CONFIRMATION of USAF COL. Prouty's Military "Focal-Point" Network: "PROJECT *REDACTED*" & GEN. Goodpaster's DJS report...

[Robert Montenegro]

 

I have in my possession a signed, 1973 first edition Prentice-Hall Inc. copy of United States Air Force COL. Leroy Fletcher Prouty's  "The Secret Team: The CIA, and It's Allies In Control of the United States and the World," that was gifted to me by a West Point graduate (who shall remain nameless), that I was friends with, when I was active duty in the United States Army.

 

I have handled that copy of COL. Prouty's work with literal white archival gloves since I first acquired it back in 2012, and I constantly refer back to COL. Prouty's original published work—however controversial or seemly vague the statements he made in that book—for what it is worth (I personally believe that his work is a deliberate "limited hangout" of sorts).

 

In my opinion, one of the most controversial statements that COL. Prouty made, was that between 1955 to 31 December 1963, he was tasked as, "Focal Point Officer" for the CIA within the Department of Defense, reporting directly to Director, Central Intelligence, Allen Welsh Dulles, which can be found in the Preface pg. vii, of COL. Prouty's first addition of his 1973 book:

 

QUOTE—

 

"...I had the unique assignment of being the Focal Point officer for contacts between the CIA and the Department of Defense on matters pertaining to the military support of the Special Operations* of that Agency. In that capacity I worked with Allen Dulles and John Foster Dulles..."

 

—END QUOTE.

 

On that very same page (Preface pg. vii), COL. Prouty states the following about what he meant by "...Special Operations..."

 

QUOTE—

 

"...*Special Operations is a name given in most cases, but not always, to any clandestine, covert, undercover, or secret operations by the government or by someone, U.S. citizen or a foreign national. . . even in special cases a stateless professional, or U.S. or foreign activity or organization. It is usually secret and highly classified. It is to be differentiated from Secret Intelligence and in a very parochial sense from Secret or Special Intelligence Operations..."

 

—END QUOTE.

 

Quite literally, COL. Prouty, by his own admission, was arming CIA covert operations, for the CIA's Directorate of Plans, from 1955 'til the end of 1963—end of story, no more crying about the statements I made, quoting COL. Prouty, in my Operation BLOODSTONE post, concerning COL. Prouty's involvement in arming fascist émigré armies (a thread I started that has been completely hijacked—may it rest in peace)—

 

 

 

But I digress...

 

It appears now, that we have confirmation, in two relatively new documents (one from 2018 & another from 2023), indicating that there was, in-fact, a military focal-point network, whose function it was to "sheep-dip" military officers into the fold of CIA covert operations:

 

•  https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP78-04727A000300130061-9.pdf

 

Unfortunately, in the above report, you can clearly see that the code-name of this joint Department of Defense-CIA project is redated.

 

Interestingly enough the "...Project *REDACTED*..." states it's inception took place in 1954—which jibes pretty close to COL. Prouty's focal-point network date of 1955:

 

QUOTE—

 

"...2. Project *REDACTED* had it's inception, in 1954 following acceptance of the idea that a closer relationship and better understanding between CIA and the military was essential to accomplishing coordination in the field in time of war..."

 

—END QUOTE.

 

Clearly, there is a covert, forward, combat-arms networking, between Department of Defense & CIA, that is being expounded upon in this document.

 

Strangely enough, the document refers to "...Project *REDACTED*..." as a classroom-type course as well, with a formal disquisition environment that explains the nature of this joint Department of Defense-CIA project:

 

QUOTE—

 

"...As the threat of war receded and relations between the Agency and the military establishment in other areas of mutual interest grew closer, the original purpose of the course was gradually altered and the course content broadened in an effort to give selected military representatives greater understanding of the organization and functions of the Agency to create better appreciation of how the Agency and the military services can provide support in peace as well as unvarying degrees of war..."

 

—END QUOTE.

 

As innocuous as a familiarization course about the functions of CIA in a time of war may be, the following quote is very revealing to the course's core-function: 

 

QUOTE—

 

"...5. Project *REDACTED* has in the past been enthusiastically supported by the DCI, the DDCI and other senior Agency officials. This has been in line with the Agency desire to assure cross-fertilization within the intelligence community and to educate responsible Government representatives to Agency role, capabilities and limitations..."

 

—END QUOTE.

 

Clearly, the nature of Project *REDACTED* is not passive—instead, it's stated goals are active, "...cross-fertilization...," between Department of Defense & CIA, when it comes to the final target-specific result of this course.

 

Evidence of this is massive "...cross-fertilization...," between Department of Defense & CIA for Project *REDACTED* is indicated in point eighteen of the document:

 

QUOTE—

 

"...18. Among the CIA officers with whom we have discussed *REDACTED* on the basis of their direct participation in the program and/or their close association with *REDACTED* graduates, we have found that the great majority are strongly in favor of continuing the course, convinced as they are this it is in Agency interest to do so. Of 13 present or past Senior War Planners (or Agency representatives at U.S. Military commands)..."

 

—END QUOTE.

 

Uhm, did you catch that— no less than "...thirteen present or past Senior War Planners..." in the Joint Staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were "sheep-dipped" into this "...cross-fertilization...," between Department of Defense & CIA!

 

Now insane covert action programs like the failed "Operation ZAPATA" plan or the treasonous "Operation NORTHWOODS" false-flag contingency plans can be seen in their true light—military officers within the Joint Chiefs of Staff were acting as CIA assets!

 

This is also in keeping with one of COL. Prouty's other claims, that United States Army Gen. Maxwell Davenport Taylor, Chairman of the JCS, was a CIA focal point officer reporting directly DCI to Allen Welsh Dulles—quoting once again from COL. Leroy Fletcher Prouty's "The Secret Team: The CIA, and It's Allies In Control of the United States and the World," this time from pgs. 405 & 409, we find the following inflammatory statement COL. Prouty makes about his former superior officer: 

 

QUOTE—

 

"...Dulles again showed that uncanny ability of his and of the Agency’s to rise above each fiasco on to new heights. During the Bay of Pigs inquiry he ingratiated Maxwell Taylor to the Kennedys so firmly that Jack Kennedy assigned General Taylor to the position of Military Adviser to the President. This was a good cover assignment for General Taylor. For those who thought he might be interfering with the duties and prerogatives of the chairman of the JCS, this assignment caused a few raised eyebrows. Dulles and Maxwell Taylor were content to let those rumors and fantasies spread because they did much to help transfer some of the blame for the Bay of Pigs from the CIA to the military. However, everyone else in the need to-know clan knew that Maxwell Taylor was in the White House to be the President’s liaison man with the CIA. The President may not have known how closely Maxwell Taylor’s aspirations and those of Allen Dulles matched each other. During the last days of the Dulles era, Maxwell Taylor served as the Focal Point man between Dulles and his Agency and the White House. This was a perfect role of Maxwell Taylor. He had quit the Army in a dispute with the Eisenhower Administration and now he was in an ideal position to encourage with all support and haste the urgent development of the new flexible response army, attuned to the trumpet of Taylor’s own choosing—counterinsurgency. All the pieces were coming together, and during this formative period a new special group was formed. This was the Special Group (of the NSC), Counterinsurgency, better known as the Special Group Cl, or Cl..."

 

—END QUOTE.

 

I suppose, until further documented evidence comes out, we'll just have to live with what COL. Prouty wrote—Gen. Maxwell Taylor, Chairman of the JCS, was a *CIA asset and an informant for Allen W. Dulles concerning President Kennedy's thoughts and activities.

 

*It should be noted before moving on with the bulk of this document, that while Gen. Maxwell Taylor, was Chairman of the JCS under President Kennedy, the Chief of Personal Staff, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, reporting directly to Gen. Taylor, was US Army Brig. Gen. Theodore C. Mataxis, who was personal friends with SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny—from the day he interrogated Skorzeny as member of the United States Army's 7734th History Detachment, US Forces European Theater Command, in November 1946, to the day herr Skorzeny shuffled off to Hell in July 1975.

 

So, Gen. Maxwell Taylor was a spy for Allen Dulles—while Gen. Taylor's personal attaché, Brig. Gen. Mataxis, was chums with SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny?!

 

Small world, no?

 

I digress once more...

 

Continuing with the Project *REDACTED* document, I'd like to close with a quick list of some of the military personnel mentioned being "...cross-fertilized...," between Department of Defense & CIA.

 

I'd like to highlight the following military personnel that are mentioned in this document as being initiates in this Project *REDACTED*—

 

• United States Army Lt. Col. Albert C. Davies—According to CIA documents, in 1963, Lt. Col. Davies was a focal point officer, serving in the CIA Western Hemisphere Division, Cuba, as Chief of Intelligence, for William King Harvey's Task Force W.

At the same time Lt. Col. Davies was Bill Harvey's top intelligence officer, executive officer, Lt. Col. Davies was also Chief, Intelligence Section, US Army School of the Americas, Fort Gulick, Panama Canal Zone, United States Army Caribbean Command.

 Lt. Col. Davies is also mentioned in the Operation NORTHWOODS documents as a senior plans officer.

 

• United States Marine Corps Lt. Col. William P. Adams Jr.—member of J-3 (Plans & Operations) Special Warfare Branch of Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, Headquarters (CINCPAC), Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities (SACSA)—in the Project *REDACTED* document, Lt. Col. Adams is identified as "...responsible for handling military code-word correspondence between CINCPAC and SACSA..."

Lt. Col. Adams was in-charge of a very sensitive function of the military, as he was essentially the commander of all secret messages transmitted between the Commander-In-Chief of US Pacific Fleet at the time of the Gulf of Tonkin false-flag, United States Navy ADM. Ulysses Simpson Grant Sharp Jr. and Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities, United States Air Force Maj. Gen. Rollen Henry Anthis.

 

• United States Air Force Lt. Col. Manuel "The Mexican" Chavez AKA Russell H. Sambora—CIA focal point officer at JMWAVE and cited in CIA documents as Chief of Security, AMWORLD.

By Lt. Col. Chavez's own admission, he was the State Department USAF Air Attaché to US Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon (Chief of Cuban Staff, Operations Coordinating Board, 5412/2 Committee) during Nixon's 1958 trip to Venezuela, and personal friends with United States Army SFC David “El Indio” Sánchez Morales AKA Stanley R. Zamka, Chief of Foreign Intelligence, CIA Counterintelligence Staff, Western Hemisphere Division, Cuban Operations & JMWAVE Chief of Covert Action (apparently, Lt. Col. Chavez and SFC Morales shared a desk at JMWAVE—how cute).

 

• United States Marine Corps Gen. Raymond Gilbert Davis—from July 1960 through June 1963, Gen. Davis was, J-2 (Intelligence Community Manager) Chief of Analysis Branch, Staff of the Commander in Chief, Europe Headquarters, United States European Command, in Paris, France.

As J-2 (Intelligence Community Manager) Chief of Analysis Branch, Gen. Davis tasked with overseeing all covert operations intelligence gathering & dissemination for Operation GLADIO.

 

• United States Navy CAPT. Joseph Z. Taylor—service record unknown (if anyone can find his service record, please comment below) USN CAPT. Taylor is simply identified in the Project *REDACTED* document as, "...Deputy Chief, U.S. Agency for International Development's Vietnam Desk..."

I suppose nothing more needs to be said about how important United States Navy CPT. Joseph Z. Taylor was to CIA covert operations in Vietnam...

 

 

 

 

The second supporting document is a fiscal year 1967 report from Director of the Joint Staff, United States Army Gen. Andrew Jackson Goodpaster to then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talking about several hundred military officers & enlisted-men that have been "sheep-dipped" into CIA service:

 

• https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/202-10002-10121.pdf

 

The above report states that "...two-hundred and forty-five officers..." and "...six-hundred and twenty-nine enlisted-men..." have been "...detailed to the Central Intelligence Agency..." as of fiscal year 1967.

 

In keeping with United States Air Force COL. Leroy Fletcher Prouty's position as an officer in the United States Air Force, it should come as no surprise that the bulk of the military personnel "...detailed to the Central Intelligence Agency..." as of fiscal year 1967, were from the USAF.

 

Approximately six-hundred and twenty-one members of the USAF were CIA assets by FY 1967!

 

I guess COL. Prouty did his job well—being top aider & abettor for the Central Intelligence Agency's infiltration and perversion of the United States Armed Forces...

  

Edited July 24, 2023 by Robert Montenegro

[David Cooper]

An intelligence source, whom I promised would remain nameless, scoffed when I mentioned Skorzeny’s death in 1975 and asked, “You believed that?” He told me that Skorzeny faked his death and funeral in 1975 and actually lived twenty more years into the 1990s. Worth researching the truth of this more.

[Paul Brancato]

Once again incredible work Robert. 
David - I’ve seen that rumor. Posters here like Leslie don’t believe it. How do you assess the credibility of your Intel source? 

[Robert Montenegro]

9 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Once again incredible work Robert. 

 

Thank you.

 

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Robert Montenegro

[David Cooper]

I’d like independent proof but my source described meetings with OS after his funeral. 

[Paul Brancato]

Robert - it’s very strange to me that AMWORLD - I followed the link - was kept secret for so long. Is it safe to say first of all that as an operation it was singularly unsuccessful if its mission was to foment revolution in Cuba. So might there have been a more secret mission? I noticed that Henry Hecksher ran an AMWORLD safehouse in Mexico City. Doing what I might ask? 
So Colonel Prouty worked directly with the Dulles brothers as focal point officer for the CIA within the Defense department from 1955-63, doing some kind of very special special ops. His definition of that is so broad and mysterious. Do we have any notion what special ops he was involved in during that tenure? 
I’ve got about a million questions….

[Paul Brancato]

8 minutes ago, David Cooper said:

I’d like independent proof but my source described meetings with OS after his funeral. 

It is a shame that at this late date we are still withholding names. I’m not meaning that to pressure you. Clearly this would be explosive info. When I did a quick Google search it didn’t come up, but previously I have been more successful. I’ll have to dig deeper I suppose. 
Robert - do you think this is a rabbit hole? 

[W. Niederhut]

40 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Robert - it’s very strange to me that AMWORLD - I followed the link - was kept secret for so long. Is it safe to say first of all that as an operation it was singularly unsuccessful if its mission was to foment revolution in Cuba. So might there have been a more secret mission? I noticed that Henry Hecksher ran an AMWORLD safehouse in Mexico City. Doing what I might ask? 
So Colonel Prouty worked directly with the Dulles brothers as focal point officer for the CIA within the Defense department from 1955-63, doing some kind of very special special ops. His definition of that is so broad and mysterious. Do we have any notion what special ops he was involved in during that tenure? 
I’ve got about a million questions….

Paul,

    Based on my reading of The Secret Team, Prouty always worked FOR the USAF (and Army prior to 1947) as a (later) liaison to the CIA.  In fact, he never signed a CIA non-disclosure agreement, insisting to Dulles that he had a higher level military clearance.

     If I'm not mistaken, Prouty wasn't involved in planning CIA black ops around the world, including Lansdale's CIA ops at Saigon Station.  His job was to supply transportation and military supplies for Dulles' CIA ops.

     It sounds like Robert Montenegro has a rare 1973 edition of The Secret Team-- which was confiscated and destroyed (?) by the CIA.

     I have only read a 2011 Kindle edition.

[Robert Montenegro]

1 hour ago, David Cooper said:

I’d like independent proof but my source described meetings with OS after his funeral. 

 

I could not confirm any aspect of herr Skorzeny's funeral.

 

[Larry Hancock]

Paul,  specifically on AMWORLD,  its not really been secret all that long - I was researching and writing on it two decades ago as were others. If have extensive details on it now and I put a great number of them into Shadow Warfare.  However one of the reasons that it was likely held back is there were true names related a peripheral coup effort which would have disclosed Cubans still living up until the nineties at least.

As to the safehouse in MC, the plan was to move Artime "off shore" along with the military operations of AMWORLD and MC was to be a neutral venue for him to operate from to grow political and regime support through Central America.  The person directly charged with the safe-house in MC and who would have supported the Artime propaganda effort was David Phillips, who was seconded to SAS about the time the AMWORLD project kicked off.  

I certainly can't tell you everything Prouty might have been involved with in that period but one of the things he was doing during 60-61 was providing logistics support to the Cuba project and to the Brigade.  We know that because CIA officers with the project actually mentioned him and were not at all happy with what they felt was his pace or responsiveness.  David Boylan came across that in our research on the Cuba project.

[Robert Montenegro]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

It is a shame that at this late date we are still withholding names. I’m not meaning that to pressure you. Clearly this would be explosive info. When I did a quick Google search it didn’t come up, but previously I have been more successful. I’ll have to dig deeper I suppose. 
Robert - do you think this is a rabbit hole? 

 

Once again, I could not confirm any aspect of Herr Skorzeny's funeral arrangements—short of exhuming his body, which would be difficult in a clerical-fascist state like Spain...

[Robert Montenegro]

8 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

Paul,  specifically on AMWORLD,  its not really been secret all that long - I was researching and writing on it two decades ago as were others. If have extensive details on it now and I put a great number of them into Shadow Warfare.  However one of the reasons that it was likely held back is there were true names related a peripheral coup effort which would have disclosed Cubans still living up until the nineties at least.

As to the safehouse in MC, the plan was to move Artime "off shore" along with the military operations of AMWORLD and MC was to be a neutral venue for him to operate from to grow political and regime support through Central America.  The person directly charged with the safe-house in MC and who would have supported the Artime propaganda effort was David Phillips, who was seconded to SAS about the time the AMWORLD project kicked off.  

I certainly can't tell you everything Prouty might have been involved with in that period but one of the things he was doing during 60-61 was providing logistics support to the Cuba project and to the Brigade.  We know that because CIA officers with the project actually mentioned him and were not at all happy with what they felt was his pace or responsiveness.  David Boylan came across that in our research on the Cuba project.

 

Everything Mr. Hancock has stated is documented.

 

However, the point of this thread is the examination of the "...Project *REDACTED*..." document that I found, which may be the only confirmation that we as researchers currently have, describing the Focal Point officer contacts between the CIA and the Department of Defense that COL. Prouty wrote about in his 1973 book:

 

•  https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP78-04727A000300130061-9.pdf

 

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Robert Montenegro

[Robert Montenegro]

49 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

If I'm not mistaken, Prouty wasn't involved in planning CIA black ops around the world, including Lansdale's CIA ops at Saigon Station.  His job was to supply transportation and military supplies for Dulles' CIA ops.

 

You are quite correct, Dr. Niederhut, USAF COL. Prouty was arming & supplying CIA covert operations from 1955 to 1964—he was not planning them...

 

...however, it should be noted that in the book, "The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World," COL. Prouty claimed he had no operational access of the Central Intelligence Agency's "Executive Action" capabilities. He just personally oversaw a "focal-point" sheep-dip military officer selection process for CIA Director Allen Welsh Dulles and supplied the CIA with military hardware.

 

However, if you listen to his response to a college student, at the 1992 American University panel called "JFK: Cinema As History" who asks him point-blank if he, COL. Prouty, was ever involved in the assassination of a political operative, during the course of his relationship with the CIA, COL. Prouty told the college student he was personally involved in the planning the murder of fascist dictator Rafael Leónidas "El Jefe" Trujillo Molina!

 

Here is a link to COL. Prouty's slip: 

 

• https://www.c-span.org/video/?23934-1/jfk-depiction-history 

 

Go to the one-hour and forty-six minute mark.

 

Look at COL. Prouty's body language and examine how he quickly, after realizing he blew his public image, refuses to answer anymore questions about his involvement in Central Intelligence Agency "Executive Action" capabilities.

 

Even David Talbot does not make mention of COL. Prouty being involved in the murder of a chief executive in his excellent 2016 book "The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government", and he dedicated an entire chapter to the Trujillo assassination!

 

So, once again, by COL. Prouty's own admission, he was involved in planning the murder of at least one head of state...

 

I would like to note, the thirty years of silence from researchers like Jim DiEugenio, who ignore COL. Prouty's public admission, that he was involved in the murder of fascist dictator Rafael Leónidas "El Jefe" Trujillo Molina—I should note, I would have shot Rafael Trujillo myself, had I been given the order, but that is beside the point—the point is that right before COL. Prouty died, he admitted to being involved in the murder of at least one head-of-state, after years of denying he was involved in such "Executive Action" operations...

 

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Robert Montenegro

[Larry Hancock]

Its just a guess of course but the term "focal point" is sometimes used in reference to the JCS being the focal point for coordination between the services and the intelligence community:

https://www.jcs.mil/Directorates/J2-Joint-Staff-Intelligence/

What I read in Robert's document seems to me to describe a senior military officer staff development course on the mission and operations of the CIA - designed to overcome misconceptions or misunderstanding of the CIA's role within the services.  The language appears to be an endorsement of the program in terms of dispelling preconceptions or doubts about the Agency, its seen as successful from the CIA's perspective and is being lobbied for to either continue or be replaced by something with the same goal.

It certainly makes sense that such a course would be coordinated out of the JCS since its multi-service and also because personnel selected would likely be on a potential fast track for expanded staff duties in the future. 

Having a staff officer like Prouty, who was experienced with both the CIA and the military, involved in something like that would make perfect sense.

As a side note, finding Air Force officers "sheep dipped" for covert operations really started with operations like those against Tibet and later in the deniable air activities against Laos and Cambodia in SE Asia.  not to mention that a number of the earliest pilots flying as advisors but actually on combat mission in Vietnam were AF personnel.  Pilots selected for missions in Laos and Cambodia had to be detailed to CIA operations.

  -- just a few thoughts,  Larry

 

[Robert Montenegro]

9 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

Its just a guess of course but the term "focal point" is sometimes used in reference to the JCS being the focal point for coordination between the services and the intelligence community:

https://www.jcs.mil/Directorates/J2-Joint-Staff-Intelligence/

What I read in Robert's document seems to me to describe a senior military officer staff development course on the mission and operations of the CIA - designed to overcome misconceptions or misunderstanding of the CIA's role within the services.  The language appears to be an endorsement of the program in terms of dispelling preconceptions or doubts about the Agency, its seen as successful from the CIA's perspective and is being lobbied for to either continue or be replaced by something with the same goal.

It certainly makes sense that such a course would be coordinated out of the JCS since its multi-service and also because personnel selected would likely be on a potential fast track for expanded staff duties in the future. 

Having a staff officer like Prouty, who was experienced with both the CIA and the military, involved in something like that would make perfect sense.

As a side note, finding Air Force officers "sheep dipped" for covert operations really started with operations like those against Tibet and later in the deniable air activities against Laos and Cambodia in SE Asia.  not to mention that a number of the earliest pilots flying as advisors but actually on combat mission in Vietnam were AF personnel.  Pilots selected for missions in Laos and Cambodia had to be detailed to CIA operations.

  -- just a few thoughts,  Larry

 

 

Once again, I cannot argue anything Mr. Hancock has stated above—all factual evaluations supported by the documents I presented—and to the point of this thread.

 

On a personal note, thank you Larry, for having the guts to chime in and stand toe-to-toe with me, in verifying some of COL. Prouty's more disturbing claims, instead of being a gatekeeper to COL. Prouty's untouchable legacy as a "whistleblower."

 

Bravo, Mr. Hancock, I bow down to your bravery!

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by Robert Montenegro