Rolando Cubela. New essay by Jeff Morley

[Larry Hancock]

2 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

I’m trying to create a timeline of these Castro plots and paramilitary activities against Cuba, in so far as how they came about and eventually died out

.....I've developed as much detail on that question as we could find; its all given in chronological sequence in Tipping Point, up and though the formation of Commando Mambesis in the summer of 1963 -

 

2 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

When you say “As to 1963, we have strictly anecdotal information that a rifle team may have remained in play for attacks on Castro, but noting specific to suggest an actual effort was made in that year.” who are you referring to that gave that anecdotal information?

and the competition between it (a creation of JMWAVE) and AMWORLD (a creation of RFK and SAS).  The best I can do is refer you to that as its far more extensive than any post here could be. If you want the exact details on the attempts at infiltration before and during the initial Cuba Project those come largely from the Taylor Commission report, the CIA's IG and historians reports on that project and some of my own research and you would it covered in my book In Denial.

2 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

As to 1963, we have strictly anecdotal information that a rifle team may have remained in play for attacks on Castro, but noting specific to suggest an actual effort was made in that year.” who are you referring to that gave that anecdotal information?

We have documents showing that the Castro assassination project restarted under Harvey was ongoing and funded through 1963, there are documents showing operational meetings (involving Harvey, Roselli and either Moore or Morales or both) and calls on the project through April of that year.  In April a boat trip was made by Harvey and others down to the boat ops base in the Keys.  As to sources, Ayers mentions briefly observing a very special and compartmentalized shooting team base was operating under Morales and Robertson when he arrived at WAVE in 1963.  Roselli referred to sniper teams that were sent into Cuba in 1963 in information circulated in Washington DC circa 1967 but he later gave no details on that in his first testimony to the Church Committee. In those remarks  he stopped  at the poison plots; when he was called back to be asked about 62/63 and shooting teams he never made it, being murdered before that could happen.

I will leave it to David to respond to your questions about chain of command for such missions in 1963 and he is far more deeply into the organization structure at WAVE and how it evolved over the years.

 

[Matt Allison]

From the newspaper article David posted it appears Jenkins went to Vietnam in June 1962 at the latest, and didn't return until late 1963 at the earliest.

Edited October 12, 2022 by Matt Allison

[David Boylan]

13 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

.....I've developed as much detail on that question as we could find; its all given in chronological sequence in Tipping Point, up and though the formation of Commando Mambesis in the summer of 1963 -

 

and the competition between it (a creation of JMWAVE) and AMWORLD (a creation of RFK and SAS).  The best I can do is refer you to that as its far more extensive than any post here could be. If you want the exact details on the attempts at infiltration before and during the initial Cuba Project those come largely from the Taylor Commission report, the CIA's IG and historians reports on that project and some of my own research and you would it covered in my book In Denial.

We have documents showing that the Castro assassination project restarted under Harvey was ongoing and funded through 1963, there are documents showing operational meetings (involving Harvey, Roselli and either Moore or Morales or both) and calls on the project through April of that year.  In April a boat trip was made by Harvey and others down to the boat ops base in the Keys.  As to sources, Ayers mentions briefly observing a very special and compartmentalized shooting team base was operating under Morales and Robertson when he arrived at WAVE in 1963.  Roselli referred to sniper teams that were sent into Cuba in 1963 in information circulated in Washington DC circa 1967 but he later gave no details on that in his first testimony to the Church Committee. In those remarks  he stopped  at the poison plots; when he was called back to be asked about 62/63 and shooting teams he never made it, being murdered before that could happen.

I will leave it to David to respond to your questions about chain of command for such missions in 1963 and he is far more deeply into the organization structure at WAVE and how it evolved over the years.

 

That looks pretty close (JMWAVE). Rip Robertson handled infiltrations to the north coast of Cuba, Grayston Lynch worked the south coast. Bob Stevens was one of the main maritime guys in the Keys.

Lynch was running Commandos Mambises during the summer/fall of '63.

Cal Hicks was Chief of Paramilitary Training at JMWAVE. Brad Ayers reported to him. Hicks was replaced by Ernie Sparks after Hicks was promoted. Hicks would later work for David Phillips as part of the "Intelligence Watch" program.

Howard Hunt referred to Sparks as "Ned" in his book Give Us This Day.

Forgot to add Tom Clines. He was Felix Rodriguez's case officer. He also ran maritime ops along with Tom Hewitt.

Edited October 12, 2022 by David Boylan

[Gerry Down]

That’s impressive to be able to tell who was in charge of north coast infiltrations/exfiltrations versus the south coast. This is very useful information for me as I’ve trying to figure out who were the heavy hitters at JMWAVE in Nov 1963 and who ran together there in a close circle.

Brad Ayers said the following:

Morales hung with what Ayers called the "circle" - Morales, Roselli, Tony Sforza, Manuel Artime and Rip Robertson. The four were drinking buddies and of like mind on politics. Ayers said they were vicious, too. "If anyone put together a sniper team to hit the President, Morales, Rip, Rosselli and Sforza would have done it."

SOURCE: https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKsforza.htm

As a test of who were on the inner circle of JMWAVE in Nov 1963, take the hypothetical situation of the JMWAVE station trying to infiltrate a team of cuban exiles into Cuba to assassinate Castro and then exfiltrate them back out. A mothership would be required to get to the cuban coast and be armed. Who are we talking about would be the team at JMWAVE to put together such a high security operation?

My updated guess (on reading Larry and Davids replies above) of the hierarchy of such a mission would be:

• Chief of Station: Ted Shackley
• Chief of Cuban Operations: David Morales
• Chief of Maritime Operations: Bob Moore
• Head of North Cuban Coast Infiltrations/exfiltrations: Rip Robertson
• Contract Paramilitary Agent: Tony Sforza

In this scenario i’m presuming Sforza would be inside Cuba (apparently Sforza was under deep cover inside Cuba in 1963) to meet the cuban exile assassin team when they arrived and provide accommodation for them and then help them get back out using the exfiltration process organized by Robertson who would have been operating out of JMWAVE.

When it came to executive action, it seems David Morales, Rip Robertson and Tony Sforzas names keep coming up. Ted Shackley (who denied any knowledge of executive action in his book “Spymaster”) and Bob Moores names seem to come up less in relation to executive action. But of course seeing how they were so senior at JMWAVE it’s difficult to see how they would not be involved in executive action.

I’ve put together the below diagram to map out who would have been the inner circle at JMWAVE for high security operations such as my hypothetical getting a team of cuban exiles together to assassinate Castro. I have yet to read “Tipping Point” but I’d like to make sure I have a rough map of JMWAVE before dipping in to that book.

Does this map look right? And does it confirm the hierarchy I have laid out above of Shackley, Morales, Moore, Robertson and Sforza as being the main players for high security operations at JMWAVE in Nov 1963?

 

[David Boylan]

52 minutes ago, Gerry Down said:

That’s impressive to be able to tell who was in charge of north coast infiltrations/exfiltrations versus the south coast. This is very useful information for me as I’ve trying to figure out who were the heavy hitters at JMWAVE in Nov 1963 and who ran together there in a close circle.

Brad Ayers said the following:

Morales hung with what Ayers called the "circle" - Morales, Roselli, Tony Sforza, Manuel Artime and Rip Robertson. The four were drinking buddies and of like mind on politics. Ayers said they were vicious, too. "If anyone put together a sniper team to hit the President, Morales, Rip, Rosselli and Sforza would have done it."

SOURCE: https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKsforza.htm

As a test of who were on the inner circle of JMWAVE in Nov 1963, take the hypothetical situation of the JMWAVE station trying to infiltrate a team of cuban exiles into Cuba to assassinate Castro and then exfiltrate them back out. A mothership would be required to get to the cuban coast and be armed. Who are we talking about would be the team at JMWAVE to put together such a high security operation?

My updated guess (on reading Larry and Davids replies above) of the hierarchy of such a mission would be:

• Chief of Station: Ted Shackley
• Chief of Cuban Operations: David Morales
• Chief of Maritime Operations: Bob Moore
• Head of North Cuban Coast Infiltrations/exfiltrations: Rip Robertson
• Contract Paramilitary Agent: Tony Sforza

In this scenario i’m presuming Sforza would be inside Cuba (apparently Sforza was under deep cover inside Cuba in 1963) to meet the cuban exile assassin team when they arrived and provide accommodation for them and then help them get back out using the exfiltration process organized by Robertson who would have been operating out of JMWAVE.

When it came to executive action, it seems David Morales, Rip Robertson and Tony Sforzas names keep coming up. Ted Shackley (who denied any knowledge of executive action in his book “Spymaster”) and Bob Moores names seem to come up less in relation to executive action. But of course seeing how they were so senior at JMWAVE it’s difficult to see how they would not be involved in executive action.

I’ve put together the below diagram to map out who would have been the inner circle at JMWAVE for high security operations such as my hypothetical getting a team of cuban exiles together to assassinate Castro. I have yet to read “Tipping Point” but I’d like to make sure I have a rough map of JMWAVE before dipping in to that book.

Does this map look right? And does it confirm the hierarchy I have laid out above of Shackley, Morales, Moore, Robertson and Sforza as being the main players for high security operations at JMWAVE in Nov 1963?

 

Gerry,

Thanks for doing this. A few notes. Rudy Enders reported up to Rip Robertson. Bob Moore was using the alias of Gordon Campbell in 1963 after the real Campbell passed away in Sept 1962. 

Tony Sforza was meeting with David Phillips on 11/22/63 in Mexico City. (Hey Dave, we have to get rid of those photos of LHO and his handler) 

Joannides was reporting to William Kent in 1963. Kent reported to Moore.

[Chuck Schwartz]

And per Wikipedia, "In May 1976, Shackley was made Associate Deputy Director for Operations, serving under CIA director George H. W. Bush. "

[Larry Hancock]

Also in 1963 Sforza was well out of Cuba and running the operation of WAVE Cuban Intelligence Service / Counter Intelligence  group - the AMOTS.  AMOTs were used in Miami and elsewhere including on penetration missions against the Cuban embassy in Mexico city.  The AMOT group monitored the Cuban communities in the US for unsanctioned military activities as well as to detect Cuban intelligence penetrations of the US.

 

[Ron Bulman]

This is all fascinating.  A thread worth re reading.  I thought Joannides was chosen/placed in his position to deal with the DRE by Helms and reported directly to him (on request?).

Shackley showing up in 76 under Bush is interesting Chuck.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Also, per Page 42 in "Coup in Dallas"(quoting John Simkin), " in 1951, Gordon Stewart, the CIA chief of espionage in West Germany , sent Conein to establish a base in Nuremberg.  The following year (CIA official ) Ted Shackley arrived to help Conein  with his work.  The main  prurpose of this base was to send agents into Warsaw Pact countries  to gather information needed to fight the soviet union during the Cold War... Later, Conein worked with (CIA official ) William Harvey in Berlin".  Also, in the aforementioned  book (see page 110) , Shackley is quoted as saying QJ/WIN  " has something to do with Spain"- this was in response to  a question from a US Senate Committee on 8/19/75.  Just some  more data points on Shackley.

[Gerry Down]

On 10/13/2022 at 1:03 AM, Larry Hancock said:

Also in 1963 Sforza was well out of Cuba and running the operation of WAVE Cuban Intelligence Service / Counter Intelligence  group - the AMOTS.  AMOTs were used in Miami and elsewhere including on penetration missions against the Cuban embassy in Mexico city.  The AMOT group monitored the Cuban communities in the US for unsanctioned military activities as well as to detect Cuban intelligence penetrations of the US.

 

Tony Sforza was exfiltrated on a fishing boat from Cuba to Key West in June 1961. This type of exfiltration would seem to make it unlikely Sforza would have gone back, at least legally, to Cuba after this date. But what confused me was this line from Sparticus Education:

In 1963 Sforza was in Cuba under deep cover. It is possible he was involved at the time of trying to get Fidel Castro's sister, Juanita Castro, out of the country. Recently released documents show that he was in Mexico City in November, 1963.

SOURCE: https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKsforza.htm 

This line sounded to me like Sforza was in Cuba in 1963 and in contact with Castros sister and trying to arrange her exfiltration and as part of this operation he was in Mexico on Nov 22nd. I presume the Sparticus Education regarding Sforza under deep cover in Cuba in 1963 is wrong?

Was the "AMRYE stay-behind agent net in Cuba" still active in 1963 and it was this network inside Cuba that Sforza (operating from JMWAVE) was in contact with and trying to arrange the exfiltration of Castros sister?

 

 

[Larry Hancock]

My take would be as you describe,  Sforza using the network from within the US.  For that matter we also have documentation showing that both Morales (probably related to possible boat exfiltration) and Phillips in Mexico (aircraft exfiltration) were both read into the attempt to extract Castro's sister....which aborted in 1963 but did happen later. 

As I said in another post, some of the early Sparticus material has become a bit dated in terms of what we have learned in more recent years.

[Gerry Down]

6 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

My take would be as you describe,  Sforza using the network from within the US.  For that matter we also have documentation showing that both Morales (probably related to possible boat exfiltration) and Phillips in Mexico (aircraft exfiltration) were both read into the attempt to extract Castro's sister....which aborted in 1963 but did happen later. 

As I said in another post, some of the early Sparticus material has become a bit dated in terms of what we have learned in more recent years.

Offhand do you know the best source of information on this AMRYE stay behind network  for me to conduct further research on it? Castro's sister wrote a book about her defection which likely contained details about how she defected and who she was in contact with inside Cuba regarding the defection but from what I can see on Amazon, that book only appears to be in Spanish.

[David Boylan]

Gerry,

John Newman covers quite a bit on the Stay Behind network in his recent series.

Here's a bit of sanitized info on the network. Approved by David Phillips.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=189141#relPageId=3

[Gerry Down]

Thanks for that document. The document states that after the U.S. embassy in Havana closed down in Jan 1961, in the run up to the BOP there were two CIA stay-behind officers who stayed on in Cuba and reported on agents and networks they had inside Cuba. The officers were:

• Frank Belsito
• Ralph Seehafer

 

 

SOURCE: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=189141#relPageId=3

According to the book “Inside The Company: CIA Diary” by Philip Agee, apparently Ralph Seehafer was “Base Chief” of Ecuador in March 1963. Not sure where Frank Belsito was by 1963. Neither the names of Belsito nor Seehafer show up in the Mary Ferrells CIA Pseudonyms & Aliases:

https://www.maryferrell.org/php/pseudodb.php

So by Nov 1963, Seehafer was gone to Equador and I’m not sure where Belsito was, though Belsito did write an autobiography at one point so i'm sure he says where he was in that book. It seems surprising Tony Sforzas name was not mentioned alongside Seehafer and Belsito given that Sforza was running a key stay-behind network – the AMRYE stay-behind network. And also given Sforzas obvious prominence to the CIA in that he seems to have been designated the point man to meet with Castros sister in Mexico City regarding her defection.

I suppose what I’m trying to get at is that as of Nov 1963 who was the main man at JMWAVE regarding the stay behind networks? I think it was Sforza but I don’t have enough knowledge in the area to state this with certainty. If he was the main man, then any infiltration/exfiltration via the north cuban coast would need two main men:

• Rip Roberston (in charge of logistics): To arrange the logistics of boats, weapons and personnel etc.
• Tony Sforza (in charge of intelligence): To arrange the on-island CIA assets/agents to help the cuban exiles coming being infiltrated into the island and being exfiltrated off afterwards.

If my theory is correct, Rip Robertson and Tony Sforza would have a tendency to work as a team (logistics & intelligence) regarding any infiltration/exfiltration to Cuba at least via the north coast of Cuba. And this is why Brad Ayers talks about these often being together at JMWAVE:

Morales hung with what Ayers called the "circle" - Morales, Roselli, Tony Sforza, Manuel Artime and Rip Robertson. The four were drinking buddies and of like mind on politics.

SOURCE: https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKsforza.htm

The head of the F/I (Foreign Intelligence) branch of JMWAVE where Tony Sforza worked was headed by Warren Frank. So Sforza was not head of F/I at JMWAVE but perhaps he was seen, in a sense, as head of F/I when it came to specifically Cuba (JMWAVE of course handling other small countries in the Caribbean, and not just Cuba). So in this sense, Tony Sforza, given his on-island experience in Cuba, might have been seen as the "expert" at JMWAVE on foreign intelligence, at least when it came to Cuba. And so no infiltration/exfiltration to Cuba could be done without his input.

That's my theory anyway regarding Tony Sforzas role at JMWAVE - that as of Nov 1963 he was the main man at JMWAVE regarding the stay behind networks, and as a result was critical to any infiltration/exfiltrations to Cuba. Though i'm not experienced enough to be certain about this. 

Edited October 16, 2022 by Gerry Down

[David Boylan]

Here is a diagram of the Stay Behind Net as drawn by Emilio Rodriguez. He used aliases.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10180-10133.pdf

Items 3 and 4 below.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=41130#relPageId=3