Maheu dies at 91; was liaison in CIA plot

A footnote to history. Robert A. Maheu, who in late 1960 served as go-between with the Mafia in a CIA plot to kill Fidel Castro, died Tuesday in Las Vegas . He was 91. Maheu, who in 1960 was an aide to industrialist Howard Hughes, was asked by the CIA to find someone who might assassinate Castro. Maheu turned to Las Vegas mobster John Roselli, Chicago godfather Salvatore Giancana and Florida mob boss Santos Trafficante.
According to CIA archives declassified in 2007, Giancana recommended "some kind of deadly pill, something to be put into Castro's food or drink." He "indicated that he had a possible candidate in the person of Juan Orta, a Cuban official who had been receiving bribery payments in the gambling racket and who still had access to Castro." Trafficante delivered "six highly lethal pills" to Orta. "After several weeks of attempts, Orta appears to have chickened out and asked to be taken off the mission," the CIA narrative says. "He suggested another candidate, who made several unsuccessful tries."
In an article written last year, Castro recalled that in 1960, "working with me in the offices of the National Institute for Agrarian Reform was a man named Orta. [...] He was a respectful and serious man, but it could only be him. [...] I cannot lay my hands on information to immediately prove what happened to him."
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Comments

[Roger Wyatt]

Amazing that the US should aid and support such a man to do such deeds while a harmless Bin Laden driver with grade 4 education who sought only to earn a meagre income for his family now faces the possibility of life imprisonment in US custody. Is it any wonder the world sees US as the leader in international hipocricy.