Final_Judgment

138 Israel’s Godfather [77]
Resorts International ultimately set up a subsidiary known as
International Intelligence, Inc. (Intertel) ostensibly designed to curtail
organized crime involvement in the casino industry. However, in reality, this
was a myth.
There are those who suspect that Intertel—like Resorts International and
Mary Carter Paint before it—was not simply a CIA operation, but a joint CIA-
Lansky operation—an intelligence network interacting with Israel's Mossad. 201
Perhaps not surprisingly, Dewey's admiring biographer, Richard Norton
Smith, writing in Thomas E. Dewey and His Times, never mentions
Dewey's Mary Carter Paint Company—or Lansky's support for Dewey's
political endeavors. Another Lansky connection gone unmentioned. All of this
illustrates the depth of Lansky's political influence and his wide range of
connections.
FRANK COSTELLO 'RETIRES'
There is also the question as to whether Lansky may have had a hand in the
unsuccessful assassination attempt against his other boyhood friend, the
aforementioned Frank Costello, who was often called "the Prime Minister of the
Mafia." Whatever the truth, the attempt on Costello forced the "prime
minister" into early retirement and gave Lansky further influence in
organized crime.
LUCIANO REMEMBERS . . .
"Lucky" Luciano, who had initially smoothed Meyer Lansky's way to the
top, later rued the day that he had placed so much trust in his early gangland
associate. In 1961, well after his influence in the international crime
syndicate had begun to dwindle, Luciano reflected upon his relationship
with Lansky. "In [Shakespeare's] Julius Caesar, you remember a guy by the
name of Cassius? He was a pain in the ass. It seems like everybody's got a
Cassius in his life."
According to Luciano, his Mafia associate Vito Genovese was his own
Cassius. However, upon further thought he added, "Come to think of it, I even
had two Cassiuses in my life, the other one bein' a guy by the name of Meyer
Lansky. But I didn't get on to him for a long time." 202
In his waning days Luciano considered offers from Hollywood producers
who wanted to film his life story. However, Luciano—in exile in Italy—got
word from home that there were "orders" that he not participate in any such
venture. It was then that Luciano saw the whole picture—the whole truth about
what "the Mafia" had really become.
'THE BOSS OF EVERYTHING'
"When I realized that Meyer Lansky was right in the middle of this, that's
when I knew he had us all by a string. Why should Lansky, bein' a