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Gilberto Alvarado


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I am doing some research on Gilberto Alvarado. Has anyone got a photograph of him?

Here you go, John.

James

Thank you for that. What do you make of Alvardo's statement about Oswald after the assassination?

Interesting to say the least. We can also add a similar statement made by Pedro Gutierrez Valencia to the mix here. One would be justified in wondering who was running who.

James

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Gilberto Alvarado was born in Nicaragua in 1940. He joined the Frente de Liberacion Nacional (FLN) a guerrilla group inspired by the activities of Fidel Castro in Cuba. However, he was also a CIA informant.

In 1963 the FLN sent Alvarado to Mexico in order to obtain entry to Cuba where it was hoped he would be trained in sabotage.

On 25th November, 1963, Alvarado contacted the U.S. embassy in Mexico City and said he had some important information about Lee Harvey Oswald, who had recently been arrested and accused of assassinating JFK.

Thomas C. Mann passed the information onto Winston Scott and the following morning, Scott's deputy, Alan White and another CIA officer interviewed Alvarado He claimed that during a visit to the Cuban Embassy he overheard a man he now recognised as Oswald, talking to a red-haired Negro man. According to Alvarado, Oswald said something about being man enough to kill someone. He also claimed that he saw money changing hands. He reported the information at the time to the U.S. Embassy but they replied: "Quit wasting our time. We are working here, not playing."

Winston Scott told David Atlee Phillips about what Alvarado had said to Alan White. On 26th November, Phillips had a meeting with Alvarado in a safe-house. Alvarado told Phillips that the red-haired black man had given Oswald $1,500 for expenses and $5,500 as an advance. Although he was not sure of the date, he thought it was about 18th September.

Thomas Mann and David Phillips believed Alvarado but Winston Scott was not so sure. He argued that there was an "outside possibility" that it might be a set-up by the right-wing government in Nicaragua who wanted the United States to invade Cuba. However, as Jefferson Morley pointed out in Our Man in Mexico: "The unstated message emanating from the White House was by now clear to Win - though not to Mann. Speculation about Oswald's motives was to be cut off, not pursued."

On 27th November, Luis Echeverria told Winston Scott that they had rearrested Silvia Duran because she was trying to leave Mexico for Cuba. Mann sent a message to Scott that stated: "Duran should be told that as the only living non-Cuban who knew the full story, she was in exactly the same position as Oswald prior to the assassination. Her only chance of survival is to come clean with the whole story and cooperate fully. I think she'll crack when confronted with the details."

On 28th November, Winston Scott contacted Luis Echeverria and told him that Washington wanted the Mexicans to interrogate Gilberto Alvarado On 29th November, Scott received a message from John M. Whitten saying: "Please continue to keep us filled in on status of interrogations of Slvia Duran, Alvarado and others implicated as fast as you can get info."

J. Edgar Hoover sent FBI agent, Larry Keenan, to Mexico City in order to have a meeting with Thomas Mann, Winston Scott, and David Atlee Phillips. Mann started the meeting by expressing the belief that Fidel Castro and the DGI were behind the assassination of JFK and that it was just a matter of time before the United States invaded Cuba. However, Keenan replied that Hoover, Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert Kennedy, all believed that Oswald acted alone.

Mann later told Dick Russell: "It surprised me so much. That was the only time it ever happened to me - We don't want to hear any more about the case - and tell the Mexican government not to do any more about it, not to do more investigating, we just want to hush it up.... I don't think the U.S. was very forthcoming about Oswald... it was the strangest experience of my life."

In reality, Hoover had not ruled out the possibility of a communist plot to kill JFK. At 1.40 on 29th November, Hoover told Johnson on the telephone: "This angle in Mexico is giving us a great deal of trouble because the story there is of this man Oswald getting $6,500 from the Cuban embassy and then coming back to this country with it. We're not able to prove that fact, but the information was that he was there on the 18th of September in Mexico City and we are able to prove conclusively he was in New Orleans that day. Now then they've changed the dates. The story came in changing the dates to the 28th of September and he was in Mexico City on the 28th. Now the Mexican police have again arrested this woman Duran, who is a member of the Cuban embassy... and we're going to confront her with the original informant, who saw the money pass, so he says, and we're also going to put the lie detector test on him."

That evening Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios told Winston Scott that Gilberto Alvarado had recanted and signed a statement admitting that his story of seeing Lee Harvey Oswald in the Cuban Embassy was completely false. He said his motive was to try to get the United States to take action against Fidel Castro.

A few days later Gilberto Alvarado reverted to his original story. He told his Nicaraguan handler that the only reason that he recanted was that his interrogators threatened "to hang him by his testicles". However, soon afterwards, he recanted again. David Atlee Phillips later claimed that Alvarado was "dispatched to Mexico City by the Somoza brothers... in what they considered a covert action to influence the American government to move against Cuba". Jefferson Morley argues that Phillips is being disingenuous: "Phillips knew all along about Alvarado's service as a CIA informant. Even the FBI knew all along he was under CIA control."

Silvia Duran was questioned about her relationship with Oswald. Despite being roughed up she denied having a sexual relationship with Oswald. She also claimed that Alvarado was lying about money being passed to Oswald. Luis Echeverria believed her and she was released.

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Gilberto Alvarado was born in Nicaragua in 1940. He joined the Frente de Liberacion Nacional (FLN) a guerrilla group inspired by the activities of Fidel Castro in Cuba. However, he was also a CIA informant.

In 1963 the FLN sent Alvarado to Mexico in order to obtain entry to Cuba where it was hoped he would be trained in sabotage.

On 25th November, 1963, Alvarado contacted the U.S. embassy in Mexico City and said he had some important information about Lee Harvey Oswald, who had recently been arrested and accused of assassinating JFK.

Thomas C. Mann passed the information onto Winston Scott and the following morning, Scott's deputy, Alan White and another CIA officer interviewed Alvarado He claimed that during a visit to the Cuban Embassy he overheard a man he now recognised as Oswald, talking to a red-haired Negro man. According to Alvarado, Oswald said something about being man enough to kill someone. He also claimed that he saw money changing hands. He reported the information at the time to the U.S. Embassy but they replied: "Quit wasting our time. We are working here, not playing."

Winston Scott told David Atlee Phillips about what Alvarado had said to Alan White. On 26th November, Phillips had a meeting with Alvarado in a safe-house. Alvarado told Phillips that the red-haired black man had given Oswald $1,500 for expenses and $5,500 as an advance. Although he was not sure of the date, he thought it was about 18th September.

Thomas Mann and David Phillips believed Alvarado but Winston Scott was not so sure. He argued that there was an "outside possibility" that it might be a set-up by the right-wing government in Nicaragua who wanted the United States to invade Cuba. However, as Jefferson Morley pointed out in Our Man in Mexico: "The unstated message emanating from the White House was by now clear to Win - though not to Mann. Speculation about Oswald's motives was to be cut off, not pursued."

On 27th November, Luis Echeverria told Winston Scott that they had rearrested Silvia Duran because she was trying to leave Mexico for Cuba. Mann sent a message to Scott that stated: "Duran should be told that as the only living non-Cuban who knew the full story, she was in exactly the same position as Oswald prior to the assassination. Her only chance of survival is to come clean with the whole story and cooperate fully. I think she'll crack when confronted with the details."

On 28th November, Winston Scott contacted Luis Echeverria and told him that Washington wanted the Mexicans to interrogate Gilberto Alvarado On 29th November, Scott received a message from John M. Whitten saying: "Please continue to keep us filled in on status of interrogations of Slvia Duran, Alvarado and others implicated as fast as you can get info."

J. Edgar Hoover sent FBI agent, Larry Keenan, to Mexico City in order to have a meeting with Thomas Mann, Winston Scott, and David Atlee Phillips. Mann started the meeting by expressing the belief that Fidel Castro and the DGI were behind the assassination of JFK and that it was just a matter of time before the United States invaded Cuba. However, Keenan replied that Hoover, Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert Kennedy, all believed that Oswald acted alone.

Mann later told Dick Russell: "It surprised me so much. That was the only time it ever happened to me - We don't want to hear any more about the case - and tell the Mexican government not to do any more about it, not to do more investigating, we just want to hush it up.... I don't think the U.S. was very forthcoming about Oswald... it was the strangest experience of my life."

In reality, Hoover had not ruled out the possibility of a communist plot to kill JFK. At 1.40 on 29th November, Hoover told Johnson on the telephone: "This angle in Mexico is giving us a great deal of trouble because the story there is of this man Oswald getting $6,500 from the Cuban embassy and then coming back to this country with it. We're not able to prove that fact, but the information was that he was there on the 18th of September in Mexico City and we are able to prove conclusively he was in New Orleans that day. Now then they've changed the dates. The story came in changing the dates to the 28th of September and he was in Mexico City on the 28th. Now the Mexican police have again arrested this woman Duran, who is a member of the Cuban embassy... and we're going to confront her with the original informant, who saw the money pass, so he says, and we're also going to put the lie detector test on him."

That evening Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios told Winston Scott that Gilberto Alvarado had recanted and signed a statement admitting that his story of seeing Lee Harvey Oswald in the Cuban Embassy was completely false. He said his motive was to try to get the United States to take action against Fidel Castro.

A few days later Gilberto Alvarado reverted to his original story. He told his Nicaraguan handler that the only reason that he recanted was that his interrogators threatened "to hang him by his testicles". However, soon afterwards, he recanted again. David Atlee Phillips later claimed that Alvarado was "dispatched to Mexico City by the Somoza brothers... in what they considered a covert action to influence the American government to move against Cuba". Jefferson Morley argues that Phillips is being disingenuous: "Phillips knew all along about Alvarado's service as a CIA informant. Even the FBI knew all along he was under CIA control."

Silvia Duran was questioned about her relationship with Oswald. Despite being roughed up she denied having a sexual relationship with Oswald. She also claimed that Alvarado was lying about money being passed to Oswald. Luis Echeverria believed her and she was released.

John,

I believe the facts show that the Alvarado story was engineered to convince LBJ of Castro's possible involvement so that he would establish the Warren Commission.

When the Mexican Federal Police first arrested Sylvia Duran, they were supposed to generate a story about Oswald receiving a payoff from the Cubans, as evidenced by a phone conversation between Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticos and Cuba’s Ambassador to Mexico, Joaquin Hernandez Armas, on the morning of November 26, 1963. In that conversation, the Cuban President repeatedly focused on the idea that a story would be generated about “money” being given to “Oswald” during his visit to the Cuban Embassy.

A transcript of the conversation was sent to CIA Headquarters in a “Flash” cable, which meant that it had the highest priority and was more than an emergency. The first page of the cable states, “Please note Dorticos’ preoccupation over question of money.”

The Cuban President told Ambassador Hernandez, “I have your confidential report on the Duran case and I want to ask you for some declarations on this. You can tell me in detail . . . . What you say here in the confidential report, the Federals of that country wanted Sylvia Duran to say something that they had some interest in, and had offered money to the American?”

The CIA “retranslated” this for the Warren Commission, using their “most able linguists,” so that it has the Cuban President asking if “some blackmail boys” from the “Federal Police of that country attempted to force Sylvia Duran to say, with promises of leniency, that we had offered money to the American?”

“No, no, nothing about money,” replied the Cuban Ambassador.

Dorticos asked, “And they tried to detain her, to oblige her to make a statement?”

The Cuban Ambassador replied, “She was detained, and questioned with respect to this visit and the request for a visa.”

The Cuban President inquired again, “Did they ask her some other question about money?”

“No. No absolutely,” the Cuban Ambassador replied.

Ambassador Hernandez told President Dorticos that the Mexicans had asked Sylvia Duran about her relations with her husband and relations with Oswald, and President Dorticos again, for the third time, asked about money.

“And they spoke of money?” he said.

“No. No. She has not told me anything about money . . . . That is, she has not told me that they spoke to her about that,” replied Ambassador Hernandez.

Upon hearing Hernandez’ deny for the third time that the Mexican Federal Police questioned Duran about Oswald receiving money from the Cubans, President Dorticos made reference to the Cuban Consul in Mexico, Alfredo Mirabal, and said, “Mirabal said to a friend something about that.”

But before asking for the second and third time about money, the Cuban President asked, “Did they mistreat her?” The Cuban Ambassador replied, “Yes.”

The Cuban President then asked, “What did they do to her?”

The Ambassador replied, “She has black and blue marks on her arms, which she said she got during the interrogation process.”

President Dorticos concluded by telling the Cuban Ambassador to “question her some more. Investigate more and call me here.”

The Cuban Ambassador called President Dorticos again in the evening and told him that he had again questioned Duran. Dorticos again wanted to know “whether they had threatened her so that she would make a statement that the Consulate had given money to the man, that American.”

The Cuban Ambassador once again replied, “No, no. Nothing of the sort.”

The President of Cuba clearly thought that a story would be brought out stating that “Oswald” was given money when he went to the Cuban Embassy, and he clearly thought that the Mexican Federal Police, who arrested Duran at the behest of the CIA, were supposed to generate the story.

Alfredo Mirabal, whom the Cuban President identified as his source for thinking that a story would be generated about Oswald receiving a payoff from the Cubans, was identified in CIA documents as Cuba’s “chief of intelligence” in Mexico, and as an “overseas office chief,” Mirabal was “directly in touch” with Cuba’s intelligence chief back at headquarters in Cuba.

The CIA sent a memorandum to the House Assassinations Committee in 1978 stating the conversation between President Dorticos and the Cuban Ambassador “indicates that the Cuban President was concerned that Mexican authorities might try to force Sylvia Duran into implicating the Cubans in the assassination of President Kennedy.” (Forcing Duran into implicating the Cubans would be why the CIA suggested that Mexican authorities arrest her.)

As for Alvarado, when Hoover called Johnson on November 29 and told him that the story about “Oswald getting $6,500” while at the Cuban Embassy “is giving us a great deal of trouble,” President Johnson was apparently oblivious to an internal CIA cable two days earlier, on November 27, in which the CIA stated there is “mounting evidence that Alvarado is fabricating his story of seeing Oswald take money in the Cuban Embassy.”

The cable also said, “We find it incredible that the Cubans would brief and pay an assassin in front of a stranger.”

Another internal CIA cable on November 27 said Oswald “applied for unemployment insurance in New Orleans on 17 September,” one day before Alvarado claimed that he saw him in the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, and the cable states Oswald’s “New Orleans landlady believes he was there continuously between 17 and 25 September.”

This cable, too, said the information “gives further reason to believe Alvarado is fabricating,” but as with the other cable on November 27, Johnson was obviously not informed of it.

A CIA Memo for the Record from November 27 also addresses Oswald’s whereabouts when he was supposedly in Mexico taking a payoff to kill President Kennedy. It states, “A check of airlines indicates that he did not leave New Orleans that day or the following one, and every indication, including the statements by his landlady, would lead to the conclusion that he remained in New Orleans until 25 September 1963.”

Not only was President Johnson being kept in the dark about Alvarado’s story being a fabrication, but CIA Director John McCone sent a cable to President Johnson’s National Security Advisor, McGeorge Bundy, on November 27 vouching for Alvarado. McCone stated Alvarado had been questioned “until 2 a.m. this morning,” and “the wealth of detail Alvarado gives about events and personalities involved with Oswald in Cuban Embassy is striking.”

McCone also stated the CIA case officer who questioned Alvarado “was impressed by Alvarado” and that Alvarado “is now hiding” in a place provided by the CIA. And to add weight to Alvarado’s story, McCone ominously warned, “We cannot guarantee Alvarado’s safety.”

An internal CIA cable from the following day, November 28, to which Johnson was oblivious, states that they “can confidently regard Alvarado as fabricator” and that Alvarado “might respond to the suggestion that he has been having delusions and needs psychiatric treatment.”

The November 28 cable also says an “investigation of Oswald’s activities” had determined that Oswald “was in New Orleans on September 19, 1963,” one day after he was alleged to be in Mexico being paid by the Cubans.

While keeping Johnson in the dark regarding Alvarado’s deception, the CIA sent a cable to the Mexico City station on November 28 stating, “There should be no let down in your effort to follow all leads and investigate all facts which bear on this case. We have by no means excluded the possibility that other as yet unknown persons may have been involved, or even that other powers may have played a role.”

CIA Director John McCone had a meeting with President Johnson early on November 28, but McCone did not inform the President of Alvarado’s deception. McCone did, however, send a letter to National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy afterward, and in his letter to Bundy, McCone included a “Memorandum for the President through Mr. McGeorge Bundy.”

But McCone did not tell Johnson about Alvarado’s deception in the memorandum, either. Instead, McCone informed Johnson in his lengthy memorandum “through Bundy” that in his meeting with Johnson that day, “Time prevented me from mentioning this morning developments in Mexico City.”

The memorandum started out with McCone’s “developments,” which simply recapped in precise detail everything about Oswald’s alleged visit to Mexico at the end of September, who Alvarado was and his story about the alleged payoff to Oswald on September 18, and how the CIA was “holding Alvarado voluntarily in a safe house” and “checking every detail of his story.” (Johnson was already aware of all this information.)

As with his cable to Bundy the day before, McCone harped on Alvarado’s credibility, telling Johnson that Alvarado “has advised our station in great detail of his alleged knowledge that he actually saw Oswald given $6,500 in the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City on September 18th.” McCone’s November 28 memorandum sounds like a repeat of his November 27 cable, and McCone is obviously trying to communicate that he just can’t get over how Alvarado is giving details of a conspiracy involving Castro.

The only thing that would cast a negative light on Alvarado’s story was relatively hidden in the fifth paragraph of McCone’s eight-paragraph memorandum. The entirety of the memorandum was worded in such a way as to give weight to Alvarado’s story and the possibility of Cuban involvement, and unless Johnson himself carefully read the memorandum, he would miss that McCone stated in the fifth paragraph, “We doubt the story.”

The sixth paragraph mentions Sylvia Duran’s arrest, stating, “This arrest has caused several telephone conversations between the Cuban Ambassador in Mexico and President Dorticos in which Dorticos has expressed great concern over money matters.”

McCone then blatantly lied about Dorticos’ “great concern over money matters,” stating, “It is somewhat obscure, however, whether his concern runs to a disclosure, or an attempt by the Mexican authorities to bribe Sylvia Duran into making a damaging statement.”

There was actually nothing “obscure” about what Dorticos said.

According to the CIA’s transcript of the conversation, Dorticos wanted to know if Sylvia Duran said that the Cubans “had offered money to the American,” and in his second conversation that evening, Dorticos focused on whether “they had threatened her so that she would make a statement that the Consulate had given money to the man, that American.”

McCone knew perfectly well that Dorticos’ “great concern over money matters” had nothing to do with the Mexicans wanting to “bribe Sylvia Duran.”

According to McCone, when Dorticos’ conversation is examined, the only explanation for Dorticos’ great concern over money matters is that it was a “disclosure” that the Cubans paid Oswald to assassinate President Kennedy, because it certainly wasn’t “an attempt by the Mexican authorities to bribe Sylvia Duran.”

It’s no wonder that on November 29, Hoover told President Johnson that the story about Oswald receiving a payoff at the Cuban Embassy was “giving us a great deal of trouble.”

McCone’s objective of convincing President Johnson that Alvarado’s story was “potentially” very ominous can also be seen toward the end of the November 28 memorandum in the seventh paragraph, in which McCone wrote, “At the moment, it seems that Alvarado’s statement cannot be verified because of the dates or for other reasons. However, the investigation will continue.”

“Seems” that it cannot be “verified” is a far cry from saying that Alvarado’s story is patently false and ridiculous and that there is no need for further investigation.

On November 25, three days before his memorandum to the President through Bundy, McCone wrote a Memorandum for the Record stating that at a meeting with Johnson, “It was agreed that for the next few days I would brief the President in the morning personally . . . . The President asked that any matters of urgent importance be brought to his attention at anytime, day or night. He designated no intermediary.”

By using Bundy as an intermediary, McCone’s memorandum “through Bundy” was in direct opposition to what Johnson told McCone three days earlier. But whereas President Johnson may have thought it was important to know that Alvarado was lying, McCone thought that it was important to keep Johnson in the dark about Alvarado’s deception so that Johnson would fear the possibility of Cuban involvement. Hence, the lengthy, verbose, and redundant memorandum through Bundy with the relatively obscure statement, “We doubt the story.”

McCone did, however, call President Johnson on November 30 to say, “We had a phone call from Mexico City that this fellow Alvarado that I was telling you about this morning . . . signed a statement that all the statements that he made in connection with that matter had been false . . . . Apparently there is no such truth in it at all . . . . So this looks like it probably washes out entirely.”

On Monday, November 25, two days before Duran’s re-arrest and the same day that Alvarado initiated contact with the Embassy, the CIA’s Mexico station came up with a list of “important questions” about Oswald that they wanted answers to:

“With whom did he talk in the Cuban Embassy?

“Was the assassination of President Kennedy planned by Fidel Castro; and were the final details worked out inside the Cuban Embassy in Mexico?

“Were Oswald and his wife paid well and promised a ‘plush life’ in Odessa, USSR, for the killing of President Kennedy?

“Did Oswald ever travel to Cuba from Mexico City?

“If Castro planned that Oswald assassinate President Kennedy, did the Soviets have any knowledge of these plans?”

A November 27 CIA cable states, “Mexican authorities should interrogate Sylvia Duran to extent necessary. Clarify outstanding points which have been raised in your cables last 48 hours. You may provide questions to Mexican authorities but we do not, repeat not, want any Americans to confront Sylvia Duran or be in contact with her. Advise ASAP results interrogation.”

The CIA’s Mexico City station sent a cable to CIA Headquarters on December 12, 1963, stating that when Duran was arrested for the second time, her “interrogation” was “based on questions prepared by station.”

A CIA Memorandum for the Record on Tuesday, November 26, 1963, concerning CIA Director John McCone’s meeting with Johnson, states, “The President noted with some considerable contempt the fact that certain people in the Department of Justice had suggested to him on Saturday that an independent investigation of the President’s assassination should be conducted by a high level group of attorneys and jurists.”

The November 26 memorandum continues, “President Johnson rejected this idea, and then he heard that the identical plan was to be advanced in a lead editorial in the Washington Post. The President felt this was a deliberate plant and he was exceedingly critical. He personally intervened.”

Katzenbach obviously went into action on Saturday, November 23, the day after President Kennedy’s assassination when Oswald was still alive. He first suggested the idea of a Presidential Commission to President Johnson and then lobbied the Post. He then harped on the idea with J. Edgar Hoover on Sunday, November 24, the day that Oswald was killed, and pressed the issue further by writing his memo to the White House on Monday, November 25, the day that Johnson told Hoover that “some lawyer in Justice is lobbying with the Post because that’s where the suggestion came from for this Presidential Commission which we think would be very bad.” McCone then met with Johnson on Tuesday, November 26, and observed his “considerable contempt” for a Presidential Commission.

The next day, November 27, McCone sent his eight-page cable to National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy recounting, point-by-point, every detail of Alvarado’s story implicating Castro and the alleged payoff to Oswald with absolutely no disparaging remarks about Alvarado.

On the following day, November 28, President Johnson was apparently very much in favor of a Presidential Commission, which he made clear in a phone call to Senator James Eastland, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Johnson told Eastland.

Alvarado’s story about Oswald being paid by the Cubans combined with Katzenbach’s push for a Presidential Commission obviously worked to convince Johnson that he should appoint one. And McCone reinforced Johnson’s new perspective on November 28 by recapping the Alvarado story once again with his “Memorandum through Bundy.”

© 2007 An Agency Gone Bad; Anthony R. Frank. All rights reserved.

Edited by Tony Frank
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So Alvarado was a Nicaraguan intelligence agent, one of Somoza's boys?

We also have Somoza permitting the staging area for Bay of Pigs, and the ownership of the raider ship the Rex.

Am I missing something?

BK

Bill, do you believe the Alavarado episode was initiated by the CIA or by Somoza?

Edited by Tony Frank
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So Alvarado was a Nicaraguan intelligence agent, one of Somoza's boys?

We also have Somoza permitting the staging area for Bay of Pigs, and the ownership of the raider ship the Rex.

Am I missing something?

BK

Bill, do you believe the Alavarado episode was initiated by the CIA or by Somoza?

What's the difference?

David A. Phillips promoted it. Was it one of his ops?

Who was in contact with Somozas on the Cuban issues?

BK

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Who was in contact with Somozas on the Cuban issues? (Bill Kelly)

I guess we have to ask if the official channels through the Agency knew exactly what was going on. Also, did the Agency have knowledge of money being put through front companies owned by those connected to private intel services?

In my humble opinion, we need to look at someone like I. Irving Davidson handling the finances here and the likes of Robert Emmett Johnson and/or Rip Robertson handling personnel.

FWIW.

James

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Who was in contact with Somozas on the Cuban issues? (Bill Kelly)

I guess we have to ask if the official channels through the Agency knew exactly what was going on. Also, did the Agency have knowledge of money being put through front companies owned by those connected to private intel services?

In my humble opinion, we need to look at someone like I. Irving Davidson handling the finances here and the likes of Robert Emmett Johnson and/or Rip Robertson handling personnel.

FWIW.

James

The CIA had been using bogus foundations in the United States to channel millions of dollars to a wide spectrum of organizations, including legal, journalist, academic, and research organizations since the 1950s. The Johnson Administration responded to the revelation by stating this particular domestic activity was in keeping with “national policies established by the National Security Council in 1952 through 1954.”

That money had to be going to CIA supported actions.

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Not only was President Johnson being kept in the dark about Alvarado’s story being a fabrication, but CIA Director John McCone sent a cable to President Johnson’s National Security Advisor, McGeorge Bundy, on November 27 vouching for Alvarado. McCone stated Alvarado had been questioned “until 2 a.m. this morning,” and “the wealth of detail Alvarado gives about events and personalities involved with Oswald in Cuban Embassy is striking.”

McCone also stated the CIA case officer who questioned Alvarado “was impressed by Alvarado” and that Alvarado “is now hiding” in a place provided by the CIA. And to add weight to Alvarado’s story, McCone ominously warned, “We cannot guarantee Alvarado’s safety.”

The CIA officer who questioned Alvarado was David Phillips. It was Phillips's report that convinced John McCone and Thomas Mann (but not Win Scott) that Alvarado was telling the truth. Yet in his autobiography, Phillips claims that "It soon was apparent that he (Alvarado) was lying, and not very well". Phillips claims that "I have a theory, almost a conviction that in fact this man was dispatched to Mexico City by the Somoza brothers, the authoritarian but pro-American rulers of Nicaragua, in which they considered a covert operation to influence the American government to move against Cuba."

What Phillips does not tell us in his autobiography is the fact that Alvarado was working for the CIA in 1963. The Nicaraguan intelligence agency that employed him had been created by the CIA and was under its control. The first question is: "Had Phillips masterminded the Alvarado operation in an attempt to get the US to invade Cuba?" To my mind the answer is yes. The next question is: "Who else knew and why was it decided to abandon the plan?"

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Not only was President Johnson being kept in the dark about Alvarado’s story being a fabrication, but CIA Director John McCone sent a cable to President Johnson’s National Security Advisor, McGeorge Bundy, on November 27 vouching for Alvarado. McCone stated Alvarado had been questioned “until 2 a.m. this morning,” and “the wealth of detail Alvarado gives about events and personalities involved with Oswald in Cuban Embassy is striking.”

McCone also stated the CIA case officer who questioned Alvarado “was impressed by Alvarado” and that Alvarado “is now hiding” in a place provided by the CIA. And to add weight to Alvarado’s story, McCone ominously warned, “We cannot guarantee Alvarado’s safety.”

The CIA officer who questioned Alvarado was David Phillips. It was Phillips's report that convinced John McCone and Thomas Mann (but not Win Scott) that Alvarado was telling the truth. Yet in his autobiography, Phillips claims that "It soon was apparent that he (Alvarado) was lying, and not very well". Phillips claims that "I have a theory, almost a conviction that in fact this man was dispatched to Mexico City by the Somoza brothers, the authoritarian but pro-American rulers of Nicaragua, in which they considered a covert operation to influence the American government to move against Cuba."

What Phillips does not tell us in his autobiography is the fact that Alvarado was working for the CIA in 1963. The Nicaraguan intelligence agency that employed him had been created by the CIA and was under its control. The first question is: "Had Phillips masterminded the Alvarado operation in an attempt to get the US to invade Cuba?" To my mind the answer is yes. The next question is: "Who else knew and why was it decided to abandon the plan?"

I personally believe that Alvarado's actions were initiated by the CIA. That would explain why McCone kept vouching for Alvarado even though the CIA knew he was lying. And I believe that the sole purpose was to convince LBJ that he should appoint the Warren Commission, which would then be controlled by the CIA.

When McCone met with LBJ on 26 November 1963, he observed LBJ's "considerable contempt" for Katzenbach's suggestion of a Presidential Commission. McCone then sent the cable to Bundy on November 27 vouching for Alvarado.

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Who was in contact with Somozas on the Cuban issues? (Bill Kelly)

I guess we have to ask if the official channels through the Agency knew exactly what was going on. Also, did the Agency have knowledge of money being put through front companies owned by those connected to private intel services?

In my humble opinion, we need to look at someone like I. Irving Davidson handling the finances here and the likes of Robert Emmett Johnson and/or Rip Robertson handling personnel.

FWIW.

James

The CIA had been using bogus foundations in the United States to channel millions of dollars to a wide spectrum of organizations, including legal, journalist, academic, and research organizations since the 1950s. The Johnson Administration responded to the revelation by stating this particular domestic activity was in keeping with “national policies established by the National Security Council in 1952 through 1954.”

That money had to be going to CIA supported actions.

Tony,

Agreed. My comment was directed more at whether or not the Agency was completely aware of front companies and subsequent financial transactions run by private intel services like the one in Baltimore founded by Ulius Amoss.

James

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