http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4582488.stm

JFK assassination 'was Cuba plot'

A new documentary exploring the death of John F Kennedy claims his
assassin was directed and paid by Cuba.

Rendezvous with Death, based on new evidence from Cuban, Russian and
US sources, took three years to research.

One source, ex-Cuban agent Oscar Marino, said Havana had exploited Lee
Harvey Oswald, who was arrested but shot dead before he could be
tried.

Conspiracy theories on the killing have variously accused Cuba, Russia
and the US of acting alone or jointly.

According to Oscar Marino, the Cubans wanted Kennedy dead because he
opposed the revolution and allegedly sought to have its leader Fidel
Castro killed.

Mr Marino told film director Wilfried Huismann that he knew for
certain the assassination was an operation run by the Cuban secret
service G2, but he declined to say whether it had been ordered by Mr
Castro.


I realised that I was used. I felt ashamed. We missed a moment in
history.
Laurence Keenan
Former FBI agent

Cuban intelligence made contact with Oswald after being alerted by the
Russian KGB in 1962 when he returned to the USA after living in the
Soviet Union for three years, Cuban and Russian sources say.

"He [Oswald] was so full of hate, he had the idea. We used him," Mr
Marino said.

A possible Cuban connection was investigated by the US immediately
after Kennedy's death.

But an FBI officer sent to follow the Oswald's trail during a visit to
Mexico was recalled after only three days and the investigation called
off.

Laurence Keenan, now 81, said it was "perhaps the worst investigation
the FBI was ever involved in".

"I realised that I was used. I felt ashamed. We missed a moment in
history," Mr Keenan said.

Lee Harvey Oswald
Oswald, an ex-Marine, was a Communist sympathiser

Veteran US official Alexander Haig told the film-maker that Kennedy's
successor, Lyndon B Johnson, believed Cuba was to blame and feared a
pronoounced swing to the right if the truth were known that would keep
the Democrats out of power for a long time.

According to Mr Haig - a US military adviser at the time and later a
secretary of state - "he [Johnson] said 'we must simply not allow the
American people to believe Fidel Castro could have killed our
president'.

"He [Johnson] was convinced Castro killed Kennedy and he took it to
his grave."

Communist sharpshooter

John F Kennedy, the 35th US president, was assassinated as his
motorcade drove through Dallas in November 1963.

Lee Harvey Oswald, an ex-Marine sharpshooter who worked in a store
overlooking the assassination, was arrested but killed shortly
afterwards.

He had a Russian wife, called himself a Communist and agitated on
behalf of Castro's Cuba.
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner