PATHFINDER
– PART III - JOHN ROSSELI AND THE CIA-MAFIA PLOTS – THE JOKER
By
William Kelly
This is Part III of a Five Part series on Pathfinder - the Plot to Kill Castro that was Redirected to JFK.
PART I - JFKcountercoup: PATHFINDER AT JMWAVE
Part II - JFKcountercoup: PART II - PATHFINDER at JMWAVE and Dealey Plaza
This is Part III of a Five Part series on Pathfinder - the Plot to Kill Castro that was Redirected to JFK.
PART I - JFKcountercoup: PATHFINDER AT JMWAVE
Part II - JFKcountercoup: PART II - PATHFINDER at JMWAVE and Dealey Plaza
[Note:
There are various spellings of John Rosselli’s name, as it is not his original
birth name, and for the most part I will use that spelling - the one he gave to
the Church Committee in 1975]
The
CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro were never revealed to the Warren Commissioner,
which sparked Commission attorney Sam Stern to tell the HSCA that had the
Commission learned of the CIA-Mafia conspiracies to assassinate Fidel Castro,
“we would have gone much more into Cuba, the CIA, and the Mafia. We would have
had a whole host of new avenues calling for investigation. And we would have
obviously had to develop some new sources of information – other than the
agency.”
The
public and press didn’t learn about those plots until Jack Anderson revealed
them years later, using John Rosselli as a source.
So far
in this story is populated with characters named “Bishop,” and “Knight,” and
some are said to be “pawns,” and in that spirit, to mix metaphors, Johnny
Rosselli is the joker of the pack in this game.
Much has
been written about Mafia boss John Rosselli, about his immigrant origins, rise
in the mob, the Chicago outfit’s man in Las Vegas and Hollywood, movie
producer, his love life and bizarre murder after testifying before the Church
Committee. But I want to focus on one aspect of his life – his work for the
CIA, his association with the anti-Castro Cubans in 1962-63, his covert
operational activities at JMWAVE and his allegations regarding the
assassination of President Kennedy.
Now they
call them the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro, and it was Rosselli who first
exposed those plots and added the Mafia part to the equation.
Rosselli
has said that he first became involved in the CIA plots to kill Castro
during the Eisenhower administration, when he was approached by former
FBI agent Robert Mahu in Las Vegas and introduced to James “Big Jim” O’Connell,
his first CIA case officer, at the Brown Derby restaurant in Beverly Hills in
September 1960. They discussed killing Castro, and Chicago mob boss Sam
Giancana and Santo Traficante of Tampa were advised and brought into the
picture, but they faded away after the early poison plots failed.
With the
ascendency of John Kennedy to the Presidency and following the Bay of Pigs in
April of 1961, Jim O’Connell was replaced by William Harvey as Rosseli’s CIA
case officer and the mechanism of death went from poison to high powered rifle.
William
Harvey was brought in to run the CIA’s Cuban Task Force W from his previous
posting as chief of the CIA West Berlin station, where he gained fame for the
Berlin Tunnell escapade. And he brought some of his German people with him,
including his secretary Maggie Crane, Ted Shackley and among others Karl, an
“outside” man who dealt directly with the Cubans.
Harvey
named the Cuban desk “Task Force W” – reputedly after William Walker, an early
19th Century American soldier-of-fortune, who among other things, took
over Nicaragua and was executed by a firing squad of American soldiers. Task
Force W, aka “The Tank,” was set up in a corner of the basement of CIA
Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Those who worked there were ostensibly the
puppet masters pulling the strings of the anti-Castro Cubans who were run out
of the Miami, Florida JMWAVE station, then the largest CIA forward operating
base (FOB) in the world. Harvey installed Maggie as secretary to Ted Shackley, who was named the JMWAVE chief of station (COS), and Harvey himself put in an
appearance in Miami every few weeks though he usually worked out of the Task
Force W offices at the CIA HQ in Langley.
William
Harvey was part of the “Three Martini Lunch” crowd, along with James Jesus
Angleton and Kim Philby, who Harvey unmasked as the Third Man in on the
Cambridge spy scandal. They were occasionally joined by Maggie, whose husband
was also in the CIA and was often stationed overseas. According to Bayard
Stockton, Maggie “sat on the floor when she drank martinis, ‘so she wouldn’t
fall off the carpet.’ Rita Chappiwicki succeeded Maggie. And then, in the Langley
basement, it was Skip. The three knew all the secrets, but they never, ever
betrayed Bill’s trust.”
According
to Harvey’s official biography “Flawed Patriot – The Rise and Fall of CIA
Legend Bill Harvey” by Bayard Stockton (Potomac Books, Washington D.C., 2006,
p. 125), “By early Spring 1962 Task Force W’s headquarters staff was in place.
Bill’s throne room during the fraught Cuban days was, of course, in the Langley
basement, but his empire was in Miami, masquerading as Zenith Technical
Enterprises on two thousand acres of CIA-leased property (on the University of
Miami south campus).”
[NOTE:
It should be pointed out that “Flawed Patriot” was vetted and
approved by CIA, and the author, former CIA officer Bayard Stockson died before
the book was published. ]
Stockton
wrote: “…The stories about JMWAVE are legion. Among them is the tale of a visit
by Robert Kennedy to JMWAVE – an incursion that in itself must have put Harvey
into something south of a slow burn because CIA operating premises were
off-limits to non-Agency personnel, regardless of rank or stature. As Kennedy
roamed the building, he heard a telex machine chattering away. He ambled over
to it, ripped the message out, and began to read it. Incensed beyond courtesy,
Harvey, in turn, ripped the copy from the attorney general’s hands and
thundered words to the effect that Kennedy was not cleared to read classified
Agency correspondence. Both smoldered. The incident naturally became legendary
and was symptomatic of relations between the two men.”
Ted Shackley
told Stockton that, “(Harvey) came down to Miami ever four to six weeks, mostly
to see Johnny Rosselli….”
As
Stockton writes it, “Another popular JMWAVE story is the U-Haul truck deal.
Writers like this one because, to them, it proves that the CIA and Harvey
provided arsenals to the Mafia. The only known witness/participant to the event
is Shackley.”
Shackley:
“Bill came down with a list…four or five pages….of equipment he wanted.
Northing particularly out of the ordinary in that. We turned the list over to
the JMWAVE warehouse manager, who loaded the stuff into watertight containers.
All very standard procedure. I rented a truck through three or four cutouts and
drove it into the JMWAVE compound. The stuff was manifested in and out. I drove
the truck out of the compound and turned it over. Bill and I followed it to a
parking lot in South Miami. The driver of the truck took a hike and caught a
cab. Bill and I waited, maybe up to an hour….It was no different from any other
odd request for equipment.”
According
to Rosselli however, while Harvey approved of and made arrangements for the
U-Haul truck load of arms, he recalls O’Connell as being with him on the hour
long stakeout of a vacant lot behind a Cuban restaurant in Miami, and watched
as Cuban #3 picked up the truck they watched as it was driven away. In his 1975
Church Committee testimony, Rosselli said Cuban #3, who he refused to name,
often made runs to Cuba in his powerboat, sometimes depositing teams of
commandos and assassins. The U-Haul arms cache, inventoried in a detailed
manifest, included high powered rifles with scopes and ammo that Shackley says
were packed by the JMWAVE warehouse man in waterproof containers so they could
be easily and safely shipped to Cuba.
“During….
the climax of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it looked as if the United States was
going to war,” writes Stockton, who quotes Shackley as saying: “American
military teams were ready to be infiltrated … pathfinders and people like that.
I was to be in a plane with the airborne commander. The presumption was that
the American military would pacify Cuba, and then J-2 – military government
would take over. I guess I would probably have been Havana station chief…Then
Bobby heard there was a commando team on the water, which he had not authorized,
and he called them back.”
“American
military teams were ready to be infiltrated….pathfinders and people like that…”
Yes, but
these pathfinders weren’t US Army Rangers – who are also known as the
“pathfinders,” who are the first to go into a battle, these pathfinders were
Cubans, anti-Castro Cuban commandos trained by U.S. Army Rangers – specifically
U.S. Ranger Captain Bradley Ayers and U.S. Ranger Captain Edward Roderick.
Both men
were reassigned from the Rangers to the CIA by General Krulak to train the
Cubans in basic covert operational fundamentals, small craft maneuvering, small
arms, explosives and sniper shooting.“Legendary”
explosives and small arms trainer John “I.F.” Harper and US Marine Captain Carl
Jenkins assisted Captain Roderick in training the Cuban teams at Point Mary in
sniper tactics and “infiltration and exfiltration,” Jenkins’ speciality.
Jenkins
trained small bands of Cubans to infiltrate Cuba before the Bay of Pigs, during
Moongose and sent out but recalled during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and at
JMWAVE in 1963.
In a
chapter of “Flawed Patriot” called “Rosselli’s Subbase in the Florida
Keys,” Stockton writes; “The only description I have found of Rosselli’s
paramilitary activities against Cuba comes from Richard Mahoney.
Once Dick
Helms personally cleared Rosselli for the assassination operation, the Mafioso
was covered as a colonel in the Army and ‘Dave M.’ moved from the Langley
basement to Florida. Toward the end of May 1962 the CIA built a small base for
Rosselli’s unit on Point Mary, Key Largo, clearing out an acre or so of the
thick mangrove forest for rough-hewn sheds and two crude structures. A floating
dock was anchored on a coral reef. The purpose of the base was to train
snipers.”
According
to Stockton’s source Mahoney in his book “Sons and Brothers” (Arcade
Pub., NY, 1999, pp.166-170), “Rosselli…was the only person who could make
the incendiary (Dave) M. laugh. They would drink until the sun came up, usually
joined by Rip Robertson, the hard-bitten Texan and decorated veteran of World
War ii who was the favorite ‘boom and bang’ guy among the exiled Cubans
[because he had actually participated in the Bay of Pigs landing operation]. A
favorite bar was Les Deux Violins where, according to one of the Cuban
operatives, ‘Johnny knew all the help by their first name, tipped hugely, and
would tell farcical stories about his days with Al Capone…..According to [a
Cuban commander under Rosselli], Colonel Rosselli used the team from time to
time for raids and other operations. Rosselli was one of only two Americans
authorized to go into Cuba on clandestine missions.”
While
the CIA files are suspiciously quiet about Rosselli’s activities at the JMWAVE
station, former US Army Ranger Captain Bradley Ayers wrote extensively about
it. While those who work for the CIA routinely sign non-disclosure forms that
require them to run any manuscripts past them before publication, Ayers never
signed such an agreement since he was US Army assigned to CIA for temporary
duty.
Stockton’s
footnote to these quotes also mentions that, “Mahoney quotes in part Bradley
Earl Ayers, “The War That Never Was: An Insider’s Account of the CIA
Covert Operations Against Cuba,” (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1976.)
Ayers’ book is impossible to find there days. An interesting coincidence is
that it was published by Bobbs-Merrill, for whom Harvey worked in Indianapolis
until shortly before his death. I have heard one claim that Harvey actually
edited the book, but I cannot confirm the story.”
An official
CIA Public Affairs officer, in response to a media request as to whether or not
Bradley Ayers “was ever a CIA agent,” wrote: “According to our records, he was
never an Agency employee. As an Army officer, Mr. Ayers was detailed to work
with the CIA from May of 1963 to December 1964. Because he never was an Agency
employee – and, as such, never signed a pre-publication agreement with us – any
suggestion that the CIA tried to censor or suppress his writings is incorrect.”
While
the CIA didn’t vet “The War That Never Was,” it was edited by William
Harvey himself, the attorney for Bobbs-Merrell, of Indianapolis, Indiana,
primarily a school book publisher who reportedly maintained an office at the
Texas School Book Depository in Dallas.
After I
read Ayers’ book in the early 1970s, I immediately recognized its significance
in regards to the assassination of President Kennedy, and later got know Brad
Ayers through numerous long distance telephone conversations. I also got a copy
of his second book on the subject, “The Zenith Secret – A CIA Insider
Exposes The Secret War Against Castro And the Plot That Killed The Kennedy
Brothers,” (Vox Pop, NY, May 2006), a very obscure publisher that was run
out of Bronx storefront.
When I
talked to Ayers on the phone he said that one of the items edited out of his
first book was the name and role of Gordon Campbell, the head of Maritme
activities at JMWAVE, who Bill Turner was the first to write about in his
book “The Fish Is Red.”Ayers also said he was suing Vox Pop for breach of
contract.
In his
second book Ayers says that he first heard about “Colonel Rosselli” from his
fellow Ranger Captain Ed Roderick, who worked out of the Point Mary base at Key
Largo while Ayers trained his cadre of Cuban commandos at the Pirates Lair and
Elliot Key, deeper in the Everglades.
In a
motel room drinking Scotch, Ayers recalled that, “Rod described an interesting
new guy, Colonel Rosselli from Washington with whom he was working in
operations.”
Ayers
says that Roderick “had been drinking before he got to the house that
night…confided, he and the recently arrived Colonel Rosselli were
working on plans to ambush Fidel Castro, and they had been on a
weekend binge together. They’d become close friends as they spent time
together; their drinking friendship was a natural extension of their on-duty
relationship.”
“While
we ate I discussed my training activities,” Ayers continued, “Rod began to tell
me about the new things that were ‘in the air’ at the station….It seemed the
administration was ready to begin making an even more concerted effort to
unseat Castro…The Special Group had already removed a number of targets from
the restricted list, and there were more to go. It was up to the CIA,
specifically the Miami station, to plan the new missions, recruit and train
exiles, and mount operations to strike the Communist dictator where it really
hurt. Other espionage activities were being carried out to coincide with this
paramilitary effort, and still more attempts to eliminate Castro were being
developed.”
“Then he
dropped it,” Ayers says. “He told me Rosselli had high level Mafia and Havana
connections. I was speechless. The American government collaborated with
organized crime? I couldn’t believe it. I was anxious to meet this guy.”
Just as
the Big Con confidence men are either “Inside” or “Outside” guys, the JMWAVE
operators were either “Inside” men who worked out of the “Zenith Technical
Enterprises” official offices, while the “Outside” guys like Ayers, Roderick,
Morales, Jenkins, Harper, et. al. worked “in the field” and dealt directly with
the Cubans.
Ayers
worked in Training under the Maritime activities branch head Gordon Campbell,
and occasionally had to report to HQ where he sometimes attended briefings of
branch chiefs, including one in which he notes: “All the branch chiefs were
there as well as Mr. (Desmond) Fitzgerald and Mr. (William) Harvey from
Washington accompanied by Ted Shackley and Campbell. Dave Morales introduced
Mr. (David Atlee) Phillips who was identified as a coordinator for the new
initiatives with the exile political organizations. The briefings were far more
interesting and revealing than I anticipated….”
“It was
during the period of these briefings (summer of 1963), when I had reason to
frequent the operations-branch offices in the building adjacent to mine, that I
finally met Colonel Rosselli. While waiting for the briefing to begin, I would
usually visit with Bob Wall or Rod (Rodick). One day I walked into Wall’s
corner office to see him talking with a dark-haired, sharply dressed man. As I
apologized for my intrusion, Wall introduced him as Colonel Rosselli,
ostensibly a former Army field grade officer now in service with CIA as a
paramilitary specialist. Rosselli greeted me warmly while at the same time
eyeing me carefully. He had a charming manner, self-confident, polished,
soft-spoken. Just for the hell of it, I threw out a hook and asked him if he’d
ever serve with the 11th Airborne Division. He looked at me quizzically,
then at Wall, and somewhat embarrassedly said he had not. Rosselli was a
presence in and about the operations building for most of the week of briefings
and I saw him frequently coming and going from Morales’ office. I also observed
him consulting with Rod in the plans room and occasionally walking or driving
around the JMWAVE complex with Gordon Campbell and Mr. Phillips, who obviously
held a very important position somewhere in the CIA covert operation
hierarchy.”
Ayers
adds some light flavor to the story in describing the places he saw the Inside
men socializing. In a footnote Ayers writes, “I observed Rosselli frequently
when I had occasion to visit the operations or intelligence branches…I also saw
him with Roderick, Morales, and a case officer by the name of Tom Klines
lunching or having cocktails at the State Bar, (a favorite JMWAVE staff
watering hole) on U.S.1, not far from the station, and at the Perrine New
England Oyster House. I got the distinct impression Rosselli and Morales were
quite close and Roderick confirmed this in conversations I had with him. By the
middle of summer 1963, it was commonly known that Rosselli was a mobster hit
man type hired by the agency to conduct covert operations designed to kill
Castro. There was virtually no secret about this at JMWAVE. Following my
introduction to Rosselli in Walls’ office, my contact with him was brief,
casual, and cordial and did not involve operational matters.”
Besides
the State Bar, Ayers also mentions some social occasions with JMWAVE personnel
at the Black Caesar’s Forge, and the Green Turtle Inn. From April 13 to 21,
1963 Harvey and “John A. Wallston” – aka Rosselli resided at or ate and drank
at the Plantation Yacht Harbor Motel, the Eden Roc and Fountainebleau Hotels in
Miami. We know this because Harvey submitted the pay stubs for the CIA to pick
up the tabs.
Among
Harvey’s “Ops Expenses QJWIN/ZRRIFLE” are $26 for “drinks and dinner for 2” at
the Eden Roc, $75 charter fishing boat fee, Islamorada, $200 for Eden Roc hotel
rooms, and $1,000 for “ZRRIFLE/MI – No receipt.
[Note:
Harvey was asked about his billing the QJWIN/ZRRIFLE account when he also
testified that QJWIN was not used in the Cuban operation, only in the Congo,
and Harvey said it was either an accounting mistake or loose billing procedures
for such operations.]
RFK AT
JMWAVE’S WALOOS GLADES HUNTING CAMP
Ayers
says that the administration’s new covert initiatives against Castro and Cuba
not only had the approval of the NSC Special Group, but Robert Kennedy the
attorney general was brought into the mix personally, meeting with the JMWAVE
Inside men at a cocktail mixer in a safe house adjacent to a golf course, and
was flown by helicopter to one of the Everglade base camps where he was
personally introduced to some of the Cuban commandos who were being trained
there.
According
to Ayers, he was sent to the “Waloos Glades Hunting Camp” where he observed two
helicopters – a military Bell-13 with the tail numbers taped over, and a
civilian chopper from the West Palm Beach air service parked next to two
Quonset huts. While drinking coffee around a camp fire, “the door to one of the
Quonsets sung open and four men emerged. As they moved into the circle of
firelight I recognized Gordon Campbell. I had seen him only a few times since
my briefing with him but had been impressed with his polished, slightly
flamboyant executive manner. I caught my breath at the appearance of the second
man. It was attorney general Robert Kennedy.”
“The
four men talked in low voices for a few minutes, and then the attorney general
came over and shook hands with each of us, wishing us good luck and God’s speed
on our mission. Hell, I didn’t even know what my mission was. His white teeth
sparkled, and I felt a strange sense of strength and resolve when he grasped my
hand. Then he and one of the Cubans went to the civilian helicopter, and in
minutes it took off. Now I understood the need for extra secrecy. If the
president felt strongly enough to send his brother, something very big was
being planned.”
“When
the helicopter was gone, the deputy chief of station came over,…In a Quonset
hut…illuminatd by several Colman lanterns, …charts, maps, and other papers on a
table in the center of the room, he said, ‘The reason we’ve got you here and
the reason for all the secrecy is that we just got the green light from
upstairs to go ahead on some missions we’ve been planning for some time….You’ll
be happy to know that the Special Group has finally given us permission to use
two-man submarines to strike Castro’s ships in the harbors. Some of your UDT
people will be involved in that. And next week Rip’s (Robertson) boys are going
to Eglin for parachute training, so an airborne commando raid may not be far
off. But right now we’ve got the go-ahead to hit one of the major oil
refineries from on the island. All we have to do is get a commando force in
shape to do the job.”
THE
TRAINING CAMPS
The men
for these missions were trained at Point Mary, Elliott Key, Plantation Key and
the remote Pirate’s Lair, that could only be reached by boat.
While
Jenkins, Harper and Roderick worked with the Cubans at Point Mary, a remote
area near Key Largo, Captain Bradley Ayers and Case Officer Porter Goss trained
another team of Cubans at different locations deep in the Everglades. That team
was led by Julio Fernandez, and partially financed - just as Rosselli supported
his team at Point Mary, the Ayers/Fernandez team was backed by Clare Booth
Luce, wife of the Life Magazine publisher.
Luce
wrote a photo feature on her “Cuban Boys” in Life, and on the night
of the assassination, she was awaken by a phone call from Julio Fernandez, who
told her he had a recording of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, as well
as photos and other items of evidence. Luce told Fernandez to call the FBI, but
he wasn’t heard from again.
Bradley
Ayers says that he trained his team of Cubans to attack an oil facility and
docking terminal on the North Shore, while the Point Mary team was trained as
snipers. That was the team that was being trained to carry out Pathfinder, the
plan to kill Castro by shooting him with a high powered rifle as he rode in an
open jeep. And it is the Cubans at Point Mary we are primarily concerned with
as they are the most likely ones to have turned their guns on JFK in Dallas.
And it
is the Point Mary team who became involved with John Rosselli.
On April
14, 1962 in Washington, D.C., Rosselli’s former case officer Jim O’Connell sat
in on a Rosselli-Harvey meeting, after which O’Connell was reassigned to
Okinawa and Harvey became Rosselli’s case officer and O’Connell went out of the
picture.
According
to Stockton, Rosselli’s official biographer, “On April 21, 1962, a year after
the Bay of Pigs, Harvey and Roselli met at the Miami airport, and the Get
Castro enterprise took on a new life. ‘The second phase [i.e., after Harvey
took over] appears to lack the high-level gangster flavor that characterized
the first phase,” - meaning Giancana and Trafficante were no longer consulted.
“Rosselli
remained a prominent figure in the operation, but working directly with the
Cuban exile community, directly on behalf of the CIA and directly under Harvey.
In fact, immediately after he took over the ZRRIFLE portfolio, Harvey cut Giancana,
and most especially, Trafficante out of the operation. It would be rational to
assume, however, that Rosselli kept them informed, as a matter of Mob tact and
diplomacy.”
“In an
internal memorandum dated May 14, 1962,” writes Stockton, “Sheffield Edwards
noted a phone call from Harvey, who said ‘that he was dropping any plans for
the use of [Rosselli] for the future.’ The comment may have been an accurate
indication of intent at the time, but it was not factually correct. Rather it
was a conclusive, deliberately misleading signal, obscuring the fact that Bill
was tucking the Rosselli/Get Castro operation into his vest-pocket.”
At that
point Rosselli got a “crash course in intelligence trade craft, particularly
the need for security and perhaps most especially the use of the telephone,
counter-surveillance, the use of cutouts, recruitment requirements, and name
checking – the usually boring but vital aspects of intelligence work. Most
probably, as the circumstances permitted, the two men from worlds apart felt
each other out, probed each others’ vulnerabilities and weaknesses – often over
a bottle or two – and gradually formed the basis for an enduring partnership.”
Rosselli’s
alias was “John Ralston” or “Colonel Ralston.” (also spelled John A. Wallston).
Two
JMWAVE officers recalled that Rosselli, “…frequented JMWAVE…sometimes attending
staff briefings, but more often engaging in demolition exercises with Ed
Roderick, in rounds of cribbage, or heading off…for drinking bouts.”
“Dave M.
was assigned to Johnny’s raiders to exert day-to-day control over a group of
buccaneers who could have turned a messy situation into a disastrous one. It’s
more than possible that the U-Haul resupply caper recalled by Shackley…was
actually a resupply mission for Johnny’s ops base in the Keys.”
Sen.
Mondale. When you were asked to help arrange for the assassination of Mr.
Castro, what was your understanding of who In the United States government
wanted you to do this.
Mr.
Rosselli. Well, anybody in the U.S. government. My point was if I am recruited
in the Army, and I was in the Second World War, it is like being recruited in
the Army, and if it comes through from higher authority I don’t ask any
questions how high it was as long as there were government people I was satisfied
that I was doing a duty for my country. Testimony of John Roselli, 24, JUN 1975
157-10014-10001 – p. 62-63 of 97)
“Various
accounts place Rosselli physically – sometimes in the uniform of a U.S. Army
colonel – at the JMWAVE headquaraters….(but),” according to Stockton, “it is
highly unlikely that Rosselli did, indeed come onto the base. Such a visit
would have been a severe violation of basic security and would have been
anathema to Harvey.”
“Once
Dick Helms personally cleared Rosselli for the assassination operation, the
mafioso was covered as a colonel in the U.S. Arm and Dave M. moved from the
Langley basement (Task Force W) to Florida. Towards the end of May 1962 the CIA
built a small base for Rosselli’s unit on Point Mary, Key Largo, clearing out
an acre or so of the thick mangrove forest for rough-hewn sheds and two crude
structures. A floating dock was anchored on coral reef. The purpose of the base
was to train snipers.”
From the
Rosselli Chronology File: “In Key Largo, Rosselli was known as “Colonel,”
training Cubans as fighters and earning Harvey’s admiration. On midnight
missions, these exile soldiers reportedly traveled in twin powerboats to secret
landing spots along the Cuban coastline to provide armaments to other
anti-Castro conspirators. One JFK file includes a heroic account of Rosselli
going along on some of these trips, once saving himself from a sinking boat
riddled with bullets after being attacked by a Cuban patrol waiting in the
shadows. According to another JFK file, Rosselli was gone for so long
on one mission that Giancana worried that he had been killed.”
“Sometime
in 1962, the CIA created a file called “Project Johnny” about Roselli’s
heroics and kept it locked in a safe. Documents show this file was given a
number — 667 270 — though years later it could not be found by congressional
investigators, who mentioned looking for it to trace the actions of this
mobster spy.”
As the
Cuban Missile Crisis was getting underway, in October 1962 Rosselli said that
he talked to Harvey over the phone and Harvey instructed him to go to Florida
where he stayed in contact with his Cuban friends for the duration of the Cuban
missile crisis, and it was three JMWAVE maritime teams who were on their way to
Cuba when they were sent on their way to Cuba by Harvey and Rosselli and then
called back on orders of RFK.
Rosselli’s
Chronology File reads: “During the Cuban missile crisis, Rosselli was in
Chicago. He contacted (William) Harvey at Harvey’s mother’s home in
Indianapolis and left his number in Chicago. Harvey then called him, told him
to go to Washington, D.C. From Washington D.C., Rosselli traveled to Florida
where he stayed for the duration of the Cuban missile crisis. He, at times,
would, through his Cuban contacts, attempt to verify the location of the
Russian missiles in Cuba. Rosselli claimed that this had been successful. After
the Cuban missile crisis, Harvey called Rosselli and told him to stop all
contacts with any and all persons involved in past Cuban missions. Harvey never
stated why the missions were being called off.”
According
to Rosselli, he met with Harvey in June, 1963, the last time they met
officially in regards to the Cuban projects, though they remained close friends
and social acquaintances.
What
became of the JMWAVE commandos after their plans were "disapproved by
higher authority" and the missions they trained for were called off, both
the Cuban Missile Crisis Pathfinders, and when the Pathfinder mission was
officially “disapproved by higher authority”?
The
National Security Council’s Special Group (Augumented w/ RFK) was responsible
for evaluating proposed covert intelligence operations against Cuba, and
approving or disapproving them. Sometimes JFK would overrule a covert
operation approved by the NSC SGA – such as the leaflet dropping mission.
A
leaflet was prepared for release by airplanes over Cuba, and after it was
approved by the NSC SGA, President Kennedy ran it past Robert Morrow, whose
objections to it led to JFK withdrawing approval. Other covert ops, - such as
one to destroy an oil refinery, was rescinded after the oil company objected,
hoping to retrieve its Cuban assets in full operating order.
The
three “Pathfinder” crews sent to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis by
William Harvey, were recalled in route by RFK, - the straw that broke Harvey’s
back, as he was relieved as head of the Cuban Task Force W by RFK shortly
thereafter, and posted to Rome, as Chief of Station by the CIA.
“Harvey’s
removal from Task Force W at Bobby Kennedy’s behest was a watershed event for
the CIA,” writes Stockton, “even though it may not have been recognized as such
at the time.”
“From
October 1962 on – after Helms and McCone replaced Harvey with Desmond
FitzGerald, who was far more acceptable to the Kennedys as a person – the CIA
was vulnerable to political manipulation. This became evident again in 1967,
when (CIA Director Richard) Helms hastily called for the inspector general’s
report, in anticipation of the fallout from Drew Pearson’s revelations...(about
the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro).”
In
Harvey’s place, Desmond FitzGerald was appointed the new head of Task Force W,
the Cuban desk at the CIA, and it was FitzGerald who, on September 25, briefed
the Joint Chiefs of Staff on CIA covert Cuban operations, especially the ones
that were approved by the NSC SGA and required military assistance, that would
be provided by General Krulak, whose aide, Colonel Higgins, wrote the memo
minutes of that important meeting.
That the
anti-Castro Cuban commandos, trained by Ayers, Roderick, Jenkins and Harper
continued their – NSC SGA approved covert action missions against Cuba was
readily apparent on November 1, 1963 when the New York Times ran a front page
article about the CIA raider ship “The Rex,” and a photo of the ship docked at
Palm Beach, Fla., not far from President Kennedy’s Southern White House home.
Castro
had complained publicly on television, and the New York Times confirmed that
the ship had deposited teams of commandos on a North Shore beach, some of whom
were captured, with high powered rifles and scopes, and they were paraded on
Cuban TV, and acknowledge that the CIA officially approved and supported and
trained them. The CIA raider ship “Rex,” the New York Times reported, was
leased to the Collins Radio company of Richardson, Texas.
Collins
Radio also made and serviced the radios for Air Force One, all of the executive
aircraft as well as the Air Force Strategic Air Command bombers. The
company later merged with Rockwell International, to become Rockwell-Collins, a
major defense contractor that hired Eugene Wheaton as a security consultant in
the Middle East.
[Note:
For some reason, even after the Collins Radio cover was blown by the New York
Times in the Nov.1, 1963 cover story, the National Security Agency (NSA) used
Collins Radio as a cover story for the construction of its new multi-million
dollar headquarters in suburban Virginia, a transparent cover that was easily
exposed when a security guard at the construction site was suspiciously
murdered. It would be remiss for me not to mention the fact that Bradley Ayers
and a former Havana Embassy officer were discredited in their photo
identification of JMWAVE officers Gordon Campbell and David Morales at the
scene of RFK’s murder, and Ayers recalls meeting with Campbell after an official
death certificate was issued for him. Regardless of that, I believe what Ayers
says about Rosselli at JMWAVE, as it rings true to what else we know.]
Both
Bradley Ayers and Gene Wheaton are like flies on the wall, insiders who saw and
heard those covert operators who were engaged in the secret operations that led
to the murder of President Kennedy at Dealey Plaza.
On
November 22, 1963, as news of the assassination spread around the world, it was
early evening in Italy, where William Harvey was awaken from a drunken sleep by
his aide (probably Mark Wyatt) and told of the murder, sparking him to mumble,
“This was bound to happen, and it’s probably good that it did.”
John
Rosselli told the Church Committee Senators that he was in bed at the Desert
Inn in Las Vegas, where he was awaken by a phone call from a Hollywood movie
producer friend who told him about the assassination. Others place Rosselli in
Dallas on that day.
It was
1:30 pm in Washington D.C. where Desmond Fitzgerald and his associate Sam
Halpern were sitting down to lunch at an exclusive and historic Georgetown Club
when they were told of the assassination and left immediately. As they walked
out, Halpern said, Fitzgerald thought out loud, wondering if his Cubans were
involved.
That is
something we should all be wondering now, over fifty years later.
PART IV - THE PATHFINDERS AFTER HARVEY AND ROSSELLI -
PART V - THE PATHFINDERS AFTER THE DEALEY PLAZA OPERATION
PART IV - THE PATHFINDERS AFTER HARVEY AND ROSSELLI -
PART V - THE PATHFINDERS AFTER THE DEALEY PLAZA OPERATION
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