident. He hated his country...Oswald offered to kill Kennedy," Marino said in the film.

"He was so full of hate, he had the idea. We used him...He was a tool."

He said he knew with certainty that the assassination was an operation of the Cuban secret service G-2, but would not say if it was ordered by President Fidel Castro.

Oswald was shot dead by Jack Ruby two days after killing Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

The film argues Cuba wanted to eliminate Kennedy as the chief enemy of its Communist revolution, and portrays him and Castro as duelling opponents each trying to assassinate the other first.

Former CIA official Sam Halpern told Huismann: "He (Castro) beat us. He bested us. He came out on top, and we lost." Laurence Keenan, an officer of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who was sent to Mexico City immediately after Kennedy's death to investigate a possible Cuban connection, said he was recalled after just three days and the probe was aborted.

"This was perhaps the worst investigation the FBI was ever involved in," Keenan said. "I realised that I was used. I felt ashamed. We missed a moment in history."

[Alberta's Child]

If I were in LBJ's shoes I'm not sure I would have done anything about it, either. Not that the Cuban involvement is necessarily a good thing, but when you look at it objectively it was really just a matter of fair play. Kennedy tried to have Casto killed, and Castro tried to have Kennedy killed. So Castro was successful . . . big deal. No reason to get the whole country involved in this kind of nonsense.

If this sounds harsh, just realize that one of the most disgraceful aspects of the Kennedy administration was the manner in which assassinations -- attempted (Castro) and successful (Diem) -- of foreign heads of state became an acceptable means of pursuing our foreign policy objectives.

[popdonnelly]

This thread reminds me of the headline in the Onion's book, "Our Dumb Century": "President Kennedy shot by CIA, FBI, Mafia, KGB, Castro"

[Aussie Dasher]

Yeah, but who actually HIT him?

[bannie]

L-B-Jocide.

[KevinB]

The key to unravelling the Kennedy assassination mystery is to understand the actions (and death) of Jack Ruby.

Hammer, head, nail. It has always been my view that Ruby's actions indicated mob involvement in the Kennedy assasination.

[Madison Moose]

Exactly what I was thinking, all these conspiracy theories seem like some Onion article of the past.

[Plutarch]

Oswald was in the Marines, I damn well bet he culd shoot straight.

[bannie]

no nut making a documentary

It must be wonderful to be omniscient!

[feedback doctor]

It was Arkancide.

We know that Bill Clinton DID meet with JFK before he was shot.

[SendShaqtoIraq]

I've always suspected he was hired by the USSR; after all it was THEIR missiles that we prevented from being placed in Cuba.

[sportutegrl]

I remember an old SNL skit where 'Reagan' writes a letter to Hinkley telling him that Tip O'Neil is sleeping with Jodie Foster.

[pankot]

Ha! You figured out what most have overlooked. Why else have so many documents and evidence remained sealed?

[Madison Moose]

You have no idea

[My GOP]

I've read LBJ always thought it was Castro that had killed Kennedy. He said Kennedy tried to have him killed but Castro got him first.

[pepperdog]

I have never believed it was Oswald. And I surely don't believe it was Oswald at the direction of that tiny dictator Castro.

Oswald traveled the world, that takes money. He was seen in numerous questionable locations that scream classified government involvement. I do think he was the scapegoat, but I also think he pretty much knew he would be. Why didn't he get out? Probably to protect his family. There is a lot more to the Kennedy assassination than a disgruntled Marine with an old rifle.

If one considers the complete breakdown of organization and communications in the Branch Davidian episode and the follow on cover up I think one can begin to get an idea of how a government operation can get out of hand and end in disaster. JMHO.

[Homer1]

Her story and Sturgis' contradict each other. Sturgis' story is consistent with what the documentary producer found.

[Oztrich Boy]

CUBA lay behind the 1963 assassination of President John F Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald and its agents provided the gunman with money and support, an award-winning German director says in a new documentary film.

Cheap bustard Castro could have come up with cash to pay for a more than a $20 rifle.

[Ditter]

I think it was LBJ too. If you have read the 3 books by Robert Caro (I think) on LBJ you can see how driven and obsessed he was. He would stop at nothing to be president and taking out President Kennedy was the only way he was going to get there.

[Ichneumon]

The evidence at Dealey Plaza collected immediately after the crime indicates that there were probably three marksmen.

No it doesn't.

[Aussie Dasher]

Yeah, tight as!