government in 1962-on.- Teafficante! s. “behalé™ r permission , to-reopen? the: ‘Capri: casino, Aes wor Song's eespto-metaappereniy inveived fox: heewas'’ ‘arrested for: counterfeiting: and held until his old: client, Santo Trafficanto, arrived with a suitcase full of cash to.obtain his release }~ epee . eee rre te Seine tran nstna uae e enaLso—deposition-af Cpresumably , Bongo was paroled back to Cuba, at an unspecified later date, where he:died. One aspect of the Bongo-Trafficante relationship in Madrid deserves fuller treatment although it is doubtful | that. anything more than supposition can result from further exploration. Ait nas’ week coee tea by Jack Anderson that his’ private and secret source until his death, John Roselli, had. reason to speculate that Cubans originally recruited by Santo Trafficante to kill Castro were "turned around" and sent back to the United States where they were directly involved %. in. the assassination of President: Kennedy .f ‘See~Andexrson column..--dated aPtgp ao _spbetlew by. -Fenton.and...w ) another solumnist;" George Crile; carried, the igthat-Prafficante-became 3 a witting participant: in_the:Cuban-BHime-Minister!s_plan. of story—a—step-further—by—-suggesti: Pithis \line“of hypotheca- tionnis: ‘adapted’ ‘then’ thesteip: A adridv by Borigo could. assume some:sinister’ implicatigng: Sy, was to act as” . real! purpose: ‘inicontactin hes possibility. ‘that Bongo" s°-
ps7 a a double agent for Castro in ascertaining’ the nature and scope of the AMLASH operation. Castro certainly became aware of the Artime meetings with Cubé€la in the fall of 1964 since the list of charges upon which Cubela went to trial in 1966 began with these Madrid meetings. If Castro had begun his suspicions of Cubela's role with the CIA dur- ing late 1964 or early 1965, it is likely that he would have begun counter-intelligence measures to confirm his fears which could have led to Castro sending Bongo to Spaifi to contact the Agency. Given Trafficante's close ties to Bongo (see-atso-Ateman=footnote=in-AMEASH=sectiom , it can be postu- lated that Trafficante was aware of Bongo's true mission prior to his departure or became knowledgeable when he bailed him out of jail in Madrid. (Unfortunately;..we~have-no-way“of prior _to.going..to-Spain—unless-we-~could-obtain..the..case..file from Secret. Service.of the. Italian..killed..in.Miami_who was ‘ suppose d.to..be«Bongo.'s:-partner-according~to~S/A-Wenda ii Sall.) ise Trafficante*could have received news of Cubela's ‘ties with the Agency through his close associate Jorge Nobregas who was described by Gorge Ca&.:it in his Washington Post article (circa 8/17/76) as “having worked with the CIA, was in Cubela's student revolutionary group in Cuba, and always close to Trafficante." | Actually, given the extent of Trafficante's high-level contacts within the exile community and the low-level security
in the CIA exile operations, it is extremely logical that Trafficante and other imembers of the underworld knew, in some fashion, part or all of the AMLASH plot. The question becomes: So what? Short of being able to blackmail the go- vernment about the modus operendi of the 1960-62 events, the significance of mob knowledge of AMLASH is not readily = f _ apparent. However “if Tra fficante-was-in-fact-a-double-agent, | au whole-other-scenario-energes+ row oa One further reference to Bongo Sureyoed during Ls | interview by Committee Staff with Jose AYeman on “Mar / \! 1977 when pene related that Jorge Nobregas’ introduced Ale- man to Trafficante. santo Trafficante, offered to assist Aleman in obtaining a Teamster loan ostensibly out) of grati- tude for Aleman’ s relative (Bongo) ‘representing ntafficante in Cuba. Trafficante fully admits the Teamster aban proposal which was to be arranged by Frank Ragano, Traffidante’ e per- sonal lawyer, who also represented Jimny Hoffa and Frank Chanez in criminal cases. - Of course, the most-relevant aspéct of . Trafficante- Aleman meetings in September 1962 to this Committee is the statement attributed to Trafficante by Aleman that "lo. .you don't understand me. Kennedy's not going to make it to the election. | He is going to get hit.® Aleman reported that the inflamatory prediction occurred during a lengthy diatribe \. against the Kennedy administration's campaign against Jimmy OR
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