Fidel Castro: CIA is a worldwide "killing machine"

Jul 1, 2007, 15:43 GMT

Havana - Ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro in new article published by Cuban press on Sunday accused the United States of having turned the CIA into a worldwide 'killing machine.'

US President George W Bush 'has implemented powerful and expensive intelligence and security superstructures and has turned all his air, sea and land forces into instruments of world power that bring war, injustice, hunger and death in every part of the globe', said Castro.

The article is the first official reaction by Castro, who temporarily left power almost a year ago to recover from a number of surgeries, to the release last Tuesday of CIA documents outlining a range of activities that included plans to kill him by enlisting the help of the mafia in the early 1960s.

Castro describes the US administration's decision to release the documents as an 'attempt to show transparency' amid low popularity ratings and with an eye to upcoming elections.

According to the Cuban leader, the CIA still uses the same 'brutal' methods as listed in the classified documents around the world including 'a growing number of illegal actions inside the US'.

Cuba's parliament on Friday condemned the actions of the CIA against Castro and said that the released documents are 'irrefutable proof that those vile intentions are not a thing of the past and that they still are the policy of actual US governments.'

Castro, 80, is recovering from a unspecified number of surgeries that made him delegate powers to his brother Raul on July 31, 2006. Although Castro has shown increasing activity in the past months, including more than 20 articles and a television interview in June, he has still not revealed if and when he will eventually return to power.