Senate investigation revealed CIA attempts to assassinate Castro, Lumumba, and other leaders using poison, exploding cigars, and mob connections. Operations kept secret from Congress for decades.
“The CIA does not engage in assassination activities”
From “crazy” to confirmed
The Claim Is Made
This is the moment they called it crazy.
For decades, the American public had no idea that their intelligence agency was actively plotting to kill foreign leaders during peacetime. The CIA conducted assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, and others using methods that read like science fiction: poisoned cigars, contaminated diving suits, and partnerships with organized crime figures. When these operations finally surfaced, they exposed a fundamental crack in democratic accountability.
The claims weren't new whispers or conspiracy theorist speculation. Career intelligence officers knew what had happened. What was new, starting in 1975, was that Congress finally found out.
Senator Frank Church chaired a special committee investigating intelligence abuses, and what his team uncovered was methodical, documented, and deeply troubling. The CIA had attempted to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro at least eight times between 1960 and 1965. One operation involved a poison pill hidden in a cigar. Another relied on underworld connections—the agency had actually partnered with mobsters to carry out hits. In Congo, the CIA was involved in planning against Patrice Lumumba, a democratically elected prime minister. In Chile, the agency worked to destabilize and ultimately overthrow Salvador Allende's government.
The official line, when anyone asked, was always the same: deny, deflect, or claim national security concerns. Presidents and CIA directors insisted the agency operated within legal bounds and that any covert operations served American interests. The operations themselves were classified so thoroughly that Congress—which was supposed to provide oversight—knew almost nothing about them.
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This wasn't incompetence or rogue agents. The assassinations and destabilization plots were authorized at high levels. Presidents knew. The CIA director knew. Cables and memos documented the orders, the planning, the failed attempts. The machinery of American government had quietly decided that certain foreign leaders needed to die, and it had set about making that happen using taxpayer money and federal agents.
The Church Committee's final report, delivered in 1976, changed that calculus. Suddenly, the public could read declassified documents. They could see the paper trail. They could understand that American intelligence services had operated as judge, jury, and executioner against leaders in other sovereign nations—some of whom had been democratically elected.
The immediate response was defensive. Intelligence officials argued they were protecting national security, that the methods were proportionate to Cold War threats, that results justified the means. Congress passed new oversight laws, including requirements that the president authorize covert operations and that Congress be briefed. But the damage to public trust was already done.
What matters now, fifty years later, is that this wasn't a conspiracy theory validated by circumstantial evidence. This was a conspiracy—an actual, documented conspiracy by the American government to assassinate foreign leaders—hidden from democratic oversight through classification and denial. When it finally surfaced through congressional investigation and declassification, there was no ambiguity. The documents existed. The operations were real.
This history matters because it establishes a principle: when citizens are skeptical of official government claims, they have historical precedent. Not because government always lies, but because government has deliberately lied about activities this significant. The Church Committee didn't prove that every intelligence claim was false. It proved that even the most dramatic accusations can be understated when they're finally revealed. That's why we should listen carefully when institutions ask us to simply trust them.
Unlikely leak
Only 9.6% chance this would come out. It did.
Conspirators
~500Large op
Secret kept
50.5 years
Time to 95% exposure
500+ years
