David Morales

[William Kelly]

Bradley E. Ayers on David Morales:

"…The branch chiefs each gave us the standard, practiced briefing on their operations, but when we tried to question them in depth about their roles, they were evasive. We soon discovered that no one knew what to do with us, and finally we were temporarily assigned to the operations branch. Dave Morales, chief of operations, a big Mexican-Native American, was the only branch chief who treated us less than respectfully. He ran all the station's activities with a heavy hand and was famous for his temper. We soon learned that no one, save Ted Shackley himself, argued with Dave. To cross him in any way was to invite trouble."

"A few days after our arrival, Rod and I attended a full staff briefing, representatives from all the branches were present – a total of 30 people…." [see: Briefing Report 1]

"…Rip, in his mid-forties, was a contract employee of fairly long standing with the CIA. Almost everyone held him in high esteem. Like David Morales, nicknamed 'the Big Indian" (a.k.a. El Indio), to whom he was directly responsible, Rip was said to be stubborn, independent, and jealously protective of his men. From what we read and heard, Rip's commandos performed well under his supervision." [see: Rip on V20s modifications]

"…Most of the staff members admitted their ignorance and, in the end, recognized the merit of an improved program. The Big Indian, Morales, was the exception to this. As I had anticipated, he raised objections to almost every one of my proposals. Operations seemed interested only in final production, turning out teams and missions in quanity, and depending entirely on the inherent capabilities of team members rather than making the effort to train them properly. An expanded, mandatory training program would encroach upon their dominance at the station and threatened their bureaucratic empire. I had sensed this attitude. In not one of the post-mission briefings did Operations accept any of the blame for losses and failures. It was always because the team was 'stupid' or because 'those are the breaks.' I called it the Bay of Pigs mentality. Despite Operations objections, Ted Shackley accepted my recommendations almost to the letter."

"…The conclusions I drew were similar to those made in my earlier training report: The exile volunteers needed better physical conditioning, training in the use of seacoast survival techniques and equipment, training in stealth and nose discipline, and training in small unit tactics, especially patrolling and security….Ted Shackley wanted as few people as possible to know about my trip to Cuba [see: Cuba mission After Action Report]…I asked his secretary, Maggy, who else might see my after-action report. I was mostly concerned about Dave Morales' reaction to my critical observations….. 'Dave is away for awhile in Mexico. Possibly Gordon will see it'…."

"….I was directed to go to Rip's Marathon safe-house on the west shore of Florida Bay and run the V20 back to the Pirate's Lair safe-house complex, where I'd turn it over to Cabeza. Logistics gave me a car to deliver to Rip in return. On the way down U.S. 1, I stopped at the Green Turtle Inn in Isamorada for a bowl of soup. It was early afternoon and most of the lunch crowd had left. But near the back of the restaurant, seated at a large circular table, were Dave Morales, Mr. Harvey, Gordon Campbell, Mr. Phillips and another man, possibly Rosselli, whose back was turned to me. They apparently had stopped for lunch and drinks. I don't know if they recognized me or not. As was the practice in such situations within the agency, there was no acknowledgement, either way.

Discretely, I got my soup to go and quickly left. It was the first time I had ever seen the station hierarchy in the Keys and out of their air-conditioned offices. It was encouraging, maybe something big was in the offing. I thought. Rip was in the Marathon safe-house when I arrive…."

"….Morales was one of the three agents to personally brief president Eisenhower on the operation [success/Guatemala 1954]. Engineering the overthrow of the Cuban president Fidel Castro was one of the dominant obsessions of U.S. foreign policy architects from the moment Castro took power in Cuba on the first day of 1959. It was an obsession with Morales, too. The CIA operative was there from the start. He was working in the U.S. embassy in Havana when Castro launched his revolution. While most employees promptly returned to the U.S., Morales stayed behind, masterminding a series of small-scale operations that would form the basis of the U.S. anti-Castro campaign for the next several years. Among other things Morales planted radios with anti-Castro sympathizers, used later by U.S. commandos infiltrating Cuba. Morales found ingenious ways of hiding the transmitters, placing many of them with nuns. When Castro shut down the U.S. embassy in the summer of 1959 and expelled all U.S. government personnel, Morales intensified his anti-Castro campaign from U.S. shores. In 1962, he was named chief of operations for JM/WAVE, the CIA's component of the anti-Castro campaign launched by President Kennedy in the wake of the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion. From that post, Morales reported directly to Ted Shackley, the ghost behind CIA covert operations who would rise to become the agency's associate deputy in 1976 under CIA Director George Bush."

"Moreales was at the center of the CIA-mob alliance. Before the Castro revolution, he met and befriended many of the mobsters running the casionos. Later while with JM/WAVE, Morales and Shackley assisted Rosselli in launching the Castro assassination attempts. The attempts failed, but Morales came out of the Cuban operation with new power and new alliances. From then on, he would be a close ally and associate of Shackley. And when deemed appropriate by his superiors, he worked closely with mobsters."

"Morales' reputation as a master of covert operations was schizophrenic; government officials in capitals recognized him across Latin America, but he was unknown to the American public and most U.S. public policy makers. He was infamous elsewhere on the continent because in the late 1960s there were few South American countries in which he hadn't operated. Public records indicate that at various times during his career he was stationed in Guatemala, Havana, Lima, and Caracas. But these were his cover assignments. Like most CIA agents, Morales wasn't restricted to working in the country in which he was stationed. He roamed as needed. In 1964, he personally mowed down dozens of Tupamaro guerrillas in Uruguay. While he was stationed in Lima in 1965 he had helped pave the way for the invasion of the Dominican Republic by entering the country surreptitiously and knocking out a radio transmitter. The public record doesn't indicate any work in Bolivia, but in 1967 he helped engineer the capture of Cuban guerrilla Ernesto 'Che' Guevara there."

"Morales was chief of operations for the agency's mission in Laos in the middle-1960s, when the CIA mission was to enlist the local tribal people in its efforts to cut down the movement of supplies by the Vietcong…."

Edited March 23, 2007 by William Kelly

[John Simkin]

I believe there will be an article on David Morales in Rolling Stone today.

If Morales was involved in organizing the JFK assassination, the last place he would have been on the day it happened was Dallas. The main evidence we have against him comes from Morales himself. The most detailed account appears in Larry Hancock's "Someone Would Have Talked".

[James Richards]

I believe there will be an article on David Morales in Rolling Stone today.

If Morales was involved in organizing the JFK assassination, the last place he would have been on the day it happened was Dallas. The main evidence we have against him comes from Morales himself. The most detailed account appears in Larry Hancock's "Someone Would Have Talked".

Then again, John, if we believe in the revelations of late, he was on site when RFK was whacked.

BTW, thanks Bill for posting the extracts from Ayers' book.

James

[Miles Scull]

I believe there will be an article on David Morales in Rolling Stone today.

If Morales was involved in organizing the JFK assassination, the last place he would have been on the day it happened was Dallas. The main evidence we have against him comes from Morales himself. The most detailed account appears in Larry Hancock's "Someone Would Have Talked".

Then again, John, if we believe in the revelations of late, he was on site when RFK was whacked.

BTW, thanks Bill for posting the extracts from Ayers' book.

James

James,

BTW, wasn't O'Sullivan to come out with a DVD & book on his ID of M. at the Ambassador? Any news?

Miles

[James Richards]

I believe there will be an article on David Morales in Rolling Stone today.

If Morales was involved in organizing the JFK assassination, the last place he would have been on the day it happened was Dallas. The main evidence we have against him comes from Morales himself. The most detailed account appears in Larry Hancock's "Someone Would Have Talked".

Then again, John, if we believe in the revelations of late, he was on site when RFK was whacked.

BTW, thanks Bill for posting the extracts from Ayers' book.

James

James,

BTW, wasn't O'Sullivan to come out with a DVD & book on his ID of M. at the Ambassador? Any news?

Miles

Miles,

I haven't heard anything regarding this, sorry.

For those who are interested, check out Morales when he was the fresh face of innocence. That is him 3rd from the left (seated). It is circa 1944.

James

[John Simkin]

BTW, wasn't O'Sullivan to come out with a DVD & book on his ID of M. at the Ambassador? Any news?

I am in contact with Shane O'Sullivan so I will ask him about the DVD.

[Myra Bronstein]

http://www.rollingstone.com/

JFK story is visible on the cover, but they aren't giving free samples online.

[Charles Drago]

If Morales was involved in organizing the JFK assassination, the last place he would have been on the day it happened was Dallas.

I tend to agree. So too Lansdale.

My only reservation in terms of Morales arises from all we've been give to understand about his aggresiveness and psychopathology. Yet how much of that legend can we afford to accept?

The definitive Morales biography has yet to be written.

Don't spend a lot of time checking Amazon.

Charles

[David Boylan]

Bradley E. Ayers on David Morales:

"….I was directed to go to Rip's Marathon safe-house on the west shore of Florida Bay and run the V20 back to the Pirate's Lair safe-house complex, where I'd turn it over to Cabeza. Logistics gave me a car to deliver to Rip in return. On the way down U.S. 1, I stopped at the Green Turtle Inn in Isamorada for a bowl of soup. It was early afternoon and most of the lunch crowd had left. But near the back of the restaurant, seated at a large circular table, were Dave Morales, Mr. Harvey, Gordon Campbell, Mr. Phillips and another man, possibly Rosselli, whose back was turned to me. They apparently had stopped for lunch and drinks. I don't know if they recognized me or not. As was the practice in such situations within the agency, there was no acknowledgement, either way.

Discretely, I got my soup to go and quickly left. It was the first time I had ever seen the station hierarchy in the Keys and out of their air-conditioned offices. It was encouraging, maybe something big was in the offing. I thought. Rip was in the Marathon safe-house when I arrive…."

[

Bill is this David Cabeza? If it is, he was an associate of John Martino and later worked with him in his Import/Export business. If my memory is working ok today, he was also associated with Rolando Masferrer. I'm sure James has a picture of Cabeza. :-)

Dave

[William Kelly]

Bradley E. Ayers on David Morales:

"….I was directed to go to Rip's Marathon safe-house on the west shore of Florida Bay and run the V20 back to the Pirate's Lair safe-house complex, where I'd turn it over to Cabeza. Logistics gave me a car to deliver to Rip in return. On the way down U.S. 1, I stopped at the Green Turtle Inn in Isamorada for a bowl of soup. It was early afternoon and most of the lunch crowd had left. But near the back of the restaurant, seated at a large circular table, were Dave Morales, Mr. Harvey, Gordon Campbell, Mr. Phillips and another man, possibly Rosselli, whose back was turned to me. They apparently had stopped for lunch and drinks. I don't know if they recognized me or not. As was the practice in such situations within the agency, there was no acknowledgement, either way.

Discretely, I got my soup to go and quickly left. It was the first time I had ever seen the station hierarchy in the Keys and out of their air-conditioned offices. It was encouraging, maybe something big was in the offing. I thought. Rip was in the Marathon safe-house when I arrive…."

[

Bill is this David Cabeza? If it is, he was an associate of John Martino and later worked with him in his Import/Export business. If my memory is working ok today, he was also associated with Rolando Masferrer. I'm sure James has a picture of Cabeza. :-)

Dave

Hey Dave, Don, not Dave....but maybe the same person.

BEA: "...Don Cabeza was a former charter fishing boat captain, fresh off the fast, expensive boats on Miami Beach. He was supposed to be a skillful sailor and an adventurer of sorts. Because of his Cuban ancestry and bilingual skill, I planned to rely heavily on him as one of my chief instructors. Arnie, the other American, was a Miami diving bum with a rather shady past...."

BK

[Ron Ecker]

If Morales was involved in organizing the JFK assassination, the last place he would have been on the day it happened was Dallas.

I tend to agree. So too Lansdale.

Seems to me, then, that Morales and Lansdale would have told Rip Robertson to keep his butt out of Dallas.

[Robert Howard]

If Morales was involved in organizing the JFK assassination, the last place he would have been on the day it happened was Dallas.

I tend to agree. So too Lansdale.

Seems to me, then, that Morales and Lansdale would have told Rip Robertson to keep his butt out of Dallas.

Regarding Ron Ecker's comments; so one would think;......Maybe it is not a sexy post on my part but I cannot describe how nicely the 1977 CBS Documentary - The CIA's Secret Army,* dovetails some of the information posted pertaining to this thread.........FWIW

* hosted by Bill Moyers; I understand

the program was rebroadcast in February 1981 on his PBS program, "Bill Moyers Journal."

Example

[Robert Howard]

If Morales was involved in organizing the JFK assassination, the last place he would have been on the day it happened was Dallas.

I tend to agree. So too Lansdale.

Seems to me, then, that Morales and Lansdale would have told Rip Robertson to keep his butt out of Dallas.

Regarding Ron Ecker's comments; so one would think;......Maybe it is not a sexy post on my part but I cannot describe how nicely the 1977 CBS Documentary - The CIA's Secret Army,* dovetails some of the information posted pertaining to this thread.........FWIW

* hosted by Bill Moyers; I understand

the program was rebroadcast in February 1981 on his PBS program, "Bill Moyers Journal."

[Evan Marshall]

If Morales was involved in organizing the JFK assassination, the last place he would have been on the day it happened was Dallas.

I tend to agree. So too Lansdale.

Seems to me, then, that Morales and Lansdale would have told Rip Robertson to keep his butt out of Dallas.

Regarding Ron Ecker's comments; so one would think;......Maybe it is not a sexy post on my part but I cannot describe how nicely the 1977 CBS Documentary - The CIA's Secret Army,* dovetails some of the information posted pertaining to this thread.........FWIW

* hosted by Bill Moyers; I understand

the program was rebroadcast in February 1981 on his PBS program, "Bill Moyers Journal."

none of this is convincing nor compelling evidence

[Ron Ecker]

none of this is convincing nor compelling evidence

It all adds up, like circumstantial evidence tends to do in a crime, even if not enough to convict. I think that anyone who still doubts that the CIA was involved, after everything it has pulled in this case (e.g., Hunt's whereabouts on 11/22/63 which even the Rockefeller Commission couldn't find out, Joannides and the DRE and the secret files thereon, Blahut and the HSCA's safe, the sabotage of the Garrison investigation, Morales' credible if drunken talk about having gotten the SOB, CIA lookalikes standing on Dealey Plaza street corners and later in an LA hotel, etc.) - anyone who still doubts has not been paying attention.