Brush with Oswald lingers for local man

By Paul Grondahl

Bern Rotman, a TV reporter in New Orleans in the early 1960s, at his home Wednesday Nov. 20, 2103, in Niskayuna, NY. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

The guy who called assignment editor Bern Rotman at WDSU-TV, Channel 6, in New Orleans on Aug. 14, 1963, said he represented Fair Play for Cuba and that he would be demonstrating in front of the city's World Trade Mart the next day because Fidel Castro "is getting a raw deal."

He identified himself as Lee Harvey Oswald.

The brief conversation and an encounter two days later at the TV station was a random brush with the infamy of the JFK assassination for Rotman, of Niskayuna. The accidental Oswald connection earned Rotman a visit from FBI agents and a footnote in the Warren Commission Report.

"He was an oddball," recalled Rotman, 80, who retired in 1996 as director of the radio and TV unit for the state Department of Commerce, where he worked for 21 years under three governors. "I would have completely forgotten about Oswald if it weren't for the assassination."

Rotman was reminded of the chance meeting following extensive stories in advance of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas.

Fifty years ago, Rotman wasn't convinced Oswald merited coverage, but he told reporter Michael Alla to swing past the World Trade Mart on his way to do a story at City Hall.

Alla called Rotman on a two-way radio to report that Oswald was the lone protester, holding a homemade sign that read Fair Play for Cuba, and walking back and forth on the sidewalk. "We may not even use it, but shoot a minute of film just in case," Rotman radioed back.

That afternoon, Oswald called Rotman to say someone grabbed his sign, there was a brief scuffle and he was arrested by New Orleans police after passers-by became agitated over Oswald's presence.

"I called the cops and they said the guy was a kook," Rotman recalled.

Nonetheless, for that evening's newscast, Rotman used the Oswald protest footage as a "kicker" to end the newscast. "I figured it was kind of a man bites dog story," he said.

The next morning, Aug. 16, Rotman called Oswald back and asked him to come in to the station to record an interview, this time with audio and video. He assigned reporter Bill Slatter, who did a brief interview with Oswald.

Rotman showed Oswald around the newsroom, and the slight man with a faint Texas accent acted oddly. "He spoke in a kind of robotic tone and spouted Marxist doctrine like he had just read it in a book. He was strange and stilted," Rotman said. He did not mention JFK. Oswald left and they never heard of him again in New Orleans.

Keep reading on Times Union >> 

Castro-Oswald-Kennedy: Conundrum or Nonsense?

cubaconfidential

By Chris Simmons

By Miguel Fernandez

Last Monday, ex-CIA analyst Dr. Brian Latell and Miami Herald journalist Glen Garvin addressed it at the University of Miami. The thesis statement, “Castro and the Kennedy Assassination,” became ironical.

After clumsily manipulating the reports of both FBI super spy Jack Childs and Cuban Consul Alfredo Mirabal, recycling the fairy tales of foreknowledge with Luisa Calderon and Vladimir Rodriguez-Lahera (AMMUG-1) in the leading roles, and re-telling “the Jaimanitas story” by Florentino Aspillada (TOUCHDOWN), Dr. Latell added a “new discovery” for proving a connection between Lee Harvey Oswald and the Castro’s intelligence machine: Oswald stayed for six days at the center of the pro-Castro activities in Mexico City.

That’s an old story from U.S. Ambassador Thomas Mann. Dr. Latell used it for the same original purpose of pushing “the Cuban conspiracy.” However, the more dots are connecting to work against the lack of conclusive evidence for accusing Castro, the lesser options are left for a rational explanation of Oswald’s actions. Actually Dr. Latell’s approach leads to the crossroad of a conspiracy between Castro and the CIA, or a despicable mishandling by the CIA. Since the former is preposterous, as Dr. Latell rightly said, the latter is the point d´honeur.

Uncommon Nonsense

To a certain extent, Dr. Latell exemplifies the analytical shortcomings of the CIA facing Castro. Any conspiracy theory on Castro not only presumes he took the greatest risk for winning nothing with Lyndon B. Johnson as President. It also assumes that an ex-Marine re-defector from the Soviet Union was not an intelligence bonanza in 1963.

Dr. Latell’s legend affirms that a true believer of Communism and Cuban Revolution, connected to several leftwing newspaper and organizations, after leafleting for Castro and clashing with anti-Castro exiles in New Orleans, got a brand new passport, traveled to Mexico City, stayed at the Castroit Hotel El Comercio, visited several times the Cuban and Soviet diplomatic compounds, asked to illegally travel to Cuba with the Soviet Union as final destination, was encouraged by Castro intelligence offices to kill Kennedy, and returned to Dallas for accomplishing the mission.

Oswald had pre-assassination files in both the FBI (105-82555) and the CIA (201-289248). The routing slips of the latter show that he was under close scrutiny by three teams inside the company: the Counterintelligence Special Investigation Group (CI-SIG), the Counterintelligence Operation Group (CI-OPS) and the Counter-Espionage Unit of the Soviet Russia Division (CE-SR/6).

However, the CIA Inspector General flatly stated: “It was not until 22 November 1963 [that the CIA] Station learned (…) Oswald had also visited the Cuban Embassy.” Thus, Oswald would have passed unnoticed by the CIA surveillance teams in Mexico City despite his three visits to the Cuban Consulate on September 27, 1963, and a call about his immigration proceedings from a Cuban employee to a phone taped by the CIA at the Soviet Consulate.

The Cables of October

Moreover, the CIA revealed a keen interest in Oswald on the “need to know” basis during his stay in Mexico City.
• October 8, 1963. The cable 6453 from Mexico City CIA Station to Langley reported wit delay that “an American male who spoke broken Russian” had said by phone his name was “Lee Oswald.” He had visited the Soviet Embassy on September 28 and spoke with Consul Vareliy V. Kostikov. It was also provided a description of a presumed American male entering the Soviet Embassy on October 1st.
• October 10. The cable 74830 from Langley replied that Lee Oswald “probably” was Lee Henry Oswald and specified that latest info was an ODACID [State Department] report from May 1962. Langley gave a description of Oswald and concealed two FBI reports recently added to his file: from Dallas (September 24, 1963) on his leftist political activities and form New Orleans (October 4) on his clashes with Cuban exiles.
• October 10. The cable 74673, drafted by the same CIA officers at Langley on the same day for ODACID, ODENVY (FBI), and ODOATH (Navy), gave as Oswald’s the description of the “presumed American male” from the cable 6453 and left out the most important hint from Mexico: that Oswald had spoken with the well-known KGB officer Kostikov.

To cap it all, the CIA Station never produced a photo or an audio tape from Oswald. One of each item was immediately sent to the FBI in Dallas, but Director J. Edgar Hoover had to call the already sitting President LBJ for advising that “the picture and the tape do not correspond to this man’s voice, nor to his appearance.” At least, Oswald was telephonically impersonated in Mexico City.

Coda

Even if nobody aided and abetted Oswald, the crucial problem is how the CIA failed to prevent him from killing the U.S. President in broad daylight at Dealey Plaza. The conspiracy debate turns a blind eye to it.

By pure chance, Oswald got a job at the Texas School Books Depository on October 16, 1963. A week before, FBI supervisor Marvin Gheesling had cancelled the FLASH card issued on Oswald when he defected to the USSR. The day after the cancellation, the CIA sent DIR 74673 to FBI with phony items about Oswald, but enough information for putting him again in the watch list. Since the FLASH was off, Oswald would come back under the spotlight too late.

Nobody from the CIA or the FBI took responsibility, and the CIA still retains about 1,100 secret documents related to the assassination. Thus, the debate should not be about conspiracies, but rather about transparency and justice.

Mary O'Grady: What Castro Knew About Lee Harvey Oswald - WSJ

Mary O'Grady

In November 1963, Cuban intelligence officer Florentino Aspillaga was posted in a little hut near a Cuban beach where he operated listening equipment trained on Miami and CIA headquarters in Virginia. On the morning of Nov. 22, Mr. Aspillaga—who would defect to the U.S. in 1987—said that he was ordered "to stop all your CIA work, all your CIA work." He was instructed to "put all of my equipment to listen to any small detail from Texas. They told me Texas."

Did Castro know that Lee Harvey Oswald was about to assassinate President Kennedy? Brian Latell, a veteran CIA Cuba analyst who spent 15 hours interviewing Mr. Aspillaga for his newly revised "Castro's Secrets," (Palgrave MacMillan), makes a strong case that he did.

Nov. 23, 1963 file photo, Lee Harvey Oswald is led down a corridor of the Dallas police station for another round of questioning in connection with the assassination of U.S, President John F. Kennedy. Associated Press

Mr. Latell takes readers through a half-century of Cuban espionage by interviewing a dozen high-ranking Cuban defectors and numerous former CIA officers. He calls Mr. Aspillaga "the most knowledgeable Cuban defector ever to change sides." He also pored over thousands of pages of declassified CIA documents and gained access to the unpublished memoir of Thomas Mann, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico in 1963, who had reason to suspect an Oswald-Cuba connection.

Mr. Latell set out to tell the story of Cuba's "intelligence machine," which outmaneuvered the U.S. for many years. In the process he uncovers startling details that suggest that Cuba fueled Oswald's maniacal desire to prove himself worthy of Castro's revolution during the American's visit to Mexico City in the fall of 1963. Mr. Latell also presents strong evidence that the Johnson administration and higher-ups in the FBI and the CIA ensured those details were kept from the Warren Commission.

The Kennedy administration was desperate to eliminate Castro. The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion had failed and by August 1963, according to Edward Jay Epstein —a renowned expert on the killing of the president and author of the recently released book "The JFK Assassination Diary"— Richard Helms, though not yet CIA director, was "receiving almost daily phone calls from [Attorney General Robert Kennedy ] demanding to know what actions he was [taking] to remove Castro from power." The agency recruited Rolando Cubela, a revolutionary insider, to do the job. 

But Cubela was a double agent. And on Sept. 7, just after Cubela agreed to help the Americans, Castro gave an interview to an AP reporter in which he put the U.S. on notice that "aiding terrorist plans to eliminate Cuban leaders" would mean that "they themselves will not be safe."

Castro didn't need to look far for a willing partner to back up those words. It is "known with near certainty," writes Mr. Latell, that Cuba had "opened a dossier" on Oswald in 1959, while he was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, in Southern California. Oswald was enamored of the Cuban Revolution, and he had made contact with the Cuban consulate in Los Angeles.

On Sept. 27, 1963, Oswald checked into the Hotel Comercio in Mexico City for a five-night stay. He tried to get a visa from the Cuban embassy to travel to Havana. He had a fling with an embassy employee and probably spent time with others who were intelligence agents. When his visa was not forthcoming, witnesses said he went on a rant at the embassy, slammed the door and stormed off.

Keep reading on WSJ.com >>

Was a Cuban hitman the second JFK assassin? New book reveals another plausible killer

He was chief counsel of the US Congress's Assassinations Committee, the body set up in the late Seventies to re-examine the shootings of JFK and the civil rights leader Martin Luther King - and he had special access to classified information.

In 2007, out of the blue, he was contacted by a Cuban exile named Reinaldo Mart­nez. He was in his 80s, Mart­nez explained, and there was something he wanted to get off his chest before he died. Over two days with Blakey I listened to what Mart­nez had to say. He passed on what he said he had been told by anti-Castro leader Tony Cuesta, a celebrated hero to Cuban exiles in the US, when Cuesta was being treated in the infirmary at Cuba's La Cabana prison for terrible wounds received in an anti-Castro raid.

Cuesta said a comrade, Herminio D­az - a man he and Mart­nez both knew intimately - had admitted before his death in combat that he had "participated" in the assassination of President Kennedy. D­az was a known political assassin, a marksman and - before joining the struggle against Castro that so many exiles felt Kennedy had betrayed - had worked in one of Mafia boss Santo Trafficante's casinos in Cuba.

We found Mart­nez credible, what he told us plausible. Former chief counsel Blakey deems the new information "a breakthrough of historic importance". Its significance lies in the fact it undermines the Oswald did-it-alone theory of the official account of Kennedy's assassination 50 years ago, on November 22, 1963.

Keep reading on Daily Express >>

Link between Mafia, Castro drew scrutiny to 2 New Kensington racketeers in JFK investigation

TribLIVE

By Richard Gazarik

Loads of guns were seized from a plane in 1958 in Morgantown, W.Va. The guns were being smuggled to Cuban rebels using the airport in West Deer, authorities said.

The six men thought no one was watching as they loaded burlap bags onto a twin-engine Beechcraft at a West Deer airstrip in November 1958.

As the plane took off, troopers hiding nearby moved in to arrest the men. And when the aircraft landed in Morgantown, W.Va., it was seized.

There were 317 weapons inside the burlap bags — from 50-caliber machine guns to M-1 carbines — that had been stolen from an Ohio National Guard Armory and were destined for Fidel Castro's campaign to control Cuba.

Two decades later, the incident drew the attention of congressional investigators seeking a link between the Mafia, Castro and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“La Cosa Nostra had a strong motive for taking drastic action,” the House Select Committee on Assassinations reported in 1979. “Yet it is extremely unlikely that it would have considered such a major and dangerous act as assassinating the president ... but the evidence does not preclude the possibility individual members may have been involved.”

Two New Kensington racketeers drew scrutiny during the investigation because of their ties to the smuggled weapons and Cuba, documents show.

Gabriel “Kelly” Mannarino and his brother Sam — part of Pittsburgh's John LaRocca crime family — were tied to Castro and Cuba's legendary casinos, according to declassified FBI reports.

One of the gun smugglers, Victor Carlucci, was Sam Mannarino's son-in-law.

Another, Daniel “Speedo” Hanna, worked in a Mannarino gambling den in New Kensington.

A third, Norman Rothman, managed the Sans Souci, a Havana casino in which the Mannarinos, Tampa mob boss Santo Trafficante and Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista shared an interest.

When Batista muscled the Mannarinos and Trafficante out of the Sans Souci, the Mannarinos tried to regain control by betting on Castro to restore ownership once he came to power.

Things did not work out that way.

On New Year's Day 1959, Batista fled Cuba. Rebels ransacked the casinos, and Castro closed them permanently.

More trouble came later when Kennedy ordered a mob crackdown and FBI agents planted a microphone in the Mannarinos' private office.

The wiretaps produced little, but the brothers were indicted for tax evasion in 1963. Kelly Mannarino was acquitted. Sam was convicted and served 366 days in a federal prison. He died in 1967. Kelly Mannarino died in 1980.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/westmoreland/4488473-74/castro-mannarino-cuba#ixzz2kv9wsF75

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was murdered with polonium: widow

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read on worldnews >>

Four Teens Arrested for Murder of Beloved 87-Year-Old WWII Vet

Four teenagers stand accused of robbing and murdering an 87-year-old World War II veteran, Lawrence E. “Shine” Thornton, in his driveway in Greenville, Mississippi.

Keep reading on breitbart >>

Revealed: U.S. investigators questioned Fidel Castro over JFK's assassination

dailymail

The Warren Commission sent an investigator to quiz Castro over JFK's assassination - but he denied being a part of it, a new book has revealed

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was questioned by the Warren Commission after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, a new book has revealed.

The previously-undisclosed meeting between a U.S. investigator and the Cuban president after the November 1963 killing has been shared in 'A Cruel and Shocking Act: the Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination' by Philip Shenon, a former investigative reporter for the New York Times.

It reveals that the commission investigating the death in Dallas, Texas sent an investigator to waters off Cuba and took Castro out in a U.S. Navy boat and then onto a yacht.

Before the meeting, Castro had expressed interest in speaking with the commission, Bob Schieffer explained on CBS' Face of the Nation as he discussed the book.

Questions: Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, U.S. investigators questioned Fidel Castro (right, pictured in 2004) over what he knew about the death but he said he had nothing to do with it

'The investigator gets off the boat, talks to Castro, they talk for three hours,' he explained. 'Castro says - as you would expect - "No way, no how did I have anything to do with it".'

Schieffer, who called the book 'magnificent', noted that the investigator sent to speak with Castro was William Coleman, who later became secretary of transportation in Gerald Ford's administration.

He was sent because he had actually met the dictator while he was on his honeymoon in Harlem and they had shared a love of jazz music. Although they weren't friends, they did know each other, and it was for this reason that Coleman was sent, CBS reported.

In the book, which is out October 29, Shenon doesn't dispute the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald worked alone when he murdered Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

Probe: U.S. investigator William Coleman (left in 1976 when he became the US Secretary of State for Transport) was sent to waters off Cuba to meet Castro (pictured in 1964) because they had previously met in Harlem

Moments from tragedy: President Kennedy and his wife smile at crowds from their motorcade in Dallas, Texas just moments before he was shot on November 22, 1963. Castro said he knew nothing of the plot

Instead, he underlines that there's no evidence to suggest there was a conspiracy or anybody else involved, despite numerous claims to the contrary.

It also comes after retired CIA analyst Brian Latell claimed in a book last year that Oswald told Cuban intelligence officers that he had planned to kill Kennedy.

'Fidel knew of Oswald's intentions - and did nothing to deter the act,' he wrote.

He wrote that a Cuban spy defector told him that on November 22, 1963, he was told to gather any intelligence coming from Texas - and within three hours he learned that the president had been shot.

The defector told a CIA debriefer: 'Castro knew. They knew Kennedy would be killed.'

Accused: Lee Harvey Oswald, pictured in the Dallas police station, was arrested for the shooting but before he could stand trial, he was shot by a club owner while he was being moved to a jail

The Warren Report denied that anyone else was involved and instead only Oswald, a former Marine who had defected to the Soviet Union, was arrested for the death.

He denied any role in the assassination. Two days after his arrest, he was shot dead by nightclub owner Jack Ruby as he was transferred from police headquarters to jail.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2477048/Revealed-U-S-investigators-questioned-Fidel-Castro-JFKs-assassination.html#ixzz2ipcQWBLf

Fidel Castro questioned about JFK assassination, book claims

Was Cuban Herminio Diaz a second Kennedy assassin?

dailymail

Author Anthony Summers has claimed that Cuban exile shot President John F. Kennedy in 1963 with Lee Harvey Oswald

Diaz was part of an anti-Castro movement that felt betrayed by Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis

He 'told a friend that he was responsible for the killing before his death'

------------------------------

A Cuban exile and professional hit man assassinated President John F. Kennedy with Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963, an author has claimed.

Anthony Summers said evidence shows Herminio Diaz, who was part of the anti-Castro movement that felt betrayed by Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs invasion, was in the U.S. at the time of the killing.

Afterwards, Diaz reportedly revealed to friends that he had been part of the murder and after his death in 1966, one moved to Miami and eventually contacted officials to share the story.

The chief counsel of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, G. Robert Blakey, said he believed the account and called the new details 'a breakthrough of historical importance'.

Accused: An author has claimed that Heminio Diaz (left), a Cuban exile, was also responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy n 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald (right) was arrested for the killing

The startling claims have been made by Summers in an update to his 1998 book on the killing, 'Not In Your Lifetime' and shared with the National Enquirer.

While Diaz's name has been linked to the assassinations before, Summers claims he now has the real evidence - and support from experts - to prove the claims are true.

It further fuels beliefs that Kennedy's assassination as he drove in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas was a conspiracy and not carried out solely by Oswald, who was arrested for the murder.

Diaz, who had worked for Mafia boss Santo Tafficante Jr. in Cuba and killed a Cuban police officer in the 1940s, arrived in the U.S. a few months before the assassination on November 22, 1963, CIA documents show, the Enquirer reported.

Before tragedy: President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie Kennedy Onassis smile at the crowds lining their motorcade route in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963 minutes before he was shot

Horror: An image shows Jackie Kennedy leaning over to help her husband just after he was shot

'Diaz was a professional hit man with a record of political assassinations,' Summers said. 'He was in the country at the right time and was involved in the anti-Castro movement.

'Many people in that movement thought President Kennedy had betrayed them during the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and had a motive to kill him. Frankly, it all adds up.'

Summers did not say how Oswald and Diaz would have been acquainted with each other.

After the assassination, Diaz was traveling to Cuba for an anti-Castro raid with a friend, Tony Cuesta, who he told about his role in the killing, the Enquirer reported.

Diaz died in the raid and Cuesta was hurt after trying to commit suicide to avoid capture - but he was caught and jailed at La Cabana Prison.

Claims: Author Anthony Summers said he spoke to another Cuban immigrant who heard that Diaz confessed to the assassination. The new details are an addition to his 1998 book, Not In Your Lifetime

While being treated in the infirmary, he told another anti-Castro inmate, Reinaldo Martinez, about Diaz's confession.

After Martinez was released from prison, he went to Miami and eventually contacted G. Robert Blakey, chief counsel of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, in 2007.

Blakey told the National Enquirer that Martinez thought he was going to die so wanted to come clean.

'After speaking with him, I believe he was telling the truth,' he said. 'This is a breakthrough of historical importance.'

Summers, who also spoke to Martinez at length, and Blakey said that Martinez had gone to the FBI with his story, but he was told the investigation was closed.

In the famous Zapruder film of the assassination, Kennedy can be seen being hit from behind - where Oswald was standing - and then apparently being hit from the front, some experts have said.

Blame: Oswald, pictured the day after the assassination, was the only person arrested for the killing. A man who heard Diaz was responsible for the shooting told the FBI - but they said the case was closed

Cyril H. Wecht, a medical examiner who has studied the assassination for decades, said he agrees there was someone else involved.

'Based on the initial backward trajectory of the president's head after being impacted by the gunshot blasts, I believe a shooter operated from the right front of the vehicle behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll,' he said. 'Eyewitness accounts corroborate this.'

The Warren Report into the death discounted this and instead only Oswald was arrested for the death.

He denied any role in the assassination. Two days after his arrest, he was shot dead by nightclub owner Jack Ruby as he was transferred from police headquarters to jail.

Read more:

• The National Enquirer

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2463291/Was-Cuban-Herminio-Diaz-second-Kennedy-assassin.html#ixzz2hwuHN0Lg
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Preston teacher Lara Jones murdered in Cuba

Cuba Advisory

A teacher who died while travelling in Cuba was strangled by a hostel worker, an inquest has heard.

Lara Jones, 26, from Goosnargh, near Preston, was discovered by maids in a hostel bedroom in Havana on the morning of March 15 last year.

Preston Coroner’s Court heard yesterday the English language teacher was killed by an unnamed Cuban man working as a security guard at the hostel – who is now serving a 22-year prison sentence for her murder.

Lara went travelling in January 2012 and explored Mexico before flying to the Cuban capital on March 12.

The former St Francis’s Primary School pupil was staying in a hostel called Convento de Santa Clara Havana in Havana Old Town and was due to return home on March 18.

However, on the morning of March 15, Lara didn’t come down to the hostel’s reception for a trip she was booked to go on.

And when a receptionist and a maid went up to check on her, she was found dead in her room.

Lara’s mum Carolyn Jones, who lives in Whittingham with Lara’s sisters Jessica and Sophie, told the inquest: “The staff called the police and a large-scale investigation was launched. “One of the security guards from the hostel was arrested and later, in the face of the evidence collected by the police, admitted that he had gone to Lara’s room and suffocated her.

“He gave no explanation as to his reasoning but it was clear from the evidence and the medical examinations carried out that he had entered Lara’s room and, approaching her from behind, had taken Lara by surprise and had suffocated her.

“There was no evidence that Lara had the opportunity to defend herself in anyway. He gave no explanation for his action.”

Home Office pathologist Dr Alison Armour carried out a post-mortem examination after Lara’s body was flown back to the UK.

She said there was bruising on her neck, cheeks and chin and also on her arms.

She said: “There were obvious signs of asphyxia to the body.

“The marks to the neck and face in my view would be in keeping with strangulation and a degree of smothering of nose and mouth by a soft object or hand.

“In my opinion the strangulation was most likely manual but I can’t exclude the use of a soft ligature or a piece of clothing because these often leave no sign.

“I’m in no doubt this young woman died from asphyxiation.”

Preston’s deputy coroner Dr Simon Jones read out a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba in court.

It said Lara’s body was found between two beds in the room where she had been staying at around 11.30am.

A murder investigation was then started by Cuban police.

Dr Jones said: “During interviews with the suspect on March 25 he admitted committing the crime.

“The report concludes it was unlikely the victim could have screamed without being heard by the other porters.”

Dr Jones formally recorded asphyxia as the cause of death and returned a conclusion of unlawful killing.

Addressing Carolyn Jones, he added: “I’m now at a loss as to what to say. There is nothing I can say to you that offers any comfort.

“I recognise that this is the most awful thing that can happen to anybody.

“I hope you accept my sympathies and I’m sorry you had to come here today.”

Cuban police, the Cuban Embassy and the British Foreign Office refused to provide any information about the circumstances surrounding Lara’s death 18 months ago.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said its general position was to confirm whether somebody had died, been arrested or hospitalised, when it happened, and if it was providing consular assistance.

He said: “We don’t comment on investigations carried out by authorities of other countries.

“We provide risk assessments for travellers and that goes in our travel advice.”

The Cuban Embassy declined to comment.

Chilling Navy Yard surveillance video shows shooter stalking hallways

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read on nbcnews >>

Asesinan al coreógrafo cubano Alfredo Velázquez

Café Fuerte

El bailarín y coreógrafo Alfredo Velázquez (1969-2013)

Por Ivette Leyva Martínez

El coreógrafo y bailarín Alfredo Velázquez, director de la compañía Danza Libre, fue asesinado en su natal Guantánamo. Tenía 44 años.

“Me han llamado desde Guantánamo para decirme que ha muerto Alfredo Velázquez, coreógrafo, maestro y director de la reconocida Compañía Danza Libre de Guantánamo. Los detalles son imprecisos, pero terribles. Estoy anonadado.”, escribió en su blog el periodista Reynaldo Cedeño.

Fuentes cercanas al artista dijeron a CaféFuerte que Vélázquez fue encontrado degollado en su casa en la ciudad de Guantánamo.

Se desconocen los detalles del presunto asesinato y las autoridades han abierto una investigación sobre el caso.

En julio, el artista fue condecorado con el  Premio Nacional de Danza Lorna Burdsall que otorga la Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC) , en reconocimiento a su entrega a la danza.

En EEUU y Gran Bretaña

Velázquez visitó el pasado abril  la Southern Illinois University, de Edwardville, donde presentó su coreografía Intimidad, así como la cantanta Carmina Burana.

Entre el 2000 y el 2003 trabajó como coreógrafo en Gran Bretaña, con la compañía JazzXchange en el Royal Opera House de Londres, y también impartió clases de danza contemporánea en ese país.

Estudió en la Escuela Nacional de Danza Moderna y Folclórica en La Habana hasta 1989. En ese mismo año fue bailarín fundador de la compañía profesional de danza de Guantánamo, hoy Danza Libre. En 1995 se graduó de Licenciado en Artes Escénicas, con especialidad en Danza Contemporánea, en el Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA).

“Entre las más bellas coreografías que vi en Cuba sobre tema afrocubano -y vi muchas- están las de Alfredo. Fue primero un gran alumno de Elfriede Mahler, a quien homenajeaba todos los días, y luego un gran maestro. Las dos cosas las llevaba con orgullo. Esa virtud, legada por José Martí ni más ni menos, lo convirtió en un hombre admirable a mis ojos”, opinó desde España el dramaturgo Luis Enrique Valdés Duarte.

Cuba: Muertes en el puente de Cojimar

HablemosPress

Death toll climbs to 13 in Navy Yard shooting rampage

The death toll from the Washington Navy Yard shootings rose to 13 with at least a dozen others wounded, Mayor Vincent Gray told a news conference Monday afternoon. He said another person had died in the hospital. The shooting represents the single worst loss of life in the District since an airliner plunged into the Potomac River in 1982, killing 78.

Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/police-search-for-active-shooter-on-grounds-of-washington-navy-yard-in-southeast-dc/2013/09/16/b1d72b9a-1ecb-11e3-b7d1-7153ad47b549_story.html 

At least 12 killed in shooting rampage at Washington Navy Yard, chief says

Fort Worth Police Dept.

Aaron Alexis

By Jim Miklaszewski, Pete Williams, Richard Esposito and Erin McClam, NBC News

A former naval petty officer packing an assault rifle and two other guns sprayed an office building with bullets at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, killing 12 people in a rampage that paralyzed part of the nation’s capital, authorities said. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School last year.

Authorities said that the gunman, a civilian contractor identified as Aaron Alexis, 34, was killed after exchanging fire with officers who stormed the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command in a massive law enforcement response.

Mayor Vincent Gray said there was no information on a motive. Authorities said Alexis might have used someone else’s identification to get into the office building. At least four people were wounded, but some reports placed the number as high as 16.

“There is no question he would have kept shooting,” Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.

Keep reading on usnews >>

Seven killed, including gunman, in Florida shootout; 2 hostages rescued

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read on usnews >>

Encuentran muerto en Cuba a americano desaparecido

martinoticias

Jay Rydberg en su yate (foto Keysnet)

Un navegante estadounidense desaparecido fue encontrado muerto en una playa rocosa de la costa norte de Cuba.

Las autoridades cubanas hallaron el martes el cadáver de Jay Wesley Rydberg atado a su velero, que había encallado a unos 70 kilómetros al este de La Habana.

Dos semanas atrás Rydberg, procedente de Fort Myers, en el suroeste de la Florida,  debía haber llegado a Cayo Hueso .Vivía en ese cayo del extremo sur de EE.UU., en su barco  “3/4 Time” de doce metros de eslora, anclado en en la Marina Garrison Bight.

Semanas atrás,el hombre viajó a Fort Myers. El 13 de mayo llamó a su hermana, que vive en el otro extremo del país, en Alaska, para decirle que iba a regresar a Cayo Hueso,y que pensaba llegar al día siguiente o el dia 15.

Pero en la tarde del 14 de mayo, la Guardia Costera detectó su señal de emergencia a unos 53 kilómetros al norte de Cayo Hueso, y comenzó una búsqueda.

El radiofaro fue encontrado en una zona de mar relativamente tranquilo, pero no Rydberg ni su embarcación. Los guardacostas suspendieron la búsqueda después de cuatro días y no se supo nada más del navegante hasta que las autoridades cubanas notificaron el hallazgo.

Las autoridades del condado Monroe, al que pertenece Cayo Hueso, describieron a Rydberg como un hombre natural de Fairbanks, Alaska, de unos 40 años de edad, cabello y ojos castaños, 170 libras de peso y 1.57 metros de estatura, que acostumbraba llevar un parche negro sobre la cuenca del ojo derecho, el cual había perdido. 

Al Qaeda Magazine Explains Why It’s Easy to Assassinate Bush, Clinton, Sarkozy and Tony Blair

theblaze
Tiffany Gabbay

The latest issue of al Qaeda’s English-language online magazine, “Inspire,” has just been released and it is brimming with 60-pages of the jihad-inciting content one would expect from an Islamist group that perpetrates mass-terror on the world stage.

In this particular edition, the magazine’s “Open Source Jihad” (OSJ) section features a Q&A for aspiring jihadists seeking to assassinate U.S. and European leaders. In response, an al Qaeda “consultant” informs that presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton and former European prime ministers Tony Blair and Nicolas Sarkozy, among others, are actually easy targets.

The al-Qaeda operative explains elected officials’ “weak points” and vulnerabilities, qualifying that, essentially, it is easier to kill those who have already stepped down from public office as they are especially susceptible to attack.

“For lower profile figures,” a side-bar on the page reads, “assassination…is an important method as you don’t have the worry of hiding your weapon.”

“Brother Muslim, utilize your time well and prepare your self physically. You are the soldier the Muslim ummah [community] waits for.”

MEMRI, which provides details about the content contained in Inspire, noted that the section is entitled, “I Want To Carry Out A Big Jihad Operation To Support The Religion. Guide Me.”

Inspire also called on experienced doctors to “create a lethal poison” such as Anthrax, with which to tamp-out Islam’s enemies. A screenshot of the page is provided by MEMRI and featured below.

The query, allegedly from an “experienced doctor” seeking advice on how he, too, can wage jihad, is told to “create a lethal poison (gaseous), manufacture anthrax, and give the mujahideen medical advice in their blogs – or you can contact us directly.”

Meanwhile, in yet another question-and-answer session, a journalist is informed that his is a “useful profession to the mujahideen,” as journalists’ knowledge of current affairs, coupled with their “access to many areas as a media personnel,” can provide al Qaeda with useful intelligence about its foes. The writer was also told that journalists are well-positioned to carry out jihadist-attacks themselves, based on their access to important people and places.

Issue “X” of Inspire also includes excerpts of an exclusive interview with American-born al-Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn, a letter by yet another American jihadi, Samir Khan, who in 2011 was killed in Yemen in a U.S. drone strike.

To make matters even stranger, Blaze contributor and CBN terrorism analyst Erick Stakelbeck discovered that one of his CBN reports from May 2012 was, eerily, quoted in this edition of Inspire.

“The terror group features my comments, along with those of other journalists, on page 9 of the new issue,” Stakelbeck wrote on his blog, Stakelbeck on Terror.

Clearly, this indicates without doubt that Islamic militants abroad are keeping a watchful eye on journalists and have their finger on the pulse of how Western society views Islam.

“This shows, once again, that al Qaeda is very plugged in to how they are perceived in the West,” Stakelbeck told TheBlaze in an email.

“They love the attention—even when it comes from their enemies–and are very P.R.-savvy. They also want to remain relevant in the American psyche, 11 years after 9/11.”

'American Sniper' author Chris Kyle fatally shot

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

usnews

Chris Kyle, 38, a former Navy SEAL sniper and author, was shot and killed at a Texas gun range Saturday, along with another man, Chad Littlefield, and police have arrested a suspect, Eddie Routh, 25. Mark Schnyder of KXAS reports and TODAY's Lester Holt takes a look back at an interview with Kyle from last year.

By Gil Aegerter and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

A former Navy SEAL who wrote "American Sniper," a best-selling book about his lethal career as a marksman in Iraq, was shot to death with another man at a gun range near Stephenville, Texas, on Saturday. 

Chris Kyle, 38, and the other man were found dead at the shooting range of Rough Creek Lodge on Saturday afternoon, Texas Highway Patrol spokesman Lonny Haschel told KXAS.

The gunman, identified as Eddie Ray Routh of Lancaster, Texas, was arrested after a brief pursuit, Trooper Haschel said. The other victim was named as Chad Littlefield, aged 35.

Kyle, a Texas native who grew up hunting, served four tours in Iraq with Navy SEAL Team 3. His shooting during battles in Ramadi and Fallujah became legendary, and insurgents nicknamed him the "Devil of Ramadi" and put a bounty on his head.

He was credited with 160 confirmed kills, including one in 2008 in which he said he fired from 2,100 yards away -- 1.2 miles.

The Star-Telegram described him as "America's deadliest sniper."

Haschel said Routh is believed to have shot the victims at around 3:30 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. ET) before leaving the shooting range and returning to his home in Lancaster in a Ford pickup truck.

The link between Routh and the two victims wasn't immediately clear, Haschel said. The Dallas Morning News reported that Routh was 25 years old and had military training.

Routh was arraigned Saturday night on two counts of capital murder, said Haschel.

Rough Creek Lodge is a resort and conference center about 90 miles southwest of Dallas and 24 miles southeast of Stephenville in the Texas Hill Country. Lancaster is just south of Dallas.

NBCDFW.com

Chris Kyle was credited with 160 kills during his time as a Navy SEAL marksman.

In a February 2012 interview with NBC News, Kyle said he didn’t want to put the number of kills in the book but the publisher insisted.

“If I could figure out the number of people I saved, that’s something I would brag about,” he told NBC News' Lester Holt. 

After leaving the Navy, Kyle founded Craft International, which provides training to military, police, corporate and civilian clients, Reuters said.

"It just comes as a shock and it's staggering to think that after all Chris has been through, that this is how he meets his end, because there are so many ways he could have been killed" in Iraq, Scott McEwen, who co-wrote "American Sniper," told Reuters.

Kyle appeared on the NBC reality TV show "Stars Earn Stripes" last year.

Kyle was married with two children.

'Walking angel' who performed at inauguration shot dead

Hadiya Pendleton, 15, a student at King College Prep, was killed Tuesday at a Chicago park.

dnainfo.com

nbcnews

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

A 15-year-old girl who performed at President Obama's inauguration last week was shot dead Tuesday while hanging out with friends in bullet-scarred Chicago.

Hadiya Pendleton -- described by a relative as a “walking angel” -- was standing under a canopy in Vivian Gordon Harsh Park when a gunman ran down an alley, opened fire at the group and fled in a white car, police said.

Pendleton was shot in the back but managed to run about a block before she collapsed, officer Laura Kubiak said. She died at the hospital.

A 16-year-old boy was wounded in the 2:20 p.m. incident. Police said Pendleton, who had no criminal record, was probably not the intended target.

“As usual, the bad guy aims, but he never hits the other bad guy . . . He hits the one that hurts the most to lose,” the victim’s godfather, Damon Stewart, 36, who is a police officer, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“I changed her diapers, I played with her growing up. My heart is broken.”

A sophomore at selective King College Prep High School, Pendleton had traveled to Washington to perform with the school marching band at inaugural events.

Cousin Shatira Wilks said the upcoming trip was the talk of a family gathering around New Year’s, but the young majorette was even more excited about something else: plans to spend the summer studying in Paris.

“She was an honor student all her life,” Wilks said. “Honestly, she was a walking angel. She never once gave her mom any problems ever.”

Wilks said the teen doted on her 10-year-old brother, Junior, who is devastated.

“At Christmas this year, she was designated the elf and she handed out all the gifts,” she recalled.

“She loved rock music. She was always listening and playing to music,” Wilks said,. “What you would usually catching her doing is texting on her phone, like all the teenagers.”

Pendleton last tweeted just before 1 a.m. on Tuesday. “I’m tired,” she wrote.

Many of her classmates changed their Twitter handles to honor her and decried the violence that had claimed an innocent life.

“You are more than loved and missed,” one wrote. “Your laugh smile and silly happy personality has made my day more times than I can remember. Nobody deserves this, especially not you.”

Friends of the young majorette described her as a bubbly, well-liked student.

“She was always smiling and laughing,” said Tyler Genovesi, 14. “She was just a really nice person. … There’s a lot of people crying in school today. It’s very sad. The band is playing for her right now.”

The shooting happened in an upscale neighborhood where residents were shocked.

"I was torn apart," said Robin Hollis, who lives across the street from the park. "I cried when I heard about it."

Pendleton's murder was one of three shooting deaths in the city on Tuesday. More than 40 people have been shot dead in Chicago since the beginning of the year. There were 506 homicides in the city last year, a 16 percent increase even as other large cities, like New York,  saw murders drops.