Alpha 66 run by U.S. Army

[Paul Brancato]

6 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

You raise and interesting question B.A.  Actually we have had at least some documents outlining the contacts by the Army with Alpha 66, their direct contacts with Veciana and their designation of him as an informant for Army intelligence for a relatively long time.  I had some of those documents as long ago as 2005 when I was working on the first edition of SWHT.   My memory is far from perfect but I don't recall Veciana talking to Fonzi about the Army contacts and the Army interest in Alpha 66.  I wonder if Veciana discussed it in his recently published autobiography - where he presents a greatly expanded role with the CIA inside Cuba.

For those more current with those books, does this sort of Army connection - on them?  And does Veciana significantly expand on the sorts of activities with Alpha 66 that are described in these new documents?

Are Vecianas Army intel ties with ACSI?

[Larry Hancock]

Paul,  I think Ron quoted me earlier on this,  "By January of 1962, U.S. Army counter-intelligence had been established on Alpha 66 members, and contacts were made throughout 1963.  In particular, Army counter-intelligence (CI) had made contact with Antonio Veciana in October 1962.  He was assigned code number DUP 748 on January 30, 1063."

Army Counter Intelligence definitely had an interest in both Alpha 66 and Veciana but from the documents posted above it appears other Army functions were copied on the CI contacts and may have had their own interests - including collecting samples of Soviet weapons.  You would have to run through all the new documents being posted by Michael and David for a full list of Army units who were following the contacts or who had an interest.  I have not done that, I'm off chasing some  names and connections David pointed out -

[B. A. Copeland]

On 7/2/2018 at 4:00 PM, Larry Hancock said:

You raise and interesting question B.A.  Actually we have had at least some documents outlining the contacts by the Army with Alpha 66, their direct contacts with Veciana and their designation of him as an informant for Army intelligence for a relatively long time.  I had some of those documents as long ago as 2005 when I was working on the first edition of SWHT.   My memory is far from perfect but I don't recall Veciana talking to Fonzi about the Army contacts and the Army interest in Alpha 66.  I wonder if Veciana discussed it in his recently published autobiography - where he presents a greatly expanded role with the CIA inside Cuba.

For those more current with those books, does this sort of Army connection - on them?  And does Veciana significantly expand on the sorts of activities with Alpha 66 that are described in these new documents?

Thanks Larry. I’m also wondering if Veciana has ever talked to any researcher about his relationship with the Army. I’m guessing it didn’t have any (well, surface level anyway) relevance given the leads Fonzi were following. I’ve been meaning to re-read SWHT for a bit now. I feel as though there have been nice discussions in the forums that have touched on details you’ve also written about.

 

On 7/2/2018 at 4:00 PM, David Boylan said:

B.A.,

We'll need your report on this by Friday. 📰

Oh man David....that’s a tough one for my being a strict novice lol! I’d love to be able to see that newspaper(?) image better. You’re a tough teacher man :).

[Larry Hancock]

Off the top of my head I don't think he brought up any of the Army contacts with he or Alpha 66.  But as  you say, that really wasn't were Fonzi was looking at the time; he was looking into the Miami community and towards Cubans and the CIA. 

I probably need to reread SWHT myself, every time I got into it to respond to a question or check a new document I find something I had forgotten about...then again I wrote it largely as a research resource, good thing.

[David Boylan]

B.A., Don't tell Larry but I had to re-read his book again. I just ordered Shadow Warfare from Amazon.  I didn't see anything on Veciana and the Army either. I'm now re-reading Fonzi's book. 

And I'm still waiting for that report. 🙂

 

[B. A. Copeland]

Blast...thought I could avoid. I’ll see what I can do and I won’t tell Mr Larry ;). Dave what is that image? I’m absolutely curious lol.

[David Boylan]

19 minutes ago, B. A. Copeland said:

Blast...thought I could avoid. I’ll see what I can do and I won’t tell Mr Larry ;). Dave what is that image? I’m absolutely curious lol.

It's a microfiche copy of these.

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/jfk/NARA-Oct2017/NARA-Nov-2017/194-10012-10040.pdf

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/jfk/NARA-Oct2017/docid-32348455.pdf

[B. A. Copeland]

Thanks! Time to roll up some sleeves and dig back in.

[Paul Brancato]

2 hours ago, David Boylan said:

It's a microfiche copy of these.

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/jfk/NARA-Oct2017/NARA-Nov-2017/194-10012-10040.pdf

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/jfk/NARA-Oct2017/docid-32348455.pdf

What does USAOSD stand for?

what is General Lansdale’s group, referred to at the end of the first link?

Edited July 18, 2018 by Paul Brancato

[Steve Thomas]

4 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

What does USAOSD stand for?

 

Paul,

 

My guess is that it stands for U.S. Army Office of Secretary of Defense - but that's just a guess.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_the_Secretary_of_Defense

The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is a headquarters-level staff of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. It is the principal civilian staff element of the Secretary of Defense, and it assists the Secretary in carrying out authority, direction and control of the Department of Defense in the exercise of policy development, planning, resource management, fiscal, and program evaluation responsibilities.

 

Steve Thomas

[David Boylan]

Here's a good FBI doc on the beginnings of Operation Alpha 66 in 1962. 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32356624.pdf

 

[David Boylan]

On 7/1/2018 at 7:59 PM, David Boylan said:

Larry, there were a few indications that I've seen. Here's one, page 6. Cal Hicks, not sure if that is his real name.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/180-10144-10153.pdf

The other was a Task Force W report from William Harvey himself. He was complaining about Veciana. I'll see if I can locate this. 

Calvin Hicks was one of those under the radar guys at JWWAVE. He worked on JMATE. Was a paramilitary/ops guy prior to BOP invasion. (pg 36) Worked at Quarter's Eye.

Mr. Hicks was assigned to JMATE  Project in October 1960 as an operations officer in the Paramilitary section. His years of' Agency experience and varied operational assignments  enabled him to immediately take hold and perform the many functions required in the Paramilitary Operations Section in a most outstanding manner. This included recruitment, training, briefing, debriefing and in -exfiltration of:agents supervision of the infiltration of supplies and bodies for the Paramilitary Operations Section·; case officer· for certain high level agents and their W/T Operators inside the target  area..

Was from Texas. Worked for David Phillips during the "Chilean upheaval".   He later worked for Harvey on Task Force W , the 303 Committee. and later the Intelligence Watch (IW). He was requested to transfer to Task Force W by "Louis Armstrong" C/TFW 3 May 62.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10193-10077.pdf

[Paul Brancato]

On 7/1/2018 at 11:46 AM, Steve Thomas said:

"Run" may be too strong a word, but,

I just ran across an interesting memo from J. Walter Yeagley in the Department of Justice to J. Edgar Hoover dated January 21, 1964.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=147533&search=Sargen#relPageId=2&tab=page

In that memo, Yeagley said that there was a plan underway to use Anotonio Veciana, Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo and Andres Nazario Sargen, who was the Secretary General of SNFE Alpha 66 in Miami as U.S. Army intelligence sources. The memo said that “Gutiérrez Menoyo is now a “registered Army source” in the intelligence source registry maintained by the Central Intelligence Agency.” The memo references a “Major Ferris, one of the Army intelligence representatives attending the January 6^th conference that their plan had been approved.”

Andrés Nazario Sargén was a founder of Alpha 66 along with other prominent anti-communist fighters such as his older brother Aurelio Nazario, Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo and Antonio Veciana.

In a May 26, 1964 report filed by Wallace Heitman on Manuel Rodriguez Orcacarberro, Heitman recounts an interview he had with Orcarberro on February 10, 1964.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11481#relPageId=221&tab=page

This is CD 1085 pp. 220-221.

At that time, Orcarberro told Heitman that in June, 1963, Andres Nazario Sargen, who was the Secretary of SNFE Alpha 66 in Miami wrote him a letter asking him to attempt to form a local Dallas group of the organization. Orcarberro said he was successful and a full slate of officers had been selected.

 

Steve Thomas

 

 

Steve - I’ll read the rest of this thread later today. First, thought it worth mentioning that Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo is mentioned on page 11or 12  of the document I posted months ago on its own thread titled something like Interesting Interview with a Cuban Exile. Eloy, according to the subject of the interview, one Jose Antonio Casa Rodriguez, was supplying weapons to Castro during the Revolution through someone named Gonzalez, who was in turn in contact with Otto Skorzeny in Madrid and Belgium. Skorzeny said in an interview available on YouTube that he first worked for Castro and later for the enemies of Castro. 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Paul Brancato