David Morales - curiosities

[James Richards]

For those who collect images and the like, he are some early ones of David Morales.

James

[James Richards]

I think the following qualifies as a Morales curiosity.

In May of 1962, a Guantanamo Naval Base Intelligence Officer named Jack Modesett was summoned to a meeting by one Stanley Zamka aka David Morales.

Modesett was asked about several Cubans, the stockpiling of weapons and how he was in favor of changing national policy so the base could take a much more aggressive attitude toward Cuba. The possibility of staging various operations was also discussed.

Modesset was also happy to have CIA case officers at the base. He suggested that joint CIA and Navy operations against Cuba would be in the interest of all concerned. Modesett was fluent in Spanish and he and Morales arranged to stay in touch on matters of mutual interest.

A month before Modesett was summoned by Morales, his father (oilman Jack Modesett Snr.) was killed in a one car accident in Texas. Modesett was President of Conroe Drilling Co. and Monkeen Oil Co. His partner at Monkeen was Joseph P. Kennedy.

FWIW.

James

[Francesca Akhtar]

That is an amazing link James! I never knew that. Something totally unrelated that I've always wondered about is, is there any evidence to suggest that Morales knew or ever came into contact with Malcolm Wallace?

[Larry Hancock]

James, I have a Naval memo that itemizes the list of potential actions that apparently

were generated by that meeting. All of them are extremely aggressive and some

would have required fleet level action. The "exploding" paratroops item seems

rather fascinating.

All in all it sounds very over the top, any clue who would have given Morales

authorization to approache the Navy at that level.

If you could send me the document I will go ahead and get both that and the

Navy document posted in the Morales section of the SWHT web site after

the conference.

-- thanks, Larry

PS...for Francesca....on your question, they had the same travel agent book

their November trips to Dallas (just kidding of course...for the moment at least).

[Francesca Akhtar]

PS...for Francesca....on your question, they had the same travel agent book

their November trips to Dallas (just kidding of course...for the moment at least).

I see, they must have booked with 'Assassins R Us' or something......

Edited November 13, 2006 by Francesca Akhtar

[James Richards]

Hi Larry,

I have sent the document.

As to who authorized the contact, I have no idea. There was also mention of a man being present at the meeting named Newton Killedan which is obviously an alias. I can only guess at who that might be.

It's also interesting that Modesett was the one they went after. Of all the Intel officers at Guantamamo, he seemed the one sympathetic to the cause and very much in favor of an all out push against Cuba.

Modesett was asked about an asset (someone he was familiar with) with the crypto AMCRAIG-1 who had been a source for one of the AMOT case officers who I suspect was Tony Sforza.

All in all, it is a very curious situation given how aggressive this concept was.

And Francesca, I haven't come across anything that directly links Morales and Wallace.

Cheers,

James

[Francesca Akhtar]

And Francesca, I haven't come across anything that directly links Morales and Wallace.

Cheers,

James

Thanks for the reply. I've always wondered if those two could be directly connected to each other. Two very interesting characters. I both believe they were involved in the assassination but perhaps they were working at different levels so would not have come into contact with each other?

Thanks for posting those photos of Morales - I'd only seen an older one of him.I can definitely see how he got his nickname. He is very indian looking!

[Larry Hancock]

James, I got your document; for reference the memo I'm looking at now is attached

to a note written to Lansdale on July 3, 1962.

The cover note mentions that Navy people at Guantanamo had been approached

by people on the Joint Staff about trying to use Guantanamo for psych ops

against Cuba and had responded negatively. The memo says that both State

and Navy oppose any proposals to raise issues about the base.

The attached note however, is from Special Plans and Ops (possibly Morales?)

and summarizes a host of porvacative actions against Cuba - the reason for this

however, seems to be that ONI has been given consistent intelligence about

a pending Cuban air force plan to actually strafe Guantanamo (sounds amazingly stupid

but that's what it says). In response to this several naval units are being dispatched

to the area including the USS Forrestal with its entire airgroup and a variety of

other fleet elements including transports to evacuate the base!! The base has been

moved up to DEFCON 3.

In conjunction with this then there is a list of 21 highly provacative actions that

might be taken against Cuba....a very strange combination of content in the memo.

Question is, was the ONI intel planted to assemble a major force around Cuba and

then somebody thinks about something to justify using it once its there?

-- Larry

[James Richards]

Very interesting, Larry.

It seems that Modesett had a differing opinion than the Navy folk at Guantanamo.

I also seem to remember that during this June 1962 period, the USS Forestal had a change of Commanding Officer. I forget the guy who departed but Lawrence Geis was the new man in charge.

I'm also going off memory here but didn't Geis have some differences of opinion with Robert McNamara? I probably should have checked myself before posting. Talk about lazy.

James

Edited November 14, 2006 by James Richards

[James Richards]

Larry,

BTW, I forgot to mention that another Naval Intel officer who had been stationed at Guantanamo, and along with Jack Modesett had assisted the Cuban exile cause, was one Hal Feeney. As well as being ONI, Feeney on various occasions had been on contract with the State Department. He also approached Julio Garceran in regards to toppling Castro which included air raids against Cuban targets.

Mid 1962, Feeney was transferred out of Guantanamo and officially his status seemed to be somewhat of a mystery.

At the time of the assassination though, Hal Feeney was Tony Izquierdo's case officer.

James

Edited November 16, 2006 by James Richards

[John Kelly]

I think the following qualifies as a Morales curiosity.

In May of 1962, a Guantanamo Naval Base Intelligence Officer named Jack Modesett was summoned to a meeting by one Stanley Zamka aka David Morales.

Modesett was asked about several Cubans, the stockpiling of weapons and how he was in favor of changing national policy so the base could take a much more aggressive attitude toward Cuba. The possibility of staging various operations was also discussed.

Modesset was also happy to have CIA case officers at the base. He suggested that joint CIA and Navy operations against Cuba would be in the interest of all concerned. Modesett was fluent in Spanish and he and Morales arranged to stay in touch on matters of mutual interest.

A month before Modesett was summoned by Morales, his father (oilman Jack Modesett Snr.) was killed in a one car accident in Texas. Modesett was President of Conroe Drilling Co. and Monkeen Oil Co. His partner at Monkeen was Joseph P. Kennedy.

FWIW.

James

No documents to back this up as it comes from members of the family so forum members can make of it what they wish. Before the so called aggressive action against Cuba was taken, Joe Kennedy instigated an operation with Felip Vidal Santiago at the helm. The plan was to get Kennedy's illigitimate child out of Cuba. Vidal failed and made a powerful enemy in the process. Kennedy allegedly told Morales to tell the Cubans they would never get their country back. He was not happy to say the least. Vidal was also not impressed. Could this have started the road to Dallas? Jack Modesett and Hal Feeney, two charaters who have escaped major scrutiny maybe need to be looked at. Feeney also handled Claude Barnes Capehart which begs several other disturbing questions.

After Vidal was executed in Cuba, his widow received a personal phone call from LBJ offering his condolences. He spoke to her for some time. She never revealed the topic of their extended conversation.

JK

[Greg Parker]

James, I got your document; for reference the memo I'm looking at now is attached

to a note written to Lansdale on July 3, 1962.

The cover note mentions that Navy people at Guantanamo had been approached

by people on the Joint Staff about trying to use Guantanamo for psych ops

against Cuba and had responded negatively. The memo says that both State

and Navy oppose any proposals to raise issues about the base.

The attached note however, is from Special Plans and Ops (possibly Morales?)

and summarizes a host of porvacative actions against Cuba - the reason for this

however, seems to be that ONI has been given consistent intelligence about

a pending Cuban air force plan to actually strafe Guantanamo (sounds amazingly stupid

but that's what it says). In response to this several naval units are being dispatched

to the area including the USS Forrestal with its entire airgroup and a variety of

other fleet elements including transports to evacuate the base!! The base has been

moved up to DEFCON 3.

In conjunction with this then there is a list of 21 highly provacative actions that

might be taken against Cuba....a very strange combination of content in the memo.

Question is, was the ONI intel planted to assemble a major force around Cuba and

then somebody thinks about something to justify using it once its there?

-- Larry

I think this murder of a Cuban at the base was just such an operation - though something may have gone awry, either on the ground, or with the planners deciding to abandon the plan AND those who carried it out. The usual methods of keeping mouths shut ensued... threats and psychiatric wards. Schweiker too, backed off after a little talk with the brass.

http://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/jf...of-lies-t19.htm

pics

http://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/ga...IONS-cat_c5.htm

[Phil Nelson]

Very interesting, Larry.

It seems that Modesett had a differing opinion than the Navy folk at Guantanamo.

I also seem to remember that during this June 1962 period, the USS Forestal had a change of Commanding Officer. I forget the guy who departed but Lawrence Geis was the new man in charge.

I'm also going off memory here but didn't Geis have some differences of opinion with Robert McNamara? I probably should have checked myself before posting. Talk about lazy.

James

Sorry it took so long to respond to this, but just now stumbled across it.

Admiral Geis had a very good reason to dislike McNamara and Johnson, at least after June 8, 1967, the middle of the Israeli Six Day War. In the middle of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, Secretary McNamara and President Lyndon Johnson called off two separate sorties launched by the Navy to defend the Liberty. When Admiral Lawrence R. Geis, the Sixth Fleet carrier division commander questioned this action the second time, and couldn’t comprehend why such an order would be rescinded, Lyndon Johnson suddenly came on the telephone and said: “I want that Goddamn ship going to the bottom. No help. Recall the wings.”

This was merely one of two (arguably many more) treasonous acts carried out by Johnson and somehow neatly tucked away by historians and the government. Lest anyone think I made up that account, please refer to the following websites, one of which is maintained by survivors of that incident in the Mediterranean.

See:

USS Liberty Veterans Association (http://www.gtr5.com/evidence/warcrimes.pdf)

[Greg Wagner]

Brad Ayers mentions a few times in The Zenith Secret that the Administration was continually frustrating JM/WAVE personnel by micromanaging the operations and essentially making them less effective.

If the JM/WAVE crew favored a different, more aggressive approach to their operations against Castro than the pencil necks in DC would permit, then it would make sense to me that Morales may have attempted to circumvent official policy and proceed as he saw fit.

So, one could speculate that Morales was seeking ways to achieve more aggressive action against Castro outside of officially sanctioned ops. Given his position, Modesett would seem to be an excellent strategic partner in such an effort.

Feeney being Izquierdo’s case officer and disappearing in mid-1962 – now that is interesting. That’s quite a little sewing circle these guys had going.

The Modesett Sr. incident/connection is curious. Lots of room for speculation there.

Edited June 17, 2010 by Greg Wagner

[Greg Wagner]

I think the following qualifies as a Morales curiosity.

In May of 1962, a Guantanamo Naval Base Intelligence Officer named Jack Modesett was summoned to a meeting by one Stanley Zamka aka David Morales.

Modesett was asked about several Cubans, the stockpiling of weapons and how he was in favor of changing national policy so the base could take a much more aggressive attitude toward Cuba. The possibility of staging various operations was also discussed.

Modesset was also happy to have CIA case officers at the base. He suggested that joint CIA and Navy operations against Cuba would be in the interest of all concerned. Modesett was fluent in Spanish and he and Morales arranged to stay in touch on matters of mutual interest.

A month before Modesett was summoned by Morales, his father (oilman Jack Modesett Snr.) was killed in a one car accident in Texas. Modesett was President of Conroe Drilling Co. and Monkeen Oil Co. His partner at Monkeen was Joseph P. Kennedy.

FWIW.

James

No documents to back this up as it comes from members of the family so forum members can make of it what they wish. Before the so called aggressive action against Cuba was taken, Joe Kennedy instigated an operation with Felip Vidal Santiago at the helm. The plan was to get Kennedy's illigitimate child out of Cuba. Vidal failed and made a powerful enemy in the process. Kennedy allegedly told Morales to tell the Cubans they would never get their country back. He was not happy to say the least. Vidal was also not impressed. Could this have started the road to Dallas? Jack Modesett and Hal Feeney, two charaters who have escaped major scrutiny maybe need to be looked at. Feeney also handled Claude Barnes Capehart which begs several other disturbing questions.

After Vidal was executed in Cuba, his widow received a personal phone call from LBJ offering his condolences. He spoke to her for some time. She never revealed the topic of their extended conversation.

JK

Hi John,

I read somewhere (SWHT?) that in 1963 Vidal was spreading the word amongst the exiles of JFK's olive branch to Castro. If the above account is true, then the comment to Morales about never getting their country back would be consistent with JFK's efforts via Attwood and his overall attitude toward Cuba from October 1962 forward. When you say that, "Kennedy allegedly told Morales...," is that JFK or Joe? Do you happen to know the timing of the operation and the comment? This would also help explain the Kennedy family's silence on any notion of conspiracy. And one wonders what ever became of the child.

Edited June 17, 2010 by Greg Wagner