David Morales

[David Boylan]

Question for Larry Hancock.

Larry, did Morales work with Jenkins, Hecksher et al as part of AMWORLD?

[Larry Hancock]

Morale's and his trainers at JM/WAVE supported AM/WORLD training for Artime and some of his senior personnel. We have that documented in more than one instance from Hecksher and Jenkins; compliments were extended to Morales for the training.

So Morales was aware of AM/WORLD and the Artime project...as well as the fact that it was all being moved overseas and not logistically supported from JM/WAVE.  Beyond that he would have had virtually no involvement since the whole point was to make it operationally deniable and totally offshore.

[David Boylan]

Thanks Larry.

 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by David Boylan

[Larry Hancock]

Yes, it was ...and given the pains being taken to make AM/WORLD fully deniable and totally operational off shore it took a relatively long time for its actually operations to jell, well into 1964.  If you have Shadow Warfare there is a chapter on it that relates that in considerable detail, largely based in a great deal of information from Gary Murr.

[B. A. Copeland]

Hey there Mr Larry and/or David, what was Carl Jenkins' relationship to Morales? I don't find much info on Jenkins personally. Thanks in advance.

Edited April 9, 2018 by B. A. Copeland

[Larry Hancock]

Jenkins worked as a paramilitary trainer at JM/WAVE, which means he worked for Morales who was chief of operations at the station. Prior to that he had actually served in Cuba.  Equally importantly he was selected to be the senior military officer in the AM/WORLD project under Hecksher;  their counterpoints were Artime and Quintero. I wrote on Jenkins in some length in the 2010 edition of SWHT. 

[Paul Brancato]

58 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

Jenkins worked as a paramilitary trainer at JM/WAVE, which means he worked for Morales who was chief of operations at the station. Prior to that he had actually served in Cuba.  Equally importantly he was selected to be the senior military officer in the AM/WORLD project under Hecksher;  their counterpoints were Artime and Quintero. I wrote on Jenkins in some length in the 2010 edition of SWHT. 

Is that Rafael ‘chichi’ Quintero, the guy who said that were he ever deposed he would bust the JFK case wide open? (My words, but that’s the gist of it). I came across his statement while researching Iran Contra for my first trading cards. Another, perhaps related question - was the ‘Felix’ mentioned recently as head of Operation 40 Felix Rodriguez?

[Larry Hancock]

Paul,  Quintero the source that Gene Wheaton was citing as one of two individuals who had indeed heard inside information on the JFK assassination.  Jenkins was the other. Of course they later denied any such thing when challenged on the point but there is good reason to believe they had indeed heard information of that sort...the details are in SWHT 2010.

As to Felix,  I think I missed that comment, Felix is generally regarded to be Felix Rodriquez, someone closely associated with Quintero both in Cuban affairs and later in the Nicaragua Contra thing.  However Felix Rodriquex, although he may have been associated with what has come to be called Op 40 certainly was not in charge of it.

[B. A. Copeland]

23 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

Jenkins worked as a paramilitary trainer at JM/WAVE, which means he worked for Morales who was chief of operations at the station. Prior to that he had actually served in Cuba.  Equally importantly he was selected to be the senior military officer in the AM/WORLD project under Hecksher;  their counterpoints were Artime and Quintero. I wrote on Jenkins in some length in the 2010 edition of SWHT. 

Interestingly enough, it was your writing that prompted me to ask about him. I walked into a local library last week and found a perfect condition copy of your amazing work (SWHT) and I haven't read it in full for a few years so I started again. I've always been very curious of Felix Rodriguez. I typically look at Irangate as involving many notables from the JFK event (periphery or not) but I've always wondered if Rodriguez played any possible role. Was Felix AMOT Larry?

[Larry Hancock]

There were three related programs which trained exiles for intelligence work in Cuba and while we have numbers we don't have names so its impossible to say for sure. I suspect that Felix was and as a particularly apt student was actually inserted ahead of the invasion as a handful were.  The majority of the AM/MOTS, AM/CHEERS etc were deployed with the Brigade but not in the initial landing groups and the majority were not directly involved in combat...coming back to be recruited into the Cuban intelligence group formed at JM/WAVE after the fiasco.  Interestingly Morales and James Angleton were both involved in a project to totally readdress Cuban counter intelligence after the BOP and most folks are unaware of how much exposure to Cuba Angleton actually had - one reason Harvey called him in for advice after getting the assassination project.

As to Iran/Contra, Felix was heavily involved as was Quintero and I got into that in considerable length in Shadow Warfare.

[Ron Bulman]

Angleton working with Morales after the BOP on anything is interesting.  More especially if Mr. zr rifle Harvey is thrown in the mix.  Might their communications have cut through middlemen and spilled over into other operations than Cuban counter intelligence in the next year or two?

[Paul Brancato]

3 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Angleton working with Morales after the BOP on anything is interesting.  More especially if Mr. zr rifle Harvey is thrown in the mix.  Might their communications have cut through middlemen and spilled over into other operations than Cuban counter intelligence in the next year or two?

Excellent post. I might add that all of them got their training and worked with each other beginning after WW2 in the OSS and were stationed in Berlin with Shackley, whose claim to fame was that he was the interpreter for Reinhardt Gehlen. Then Shackley is posted to JM Wave with the same cast of characters and begins a long relationship with Felix Rodriguez and Rafael Quintero and their CIA handlers. Meanwhile, Angleton is posted to Rome through and after the war, where he forms close relationships with Italian fascists, the guys who went on to form P2 and Centro Mundo Commerciale. By all means throw in ZRRIFLE and Harvey and QJWIN. 

[David Boylan]

This doc makes it seem that AMWORLD was turning into a soap opera. 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10109-10170.pdf

Jenkins was involved with the Bay of Pigs along with David Philips. JMATE was the crypt for BOP.

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/jfk/NARA-Oct2017/NARA-Nov9-2017/104-10194-10035.pdf

[B. A. Copeland]

On 4/10/2018 at 3:50 PM, Larry Hancock said:

There were three related programs which trained exiles for intelligence work in Cuba and while we have numbers we don't have names so its impossible to say for sure. I suspect that Felix was and as a particularly apt student was actually inserted ahead of the invasion as a handful were.  The majority of the AM/MOTS, AM/CHEERS etc were deployed with the Brigade but not in the initial landing groups and the majority were not directly involved in combat...coming back to be recruited into the Cuban intelligence group formed at JM/WAVE after the fiasco.  Interestingly Morales and James Angleton were both involved in a project to totally readdress Cuban counter intelligence after the BOP and most folks are unaware of how much exposure to Cuba Angleton actually had - one reason Harvey called him in for advice after getting the assassination project.

As to Iran/Contra, Felix was heavily involved as was Quintero and I got into that in considerable length in Shadow Warfare.

Wow, thanks for the response! You know.....just from even a speculative point of view, if we did not technically know that Angleton was more involved with Cuba than has been revealed, you would think that Morales and other higher ups would absolutely consult with Angleton due to his expertise and position as CI Chief, exactly the way that Harvey did. In other words, if one speculated (I know...have to be cautious with that) that Angleton may have been deeply involved with Cuba OPS due to his CI expertise, they'd be in good company.

 

On 4/11/2018 at 12:30 PM, David Boylan said:

This doc makes it seem that AMWORLD was turning into a soap opera. 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10109-10170.pdf

Jenkins was involved with the Bay of Pigs along with David Philips. JMATE was the crypt for BOP.

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/jfk/NARA-Oct2017/NARA-Nov9-2017/104-10194-10035.pdf

Thanks a ton for your work and digging David! Fascinating reads. Nothing beats seeing the actual and literal documents and interpreting for yourself (among others) what they mean.

[Larry Hancock]

Angleton entered the Cuba picture in 1961, following the failure at the BOP - which among other things had involved a major failure in CIA project intelligence about Cuba as well as apparent penetration of the project by Cuban intelligence.  The CIA's intelligence assessments had been in direct conflict with those coming out of the higher level joint intelligence council. Because of that Angleton was tasked with an independent evaluation of intelligence and counter intelligence related to Cuba.  In that project he made use of Cuban personnel trained by Morales - reconstituted into he Cuban intelligence group at JM/WAVE.  As I've noted before, Morales was virtually the only person in the project to receive a glowing recommendation for his own work in the Cuba project.

Later, when Harvey was tasked with supporting the Mongoose project and specifically with assassinating Castro, he appears to have gone to Angleton for advice on a number of areas, including where and how to effectively hide the project within the CIA itself. Angleton made introductions for him and also appears to have utilized some of his own foreign contacts who had assets inside Cuba - for what exact purpose is unclear.