US ambassador to India said that while Washington accepts the conduct of the probe into the so-called ‘murder for hire’ charge levelled by Canada against New Delhi involving a Khalistani militant, White House will be “satisfied ultimately only if accountability is ensured”.
Going by its own track record, US is justified in demanding full disclosure about any black ops that New Delhi might have got up to. For Washington has shown that when it comes to cloak-and-dagger business, its own dirty tricks department has displayed more dagger than cloak when dealing with its targets, most notably in the case of the former Cuban leader, Fidel Castro.
Washington’s not-so-covert plots against Castro constitute a surreal scenario that reads like a comedy of terrors.
In a project codenamed Executive Action, which spanned eight US presidencies starting with that of Eisenhower in 1960 and concluding with Bill Clinton’s, America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) displayed remarkable unintelligence while making no fewer than a reported 638 bungled attempts to ‘terminate with extreme prejudice’ the charismatic Cuban leader.
Among the more bizarre attempts to put paid to Castro was a cigar poisoned with botulinum toxin, and another that would explode when lit. Perhaps it was such intimations that smoking might be injurious to his death that caused Fidel finally to kick the habit.
Plumbing the depths of desperation, CIA took advantage of Castro’s hobby of deep-sea diving by planting an Eumycota fungi-infested scuba suit, and on another occasion, leaving a poisoned conch shell on the seabed.
Attempts to discredit the Cuban included coating his shoes with thallium so that his beard would fall out, and make him literally lose face.
All this and more was brought into the public limelight in a 2006 TV documentary, 638 Ways to Kill Castro, which was aired on UK’s Channel 4.
Eventually Castro died of natural causes, aged 90, leaving a legacy of well-documented attempts on his life by Washington.
As the term suggests, assassination only too often is attempted by a multiplicity of asses.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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