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l:GP SECItt! [ Part VII The Question of Assassinations In his testimony before the Senate Select Com- mittee to Study GovenIDEntal Operations, Intelligence Activities, Richard M. Bissell, formerly CIA's Deputy Director for Plans, testified fully and completely to the role that he, Sheffield Edwards, and William Harvey played in negotiations~ith Robert Maheu and Mafia figures John Rosselli and Momo Salvatore Giancana on plans for the assassination of Fidel Castro. In addition to the individuals just named, it also appears highly probable that Allen Dul1es, the Director of Central Intelligence (and possibly both Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy) was aware that Castro was an assassination target. Unfortunately the Senate Com- mittee Report and the media coverage of the investi- gation of the Central Intelligence Agency's partici- pation in assassination plots made it appear that the Mafia involvement was a flli~damental part of the Agency's response to President Eisenhower's March 1960 authori- zation for CIA to be princi?ally responsible for the ouster of Fidel Castro. In fact, the activities of - 277 -