Orlando Bosch
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Orlando Bosch (also known as Orlando Bosch Avila) is a Cuban exile and former CIA-backed criminal, head of CORU organization, which the FBI has described as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization". Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called Bosch an "unrepentant terrorist." He has been accused of having taken part in Operation Condor and of a variety of terrorist attacks. Most notably he has admitted, together with another anti-Castro Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, of taking part in the October 6, 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner in which all seventy-three people on board were killed, including many young members of a Cuban fencing team. Five people from North Korea were also killed on board the flight. This bombing would have been plotted at the same meeting, attended by Luis Posada Carriles and DINA agent Michael Townley, where Chilean former minister Orlando Letelier's assassination, in Washington, D.C. in 1976, was decided.
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[edit] History
Orlando Bosch was in contact with CIA in 1962 and 1963, as the agency itself admitted, as recorded in the National Security Archive [2]. At this time, Bosch was the General Coordinator of the Insurrectional Movement of Revolutionary Recovery (MIRR). He was a member of the anti-Castro Operation 40.
Belgian researcher Marcel Dehaeseleer believes that Orlando Bosch is the "dark-skinned man" who sits next to the Umbrella Man in the famous Zupruder film footage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Bosch testified to the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he was at home in Miami when the president was assassinated.
Orlando Bosch entered Venezuela in mid-September 1976 under protection of Venezuelan president Carlos Andres Perez, according to the National Security Archive [3]. A CIA document described a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser in Caracas, Venezuela, held between September 22 and October 5, 1976, to support the activities of Orlando Bosch. The informant quoted Bosch as making an offer to Venezuelan officials to forgo acts of violence in the United States when President Carlos Andres Perez visited the United Nations in November, in return for "a substantial cash contribution to [Bosch's] organization." Bosch was also overheard stating: "Now that our organization has come out of the Letelier job looking good, we are going to try something else." Several days later, Posada was reported to have stated that "we are going to hit a Cuban airplane" and "Orlando has the details." (Both the Bosch and Posada statements were cited in an October 18, 1976 report to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger posted by the National Security Archive on May 17, 2005.)
[edit] Flight 455
On October 6th, 1976 Cubana Flight 455 was destroyed after takeoff by a bomb detonation that had been placed in the aircraft toilets in which all seventy-three people on board were killed, including many young members of a Cuban fencing team. Five people from North Korea were also killed on board the flight. This bombing would have been plotted at the same meeting, attended by Luis Posada Carriles and DINA agent Michael Townley, where Chilean former minister Orlando Letelier's assassination, in Washington, D.C. in 1976, was decided. Bosch was jailed in Venezuela awaiting trial for his role concerning the Cubana Flight 455 bombing, but he was never convicted of these charges.
[edit] Arrest and Pardon
In 1968 Bosch was arrested in Florida for an attack on a Polish freighter with a 57 mm recoilless rifle and was as a result sent to prison for a ten year term. In 1987, almost a decade after the Flight 455 atrocity, Bosch was freed from Venezuelan charges and went to the United States, assisted by US Ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich; there, he was ultimately arrested for a parole violation. Bosch was pardoned of all American charges by President George H.W. Bush on July 18, 1990 at the request of his son Jeb Bush, who later became Governor of Florida; this pardon was despite objections by the then President's own defense department, that Bosch was one of the most deadly terrorists working 'within the hemisphere'. [1] The political pressure to grant Bosch a pardon was begun during the congressional campaign run by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, herself a Cuban American, and overseen by her campaign manager Jeb Bush. The resultant pardon reputedly saw huge celebrations in Miami, in what was then called 'Free Orlando Day' [2]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Quotes
- "All of Castro's planes are warplanes." - 1987, defending the bombing of a civilian Cuban aircraft.
- "Now that our organization has come out of the Letelier job looking good, we are going to try something else."
- "There were no innocents on that plane." - When referring to the victims of the 1976 Cubana Airlines terrorist bombing.
[edit] References
- ^ 638 Ways to Kill Castro, Channel 4 Television, 28th November 2006: TV documentary covering the many attempts by the CIA to eliminate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, a segment of which focussed upon the Flight 455 bombing.
- ^ Democracy Now!, Terrorist Cuban Exile Luis Posada Carriles Seeking Political Asylum in U.S., May 9th 2005 [1]
