Explosive revelations of a former CIA operative

INTERNATIONAL\\ Did Fidel Castro (above) know that the late US President John F Kennedy was to be assassinated? According to a new book—Castro’s Secrets; The CIA and Cuba’s Intelligence Machine—about the 1963 murder, he did. The book slated for April release was penned by Brian Latell, a retired CIA agent, who studied Cuban affairs as an analyst in the 1960s and later became the agency’s chief intelligence officer for Latin America. The author has claimed that Castro knew of a possible attack on the late President. Rumour about the Cuban dictator’s involvement in a plot to murder his fierce adversary has been around for almost half-acentury since communist sympathiser Lee Harvey Oswald shot the US president during a trip to Dallas. In his book, Latell claims that on the morning of November 22, 1963, Castro ordered a senior intelligence officer in Havana to stop listening for non-specific CIA radio communications and concentrate instead on “Any little detail, any small detail from Texas”. Latell also writes, “Fidel knew of Oswald’s intentions and did nothing to deter the act.” He also claims that Castro was aware that Oswald, who had been denied a visa to visit Cuba, told staff there that he was going to murder Kennedy to prove his allegiance to the communist cause.