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| In 1973, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or AID, teamed up with the CIA to train foreign police forces about bomb-making. The course was conducted in Washington, D.C., and Dade County, as it was then called. | | Submitted by fedup | 2007-07-02 00:23:57 | CUBAN AGENTS
''They were certainly comfortable working in Miami,'' said John Prados of the private National Security Archive at George Washington University, which has been trying for 15 years to pry open the secrets.
``All of the Miami Cubans were their friends -- even the ones who weren't working for the agency anymore. Probably half of them had friends who had worked for the agency before.''
A few examples:
• E. Howard Hunt, the retired CIA spy master turned White House security consultant, recruited the Watergate burglars from former Cuban operatives, many from Miami.
He would later settle here, after serving 33 months in prison for conspiracy.
• Months before the Watergate break-in, according to the documents, Hunt turned to the CIA's ''External Employment Assistance Branch'' in search of a lock picker. The documents name a then recently retired 20-year CIA technician, Thomas Amato.
The Miami Herald tried to determine whether Hunt offered Amato the mission. But Hunt died in January of pneumonia -- after years of writing spy thrillers, off Biscayne Boulevard.
Also dead is the fellow named in the documents. Amato had retired to Satellite Beach, Fla., and had a heart attack in 1978.
• In 1973, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or AID, teamed up with the CIA to train foreign police forces about bomb-making. The course was conducted in Washington, D.C., and Dade County, as it was then called.
James Angleton, the legendary CIA chief of counterintelligence, wrote that, in cooperation with the Dade County Bomb Squad, ''trainees'' got hands-on experience in ``handling, preparing and applying the various explosive charges, incendiary agents, terrorist devices and sabotage techniques.''
• The documents also detail long-ago-revealed, 1960s-era consultations between the CIA and the Mafia on whether and how to assassinate Castro.
CASTRO PLOT
One such brainstorming session took place at the famed Fontainebleau Hotel on Collins Avenue, where Chicago mob leader Momo Salvatore Giancana suggested having a Cuban with U.S. sympathies slip six lethal pills into Castro's food.
That account came as no surprise last week to Fontainebleau marketing director Paul Pebley, who said mob ties and CIA intrigue are part of the lively history of a hotel that was also frequented by Frank Sinatra and his ''Rat Pack'' and served as the setting for more than a few Hollywood films.
''By its sheer size and history,'' said Pebley, ``this property has drawn a host of celebrities -- and all kinds of colorful characters.''
• In May 1973, the head of CIA logistics, John F. Blake, included a South Florida real estate transaction in a list of ``Sensitive Activities.''
``This office is aware, although it had no cognizance nor responsibility, that an apartment was rented in Miami Beach, Florida, during the period of the Democratic National Convention, 10-14 July 1972, and the Republican National Convention, 21-24 August 1972.''
The CIA's Latin American division was aware, Blake wrote, as was the Secret Service. Its precise purpose beyond ''a meeting place'' was censored. No location was provided.
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