Return to Dallas: The JFK Assassination
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
-Dante
Operation 40
(Oswald did it, right?)
All Things Cuba Directed from JM/WAVE Miami...
The Cuban Task Force:
-December 11, 1959: Colonel J. C. King, chief of CIA's Western Hemisphere Division, memorandum to Allen Dulles, CIA Director stating that a "far-left dictatorship, which if allowed to remain will encourage similar actions against U.S. holdings in other Latin American countries."
-Dulles established Operation 40.(there were 40 agents-later 70)
-Operation 40 run by Richard M. Nixon.
-Tracy Barnes assigned as operating officer.
-David Atlee Phillips, E. Howard Hunt, Jack Esterline, and Frank Bender present at initial conference at Barnes's office.
Vice President Richard M. Nixon
Presided over Operation 40
Tracy Barnes, CIA
Chief Operating Officer
E. Howard Hunt, CIA
David Atlee Phillips, CIA
Jake Esterline, CIA
Frank Bender aka Gerry Droller
The CIA assembled virtually the same team that was involved in the removal of Arbenz in Guatemala : Tracey Barnes, Richard Bissell, David Morales, David Atlee Phillips, E. Howard Hunt, Rip Robertson and Henry Hecksher. Added to this list was several agents who had been involved in undercover operations in Germany: Ted Shackley, Tom Clines and William Harvey.
Richard J. Bisell
Henry Hecksher
Rip Robertson
Shackley
Clines
Harvey
Schlesinger's Memo
June 9, 1961
MEMORANDUM FOR MR. RICHARD GOODWIN
Sam Halper, who has been the Times correspondent in Habana and more
recently in Miami, came to see me last week. He has excellent contracts among
the Cuban exiles. One of Miro's comments this morning reminded me that I have
been meaning to pass on the following story as told me by Halper. Halper says
that CIA set up something called Operation 40 under the direction of a man named
(as he recalled) Captain Luis Sanjenis, who was also chief of intelligence.
(Could this be the man to whom Miro referred this morning?) It was called
Operation 40 because originally only 40 men were involved: later the group was
enlarged to 70. The ostensible purpose of Operation 40 was to administer
liberated territories in Cuba. But the CIA agent in charge, a man known as
Felix, trained the members of the group in methods of third degree
interrogation, torture and general terrorism. The liberal Cuban exiles believe
that the real purpose of Operation 40 was to "kill Communists" and, after
eliminating hard-core Fidelistas, to go on to eliminate first the followers of
Ray, then the followers of Varona and finally to set up a right wing
dictatorship, presumably under Artime. Varona fired Sanjenis as chief of
intelligence after the landings and appointed a man named Despaign in his place.
Sanjenis removed 40 files and set up his own office; the exiles believe that he
continues to have CIA support. As for the intelligence operation, the CIA is
alleged to have said that, if Varona fired Sanjenis, let Varona pay the bills.
Subsequently Sanjenis's hoods beat up Despaign's chief aide; and Despaign
himself was arrested on a charge of trespassing brought by Sanjenis. The
exiles believe that all these things had CIA approval. Halper says that Lt Col
Vireia Castro (1820 SW 6th Street, Miami; FR 4 3684) can supply further
details. Halper also quotes Bender as having said at one point when someone
talked about the Cuban revolution against Castro: "The Cuban Revolution? The
Cuban Revolution is something I carry around in my checkbook.
"Nice fellows,
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr
Operation 40 Members
Linked to 1976 terrorist bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455 that killed 73 passengers.
Ties to Trafficante and Hoffa. Given 50,000 by Hoffa to set up an assassination team.
Dealey plaza seconds after JFK's murder
Rafael Villaverde
Captured by Castro after Bay of Pigs.
Virgilio Gonzalez, Carlos Bringuier, Eugenio Martinez, Antonio Cuesta, Hermino Diaz Garcia, Barry Seal, Felix Rodriguez, Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Juan Manuel Salvat, Isidro Borjas, Virgilio Paz, Jose Dionisio Suarez, Felipe Rivero, Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo, Nazario Sargent, Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz, Jose Basulto, and Paulino Sierra
Operation 40
George Bush and Féliz Rodríguez
According to Fabian Escalante, a senior officer of the Cuban Department of State Security (G-2), in 1960 Richard Nixon recruited an "important group of businessmen headed by George Bush (Snr.) and Jack Crichton, both Texas oilmen, to gather the necessary funds for the operation". (2) This suggests that Operation 40 agents were involved in freelance work.
It is known that at this time that George Bush and Jack Crichton were involved in covert right-wing activities. In 1990 The Common Cause magazine argued that: "The CIA put millionaire and agent George Bush in charge of recruiting exiled Cubans for the CIA’s invading army; Bush was working with another Texan oil magnate, Jack Crichton, who helped him in terms of the invasion." (3) This story was linked to the release of "a memorandum in that context addressed to FBI chief J. Edward Hoover and signed November 1963, which reads: Mr. George Bush of the CIA" (4)
Reinaldo Taladrid and Lazaro Baredo claim that in 1959 George Bush was asked “to cooperate in funding the nascent anti-Castro groups that the CIA decided to create”. The man “assigned to him for his new mission” was Féliz Rodríguez. (5)
Antonio Veciana, Luis Posada, Orlando Bosch, Rafael Quintero, Roland Masferrer, Eladio del Valle, Guillermo Novo, Rafael Villaverde, Virgilio Gonzalez, Carlos Bringuier, Eugenio Martinez, Antonio Cuesta, Hermino Diaz Garcia, Barry Seal, Felix Rodriguez, Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Juan Manuel Salvat, Isidro Borjas, Virgilio Paz, Jose Dionisio Suarez, Felipe Rivero, Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo, Nazario Sargent, Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz, Jose Basulto, and Paulino Sierra
OPERATION 40 - JUST PRIOR TO BAY OF PIGS