Final_Judgment

202 Cuban Love Song [141]
Maheu, who had become friendly with Rosselli during business trips to
Las Vegas, had been approached by the CIA to open up negotiations with the
Mafia for this special, mutually beneficial, operation. Thus, the initial plot was
set in place. However, there were subsequent developments:
"Once the basic groundwork was laid, Rosselli decided to introduce two new
players into the picture. One was Rosselli's Chicago boss, Sam Giancana,
and the other was Santo Trafficante, Meyer Lansky's colleague in the Havana
casinos. Trafficante's connections could prove helpful in moving the plots along,
and besides, Mafia tradition required that as the local don, he be informed of
any activity taking place in his domain." 372
There is no question that Trafficante, Rosselli and Giancana did indeed
help coordinate assassination plots against Castro with representatives of the
CIA. (This, as we have said, has been thoroughly documented time and again.
To discuss this here would belabor the point.)
However, as one author succinctly put it: "Lansky was the top man in the
CIA-Mafia plot against Castro, but the only journalist who had guts enough
to point this out was [columnist] Victor Riesel." 373 JFK assassination
researcher Peter Dale Scott acknowledges that Lansky was indeed involved
in the CIA plots against Castro, 374 but, Lansky's role has been obscured,
ignored, or otherwise gone unmentioned.
In fact, as we shall see in Chapter 12 when we examine the Lansky-
Trafficante relationship further, Trafficante was Lansky's subordinate. All of
Trafficante's anti-Castro operations in league with the CIA were being
conducted with Lansky's approval and under Lansky's watchful eye.
The latter phase of the CIA's anti-Castro operations were known as
Operation MongooseHeadquarters of the operation—known as JM/Wave—
were in Lansky's own city of Miami and based on the campus of the
University of Miami. Part of the CIA's campaign against Castro included its socalled
ZR/Rifle Team project. Skilled assassins, recruited from around the globe
(and often from the ranks of professional mercenaries and from within organized
crime) were on retainer for use in the CIA's own private "hit team" or terrorist
army, as the case may be. One of the prime in-house supervisors of the
ZR/Rifle Team project was the CIA's counterintelligence chief, Israel's loyal
ally, James J. Angleton.
ROSSELLI & THE JFK ASSASSINATION
That Rosselli, for example, was entwined in some aspect of the JFK
assassination conspiracy seems certain. Evidence suggests that Rosselli was
definitely engaged in activities during the summer and fall of 1963 that tied him
directly to several of the key figures in the assassination conspiracy.
Rosselli's biographers themselves have suggested that Rosselli was indeed
involved in the assassination itself. According to Rappleye and Becker: "The
strongest indication that John Rosselli had a hand in the pre-assassination planning
is a report of a direct contact between Rosselli and Jack Ruby in early October
1963. There were two meetings, both taking place in small motels near
Miami, and both observed by the FBI. One of the