RFK and Harry Carlos Williams - Bay of Pigs veteran
The death of Harris Worfford and the publication of
John Newman’s book “Into the Storm” both call attention to one of the
historical perplexities of our times – why Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
did not legally pursue those individuals who killed his brother despite knowing
exactly who they were.
And the answer, as we come to know it a half-century
later, is because RFK was blackballed, blackmailed, stymied, checkmated into
inaction by an aspect of the very plan utilized to assassinate the President.
While allowed to know the truth – that one man alone
was not responsible for the crime, as he expressed to close associates, and as
him and Jackie Kennedy reported to the Russians, RFK was prevented from acting
on his knowledge for a number of reasons – the key one being RFK’s
authorization of CIA covert actions against Castro, one of which boomeranged,
was redirected to JFK in Dallas, and came back to haunt Bobby.
Harris Worfford: :
"What surely shocked RFK] was the recognition... that his brother and the
government... were entangled with the most evil forces he could imagine....The
Mafia leaders were privy to what may have been the worst national secret in the
history of the U.S., and the most embarrassing personal secret about John Kennedy....
The potential for blackmail... included Judith Campbell... and any number of
CIA and FBI agents;..."
"During
the late spring and early summer of 1962, I would see [JFK and RFK] huddled in
the Oval Office or walking in the Rose Garden. Now I know one of the
hardest subjects they had to discuss....[RFK] apparently decided that he could not
succumb to the threat of blackmail and would continue his all-out effort
against organized crime, including Sam Giancana.... The FBI intensified its
surveillance of [Campbell] and Giancana. [Giancana obtained an injunction
against FBI harassment, perhaps to warn RFK to lay off.] 'Bobby pushed to get
Giancana at any cost,' said William Hundley, who headed the Organized Crime
Section at Justice - but who did not know the cost the Attorney General
realized he might have to pay."
One
aspect of this whole JFK-Campbell-Giancana story that is tied to the JFK
assassination drama is the fact the FBI surveillance of Campbell picked up two
Texas boys breaking into Campbell’s apartment, the twin sons of a former FBI
agent who was then working for a Texas defense contractor, whose wife obtained
jobs for Lee Harvey Oswald – including the Leslie Welding and
Jaggers/Chiles/Stoval jobs.
But it
isn’t the pre-Cuban Missile Crisis shenanigans – its after the dismissal
of William Harvey and the CIA covert
operations against Cuba in the summer of 1963 that are most relevant to the
assassination of President Kennedy.
As Wofford
said it:
"No
one can know how much all this contributed to the change in Robert Kennedy's attitude
and approach that manifested itself so dramatically and decisively' a few months
later in the Cuban missile crisis [when he was no longer the leading hawk on
Cuba]. One of his most trusted friends, with whom I tested this
theory that the CIA-Mafia-assassination-and-sex entanglement had a profound
effect on [RFK's] thinking, says it fits the facts and may be the key to the puzzle."
"There
was no way of getting to the bottom of the assassination without uncovering the
very stories he [RFK] hoped would be hidden forever. So he closes his
eyes and ears to the cover-up that he knew (or soon discovered) Allen Dulles was
perpetrating on the Warren Commission, and took no steps to inform the
commission of the Cuban and Mafia connections that would have provided the main
clues to any conspiracy."
As John
Newman details in his book “Into the Storm” (2019) , the third book
in a series on the JFK Assassination, there was a concerted effort BEFORE the
assassination to associate RFK with the covert intelligence operations the CIA
was directing towards Fidel Castro – covert operations approved by the Special
Group (Augmented w/ RFK) of the National Security Council and ostensibly by JFK
and RFK.
When one
of those operations was redirected to JFK in Dallas, this became a false and treacherous
attempt to blame RFK for approving the CIA plots to kill Castro, and ultimately
implicating RFK in the murder of his own brother.
While I
can’t wait to read Newman’s book later this week, I did hear his presentation
in Dallas at the JFK Lancer conference, which focused exclusively on the
details of how most of the allegations of RFK’s approval of CIA plots to kill
Castro originated from one man – Samuel Halpern, Harvey’s former assistant and
one of the primary snakes in the Cuban Task Force W – JMWAVE rabbit’s hole.
To
understand the significance of these affairs in the altering and outcome of
events, it is necessary to recognize a few basic facts.
For
starters, the conspiracy wasn’t a plot – it wasn’t just a bunch of oil barons,
mobsters and renegade CIA operatives sitting around smoking and drinking and
figuring out how they were going to whack the President, as portrayed in the
films Executive Action and Oliver Stone’s JFK.
It was a
plan – a very distinct plan – a contingency plan to kill Fidel Castro that was “disapproved
by higher authority” and redirected to JFK in Dallas.
We know
this from the conclusions reached by former FBI agent William Turner, former
CIA official David Atlee Phillips and James Jesus Angleton, mobster John
Rosselli, security expert Gene Wheaton, former USMC and CIA trainer Carl
Jenkins, and Cubans Chi Chi Quintero and Felix Rodriguez.
All of
them point directly to a very small CIA JMWAVE unit – based in Florida – that concentrated
its covert operations against Castro, but redirected one specific plan to kill
Castro to kill JFK in Dallas.
Of all
the CIA plans to kill Castro using
poison pills, tainted diving suit, exploding cigars, bazooka and poison pen, -
forget them all – and focus strictly on those plans that utilized a sniper
firing a high powered rifle to kill Castro while he rode in an open jeep – just as JFK was killed at Dealey
Plaza.
Of such
plans that we know about – the CIA plan code named Pathfinder fits that very
specific bill.
Pathfinder
was a very detailed tactical plan to kill Fidel Castro with a high powered
rifle as he rode past in an open jeep – an operational plan the files of which
were kept, according to CIA NPIC technicians – in the NPIC section of the
JMWAVE station instead of the Operational Files where they belonged.
That the
redirection of the Pathfinder plan to kill JFK in Dallas was not the result of
a renegade group within the CIA – but was an operation officially approved at
the highest levels as exemplified by the fact that the overall strategic plan
behind the assassination was an adaption of the Valkyrie plan to kill Hitler,
that was being considered for use against Castro but redirected to JFK in
Dallas. And the fact that they got away with it. If it wasn't officially approved at the highest levels, the cover-up was that allowed the killers to get away scott free.
The CIA’s
“detailed study” of the Valkyrie plan to kill Hitler for use against Castro,
was the strategic plan that included the Pathfinder sniper tactics instead of a bomb, as there
are five specific aspects of the July 20, 1944 plan to kill Hitler that were
utilized in the Dealey Plaza operation, five fingerprints that fits like five
fingers in a glove in the planning behind the murder of the president.
The five
aspects of the Valkyrie plan are – 1) The utilization of standard cover operational
procedures and techniques; 2) getting the victim to approve the plan; 3)
using the Home Guard/National Guard to carry out the operation; 4)
controlling the media so “only the conspiracy speaks”; 5) blaming the crime on
a communist. The only part of the Valkyrie plan that wasn’t utilized in Dallas
was the mechanism of death – using a
high powered rifle instead of a bomb.
Of the
five similar aspects, the subject of this essay only concerns #2) – getting the
victim to approve the plan, - the key to how RFK was blackmailed by the
conspirators, whose identity remains unknown, but whom we can surmise as being
major players in this story.
In 1944,
Colonel von Stauffenberg wrote the Valkyrie Plan for the control of major
government buildings and media outlets during the sudden outbreak of a national
emergency – Stauffenberg gave the example of a revolt of the millions of slave
labors in Germany. Hitler not only approved the plan, he authorized
Stauffenberg to join him and his generals in the routine staff meetings, during
which Stauffenberg left a bomb that failed to kill Hitler.
In the
case of JFK, as president he refused to approve any plan or operation to kill
anyone, as he told all of his close advisors and a half-dozen newsmen, and the
Pathfinder plan to shoot Castro was “disapproved by higher authority,” with the
higher authority clearly being JFK and RFK.
But both
JFK, RFK and the NSC Special Group did discuss and approve some ten violent
covert operations against Cuba a month – some of which we know the results of
from the news reports they generated –( ie. The Rex attack in NYT – Nov. 1,
1963 p. 1) and the articles in both the communist publications seen with the
rifle and pistol in the back yard
photographs – the Trotskyite publication The Militant, and the official
Communist Party paper – both featured articles on the commando terrorists raids
against Cuban economic targets.
These
post Missile Crisis JMAVE covert operations approved by the NSC Special Group
(Augmented by RFK) are the ones we are interested in. Forget the rest for the
moment.
In
1962-63 – in the post Bay of Pigs and pre-Cuban Missile Crisis atmosphere, RFK revived
some of the Mongoose covert operations against Castro, including those being
operated by the CIA out of its JMWAVE station at the University of Miami in
Florida.
After
RFK fired William Harvey as head of Task Force W (The Cuban Desk at CIA HQ),
because he sent in the Pathfinders commandos during the Cuban Missile Crisis, -
who RFK recalled. Harvey was replaced by Desmond FitzGerald, falsely said to be
a cousin of the Kennedys, but who was very close to them.
FitzGerald
and RFK reportedly played tennis together, but FitzGerald falsely told Dr.
Rolando Cubella (AMLASH) that he personally represented RFK in his meetings to
encourage Cubella to kill Castro.
From the
records recently released under the JFK Act we know that the CIA Cuban desk
under FitzGerald requested an average of twenty covert operations against Cuba
a month – and the Special Group of the NSC approved an average of ten – half of
those requested.
Of those
rejected, we know that the Pathfinder operation to kill Castro with a high
powered rifle as he rode in an open jeep – was “disapproved by higher authority,”
although it was a very detailed plan that was months in the practice phase.
Another psychological warfare plan that was originally approved, then recalled
and cancelled, was a leafleting plan to drop leaflets over Cuba to encourage
revolt. This plan was originally approved, but after it was approved JFK talked
to Edward R. Morrow, his appointed director of the US Information Agency, who
convinced the President against the leafleting plan, so it too was “disapproved
by higher authority.”
During
the summer of 1963 other, violent
terrorist attacks against Cuban economic targets were approved by the Special Group, the NSC and RFK and JFK
– including the blowing up of oil and sugar refineries, dock facilities and similar
specific economic targets.These came under the overall Program Alfa, which encompassed all of the covert operations against Cuba, each of which was given a specific code name too.
These attacks
were to be launched by commandos in small motor boats who were trained by US
Ranger Captains Bradley Ayers, Edward Roderick, USMC Captain Carl Jenkins and “legendary”
CIA explosives expert and trainer John “I.F.” Harper. Both Jenkins and Harper are still alive.
Ayers,
who did not sign a CIA secrecy agreement and wrote two books on the subject (“The War that Never Was” and “The Zenith Secret.”), recalls his work
at the CIA JMWAVE base in the summer of
1963, when he had the occasion to meet Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy on
two occasions, that he recalls in detail in his books. While William Harvey himself, as attorney for Ayers' first publisher Boobs-Merrell, edited the first book, and excised much of the most significant aspects, Ayers' recalls meeting RFK in Florida in his second book, which was not vetted by the CIA.
The first
occasion Ayers met RFK was at a CIA safe house overlooking Biscayne Bay, where the top brass,
suit and tie CIA officials and case officers conjugated for a cocktail party
mixer, that included Desmond FitzGerald, head of the Cuban Desk – Task Force
W., Ted Shackley, the chief of JMWAVE station, Colonel Bond, William Harvey,
James O’Connell, E. Howard Hunt, Manuel Artime, Richard Helms, Army Ranger
Captain Ayers, case officers like Porter Goss, and RFK himself.
As Ayers
described it in “The Zenith Secret”: “It wasn’t every day that one met the
attorney general of the United States. It was rumored that Robert Kennedy had
great influence in the administration and I’d heard he chaired the Special
Group. He was appointed by the President to keep an eye on the CIA. His
presence tonight enforced my belief that the
Cuban situation and Castro were prime concerns to the White House. I
believed that President Kennedy’s promise to the Bay of Pigs survivors was more
than just an effort to pacify the exiles. There was something special going on.
I was thrilled to have some small part of it.”
Then
Ayers had the opportunity to meet RFK again, this time at a remote JMWAVE
commando training base in the Waloos Glades Hunting Camp, in the middle of the
Everglades swamp. As Ayers describes it:
When he
arrived, Ayers says he saw some helicopters. “…One was a military Bell H-13
with the identification numbers taped over, and the other was a civilian
chopper with the name of a West Palm Beach air service on the tail rotor boom…”
“…Soon
the door to the Quonsets swung open and four men emerged….I caught my breath at
the appearance of the second man. It was the 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 flashed and 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.”
A PLAN
not a plot.
As Ayers
continues, “When the helicopter was gone, the deputy chief of station came over….(who
told him),… ‘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 involve in that.
And next week Rip’s boys are going to Eglin for parachute training, so an
airborne commando raid may not be far off. But right now we’ve got a go-ahead
to hit one of the major oil refineries from on the island. All we’ve got to do
is get a commando force in shape to do the job….”
One of
the top officials who knew all about these affairs was Samuel Halpern who served
as executive assistant to William Harvey and after RFK fired Harvey, Halpern worked alongside of his replacement – Desmond FitzGerald, the CIA officer who briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the adaption of the Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler to be used against Castro.
Just as almost all of the immediate post-assassination intelligence sources who tried to blame Castro for the assassination were traced back to the assets of David Atlee Phillips, many if not most of the fake stories that implicate JFK and RFK in the CIA assassination plots against Castro can be traced directly to one man - Sam Halpern, as John Newman details in his new book, "Into the Storm."
While unlike Bradley Ayers and the JMWAVE Cuban commandos, Samuel Halpern never met Robert F. Kennedy, was never in the same room with him. Yet, as John Newman details in his new book, Halpern made it a post- government career of falsely blaming RFK for backing the plots to kill Castro, and after JFK was killed, blamed Castro for killing him.
Just as almost all of the immediate post-assassination intelligence sources who tried to blame Castro for the assassination were traced back to the assets of David Atlee Phillips, many if not most of the fake stories that implicate JFK and RFK in the CIA assassination plots against Castro can be traced directly to one man - Sam Halpern, as John Newman details in his new book, "Into the Storm."
While unlike Bradley Ayers and the JMWAVE Cuban commandos, Samuel Halpern never met Robert F. Kennedy, was never in the same room with him. Yet, as John Newman details in his new book, Halpern made it a post- government career of falsely blaming RFK for backing the plots to kill Castro, and after JFK was killed, blamed Castro for killing him.
When Robert
F. Kennedy, at his Hickory Hill home in Mclean, Va., received the phone call
from the director of the CIA informing him of the assassination, RFK
immediately thought of the Cubans – and asked CIA director McCone if his people
were involved, and then called his Cuban friend – Harry Williams – and accused the Cubans
of being involved. Bobby’s first thought was back to those in the CIA – the officers
he met at the JMWAVE safe house on Biscayne Bay, and the Cubans – the Cuban
commandos he met with at the Waloos Glades Hunting Camp.
At the
very moment of the assassination, while Desmond FitzGerald’s emissary in Paris
was delivering a poison pen to Dr. Rolando Cubella to kill Castro, FitzGerald
himself was having lunch at an exclusive private and historic Georgetown Club
with his assistant Samuel Halpern. According to Halpern, when informed of the
assassination they left immediately, and on the way out, FitzGerald wondered
aloud if any of his Cubans were involved.
And now
we are just beginning to wonder the same thing.
But the
names of the CIA trained Cuban commandos who carried out the operation are less
important than the lines of authority, who approved and paid for Pathfinder - the
operation that led to the death of President Kennedy. The one RFK was asked to
approve, the one whose planners and officers he met at the Biscayne Bay safe
house and was carried out by those CIA trained Cuban commandos he met at Waloos
Glades.
So Bobby
Kennedy was blackmailed from honestly responding to his brother’s murder
because he approved the covert intelligence operations against Cuba that were
turned against JFK in Dallas, and led directly to his death.
BK Notes: I will add excerpts from John Newman's new book "Into the Storm," which deals with Samuel Halpern in detail, ASAP.
BK Notes: I will add excerpts from John Newman's new book "Into the Storm," which deals with Samuel Halpern in detail, ASAP.
1 comment:
Bobby didn't get the call from the CIA Director,He got the call from J.Edgar Hoover at Hickory Hill. That'[s what I have always read. But good research. I wish there was more people would post thing like this thank you
Post a Comment