In 1977 I interviewed two of the most deadly terrorists of the
twentieth century, Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch in a Venezuelan prison. I had a tape recorder.
Between them, they had
orchestrated hundreds of bombings and assassinations. They were being held in
connection with the bombing of a civilian Cubana
Airline plane that had killed 73 civilians five months earlier in October 1976.
“How did you get in here?” Bosch asked me
suspiciously. When I told him, Bosch seemed happy for the chance to tell his
story to a foreign reporter. He took me into his well-appointed cell and
introduced me to Luis Posada, a long-time ally and cellmate.
“Would you like a cigar?”
Luis Posada asked me. “America may have an embargo against Cuban cigars, but we
don’t.”
They were extremely angry
and felt betrayed. The Venezuelans and the CIA had locked them away to keep
them silent. Over the din of homemade drums in a nearby courtyard, they poured
out their story for more than six hours.
I realized that I was
being given an extraordinary opportunity that few journalists would ever have -
an extended, taped interview with terrorists who proudly bragged of their
complicity in hundreds of murders, bombings and assassinations throughout the
world, supported and financed, and sometimes betrayed, by state-sponsored
nefarious secret agencies, including the CIA.
“I was on a CIA draw of
$300 plus all expenses,” Posada bragged to me.
“The CIA helped me set up my detective agency from which we planned
actions.” “Actions” was a code word that Posada used to describe bombings and
assassinations. They spoke about the murder of two Cuban diplomats in
“It is true,” Bosch and
Posada told me. “We had a great meeting in the Bonao
mountains in
The meeting was to
coordinate all terrorist actions in the hemisphere. Both men were proud of what
they had accomplished. Hernan Ricardo, who worked for Posada’s detective agency,
was arrested in Trinidad and confessed to planting the bomb on the civilian
airliner to the
Back at the Hilton, I was
feeling a little nervous and called Eugene Propper,
the Assistant US Attorney in
I asked Propper if I should go back to the Embassy. He told me that
he thought that would be the worst place for me to go. “I have no power down
there. You are on your own.”
We were both aware of the
reputation of the notorious secret police and their Death Squads that had
caused the disappearance and murder of hundreds of dissidents, politicians and
journalists over the last few years. “Get out of there” he told me in no
uncertain terms. “You are not safe.”
I later learned that the
secret police had indeed issued an arrest warrant for me and were closely
watching the airports and ports. US Ambassador Viron Vaky had learned of my interview and, instead of rejoicing
over its potential for assisting in Propper’s
anti-terrorism investigation, he was not happy. Venezuelan President Perez had
personally ordered his secret police to arrest me. Then, the Venezuelan
government sent a formal protest to the
In September of 2005 I
offered this information, notes and tapes, to the Department of Homeland
Security.
I was contacted by Jo
Ellen Ardinger, an attorney with DHS. She seemed
excited by my information and phoned and emailed me. She told me that this
information was exactly what the
She asked me if I was
willing to testify. I said that I was.
There was a trial on these
matters in
They never did.