David Morales

[John Simkin]

In his book, JFK: The Cuba Files, the Untold Story of the Plot to Kill Kennedy (2006), Fabian Escalante claims that the Cuban Department of State Security (DSE) Became aware of David Sanchez Morales activities in Cuba as early as 1958. He claims that “he was the officer who attended to Phillips and handled covert agents Frank Fiorini (Frank Sturges) and Gerry Patrick Hemming”. (page 22)

According to Escalante, in 1978, Rolando Cubela agreed to give evidence against CIA agents he worked with. Using photographic evidence, Cubela identified Morales as being his contact as early as 1960. Escalante said this news surprised the DSE. (page 70) Cubela also claimed that he met Morales in Paris in September 1963. (page 186)

Escalante also argues that Morales was “coordinator of Phillips’s actions in Mexico”. (page 70) Escalante is convinced that Morales played a major role in the assassination of JFK and argues “his description matches the person who picked up Lee Harvey Oswald at the exit to the book depository after the fatal shots”. (page 186)

[John Simkin]

We do now have something concrete as to when Cuban intelligence became aware of and decided to move against Morales. That is covered in the new edition and the action appears to have been triggered by their finding Morales name on a list of secret police badges issued by Batista. Based on that they issued an arrest warrant to the American Embassy, the Embassy pushed back but that was pretty much the end of Morales in Cuba and it appears that he may have had to exit Cuba shortly thereafter.....this detail can be seen in the new "Zamka" document provided for Chapter 8 on the book WEB site.

[James Richards]

We do now have something concrete as to when Cuban intelligence became aware of and decided to move against Morales. That is covered in the new edition and the action appears to have been triggered by their finding Morales name on a list of secret police badges issued by Batista. Based on that they issued an arrest warrant to the American Embassy, the Embassy pushed back but that was pretty much the end of Morales in Cuba and it appears that he may have had to exit Cuba shortly thereafter.....this detail can be seen in the new "Zamka" document provided for Chapter 8 on the book WEB site.

Below is a document regarding the arrest order issued for Zamka (David Morales) on May 7, 1959.

BTW, it was Bernard Barker who got Morales to the station safehouse a few weeks later.

Escalante also argues that Morales was “coordinator of Phillips’s actions in Mexico”. (page 70) Escalante is convinced that Morales played a major role in the assassination of JFK and argues “his description matches the person who picked up Lee Harvey Oswald at the exit to the book depository after the fatal shots”. (page 186) (John Simkin)

I gather this is in reference to the man hailing the Rambler on Elm Street as photographed by Jim Murray? If so, who's to say that Lee Harvey Oswald was that man? I know Roger Craig was pretty sure but I believe this may well have been the impersonator.

As to the driver and his description, it may be worth looking at Lawrence Howard here.

FWIW.

James

[Evan Marshall]

We do now have something concrete as to when Cuban intelligence became aware of and decided to move against Morales. That is covered in the new edition and the action appears to have been triggered by their finding Morales name on a list of secret police badges issued by Batista. Based on that they issued an arrest warrant to the American Embassy, the Embassy pushed back but that was pretty much the end of Morales in Cuba and it appears that he may have had to exit Cuba shortly thereafter.....this detail can be seen in the new "Zamka" document provided for Chapter 8 on the book WEB site.

While I believe both Morales and Phillipa where involved along with Mitch Webell, Jack Cannon, and some others-I can't believe that anyone with direct ties to the Agency would have participated in such a way to tie themselves directly to the event. If some one picked up Oswald they were a cut-out and probablly didn't know who they were really working for.

[Lee Forman]

While I believe both Morales and Phillipa where involved along with Mitch Webell, Jack Cannon, and some others-I can't believe that anyone with direct ties to the Agency would have participated in such a way to tie themselves directly to the event. If some one picked up Oswald they were a cut-out and probablly didn't know who they were really working for.

Frank Camper was in a position to have rubbed shoulders with a lot of people over the course of his career.

The MK/Ultra Secret - An Account of CIA deception by Frank Camper, Christopher Scott Publishing, Savannah, Georgia, 1996, page 13 & 18 as the scanned attachment. I mistakenly wrote someplace here that the car was located on the extension - Camper has it located at the corner of Houston and Elm. From Camper's account - Morales wouldn't be handling Oswald, but following up on the kill.

Something below which I wrote awhile ago - slightly modified. Seemed like an interesting segue into what Camper has related.

The 'beeping' noises on the dictabelt don't seem to have been studied - can someone point me to a reference if I am mistaken?

I remember reading that the theory is that one of the motorcops opened his mic - these sounds were then assumed to be other motorcops trying to 'key in.' I don't believe that this is the case.

If you listen to the sounds - they have different strengths, and different lengths.

For example - a hard BEEP BEEP - strong. Followed by a weak 'beep beep' in response. Some of the lengths of these beeps are quite short - and resemble Morse. I believe it was Marrs that I read who suggested that the final sequence, beepbeepbeep Beeeeep - is synonymous with 'dotdotdotdash' - or a 'V' in Morse which would signal 'Victory' - hence the end of the op.

Really quickly:

I have heard that frequency blocking technology was employed in Dealey Plaza. Illegal here in the States due to our 'alleged' Freedom of Speech - frequency blocking technology is common today in Europe - for use in theatres and churches - to prevent interruptions from people's cell phones.

We have Mather - a Collins Radio employee, being associated with a license plate on a vehicle that seemed to contain an Oswald look-a-like. As a post I made elsewhere, Igor Vaganov's car was a unique model of a Thunderbird, and possibly could have been confused with a Falcon - in my firm opinion. As per the 59 Olds thread - plate swapping is common in an operation - standard tradecraft is what I was told.

Among things that were blocked were the SS channel, and the football signal to Looking Glass. Allegedly Looking Glass received a bizarre transmission instead.

So we have Vaganov in town, with his questionable activities and alibi - an expert in radio communications, with a reference by someone concerning a mobile unit that he had which was capable of broadcasting a signal over an entire city. We have the DPD interference, which has been attributed to interference from an open mic - a strange coincidence. We have the SS switching channels. Yarborough talking about Johnson being on a radio in the motorcade. Morrow saying he supplied De Valle with 4 low frequency covert models to Ferrie. A man that resembles Ferrie on a signal corps field radio at the Fort Worth airport. Frank Camper, who has the Trade Mart as being the radio coordination location. Someone else who has it as being the Adolphus Hotel. James Hicks, who never said that he was a radio coordinator in any reference I have been able to uncover - but folks seem to have cause to believe that he was for reasons unknown. Camper, who has David Atlee Phillips and David Morales as running the op - Phillips from Fort Worth and Morales in Dallas - which would require longer range wireless communication. Ferrie, whom has 2 signal corps field telephones among his final effects. Bowers who witnesses a man on what could be a signal corps field telephone or large radio in one of the vehicles in the back lot. The Men on the 6th floor, which has Loy Factor giving an account of 'Ruth Ann' using a Walkie Talkie and counting down for a hand signal [with a three second delay]based upon a signal she receives.

In order to jam the communications in the plaza - technology would have had to have been employed that would cover the range of frequencies [and the SS and other Gment frequencies were always proprietary], in addition to the knowledge of how to contact Looking Glass - which would be even more top secret. To jam the football would require inside information. Then there was the possible 'test' which Looking Glass received.

Morrow gave us to understand that the radios supplied were covert - they could be concealed, and an antennae could run down the operatives leg inside his pants. The reason for the selection of these radios was that the lower level frequencies stood a better chance of not being monitored - but they were in a black op, on US soil, killing the Commander-in-Chief. I don't think that they would have taken chances - even though Luis Castillo has it that his target was the man in the suit sitting next to the woman in the pink hat with the red flowers - it's not clear to me how he received this information and when.

So although it appears that there is a lot of interest in the dictabelt for the possible sounds of shots - I thought it was fairly well accepted that sonic suppressors and silencers were employed. This provided the cover-up with a perfect angle - how many shots did you hear? Well, in order to hear a silenced shot, you would have needed to be in the line of fire. As Hargis was - as per Sam Pate's information - he says Hargis related that the shot from the curb area was different - a 'poompf' type sound.

The sounds should be more closely examined. If Loy Factor was telling the truth - and I believe he was - then you would have a pattern. There would be a signal, a three second pause, and shots fired. Then I would assume there would be a response from the coordinator in the field - to say that shots were fired, or to acknowledge having received the signal.

Listen to it closely.

http://pages.prodigy.net/whiskey99/courttv.htm

Would you take the risk of using verbal commands in an operation of this magnitude? Or is it possible that there were multiple frequencies being used? Are these sounds recorded as the result of an accident, thanks to Vaganov or someone else, who broadcast them in such a way that they were unfortunatley captured by the DPD radio system? I don't think it's logical to assume that anyone would have purposely made use of the DPD radio system for this effort -- or is it? It certainly would have been useful to have had access to the police radio for monitoring purposes - something to think about. Perhaps no one counted on the dictabelt recording being released - or that your civvy simply wouldn't recognize what it was that they were listening to - or perhaps the whole, 'count down' as per Loy Factor was an added precautionary measure, to purposely create a separation between the shots fired and these signals.

Edited December 17, 2006 by Lee Forman

[John Simkin]

Gramma, Havana. December 22, 2006

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2006/diciembre.../52complot.html

GABRIEL MOLINA

THE BBC in London and The Guardian newspaper announced sensational film footage and photos depicting three high-ranking CIA agents at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where the presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.

The former attorney general had just won the Democratic Party presidential nomination on June 5, a few months before the election that polls showed he was likely to win.

The high-ranking agents held positions of authority in the CIA’s gigantic secret operations against Cuba during the 1960s, based at of the JMWave station in Miami, the agency’s largest at the time. Those identified include Gordon Campbell, who was chief of maritime operations for that crusade; George Joannides, chief of psychological warfare operations, and David Sanchez Morales, chief of special operations.

The report released is the result of three years of investigations carried out by filmmaker Shane O’Sullivan which revealed that in 1963 those high-ranking agency were assigned to the secret war against the government of Fidel Castro, with one of their objectives being to assassinate the Cuban leader.

The evidence has put the CIA/Cuban-born mafia group back in the limelight, and according to the U.S. Congressional committee investigation, that same group may have been involved in the assassination of the president in Dallas.

The report by Shane O’Sullivan, broadcast on September 20 on the BBC “Newsnight” program, revealed that the agents and four non-identified associates were at the Hotel Ambassador moments before and after the attack. Their presence is suspicious because “the CIA does not have domestic jurisdiction, and some of the agents were based in South East Asia and had no reason to be in Los Angeles.”

Kennedy had just won the Democratic primary elections in California with a platform against the war in Vietnam and was assured as Richard Nixon’s rival in the presidential elections when he was assassinated. The supposed mastermind of the crime, Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, was arrested with a weapon in hand in the kitchen/pantry where Kennedy was killed. During that process, psychiatrists brought in by the defense agreed that Sirhan, 24, was in a trance at that moment and may have been under a state of hypnosis. The sentence “RFK must die,” found in a notebook in Sirhan’s possession, may also have been written in the same hypnotic state.

Doctor Herbert Spiegel, an international authority on hypnosis at the University of Columbia, believes that Sirhan may have been programmed to act as a decoy for the real assassin.

Under interrogation, Sirhan said he recalled that a girl had taken him to a very dark place, where a gang shocked him. He added that he did not remember having shot Kennedy.

In December 1998, his lawyer, Lawrence Teeter, requested a new trial for Sirhan based on several pieces of evidence. One of these was the autopsy, retained by prosecutors during the trial, showing that the fatal bullet came from behind the senator and was shot from a distance of two to three inche. Sirhan was facing Kennedy and the gun in his hand was from one-and-a-half to five feet away from the favorite for the presidency.

Subsequent investigations showed that there were more bullet holes in a doorjamb at the scene of the crime and that the shots were fired by Sirhan’s gun, which led to the suspicion that there was more than one shooter. The doorjamb in question was destroyed, as was a second weapon confiscated by the Los Angeles Police. It was alleged that there was a court order, but the defense was not advised of this step.

In addition, a security guard – who was far from being a Kennedy supporter – admitted that he was standing in direct contact with Kennedy’s back, and that he ducked when the shots rang out and pulled out his revolver. A witness ignored by the police – according to Teeter – stated that he saw the guard shoot. His weapon was never examined, even though the autopsy also revealed that “the perforations in the body describe an upwards angle, as if he had been shot from below.” At that exact moment, photographer Jaime Scott Enyert was brusquely assailed and arrested at gunpoint. His camera containing the photos was confiscated.

The most important of the agents to appear in the photos and videos identified by some witnesses is Morales, a habitual drinker, who once said to his close friends, “I was in Dallas when we got the son-of-a-bitch, and I was in Los Angeles when we got the little bastard.”

Morales is described by Tom Clines, another chief at JM Wave, as a legend in almost all of the CIA’s covert operations, always linked to the main actors in that dirty-work crew, particularly Ted Shackley, who was CIA deputy director for special operations when George Bush Sr. was CIA director, and David Atlee Phillips, head of operations against Fidel Castro and against Salvador Allende.

The sinister group had been formed in 1954 to overthrow Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz. Morales was in Cuba with Philips from 1958 to 1960, where he supported Batista and fought against Fidel Castro. He also participated in the military coup in Chile in 1973. In Santiago, he helped Pinochet in his campaign to overthrow Allende, and afterwards in the brutal repression.

Along with being one of the leaders of the JM Wave station that organized the Bay of Pigs invasion, according to CIA agent Tom Clines, Morales participated with Félix Rodríguez in the pursuit and assassination of Che Guevara and in Operation Condor, where he was involved in other important assassinations.

Investigator Gaeton Fonzi revealed that Morales may have been the man of Latino appearance who was seen with Lee Harvey Oswald in the home of Silvia Odio in New Orleans, according to testimony by former CIA agent Paul Bethel, who was working for Philips. Fonzi and other investigators also implicate Carl E. Jenkins, Chichi Quintero, William Pawley, Roy Hargraves, Edwin Collins, Herminio Díaz, Tony Cuesta, Eugenio Martínez, Virgilio GonzálezFelipe Vidal Santiago, Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch in the assassination of the president.

O’Sullivan was able to identify Morales based on a photo of this individual taken in Cuba in 1959.

One of the CIA agents at the JM Wave station, Bradley D. Ayers, identified Sanchez Morales, Campbell and Joannides in the film footage and charged in a 1994 letter that those three and many others from JM Wave station had “intimate operational knowledge of the circumstances that surrounded the assassination of President Kennedy.”

He also citied Theodore Shackley, Félix Rodríguez, Thomas Clines, Grayston Lynch, Rip Robertson, Edward Roderick and Tony Sforza.

Morales, who feared an attempt on his life by “his own agent,” died of a suspicious heart attack days before testifying before a House of Representatives Select Committee that was investigating the Kennedy assassination. The extremely long list of deaths under mysterious circumstances during that process also include mafia capo Sam Giancana, John Rosselli, Rip Robertson businessman and agent William Pawley, either before or after being summoned to testify at the Commission.

Paul Schrade, who was walking behind Robert F. Kennedy when he was assassinated, believes that the fresh evidence is important and should be investigated.

“I find it very strange that those individuals were present at one of Robert’s celebrations. Why were they there? What were they doing?” Schrade asked when interviewed about the revelations in the company of Max, one of Robert Kennedy’s sons, at the old Ambassador Hotel. On that date, the 81st birthday of the assassinated presidential candidate was commemorated, and the two were visiting the work underway to turn the hotel into a high school.

Key CIA documents have yet to be declassified, and according to the 1978 Congressional investigation, they would prove the theory of the conspiracy to kill President Kennedy.

Now the evidence points to the same suspects in the case of Robert Kennedy, 43 years after the president’s assassination. It corroborates that the event was a genuine coup d’état, and that the masterminds are still being protected.

Despite – or perhaps precisely because of – President Bush’s particular myopia with respect to terrorism.

[John Simkin]

Rolling Stone tell me that they intend to publish an article about David Morales in the near future.

[Charles Drago]

After reading several topics about David Sanchez Morales, I am wondering if any of the JFK researchers on this forum have tried finding any of Morales' surviving family or close friends to see if David Morales did any more talking about the Kennedy Assassination.

I think I read from an earlier posting here of an article that was written about Morales in which he was extremely proud of his service to his country both military and in intelligence. It seems to me that someone close to Morales may know more about his possible role in Kennedy's assassination.

Has anyone tried looking into to Morales' background for family and friends to interview?

I'm led to believe that the widow Morales for a time lived rather comfortably in Boston.

With apologies to John Armstrong: The two commonly available photos of the adult Morales appear to be of two different individuals. One, which I think originates from Cuban files, shows a heavyset man with square jaw and close-cropped hair. The other is of an older fellow, thin-faced, with wavy hair piled high on his head. It is the former who more closely resembles the figure identified as Morales in the schoolboy basketball team photo.

Does the passage of time between adult views account for these differences? Or once again is there merde in the game?

[John Simkin]

With apologies to John Armstrong: The two commonly available photos of the adult Morales appear to be of two different individuals. One, which I think originates from Cuban files, shows a heavyset man with square jaw and close-cropped hair. The other is of an older fellow, thin-faced, with wavy hair piled high on his head. It is the former who more closely resembles the figure identified as Morales in the schoolboy basketball team photo.

Does the passage of time between adult views account for these differences? Or once again is there merde in the game?

I am convinced that all these photographs are of David Morales.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CIAmorales.htm

[Charles Drago]

With apologies to John Armstrong: The two commonly available photos of the adult Morales appear to be of two different individuals. One, which I think originates from Cuban files, shows a heavyset man with square jaw and close-cropped hair. The other is of an older fellow, thin-faced, with wavy hair piled high on his head. It is the former who more closely resembles the figure identified as Morales in the schoolboy basketball team photo.

Does the passage of time between adult views account for these differences? Or once again is there merde in the game?

I am convinced that all these photographs are of David Morales.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CIAmorales.htm

I'm not about to argue otherwise, but only note that the years can take their toll.

[William Plumlee]

[quote

Edited December 25, 2007 by William Plumlee

[William Plumlee]

[quote

Edited December 25, 2007 by William Plumlee

[Myra Bronstein]

...

Question: How do you know that Morales was not involved in the Kennedy assassination?

I was told by Tracy Barnes, John Martino, William "Wild Bill Harvey", and John Rosellie shortly after the assassination, that David was in Miami.

The early records shows that Morales was in the JMWAVE complex at the University of Miami campus at 10am that day.. He signed in on the duty log sheet at 9:20 A.M. and at the gate at 8:45 A.M. He was checked in at the Green Mansions Resort Motel/Hotel the evening of the 22nd. Rm 102.

...

I would expect Morales to create a paper trail showing he was somewhere other than Dallas on Nov 22.

But even if he was in Miami on Nov 22, that does not preclude his involvement in President Kennedy's assassination.

[William Plumlee]

[quote

Edited December 25, 2007 by William Plumlee

[Myra Bronstein]

...

Question: How do you know that Morales was not involved in the Kennedy assassination?

I was told by Tracy Barnes, John Martino, William "Wild Bill Harvey", and John Rosellie shortly after the assassination, that David was in Miami.

The early records shows that Morales was in the JMWAVE complex at the University of Miami campus at 10am that day.. He signed in on the duty log sheet at 9:20 A.M. and at the gate at 8:45 A.M. He was checked in at the Green Mansions Resort Motel/Hotel the evening of the 22nd. Rm 102.

...

I would expect Morales to create a paper trail showing he was somewhere other than Dallas on Nov 22.

But even if he was in Miami on Nov 22, that does not preclude his involvement in President Kennedy's assassination.

Nor does it prove he was involved.

...

Ah, so this thread has established that Morales may or may not have been involved.

Good stuff.