Operation Tilt (Bayo/Pawley Mission)

[David Andrews]

Larry, thanks.  I should have just excerpted this point:

objections of CIA security over the very late inclusion of Pawley's selected Cuban volunteers (only accepted because Pawley himself paid for them and forced the issue),  the inclusion of Bayo (who a security check showed had previously scammed the CIA with a similar proposal)

Because I was wondering how long the intelligence "window" on the alleged defector-scientists was open, and if CIA would have made any moves to extract them (if they existed) apart from supporting Pawley.  Defecting Russians hiding out among anti-Castro households?  Doesn't sound like a situation that could be sustained through lengthy deliberations at Langley and JM/WAVE.

I have your other books, I'll just have to scrape up for SWHT, which I read in a library copy some years ago.

Edited January 7, 2021 by David Andrews

[Larry Hancock]

That's a good question David, from memory I would say that neither Cuban CI at WAVE nor later SAS actually considered it as actionable intelligence even thought the rumors had been circulating as early as the winter of 1962 - they may have been becoming a bit more cautions since of course the exile groups were pushing any rumor that might cause military action against Castro.

I don't think that WAVE ever had any direct intel out of its remaining on island contacts to vet the rumors, nor even which group was supposedly holding the defectors.  Given that, the quantity of assets and time devoted to the mission is really quite exceptional.

It took months for the rumors to translate into what you would have to consider a political prodding led largely by Pawley and supported by Senator Eastland.  The initiative did not come from within the CIA nor do they appear to have done anything really to vet the intel, it was more a matter of responding to Pawley. 

The overall span of the thing, from rumors to actually mission was something on the order of six months. 

To save  you some searching, you will find the story and some citations in Segment 1 of Tipping Point- in the Helter Skelter section:

https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Tipping_Point_Part1.html