Posted on 11/27/2008 5:14:08 AM PST by SJackson
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. Macy’s, for instance, usually serves a minimum of 50,000 shoppers on that one day. But as this week’s revelations of a terrorism plot targeting New York City’s subway system remind us, the holiday bustle is also an opportunity for those seeking to inflict mass casualties. That thought may well have been on the mind of Fidel Castro, when he planned a colossal terrorist attack on Manhattan on the Friday after Thanksgiving in 1962.
On November 17, 1962, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI cracked a terrorist plot (though the term "terrorist" was not used at the time) by Cuban agents who were using their cover as members of the Cuban mission to the United Nations to target Macy's, Gimbel's, Bloomindales and Manhattan's Grand Central Station with a dozen bombs and 1,102 pounds of trinitrotoluene (TNT). This massive conflagration was set to go off the following week, the day after Thanksgiving.
To put the plot in perspective, consider that for the March 2004 Madrid subway blasts, in which almost 2,000 people were killed and maimed, the terrorists used a grand total of 220 pounds of TNT. Fidel Castro's agents planned to set off five times that explosive power in the world’s three biggest department stores, all packed to suffocation and pulsing with holiday cheer on the year's biggest shopping day. Thousands of New Yorkers, including women and children, were to be incinerated on Castro’s orders.
This was not Castro’s first attempt to annihilate the city. He had planned the attack on Manhattan just weeks after Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had foiled his plans for an even bigger one during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. But for Khrushchev’s prudence, Castro might have pulled it off. “If the missiles had remained,” Fidel’s sidekick Che Guevara confided to the London Daily Worker in November 1962, regarding the Cuban missile crisis, “we would have used them against the very heart of the U.S., including New York.” Khrushchev himself admitted that Fidel and Che's genocidal scheming was a bigger factor in his decision to withdraw the missiles from Cuba than President John F. Kennedy's bluster and his threatened “blockade.”
The Manhattan plot would likely have resulted in the deaths of countless thousands, but it had a certain maniacal logic. Given the temper of the times, Castro knew that an attack would force the United States to retaliate and that the Soviets would be dragged into the conflict. Castro would then achieve precisely what he’d dreamed about and tried to provoke a few weeks earlier: an intercontinental nuclear exchange.
Of course, Castro himself would be nowhere near harm’s way. Alexander Alexeyev, the Soviet ambassador to Cuba during the missile crisis, has revealed a fascinating – if unsurprising – fact about those days. While Castro was begging, threatening, and even trying to trick Khrushchev into launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the U.S., he was also making reservations with Alexeyev for a first-class seat in the Soviet Embassy's bomb shelter.
The Manhattan plot never came to pass, but it cannot be said that Castro has paid the price for his planned destruction. In November 1995, Castro found himself on a triumphant visit to Manhattan. He was the guest of honor and the main attraction at the United Nation's 50th anniversary bash. "The Hottest Ticket in Manhattan!" read a Newsweek story that week, referring to the social swirl that engulfed him. After his whooping, hollering, foot-stomping ovation in the General Assembly, Castro was feted by the New York's best and brightest, and hobnobbed with dozens of Manhattan's glitterati, pundits and power brokers.
First, there was dinner at the Council of Foreign Relations. After holding court there for a rapt David Rockefeller along with Robert McNamara, Dwayne Andreas and Random House's Harold Evans, Castro flashed over to Mort Zuckerman 5th Avenue pad, where a throng of Beltway glitterati, including a breathless Mike Wallace, Peter Jennings, Tina Brown, Bernard Shaw and Barbara Walters all jostled for his attention. All clamored for autographs and photo-ops. Diane Sawyer was so overcome in the mass-killer's presence that she rushed up, wrapped her arms around Castro, and smooched him warmly on the cheek.
This godfather of terrorism still lives 90 miles from our shores in tropical splendor for all to see. Yearly he makes Forbes' list of the world's wealthiest people. He is feted by visiting dignitaries ranging from Kofi Annan to Steven Spielberg, from Jimmy Carter to Charles Rangel, from Arlen Specter to Gregory Craig, from Barbara Walters to Jesse Jackson, and from Andrea Mitchell to, most recently, Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The media still adores him. Castro occasionally grants interviews to star-struck luminaries like Dan Rather and Barbara Walters. Ted Turner refers to his friend Fidel Castro, as "one helluva guy!" Andrea Mitchell, commenting on the unexpected honor of interviewing Castro, referred to him as "an absolutely fascinating figure!"
Hollywood is even more taken with the aging dictator. You won’t see him cast as a villain in a film – that role is reserved for such Hollywood hate figures as Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon or J. Edgar Hoover. Indeed, Castro reigns as a veritable icon for many of Hollywood's best and brightest. Oliver Stone refers to Castro as "a very moral, very humane man." Jack Nicholson gushes about his frequent Cuban host as "a genius!" and his island gulag as "a paradise!” Francis Ford Coppola penned a love letter to him. "Fidel I love you," it starts, "we both have the same initials and both use our power for good."
Not the least of the ironies in the enduring love fest for Fidel is that he came so close to murdering those who now sing his praises. After his much-acclaimed visit to Manhattan in November 1995, Time magazine lauded the man who twice tried to incinerate New York as "The Toast of Manhattan!" On Thanksgiving week in 1962 Fidel Castro and Che Guevara certainly planned on “toasting” Manhattan.
“First, there was dinner at the Council of Foreign Relations. After holding court there for a rapt David Rockefeller along with Robert McNamara, Dwayne Andreas and Random House’s Harold Evans, Castro flashed over to Mort Zuckerman 5th Avenue pad, where a throng of Beltway glitterati, including a breathless Mike Wallace, Peter Jennings, Tina Brown, Bernard Shaw and Barbara Walters all jostled for his attention. All clamored for autographs and photo-ops. Diane Sawyer was so overcome in the mass-killer’s presence that she rushed up, wrapped her arms around Castro, and smooched him warmly on the cheek.”
Got to make one wonder about the Council on Foreign Relations and their members.
http://www.modernhistoryproject.org/mhp/ArticleDisplay.php?Article=FinalWarn05-3
No being a *religious* man, I wonder what Castro’s motive might of been?
Is there a term for nihilism on a grand scale? God of destruction.
Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. I'm telling you in advance, so don't act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a few small changes: Our sidewalk will not be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries. After a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done, rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.
Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorated with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make. Instead, I've gotten the kids involved in the decorating by having them track in colorful autumn leaves from the front yard. The mud was their idea.
The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china, or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and everyone will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last Christmas.
Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration hand-crafted from the finest construction paper. The artist assures me it is a turkey.
We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you while you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every nice comment I have made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims and the turkey hotline. Please remember that most of these comments were made by me at 5:00 a.m. upon discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds.
As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying.
We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method. We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table and sit where you like. In the spirit of harmony, we will ask the children to sit at a separate table. In a separate room.
Next door.
Now, I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be happening at our dinner. For sanity safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private ceremony. I stress "private", meaning: Do not, under any circumstances, enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to check on my progress. I have an electric knife. The turkey is unarmed. It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, we will eat.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind my young diners (and any males present) that "passing the rolls" is not a football play. Nor is it a request to bean your sister in the head with warm tasty bread. Oh, and one reminder for the adults: For the duration of the meal, and especially while in the presence of young diners, we will refer to the giblet gravy by its lesser-known name: Cheese Sauce. If a young diner questions you regarding the origins or type of Cheese Sauce, plead ignorance.
Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice between 12 different scrumptious homemade desserts, we will be serving the traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream, small fingerprints, and broken crust. You will still have a choice; you may take it or leave it.
Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. She probably won't come next year either. I am thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Very good. Yours?
Come to think of it, this could be Castro’s Hell. An eternity of Martha Stewart Thanksgivings.
Nope. Wish it was. I picked it up somewhere quite a while back -- forget where.
Sorry I forgot to put "Author Unknown" after it. My Bad.
Nope. Wish it was. I picked it up somewhere quite a while back -- forget where.
Sorry I forgot to put "Author Unknown" after it. My Bad.
“If the missiles had remained,” Fidel’s sidekick Che Guevara confided to the London Daily Worker in November 1962, regarding the Cuban missile crisis, “we would have used them against the very heart of the U.S., including New York.” Khrushchev himself admitted that Fidel and Che’s genocidal scheming was a bigger factor in his decision to withdraw the missiles from Cuba than President John F. Kennedy’s bluster and his threatened “blockade.”
I personally think that part is untrue. not what Che said, because he probably did, but that Kruschev(sp) said that, or if he did, that he meant it.
Excellent!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
I fully expect that Fidel Castro will get the opportunity to tell his fascinating little stories to his old body Che, in addition to the likes of Yassir Arafatrat, Kim Il Sung, Mao tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh, Joe Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Hitler, Idi Amin, Osama bin Laden of course, et al, in fact he’ll get to regale them with his adventures for all Eternity...
...In between everyone gasping for air as the infernal bloody basting sauce flows over their faces as they slowly rotate over Lucifer’s 24 Hour BBQ Pit & Spit.
No menu options down there, everyone is prepared to the “extra crispy” specification.
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