Castro
Spies on Jack Nicholson and Pope
by
Humberto Fontova
by Humberto Fontova
"Fidel
Castro is a genius!" gushed Jack Nicholson after a visit with the
Cuban Führer in 1998. "We spoke about everything," the actor rhapsodized.
"Castro is a humanist. Cuba is simply a paradise!"
Jack
Nicholson has been saying such things for years now. Many of his
Hollywood cohorts follow suit. Francis Ford Coppola, Kevin Kostner,
Steven Spielberg, Woody Harrelson, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Leo
DiCaprio Chevy Chase, Robert Redford among many others have all
waxed euphoric on Castro and his island prison.
Interestingly,
there might be more to these celebrity plugs for a tyrant who jailed
more of his subjects than Hitler or Stalin than the usual celebrity
vacuity upstairs.
"My
job was to bug their hotel rooms," says high-ranking Cuban intelligence
defector Delfin Fernandez. "With both cameras and listening devices.
Most people have no idea they are being watched while they are in
Cuba. But their personal activities are filmed under orders from
Castro himself." And according to some sources, Havana, given the
desperation of it's brutalized and impoverished residents, has recently
topped Bangkok as the world mecca for child sex.
"He
(Delfin Fernandez) has not only met some of the most famous men
in the world," says the London Daily Mirror about the Cuban
defector, "he's also spied on them and been witness to some of their
most innermost secrets."
"When
the celebrity visitors arrived at the hotels Nacional, Meliá
Habana and Meliá Cohiba," says Fernandez, "we already had
their rooms completely bugged with sophisticated taping equipment.
"But not just the rooms, we'd also follow the visitors around, sometimes
we covered them 24 hours a day. They had no idea we were tailing
them."
Famous
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar was a special target for this
bugging but nothing of value came of it for Castro. "Everybody already
knows I'm a maricon!" Almodovar laughed at Castro's blackmailers.
"So go right ahead! Knock yourselves out!"
"Fidel
Castro is a special connoisseur of these tapings and videos." Fernandez
says. "Especially of the really famous." And not even his closest
"friends" are safe from this bugging. The best example is his longtime
Castro "friend" Nobel Prize novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In
what appeared as a touching act of generosity and friendship, Castro
gave his friend "Gabo" his very own (stolen) mansion in Havana.
"We had remodeled it right before," remembers the Intelligence honcho,
Fernandez, "and we installed more cables for bugging devices than
for the normal electrical appliances. We taped EVERYTHING! Fidel
doesn't trust ANYONE."
Castro's
top intelligence people would gather for the screenings of these
tapes almost like Hollywood types for an upcoming movie. "Hummmm,
these scenes are more scandalous than anything in any of her movies!"
Fernandez recalls a top intelligence officer chortling while watching
the nighttime cavortings of a famous Spanish actress. "Now, it really
seems to me, compañeros," the Castro intimate chortled as he looked
around the room, "that this señorita should be making more
respectful comments about our regime, right?"
"But
famous Americans are the priority objectives of Castro's intelligence."
says Fernandez. "When word came down that models Naomi Campbell
and Kate Moss were coming to Cuba the order was a routine one: 24-hour-a-day
vigilance. Then we got a PRIORITY alert, " recalls Fernandez, "because
there was a rumor that they would be sharing a room with Leonardo
DiCaprio. The rumor set off a flurry of activity and we set up the
most sophisticated devices we had."
"The
American actor Jack Nicholson was another celebrity who was bugged
and taped THROUGHLY during his stay in the hotel Meliá Cohiba,"
states Fernandez, the man in charge of the bugging.
Turns
out, however, that at least one visiting dignitary foiled Castro's
intelligence. On his visit to Cuba in 1998, Pope John Paul's assistants
discovered and removed several bugging devices from his Holiness'
hotel room. Perhaps Castro had a grudge against the Papacy?
Most
don't recall, but on January 3rd, 1962, Pope John XXIII ex-communicated
Fidel Castro from the Catholic Church. It seemed a fitting act for
the Pope who in April 1959 forbade Catholics from voting for political
candidates who even supported Communism. In Cuba during 196162
hundreds of young men from the youth group Agrupacion Catolica
were crumpling in front of Communist firing squads while refusing
blindfolds to yell "Long Live Christ the King!" during their last
seconds alive. It was the Spanish Civil War all over again. But
this time, the Communists won.
April
8, 2005
Humberto
Fontova [send him mail]
holds an M.A. in History from Tulane University. He’s the author
of the newly-published Fidel;
Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant, as well as The
Hellpig Hunt: A Hunting Adventure in the Wild Wetlands at the Mouth
of the Mississippi River by Middle-Aged Lunatics Who Refuse to Grow
Up and Helldiver’s
Rodeo described as "Highly entertaining!" by Publisher’s
Weekly, as "Terrific!" by Salon.com, and as "Just
what the doctor ordered!" by Ted Nugent. Watch for him on the
Dennis Miller show April 14th.
Copyright
© 2005 LewRockwell.com
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