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Biz of Pigs: Five Cuban-American Show Business Intersections with Deep Politics

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  I Love Lucy star Desi Arnaz, who immigrated to the US from Cuba in 1933, “always supported the Cuban cause,” attested President of the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association Felix Rodríguez Mendigutia in 2004, adding: “Anything against Fidel Castro, he supported.” [1] Though Arnaz kept his contributions secret, veterans of the doomed CIA-backed anti-Castro operation related that “the late Cuban-American entertainer […] helped finance the freedom of hundreds of Bay of Pigs fighters captured by Cuban government forces” [2]. Rodríguez Mendigutia and Bay of Pigs veteran Nilo Messer told The Miami Herald that “Arnaz also provided seed money for several exile organizations, including one headed by the late Jorge Mas Canosa that preceded the Cuban American National Foundation.” [3] Mas Canosa, among other anti-Castro ventures, was involved in the CIA-sponsored Radio SWAN, which broadcast propaganda into Cuba [4]. Arnaz’s connections with Frank Sinatra and racketeers Mickey Cohen and Nate St...
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When Harry Met CIA: Rob Reiner, Harry Connick, Jr., and the JFK Assassination

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  The release of Rob Reiner’s 1989 romantic comedy hit When Harry Met Sally made a star of pianist Harry Connick, Jr., who contributed youthful renditions of several old jazz standards to the soundtrack. Outside of New Orleans, however, comparatively few are familiar with Harry Connick, Sr., the corrupt Orleans Parish District Attorney who made his son’s music career possible. The elder Connick, who operated two record stores [1] with his Jewish wife, Anita Levy [2], also a lawyer, achieved some prominence as a US attorney, assisting Lyndon Johnson’s Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach in his efforts to desegregate America’s schools [3] and prosecute federal civil rights violation cases against local authorities [4]. Connick’s superior had been a key party to the cover-up of the JFK assassination. As Deputy Attorney General at the time, Katzenbach had written a memo directing that the “public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who ...
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Reading Hell

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  Gideon Levy Israeli journalist Gideon Levy points out that, “in Hebrew, ‘Gaza’, pronounced ‘Aza, is short for Azazel, which is associated with hell. Of the multitude of curses hurled at me these days from every street corner, ‘Go to hell/Gaza’ is among the gentler ones.” [1] Levy’s recent book The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe collects a selection of his Haaretz columns spanning the years 2014-2024 and represents the most liberal perspective tolerated in the Jewish state. The columns present a panoramic and surprisingly frank set of vignettes illustrating the lives of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Israeli prisons, as in the following passage relating the mistreatment of Hamas members: The beatings became a daily affair. Occasionally the guards demanded of prisoners that they kiss an Israeli flag and declaim, “Am Yisrael chai” – “The people of Israel live!” They were also ordered to curse the prophet Mohammed. The usual call to prayer in the cells w...
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