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Havana: Fidel Castro quipped that comments by US President George W. Bush helped him finally figure out how he escaped so many assassination attempts: through the grace of God.
"Now I understand why I survived Bush's plans and those of presidents who ordered my assassination," Castro joked in a short essay distributed via e-mail to international media in Havana.
"The good Lord protected me," Castro said sarcastically, echoing Bush's own words on the 80-year-old leader's eventual demise.
"One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away," Bush said on Thursday, in response to questions following a speech at the US Naval War College in Rhode Island.
When the audience applauded, Bush said, "No, no, no," evidently to indicate his statement was not a wish for Castro's death.
Freedom
Bush told the group his administration would "continue to press for freedom on the island of Cuba." Castro's citing of divine intervention was most likely just a rhetorical device. Although the communist leader was educated at Roman Catholic schools in his youth, unlike Bush, he rarely mentions God or religious matters.
Bush's comments and Castro's response come just one day after newly declassified papers were released showing the CIA recruited a former FBI agent to approach two of America's most-wanted mobsters and gave them poisonous pills meant for Castro during his first year in power.
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