Francesca Akhtar Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 I found this very interesting memo on the Mary Ferrell site and talks about another training camp near New Orleans that came up in Garrison's investigation. I had not heard of it before. It says that 300 cubans were trained there and there was a list of who these people were at 'heaquarters' (presumably CIA) but at present appears to be lost. The memo says that the camp was 'entirely agency controlled'. The memo also mentions someone called 'Orlando Piedra', Archach Smith, 'Laborde' (presumably Lawrence?) and someone called 'Fowler'. Interesting because it mentions that these trainees arrived at Moisant Airport in New Orleans which by a weird coincidence was where 'Clay Bertrand' signed the book in the VIP room. Does anyone know anything more about this camp and whether Ferrie wa sconnected with it? He isn't mentioned in the memo but just wondered. Would be his kind of thing. Oh and btw, the memo is from none other than D A Phillips. The full memo is here: http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Thomas Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 Francesca, I found this very interesting memo on the Mary Ferrell site and talks about another training camp near New Orleans that came up in Garrison's investigation. Since it was activated on February 12, 1961 and close on April 21, 1961, I would suspect the training that took place there had to do with the Bay of Pigs invasion. Steve Thomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Hancock Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 I hate to keep doing this to you Francesca but you are going to find a good deal about the Belle Chase camp in the second edition. It was officially part of the BOP prep and even shows up on the organization charts for that effort. There seems to have been considerable effort to prevent local law enforcement and media from investigating what might have been going on there (including demolitions training). Good reason to suspect that Phillips was aware of it and indeed he wrote a wrap up memo on it in response to an HSCA inquiry. Probably the most suspicious part of it may be the part it played in preparing Nino Diaz mission folks and the fact that it appears to have been a partial cover for at least some of the folks who were added to the OP40 roster shortly before the BOP landings. The good news is that it is relatively well documented - it was even picked up as a training camp by the Miami papers prior to the invastion. -- Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Davy Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 Francesca, Yes, Ferrie was connected to Belle Chasse. Check out pp. 30-31 of my book. Bill I found this very interesting memo on the Mary Ferrell site and talks about another training camp near New Orleans that came up in Garrison's investigation. I had not heard of it before. It says that 300 cubans were trained there and there was a list of who these people were at 'heaquarters' (presumably CIA) but at present appears to be lost. The memo says that the camp was 'entirely agency controlled'. The memo also mentions someone called 'Orlando Piedra', Archach Smith, 'Laborde' (presumably Lawrence?) and someone called 'Fowler'. Interesting because it mentions that these trainees arrived at Moisant Airport in New Orleans which by a weird coincidence was where 'Clay Bertrand' signed the book in the VIP room. Does anyone know anything more about this camp and whether Ferrie wa sconnected with it? He isn't mentioned in the memo but just wondered. Would be his kind of thing. Oh and btw, the memo is from none other than D A Phillips. The full memo is here: http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francesca Akhtar Posted July 25, 2006 Author Share Posted July 25, 2006 Francesca,I found this very interesting memo on the Mary Ferrell site and talks about another training camp near New Orleans that came up in Garrison's investigation. Since it was activated on February 12, 1961 and close on April 21, 1961, I would suspect the training that took place there had to do with the Bay of Pigs invasion. Steve Thomas yes good point, which didn't occur to me Thanks I hate to keep doing this to you Francesca but you are going to find a good deal aboutthe Belle Chase camp in the second edition. It was officially part of the BOP prep and even shows up on the organization charts for that effort. There seems to have been considerable effort to prevent local law enforcement and media from investigating what might have been going on there (including demolitions training). Good reason to suspect that Phillips was aware of it and indeed he wrote a wrap up memo on it in response to an HSCA inquiry. Probably the most suspicious part of it may be the part it played in preparing Nino Diaz mission folks and the fact that it appears to have been a partial cover for at least some of the folks who were added to the OP40 roster shortly before the BOP landings. The good news is that it is relatively well documented - it was even picked up as a training camp by the Miami papers prior to the invastion. -- Larry Hi Larry, thanks for the info, well yet more for me to look forward to then in your book! I don't know that much about the BOP, but it doesn't surprise me that Phillips is involved! Going from the blurb in the recent Lancern newsletter, seems your book should be out in mid august sometime? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francesca Akhtar Posted July 25, 2006 Author Share Posted July 25, 2006 Francesca,Yes, Ferrie was connected to Belle Chasse. Check out pp. 30-31 of my book. Bill thanks for that, I'd forgotten it was in there! Interesting, seems Archacha Smith (unsurprisngly!) was quite heavily involved in the goings on there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Roy Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 While Ferrie was connected with training at Belle Chasse, it does not seem to have been the same camp referred to in the Phillips memo. Bill says in "Let Justice..." p. 30, that "According to former CAP member John Irion prior to the Bay of Pigs Ferrie trained Cubans at a camp at Belle Chasse Naval Station just south of New Orleans", with the source listed as "HSCA interview with John Irion, October 18, 1978, document #012754." In that interview, Irion is not describing a Cuban training camp; he is describing training of the IMSUs, an offshoot of Ferrie's Falcon Squadron. He describes one Cuban who accompanied Ferrie on one occasion to the Belle Chasse training. Irion then adds that "The training camps he went to were arranged by Ferrie and Smith but they were with North Americans at these camps, not Cubans except for the one man he described from Miami." It is certainly striking that Ferrie was training his American IMSUs at Belle Chasse with implied State Department/CIA support, at about the same time as CIA was operating a Cuban camp at Belle Chasse. However the evidence is not strong enough to say that Ferrie was involved with the camp Phillips describes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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