Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 19, 1993 TAG: 9311190197
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
At the time, the Kennedy administration had inherited a plan to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro and, according to the documents, the White House apparently was interested in an all-purpose assassinations unit for dealing with adversaries elsewhere.
But the documents offer no evidence that the so-called Executive Action Capability ever was used beyond the various efforts to kill Castro. Former President Ford issued an executive order prohibiting U.S. officials from engaging in assassinations of foreign leaders or promoting such activities.
He acted in response to the first disclosures in 1975 by a congressional committee and a presidential commission of CIA assassination attempts.
The disclosure about the Kennedy administration's plan is outlined in a 1967 report by the CIA inspector general, J.S. Earman, which was released by the agency as part of a new program to allow greater access to CIA files.
Much of the report covers the various well-publicized CIA efforts to assassinate Castro during the 1960s. These efforts were reviewed in considerable detail by a Senate committee in 1975, which concluded there were eight such attempts on Castro's life. Castro has claimed there were 25.
Some of the schemes sought to enlist underworld figures to carry out the plots while others were aimed principally at causing Castro embarrassment rather than killing him.
The plan to establish a general standby assassination capability was described to Earman by William Harvey, a top aide to Richard Bissell, then CIA director of plans.
by CNB