Gene Wheaton

[Guest]

 

Found by Linda Zambanini

[David Boylan]

Larry's blog on the Wheaton names.

https://larryhancock.wordpress.com/2018/11/21/the-wheaton-names-continued/

 

[David Boylan]

When Larry and I started looking at people that possibly worked with Carl Jenkins and Rafael Quintero a name that kept coming up was Carlos Hernandez Sanchez. Hernandez was an early member of the Student Directorate (DRE) and participated in the famous raid on the Blanquita Hotel in the Havana suburb of Miramar where six anti-Castro Cubans fired on the ballroom that contained Czech and Russian military personnel. He was arrested by the FBI at Bill McLaney’s house in Lacombe just outside New Orleans with John Koch Gene, Victor Espinosa Hernandez, Antonio Soto Vasquez, Acelo Pedroso, Sam Benton and Miguel Alvarez. Alvarez was with Hernandez at JMMOVE (Belle Chasse camp in Louisiana) during BOP training. I’m speculating that William Rosenhauer was William “Rip” Robertson.
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10162-10099.pdf

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=137125#relPageId=3&tab=page

Hernandez was very close to Manuel Artime, Rafael Quintero, and Nestor Izquierdo during their early days (1957-1959) in Cuba when they were fighting Batista. Artime asked Hernandez to be his bodyguard during Artime’s tour of Latin America during early 1960. Hernandez was a black belt in Judo although I’ve seen docs where it mentions Karate. Hernandez was also one of Artime’s “guys” that Artime requested for anti-Castro activities along with Nestor “Tony” Izquierdo, and Frank Bernadino.

Travelling with Artime

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/104-10162-10058.pdf

Artime and Hernandez under threat in Caracas.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=21134#relPageId=2&tab=page

Pre Bay of Pigs training with Carl Jenkins at JMTRAV base in Guatamala.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=21117&relPageId=2
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=146517&relPageId=25

This is the list of AMHAZE group. Miguel Orozco headed the AMHAZE raider group and landed in Cuba prior to the main landing. Orozco was later captured during a raid lead by Rip Robertson in Oct/Nov 1962. At least half the raiders were from the original AMHAZE group of commandos.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/Pensacola_News_11_13_1962_1.pdf
https://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=34298&relPageId=2

This doc is interesting for a few reasons. One is that it is signed off by Richard Helms. Supposedly Helms had nothing to do with the Bay of Pigs. Two, there is a new location JMBELL. Artime is supposed to go there “securely” with the AMHAZE team.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10162-10099.pdf

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/104-10162-10098.pdf

The 3 man AMPANIC team mentioned in the above doc. Looks like they were also an assassination team. 
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=31002&relPageId=79

Memo to Carl Jenkins/Zaboth with crypts for AMHAZE team members to go with Artime to Cuba.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=21090#relPageId=2&tab=page

Here is another doc on AMBIDDY-1 (Artime) team. Artime is to wait for “Eduardo” aka Howard Hunt. Again with Richard Helms’ name.
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10162-10101.pdf

Carl Jenkins/Zaboth working with Rafael Quintero (AMJAVA-4) and other infiltrees a couple of months prior to the invasion.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=23686&search=amhaze#relPageId=2&tab=page

The AMHAZE teams are still operational in 1962 according to Col Jack Hawkins aka “Dominick Pantleone”
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=25494&relPageId=2

Hernandez also worked with the CIA during the World Youth Festival.

Letter Ahrens, District Director to Regional Commissioner 7/26/62 Re: 8th World Youth Festival 
9 from Miami attended: C!A expressing operational interest in names: 
1) Enrique Antonio Felix Baloyra-Herp #Al249220l 
2) Francisco Chao-Hermida #A 12171978 
3) Ann Gloria Dia-Silveira #A 12492452 
4) Oscar Alberto Echevarria-Salvat #A 12826368 
5) Carlos Hernandez 
6) Jose Ignacio Rodriguez-Lombillo #A 11754008 
7) Juan Salvat-Roque #A 12 421548 
8 ) Enrique Torres-Larrauri #A 12482461 
Juan Koch (no record)  John Koch DOB Havana 5/29/40 

More later on the AMWORLD aspects.

Edited November 27, 2019 by David Boylan

[David Boylan]

6/1/60 Artime's core team gets passed on to Carl Jenkins. They were in Mexico at the time.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/104-10162-10235.pdf

Some good AMWORLD memos by Carl Jenkins, Nestor Sanchez and Henry Hecksher. 

"ARTIME predicated his planning on the assumption that the overthrow of CASTRO' s regime would be preceded by a long and hard war. ARTIME planned to accomplish his objectives thru commando teams; infil teams, and guerrillas. Commandos thru raids, abductions, assassinations, targeted against G-2 informants, agents, officers, foreign Communists, to lift the morale of people inside Cuba."

"Artime was to provide Cubela a silencer for the FAL; if that was possible ARTIME was to cache in a designated location a rifle with a scope and silencer plus several bombs concealed either in a suitcase, a lamp or some other concealment device which he would be able to carry and place next to Fidel CASTRO. ARTIME was to be in Cuba one week before the elimination of Fidel, but no one, including Cubela would know ARTIME's location. ARTIME planned to return to Paris the end of January before CUBELA's return to Havana. At that time they were to formalize their previous agreements and ARTIME would give CUBELA what he had requested."

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/104-10308-10080.pdf

Interesting document from Ted Shackley. Mentions that there is an Infil/assassination team to kill AMTHUG-1/Castro.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/104-10308-10086.pdf

Fairly poor assessment by Carl Jenkins of AMWORLD. A-4 is Rafael Quintero.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/104-10308-10082.pdf

 

Carlos Hernandez was recruited and signed up for the AMWORLD project on 9/12/63 based upon his friendship with Artime and Quintero. One of Quintero's first duties was to assemble a team that became known as "Quintero's Commandos." They were:  Pedro ACEBO Rodriguez, Domingo BALLOS Cruz,  Carlos HERNANDEZ Sanchez,  Diego Zenon Viera Segui,  Armando Medina Montes de Oca, Mauricio RODREGUEZ Sanchez, Gustavo FERNANDEZ Ravelo, and John KOCH Gene who's  brother was killed at BOP. JHG went on raids with Quintero.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=40542#relPageId=2&tab=page 

On 12/9/63 "List of Cubans (10) including Hernandez okaying issuance of form's I-512 to go to  Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Individuals in group are members of MRR."

So, it looks like this list contained the above 9 names and one who is left off. T

Edited November 27, 2019 by David Boylan

[Larry Hancock]

As a side note, we know from the records that one of Henry Hecksher's main roles was serving as a political/propaganda/security advisor to Artime (who had a real problem with talking about secure information to many people in order to establish his own importance).  As part of that role Hecksher was mentoring Artime on setting up propaganda programs and it appears David Phillips was brought in as an advisor in those activities. He was the only officer cleared for AMWORLD at the Mexico City station.   Phillips was also assigned to handle safe houses for the project in Mexico City.

Which makes David's post about Sambora interesting in that I would have expected only the most senior CIA officers supporting the project or the most senior exiles involved in it to go to Mexico City to meet with Phillips. That makes Sambora/the "mexican" a very special figure at that point in time.

 

 

[David Boylan]

As my friend Larry mentions here Hecksher had many roles dealing with Artime. Ted Shackley and David Morales ran classes on how to run the project. Tom Clines ran a class on how to run the paramilitary arm of AMWORLD. Raul Hernandez was the main contact/liaison often using the name Martin Ferrer. Carl Jenkins was the logistics guy trying to figure out how to get the weapons/arms they purchased from Interarmco to Costa Rica/Nicaragua, how to build a dock so they could unload the weapons from a barge, how to transport the weapons in the C-47 they purchased and flew out of Redbird airport and when the operation was terminated, what to do with the weapons and personnel. The weapons remained at Monkey Point guarded by Nestor Izquierdo and Silvano POZO Carrillo until the end of the project. 

After the project/operation ended, Thomas Clines asked Rafael Quintero if he could help put together a "team" of commandos that would be on call to be sent anywhere in the world at a moments notice.

[David Boylan]

Here's a good description of what Rip Robertson and his guys were doing during the early 1960's. Ramon Orozco's brother, Miguel, was a leader of the AMHAZE team that was sent to Cuba prior to the BOP.

"In Washington, during the investigation into the CIA's handling of the invasion, (Rip) Robertson appeared as a witness and talked at length with Robert Kennedy. He told his Cuban commandos that Kennedy was all right, which they took as a high compliment, since Robertson hated all politicians...Ramon Orozco, one of his commandos, remembers what the paramilitary operations were like: "After the Bay of Pigs...I was on one of his teams, but he controlled many teams and many operations. And everything was good through 1963. Our team made more than seven big war missions. Some of them were huge: the attack on the Texaco refinery, the Russian ships in Oriente province, a big lumber yard, the Patrice Lumumba sulfuric acid plant in Santa Lucia, and the diesel plant in Casilda...at the end of December, 1961, (Orozco and other commandos) sought to escape in a rubber boat where Rip and (Rolando Martinez, one of the Watergate burglars) waited for them...Rip loaded a rubber boat with rockets and recoilless rifles, ordered another commando, Nestor Izquierdo, to get in with him, and then motored up and down the coast looking for signs of his men. He was back on Martinez' ship when Orozco called him from the shore...(Robertson's) superiors became so angry that they resorted to ordering the Cuban boat captains not to allow him to board the intermediary ships that took the teams to the shore...Rip Robertson and his paramilitary cowboys (later) joined in the (Vietnam) effort and helped run the Phoenix program." 

Orozco was recruited for AMWORLD as a frogman.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=66101#relPageId=2&tab=page

 

[Paul Brancato]

On 12/5/2018 at 7:40 AM, David Boylan said:

As my friend Larry mentions here Hecksher had many roles dealing with Artime. Ted Shackley and David Morales ran classes on how to run the project. Tom Clines ran a class on how to run the paramilitary arm of AMWORLD. Raul Hernandez was the main contact/liaison often using the name Martin Ferrer. Carl Jenkins was the logistics guy trying to figure out how to get the weapons/arms they purchased from Interarmco to Costa Rica/Nicaragua, how to build a dock so they could unload the weapons from a barge, how to transport the weapons in the C-47 they purchased and flew out of Redbird airport and when the operation was terminated, what to do with the weapons and personnel. The weapons remained at Monkey Point guarded by Nestor Izquierdo and Silvano POZO Carrillo until the end of the project. 

After the project/operation ended, Thomas Clines asked Rafael Quintero if he could help put together a "team" of commandos that would be on call to be sent anywhere in the world at a moments notice.

David and Larry - how much do you/we know about Interarmco? When Otto Skorzeny said in an interview that he worked for the enemies of Castro is this what he was referring to? 

[David Boylan]

Hi Paul,

I'll let Larry answer this. I know that he is doing quite a bit of research on Skorzeny.

 

[Paul Brancato]

1 minute ago, David Boylan said:

Hi Paul,

I'll let Larry answer this. I know that he is doing quite a bit of research on Skorzeny.

 

David - were you also at the conference where Major Ganis presented?

[David Boylan]

Paul,

I was not but I heard good things about his presentation.

 

[Larry Hancock]

Actually I researched Interarmco at considerable length and wrote about Sam Cummins and his companies in Shadow Warfare (focusing on global arms sales and on AMWORLD) and again to a lesser extent in Creating Chaos (focusing on Indonesia).  And no, Interarmco is not what Ralph was writing about in regard to Skorzeny.  

His references to Cuba have to do with a purported meeting with Batista after his ouster,  possible meetings with Cuban exile political figures in Madrid in the early 1960s and Skorzeny's involvement with Operation Tropical (which is sourced only to a single Latin American newspaper article).   Unfortunately the type of end-noting that Skyhorse used for Ralph's book makes it almost impossible to find the exact sources for some of these things (which frustrates Ralph himself) and he has been kind enough to offer Stu Wexler and I access to his own source materials. Its going to take us some work in those to fully appreciate and evaluate certain assertions in the book and Ralph is very understanding in that regard.

 

[Paul Brancato]

2 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

Actually I researched Interarmco at considerable length and wrote about Sam Cummins and his companies in Shadow Warfare (focusing on global arms sales and on AMWORLD) and again to a lesser extent in Creating Chaos (focusing on Indonesia).  And no, Interarmco is not what Ralph was writing about in regard to Skorzeny.  

His references to Cuba have to do with a purported meeting with Batista after his ouster,  possible meetings with Cuban exile political figures in Madrid in the early 1960s and Skorzeny's involvement with Operation Tropical (which is sourced only to a single Latin American newspaper article).   Unfortunately the type of end-noting that Skyhorse used for Ralph's book makes it almost impossible to find the exact sources for some of these things (which frustrates Ralph himself) and he has been kind enough to offer Stu Wexler and I access to his own source materials. Its going to take us some work in those to fully appreciate and evaluate certain assertions in the book and Ralph is very understanding in that regard.

 

I appreciate that you and Mr. Wexler are being given access to Ralph’s source material. That’s very encouraging. I was referring to what Skorzeny himself meant when he told a Canadian journalist (its on YouTube) that he was approached by both Castro (presumably before the revolution) and by the enemies of Castro later. Skorzeny doesn’t get specific, but he claimed to have worked for the security services of many countries, and in the case of Mossad we know this for a fact (1961). Skorzeny was not part of Interarmco, but from what I can gather he was with Merex, a German based arms dealer with Interarmco connections.  

[David Andrews]

It would be interesting to know what evidence or details Ganis is holding, after the poor review of the book on Kennedys and King, and his discursive and uninformative podcast appearance.

[Larry Hancock]

Haven't seen anything about a Castro contact yet, that's not in the Ganis book.  There is no mention of Merix in the book's index and I don't find it in my markings in the book which include all the commercial companies mentioned.  What is clear (and has been for some time) is that Skorzeny marketed his war time connections and served as a sort of "personnel recruiter", locating German scientists, engineers and military personnel and passing them on to interested parties - Argentina being the major client but he did actually help locate German rocket scientists for Egypt (including those he later led into being killed).