Met my advisor for the third time today. Things seem to finally be shaping up with my thesis. Argh, I have three papers to write for Deans Date, which is gonna be a drag. A 10-12 pager for art, a 10-pager for Woody Woo, and probably a 4 pager for history. Eh, it'll be all right, right? I do have around a month to get them done. Which means I'll probably be on campus for a lot of the break.Bob Novak, the columnist who first published the name of former CIA operative Valerie Plame accused President Bush of knowing full well who the source of the leak was but covering it up. I find it extremely suspicious that Mr. Novak, a right-wing bigot, was not punished for his role in the leak, yet numerous individuals within the more liberal publications were fired or arrested.
Huh, the US Government rejected Cuba from participating in 2006's World Baseball Classic. Apparently it was a decision made by the US Treasury Department, but I'm definitely interested in knowing how this develops. I'm not aware of the specifics as to why Cuba was rejected, but I'm getting a little tired of the US's constant attempts to sabotage Cuba in any way they can. The CIA has already made 6 assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, and the times they tried to depose him through other covert operations is probably much higher. Sorta funny, actually.
Here is a summary of some of the more humourous attempts at discrediting him:
Although some plots against Castro involved attempts on his life, several others were intended to make him discredit himself in public by influencing his behavior.More can be read at:
One of the first methods the CIA considered for "getting rid" of Castro involved contaminating the air of the radio station where Castro broadcast his speeches with "an aerosol spray of a chemical that produces reactions similar to those of lysergic acid (LSD)." The idea was that Castro would flip and trip on the air, making a fool of himself via hallucinogen-inspired ranting. A member of the CIA's Technical Services Department (TSD) discouraged the scheme because they couldn't count on the chemical's effectiveness (IG's Report, p. 10). One can only wonder why they didn't just use some of the LSD which Eli Lilly Company offered to covertly manufacture for the CIA "in tonnage quantities" for use in their MKULTRA program. (3)
Another member of the TSD cited in the Inspector General's report recalled experiments with "psychic energizers", although he could not link those experiments to plots against Castro (IG's Report, p. 11).
One plan that came a bit closer to fruition was the Contaminated Cigar scheme, although it was aimed more at discrediting Castro than killing him. The CIA prepared a box of cigars that had been treated with "some sort of chemical." The cigars were probably "intended to produce temporary personality disorientation," according to the report. "The thought was to somehow contrive to have Castro smoke one before making a speech and then to make a public spectacle of himself." (IG's Report, p. 11)
However, WH/4 Chief J. D. Esterline recalled that the contaminated cigars may have been associated with a scheme to make Castro's beard fall out. Esterline said the cigars were never used because "they could not figure out how to deliver them without danger of blowback on the Agency." Esterline destroyed the cigars in June 1961 (IG's Report, pp. 11-12).
Another CIA plot to discredit Castro involved dusting "thallium powder into Castro's shoes when they were put out at night to be shined" during a trip he made outside Cuba. This diabolical plot co-incided with a Castro appearance on the David Susskind Show. (4) Thallium salts have depilatory effects; the CIA's plan was to "destroy Castro's image as 'The Beard' by causing the beard to fall out." The plan went as far as testing on animals, but it fell through when Castro
http://www.parascope.com/mx/articles/castroplots.htm
