The CIA and the Book Depository

[Larry Hancock]

We have learned a huge amount about Morales beyond what Gaeton managed to retrieve (faced with total CIA stonewalling), though records and Robrt Dorff's extensive contacts with Morales's boyhood friend in Arizona.  Ron if you have SWHT 2010 you will find that all in the chapter on Morales.  I put more on his full career in Shadow Warfare, including his assignments in Laos and Vietnam.

[Rob Couteau]

On 6/8/2020 at 3:00 PM, Larry Hancock said:

Shadow Warfare

Thanks for mentioning this, Larry. I have your SWHT but didn't know about Shadow Warfare.

[Larry Hancock]

Shadow Warfare is actually a broad, long term look at covert action - so that allowed me to trace people like Morales, Shackley and even Felix Rodriquez on through their careers beyond the anti-Castro projects.  For Morales that meant his appearance in Latin America, on to Laos and Vietnam and to his later work with SACSA on the Joint Chiefs staff.  For Shackley that meant his utterly dismal conduct of military operations in Laos - and his total abandonment of the Hmong. 

Given the work of a number of people its amazing how much we have learned about the true careers and assignments of some of these folks that were so mysterious in the earlier years....the CIA would not even acknowledge Morales existence and although we knew Rip Robertson was a paramilitary contractor, we had no idea of his full role in the Cuba Project - nor did we know anything at all about Carl Jenkins.

We did know about David Phillips but we had no idea that people like Tony Sforza and the AMOTS were involved in intelligence efforts against the Cuban diplomats in Mexico City.   

Is all grist for the mill of course, but you have to wonder what a real investigation could have done with what we know now.

 

 

[Robert Montenegro]

1 hour ago, Larry Hancock said:

For Morales that meant his appearance in Latin America, on to Laos and Vietnam and to his later work with SACSA on the Joint Chiefs staff.

I am very sorry to divert from the topic of this post, but I wanted to ask you Mr. Hancock, if you, having worked with Mr. Simpich, believe that David “El Indio” Sánchez Morales was the commanding officer of the "JMDUSK" security division within "JMWAVE"?

And if yes, does that not put United States Army cut-out David Sánchez Morales under the jurisdiction of the CIA's Office of Security.

The same office Lt. Col. James Walter McCord Jr. was reporting to, as he was in charge of physical security for CIA HQ at Langley.

 

Edited June 10, 2020 by Robert Montenegro

[Larry Hancock]

Morales  worked for the Cuba Project as a training officer stationed in 1960/61, his assignment was training three groups of Cuban volunteers in intelligence and counter intelligence practices - the AMFASTS, AMCHEERS and AMOTs.  He was virtually the only officer at the station to receive a commendation for his work in that project.  Miami Station itself reported to CIA Western Hemisphere under J.C. King and its Cuba Project operations fell under Jake Esterline.

He stayed assigned to the station as it continued in its anti-Castro support activities after the Bay of Pigs and became designated as an ongoing field station, designated as JMWAVE.  He reported to a couple of different chiefs of station during that period; when the CIA was assigned to support the new Mongoose project in 1962 Ted Shackley was brought in as Chief of Station and Morales became head of station operations under Shackley; in turn Shackley himself continued to report to West Hem, still headed by JC King.

Following the dissolution of Task Force W, Miami Station continued to support anti-Castro operations as directed by Desmond Fitzgerald and the new SAS group.  That left both Shackley and Morales in place in the same, ongoing roles, through 1963.  On a side note, both Shackley and Morales had supported William Harvey's Castro assassination assignment under Task Force W and assignment continued into 1963, exactly how long and with what activities remains to be determined.

As to JMDUSK and its security duties, the officers would have been under the overall control of Shackley from a budget and personnel standpoint as chief of base, Morales headed overall base operations so he may have had a management role with them but from what we know of his activities he was far more concerned with maritime operations and missions - you find him as the reporting officer for the after action reports on those - including infiltration and exfiltration missions.

I think that's probably the best overall description of his evolving duties at Miami Station.

I don't think referring to Morales as an Army "cut out" is really accurate, he had been recruited from the Army by the CIA when he was only a non-com.  He maintained an Army cover for certain activities but also used covers under both the State Department and USAID.

 

[Robert Montenegro]

22 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

I don't think referring to Morales as an Army "cut out" is really accurate

Perhaps I was looking for the phrase "sheep-dipped," hah!

Thank you for the response Mr. Hancock, it was quite helpful.

I only ask, because in terms of vetting who could enter JMWAVE proper (Zenith Technical Enterprises Inc.), it seems to me that "El Indio" was able to bring whoever the hell he wanted on-site.

Like say, John "Handsome Johnny" Rosselli AKA ”Colonel Ralston” AKA “Colonel Rawlston," who apparently was a regular at JMWAVE, decked out in a full US Army Colonel's uniform when he showed up, no less.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Robert Montenegro

[Larry Hancock]

I have no doubt Morales could bring anyone he wanted into the various areas of the station....some of which were indeed quite compartmentalized from each other in different buildings, on and off campus, with lots of safehouses, etc.  I'm not sure how much time he spent at the maritime ops bases in the Keys but we do know he traveled to Mexico City on a number of occasions in 1963, that JMWAVE had a subsidiary station there apart from the regular CIA station at the embassy and that AMOTs were routinely used in intelligence collections and other activities in Mexico City as well as in Florida.

From the few details we have it appears that contacts with Roselli and for that matter Varona, were done well off base - as far as Roselli an an Army uniform, that has been mentioned in a number of JFK books but I've never been able to corroborate it and because we do have extremely detailed FBI surveillance files on Roselli its also questionable, apart from a few known visits - mostly to Miami hotels - that he spent that much time in Florida.  What we don't have though are the Miami FBI office files that should have had surveillance on him when he was in Florida - those are totally missing from his FBI records.

What we do know is that on his last known trip to Florida, in April 63, Roselli studiously avoided going anywhere near JMWAVE even though he chartered a boat to go down into the Keys and to the area of the maritime operations facilities there.

 

 

[Paul Brancato]

3 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

I have no doubt Morales could bring anyone he wanted into the various areas of the station....some of which were indeed quite compartmentalized from each other in different buildings, on and off campus, with lots of safehouses, etc.  I'm not sure how much time he spent at the maritime ops bases in the Keys but we do know he traveled to Mexico City on a number of occasions in 1963, that JMWAVE had a subsidiary station there apart from the regular CIA station at the embassy and that AMOTs were routinely used in intelligence collections and other activities in Mexico City as well as in Florida.

From the few details we have it appears that contacts with Roselli and for that matter Varona, were done well off base - as far as Roselli an an Army uniform, that has been mentioned in a number of JFK books but I've never been able to corroborate it and because we do have extremely detailed FBI surveillance files on Roselli its also questionable, apart from a few known visits - mostly to Miami hotels - that he spent that much time in Florida.  What we don't have though are the Miami FBI office files that should have had surveillance on him when he was in Florida - those are totally missing from his FBI records.

What we do know is that on his last known trip to Florida, in April 63, Roselli studiously avoided going anywhere near JMWAVE even though he chartered a boat to go down into the Keys and to the area of the maritime operations facilities there.

 

 

Larry, Robert and anyone else curious about this - do you think it’s significant that Shackley was Gehlen’s interpretor? Or that Harvey and many others were also stationed in Germany in the 1950’s? If I’m not mistaken Shackley was there until 1962. Dulles was close to Gehlen, and was instrumental in the hiring and protection of former Nazi assets. 

[Larry Hancock]

The significant point is that Harvey was COS at BOB (Berlin Operating Base) when Morales was recruited - apparently the two really had a lot in common, were both very aggressive and "forward leaning".  The CIA did not have that many military officers at that point in time, relied on contractors primarily, and Morales was a great fit for a training slot in the Guatemala project, most likely recommended by Hecksher who had also come out of Germany.

When Harvey was assigned to lead Task Force W, he appears to have personally requested Morales become Ops chief at WAVE...which was a real bump up in rank.  Morales had one of the fastest track careers you might ever find - probably because he was not only tough but also very literate, well organized, etc.

For me the German connections are important ones for Morales but primarily due to his association and networking with Harvey and Hecksher.  In the early days of the Cold War Berlin Base was literally the front lines in the Cold War, and not always that Cold for that matter.  And while we may not often think of it that way into the sixties Berlin was the flash point, the most likely spot for war to start, even for JFK....so being networked to the people who had been in Berlin certainly was important.

[Robert Montenegro]

10 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

The significant point is that Harvey was COS at BOB (Berlin Operating Base) when Morales was recruited

Curiouser and curiouser.

I thank you Mr. Hancock for your candor and tolerance.

11 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Dulles was close to Gehlen, and was instrumental in the hiring and protection of former Nazi assets. 

I find it disturbing that Schutzstaffel Brigadeführer Dr. Franz Alfred Six, who in his monstrous career under the Nazi regime was commander of the "Amt VII" office of Reichssicherheitshauptamt that planned the execution of Britain's 300,000 known Jews called "Sonderfahndungsliste G.B.", Brigadeführer Six was chief of "Vorkommando Moscow", a unit of Einsatzgruppe B that massacred at least two million innocent civilians on the Eastern front, and between 1935 and 1939, Brigadeführer Six was Otto Adolf Eichmann's boss! The very same Dr. Six would after WWII become one of the top operatives of the "Gehlen Organization."

And purportedly, though I am still searching for documentation, the man who saved Brigadeführer Six from the hangman was OSS officer Colonel Robert G. Storey, the Director of the Documentation Division and Executive Trial Counsel in Nuremberg.

The same Col. Robert G. Storey who acted later as special counsel to the Attorney General of Texas, Vincent Waggoner Carr, in the role of liaison to the Warren Commission with the District Attorney of Dallas, Henry Menasco Wade, in tow.

Brigadeführer Six was, of all damn things, one of the men involved in training the anti-Castro terrorist organization "Brigada Asalto 2506."

Which of course, brings genocidal mass-murder Dr. Franz Alfred Six, one of the central planners of the holocaust, into the same orbit of David “El Indio” Sánchez Morales, the chief of the anti-Castro assassination squad "Operation 40" and the man who legally vetted what the Warren Commission saw, Col. Robert G. Storey.

Strange liaisons, too close to be coincidental or anything less than nefarious. 

Edited June 11, 2020 by Robert Montenegro

[Chuck Schwartz]

Very good post, Robert.  And this came from Bill Kelly's JFKCountercoup site:Colonel Robert G. Story – Dallas attorney

 

From Maj. Ralph Ganis – The Skorzeny Papers (2018, Skyhorse)

 

Director of the Documentation Division and Executive Trail Counsel in Nuremberg (p. 81)

 

– “The senior officer at the heart of all document handling for the Nuremberg Trials was a USAF Intelligence officer and OSS veteran, Colonel Robert G. Storey, who hailed from Dallas, Texas. Colonel Storey was also one of the very few officer in the entire U.S. military privy to ULTRA. Years later, Storey would play a very prominent role as an independent attorney working with the Warren Commission after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy… (p. 30)

 

 “Storey had served with General Charles Cabell during the war,…In Dallas, Col. Storey was president of the Republic National Bank and head of the American Bar Association,…Director of the State Bar of Texas and Chairman of the Board of the Southwest Legal Foundation. From 1949-1959, Storey served as the Dean of the Southern Methodist University School of Law….” (p. 181)

 

– Storey “special counsel to the attorney general of Texas,…liaison to the Warren Commission. Colonel Storey was present in the Dallas jail cell when Chief Justice Earl Warren met with Jack Ruby….”  

 

“Colonel Storey served on a number of boards and committees with……Algur H. Meadows and Judge Gordon Simpson, Skorzeny’s principal Dallas oil business associates. One of Colonel Storey’s intimate friends was Leonidas (Leon) Jaworski,..... (p. 314-315)

 

[Chuck Schwartz]

Note that Storey served with C. Cabell, who was fired by JFK for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. And whose brother (Earle) was the Mayor of Dallas at the time of the Big Event. And, we have since learned that , at that time , Earle was a CIA Asset.

[Steve Thomas]

20 minutes ago, Chuck Schwartz said:

Very good post, Robert.  And this came from Bill Kelly's JFKCountercoup site:Colonel Robert G. Story – Dallas attorney

 

 

From Maj. Ralph Ganis – The Skorzeny Papers (2018, Skyhorse)

 

 

Director of the Documentation Division and Executive Trail Counsel in Nuremberg (p. 81)

 

 

– “The senior officer at the heart of all document handling for the Nuremberg Trials was a USAF Intelligence officer and OSS veteran, Colonel Robert G. Storey, who hailed from Dallas, Texas. Colonel Storey was also one of the very few officer in the entire U.S. military privy to ULTRA. Years later, Storey would play a very prominent role as an independent attorney working with the Warren Commission after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy… (p. 30)

 

 

 “Storey had served with General Charles Cabell during the war,…In Dallas, Col. Storey was president of the Republic National Bank and head of the American Bar Association,…Director of the State Bar of Texas and Chairman of the Board of the Southwest Legal Foundation. From 1949-1959, Storey served as the Dean of the Southern Methodist University School of Law….” (p. 181)

 

 

– Storey “special counsel to the attorney general of Texas,…liaison to the Warren Commission. Colonel Storey was present in the Dallas jail cell when Chief Justice Earl Warren met with Jack Ruby….”  

 

 

“Colonel Storey served on a number of boards and committees with……Algur H. Meadows and Judge Gordon Simpson, Skorzeny’s principal Dallas oil business associates. One of Colonel Storey’s intimate friends was Leonidas (Leon) Jaworski,..... (p. 314-315)

 

 

Chuck,

Those Colonels just keep popping up, don't they?

Steve Thomas

[Larry Hancock]

I'm glad I was only a Noncom....otherwise you guys would be asking where I was....

 

[Chuck Schwartz]

Yes they do, Steve. And, funny thing about that , they were all in Dallas around Nov. 22-23.  Maybe they were there to discuss the upcoming Army-Navy football game, which was the only game my Dad watched all year. He served in the Army/Air Force (Radar Tech) and saw action in Guadacanal, Iwo Jima, Solomon Islands, Okinawa, and then occupied Japan in 1946.  Needless to say , he rooted for Army. In 1963, my Mom did not want the game to be played in honor of JFK.  So , she was angry when the game was played anyway.