JFK files confirm elaborate CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro included exploding sea shell and contaminated diving suit
BIZARRE CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro by blowing him up with an exploding sea shell, giving him a contaminated diving suit and hiding poison pills in his drinks have been revealed in the JFK files.
The bombshell 1975 report, released as part of 2,800 secret records, also reveal CIA spies tried to hire a Mafia mobsters to kill the former Cuban leader.
The 83-page report includes an FBI memo detailing how the CIA had hired an intermediary to approach Mafia boss Sam Giancana and offer him $150,000 to organise a gunman to go into Cuba and kill Castro.
Knowledge of the "project" was kept to just six people and there were "no memoranda on the project nor were there other written documents or agreements."
It added the project was approved "orally" by senior CIA officials.
At one point Giancana asked the CIA to place a listening device in the room of his mistress - a Las Vegas entertainer - who he thought was having an affair with another man.
As he threatened to go to Las Vegas himself if they did not comply - and the agency did not want the project "interrupted" - they arranged for a listening deice to be placed on her telephone.
Another plan involved making poisoned pills and having someone put them in Castro's food or drink. "The Phase I plans involved the preparation of poison botulism pills by the CIA, the delivery of those pills to organised crime figures who in turn were to get the pills delivered to contacts they had in Cuba, who in turn were to get the pills into the hands of someone who could place them in a beverage to be drunk by the Premier Castro," the documents read.
The pills were first tried out on some guinea pigs "to be sure they worked".
There may have been two "passages of pills to Cuba" - the first being through the Mafia's courier to a Cuban who worked in the Prime Minister's office.
However the "Cuban asset got scared" and did not try to pass the pill.
Another "asset" who worked at a restaurant Castro frequented was given a pill - but Castro never showed up - and the pills were returned to the CIA.
In another phase of the plan, the US planned to take out the cigar-smoking revolutionary, by contaminating his diving suit with diseases.
Castro, who died last year, was known to enjoy "skin diving" also known as free diving.
“The CIA plan was to dust the inside of the suit with a fungus producing madera foot, a disabling and chronic skin disease, and also contaminating the suit with tuberculosis bacilli in the breathing apparatus,” the file reads.
However the scheme was dropped after US General Donovan, who was negotiating with Castro for the release of the Bay of Pigs prisoners, gave the leader an uncontaminated suit as a "gesture of friendship".
Another bizarre plan involved using a "midget submarine" to place an exploding shell in an area of the sea where Castro liked to dive.
There were also discussions about preparing a booby-trap spectacular seashell which would be submerged in an area where Castro often skindived.
The seashell would be loaded with explosives to blow apart were the shell was lifted.
That plan was dropped after it was discovered no shells were big enough to hold enough explosives.
The American spy agency has frequently been accused of trying to kill the communist boss.
Castro is said to have survived more than 600 assassination attempts before his death in November last year.
In one botched plot Castro's former mistress Marita Lorenz, now 78, was recruited by the CIA when she returned to the States.
She was furious at Castro, claiming he had her drugged and stole her unborn child when she was seven months pregnant.
When she reunited with Castro, she was carrying two botulism-laced pills from American spooks that could kill the leader in minutes.
But the reported Castro seemed aware of her intentions, and even handed her his gun.
“No one can kill me, no one, ever,” he bragged to her.
The same document also described how the CIA supported a plot to overthrow the regime of Dominican Republic leader Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo by giving plotters weapons to assassinate him with.
Just weeks before the assignation attempt a statement was approved by the president which read: "We must no run risk of US association with political assassination, since US as a matter of general policy cannot condone assassination."
However the cables were received too late and Trujillo was assassinated.
Yesterday the White House released 2,800 records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy - but others were held back because of "national security."
Officials say President Donald Trump had "no choice" but to keep others secret - pending a six month review process.
Before the file dump, Russia denied any role in the assassination.
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