The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 17 (19)

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Transcript

0:00 Good afternoon, Colonel. Good afternoon. My video just stopped playing for some reason. Well, that's just crazy. Yeah. Oh, well. Time to start the show anyway. All right. So, we're going to continue with our chapter, Another Black Hole of Calcutta, where we left off yesterday.

0:44 We were talking about the different operations and Cuba and Dwight D. Eisenhower and all that stuff. So that's what we're going to pick up. From their offices around the reflecting pool, CIA officials were on the case. The DO had an officer, Edward Stanulis.

1:15 S-T-A-N-U-L-I-S, planning full-time for CIA action in Latin America contingencies since September. Cuba became his number one priority. That November, the agency ordered that operations were to be based on the premise that Cuba had a non-communist government, but that instruction swiftly

1:47 went into the trash can. That wasn't going to fit the narrative. It was true, but it isn't going to fit the narrative. Because the only authorization in the National Security Action Memorandum for them to do anything that they want to do in Cuba requires the label of communist for any covert action. There has to be the threat.

2:18 of communism spreading, especially for assassination attempts. Director Dulles asserted in a December 4th speech that Latin communist would use nationalism as a slogan to justify breaking ties with the United States. You see how that hand just switched right there? So if you want sovereignty, you're a communist.

2:50 That's what he just said. Alan Dulles equated sovereignty and operating under a nationalist mantra in your own country equivalent to communism. Now, you know why communism was under every rock they picked up? Just a week later, J.C. King sent Dulles a memorandum insisting that Castro's quote unquote far left.

3:24 dictatorship not be permitted to stand. The White House division chief advocated a range of actions, among them that, quote, thorough consideration be given to the elimination of Fidel Castro, which would greatly accelerate the fall of the present government, unquote. Alan Dulles

3:54 not yet willing to go that far, crossed out King's word elimination, substituting it for removal from Cuba. I'm not sure what the difference is. I mean, I know what it is, but he doesn't want to actually come out and say, because they have no intelligence that he's actually a communist, so they can't make that argument. The core of the paper recommended that the CIA train a cadre of Cubans, Cuban exiles.

4:29 who would assemble other exiles in the Latin community country, after which they would infiltrate Cuba and lead anti-Castro dissidents. This formed the heart of the eventual covert paramilitary plan. Alan Dulles took the anti-Castro project to the 5412 group on January 13, 1960. State questioned,

4:58 Moving in the absence of solid internal opposition. Dulles acknowledged this criticism, but emphasized the CIA would try to open a wedge and just create it. Yet, over the long run, Dulles said, the U.S. will not be able to tolerate the Castro regime in Cuba. Why? It's not communist because the CIA doesn't work for the...

5:28 U.S. government nor the American people. They worked for the industrialists and the oligarchs that lost their property. Plus, they don't want to give any, this is, you know, the late 1950s. They don't want to give anybody any idea of doing the same thing in the Western Hemisphere. It cannot stand. The 5412 group conditionally approved.

5:59 Examination of special group records by the Senate committee in the 1970s shows that Dulles recommended that the CIA prepare plans to affect Castro's fall. Five days later, a dozen people met with J.C. King to create the Cuba Task Force. The unit became the fourth branch of King's division. WH-4 was its designation.

6:29 18 persons were assigned to WH-4 at headquarters, 20 at the Havana station, and two more under diplomatic cover at the U.S. consulate in Cuba. Jacob Esterling became chief of the task force. A Burma OSS veteran, Esterling had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He wanted to be a lawyer.

6:58 He was recalled into service during the Korean conflict. He had been noticed among the names of assignment list by Ray Pierce, who had him seconded to the CIA. The agency used Esterlin at its Fort Benning training camp, then sent him to the Western Hemispheric Division in 1953. What was going on in 53? Oh, that's right. We were preparing for Guatemala.

7:30 And it's really important that you understand the relationship between Fort Benning's quote unquote training camp and the School of Americas. Because when the School of Americas forward of the CIA's training at Fort Benning, they basically created the School of Americas as a forward deployed element of this training camp they're talking about. And when it came under scrutiny later,

8:00 and Congress forced it to be closed, they just increased and changed the name of the presence at Fort Benning and continued running their operation. Esterling had never had anything to do with Latin America, yet suddenly found himself the deputy chief of the Guatemalan Coup Task Force in 1953. After the Esterling had served as the chief of station in Guatemala,

8:31 where they ran the coup from. Then he went to Venezuela as the station chief. He built networks to control Venezuela. He learned of plans of Venezuelan groups to protest a visit by Richard Nixon and attempted to persuade Washington to cancel the visit, or at least warn Nixon.

9:05 but he didn't get listened to. Then he witnessed a state visit by Fidel Castro and he was widely heralded in Venezuela. Frank Wisner passed through town about then and Esterling told him that if the agency decided to do anything about Castro, he wanted in. Now Esterling found himself as the head of the Cuban task force.

9:35 Early planning focused on several concepts. A guerrilla leader ploy involved 20 or 30 Cubans, exiles, who would return to the island, much as the CIA did in Tibet. The second plan aimed to disrupt Cuban economy by sabotage, including their sugar refineries. Alan Dulles carried the idea to the 5412 group on...

10:05 February 17th, and it became the first one he presented to Eisenhower. Direct action to eliminate Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Dulles met with the president and Gordon Gray. Accompanied by aides, Dulles went armed with schematic drawings of sugar refineries and presented a harassment plan explaining how CIA proposed to disrupt production.

10:37 Eisenhower listened. Then he said, Alan, this is fine, but if you're going to make any move against Castro, don't just fool around with sugar refineries. Let's get a program that is really going to do something about Castro. Yes, sir, Dulles responded. On March 9th, the WH4 task force held its first meeting. J.C. King upstaged Esterling.

11:07 telling the audience that Director Dulles would shortly take a project paper to the 5412 group. King worried that the CIA could not use certain U.S. islands for psychological warfare or paramilitary purposes, and that the leaders of the friendly nations nearby were not willing to stick their necks out.

11:36 to support such an operation and overthrow the Castro regime because there had been no evidence that he was going to do at this point anything nefarious. Presidential approval of that would give them some elbow room to get cooperation. Colonel King exaggerated when he told the officers there were prospects for a Cuban attack.

12:05 on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. They literally had no evidence of that. He also lied when he said that Latin leaders feared they would be victims of Cuban exploitation. But Alan Dulles used similar reasoning presenting the Cuba paper at the 5412 group, literally lying to do whatever they wanted to do.

12:37 King also noted that unless the top folks could be eliminated in one package, the operation might draw out, in which Castro could be overthrown by force. The plan crafted by Esterling and Richard Drain envisioned an exile force gathered over a period of months. The White House meeting on March 10th touched on these themes.

13:07 Cuba appeared ninth on a long list of agenda items. The NSC considered suspending the doctrine of non-intervention in Latin America in the event communism dominated or threatened any nation. The policy paper advised sanctions against any Latin state that even established close ties with the Soviet bloc.

13:35 In the Cuba discussion, the National Security Council Planning Board saw no clear prospect for good relations with Castro. The board favored economic warfare, eliminating subsidies on Cuban sugar. Further, Washington should convince the Organization of American States, the OAS, to cast Cuba as a hemispheric problem.

14:06 It's an oligarch problem. It's not a hemispheric problem. That would eliminate a key obstacle to any action the U.S. wanted to take. Admiral Arleigh Burke, attending as chief of naval operations, wanted someone to unite anti-Castro factions. Many of those around Fidel were worse than Fidel himself. Burke felt, and therefore,

14:37 said, quote, any plan for removal of Cuban leaders should be a packaged deal. Alan Dulles observed that the eligible leaders were no longer in Cuba and noted the CIA had a design to deal with Castro. Quote, we might have another black hole of Calcutta in Cuba, unquote. That was President Eisenhower's remark. Soon,

15:08 Dulles had his plan. Esterling and Drain prepared a paper. It was a scheme that was revealed on March 14th after the annual review of the 5412 activities. Based on the discussion, there was a quick revision titled, quote, a program of action against the Castro regime, unquote.

15:37 It was dated March 16th, 1960. The objective was to bring about the replacement of Castro with one devoted to the interest of the Cuban people and more acceptable to the US in such a manner as to avoid any appearance of US intervention. The essence would be to induce support and go as far as possible.

16:07 with any direct action both inside and outside of Cuba by selected groups with whom the CIA had already established contact with. The plan envisioned, quote, since a crisis inevitably entailing drastic action in and towards Cuba could be provoked by circumstances beyond the control of the U.S. before the covert action program has accomplished its objectives.

16:35 Every effort will be made to carry it out in such a way as progressively to improve the capability of the U.S. to act in a crisis, unquote, create the crisis, then be the rescuers. The secret warriors felt that they could create a responsible and appealing and unified Cuban opposition located outside of Cuba.

17:03 after which a powerful propaganda offensive could be initiated in the name of the declared opposition. Get them all together, give them a name, then start the propaganda of them basically being a government in exile. And all we have to do is overthrow Cuba and restore the rightful government, that type of thing. That's why you need the propaganda. To undermine Castro's popular support,

17:38 a quote unquote gray radio station would broadcast on long and shortwave bands in the original proposal, then it said it was going to be located on Swan Island, northeast of Honduras. I did a long thread on Swan Island. If you just go to my profile and search on it, you can find it. That's a crazy story. Basically, it's just this

18:08 It's a very small island. It was privately owned and belonged to Honduras, but we basically just took it. And it's literally made out of like pigeon crap. There's lots of islands down there like that. And that makes good fertilizer, I guess. And people would establish companies on those islands and kind of harvest the bird crap for fertilizer.

18:37 It's a crazy story. The propaganda would be supplemented by Miami commercial stations and clandestine leaflets distributed in Cuba. The CIA reported progress towards the creation of the covert apparatus inside of Cuba, quote, responsive to the orders and directions of the exile opposition, unquote, that we're going to create.

19:08 The agency estimated it could have an organization up and running in two months. Although Esterling and Drain presented their concept in fair detail, the CIA's budget estimate did not provide for the size of the force that it eventually reached. The first budget projection was $2.5 million to be spent over two years. Far less than eventually spent, of course, because it's still ongoing.

19:40 The concept received the code name JMATE. The Pentagon would know it as Project Pluto. The paragraph on military action from Project ATE concept is worth quoting. This is the quote. Preparations have already been made for the development of an adequate paramilitary force outside of Cuba.

20:13 together with mechanisms for the necessary logistical support of covert military operations on the island. Initially, a cadre of leaders will be recruited after careful screening and trained as paramilitary instructors. In a second phase, a number of paramilitary cadres will be trained at secure locations outside the U.S.

20:40 to be available for immediate deployment into Cuba to organize, train, and lead resistant forces recruited there after the establishment of one or two centers of resistance. A lot of that actually happened inside the United States, as we well know now. Preparations would take six to eight months at the 5412 group, Gordon Gray.

21:08 had complained about the extended schedule and wondered about a crash program. You know, hurry it up. We have customers, the oligarchs back here. We're getting some pressure. They want their shit back. You can't wait eight months to train a bunch of people to kill a bunch of people. Come on, crazy people. Now the agency reported with a limited air capability, quote, already exists under CIA control, unquote.

21:41 Sure, they've got proprietary airlines everywhere. And that could be expanded, they said. Within two months, the secret warriors could supplement this with a force under deep cover in a third country. And the exile organization would be functional within Cuba, which the agency saw as providing hard intelligence, arranging the landing and exfiltration of agents, inducing the defection.

22:11 of individuals as directed doing the distribution of quote unquote illegal propaganda. The project paper commented on the problems of cover. The secret warriors made clear that all actions undertaken by the CIA in support and on behalf of the opposition council will of course be explained as activities of that entity.

22:40 In other words, we're going to create a front and blame them for everything. And in a reference to persons like William Polly, our Forrest Gump counterpart to Lyman Lemesger, the agency's Cuba paper further explained that it would make use of a carefully screened group of U.S. businessmen with a stated interest in Cuban affairs. You know.

23:10 the same Cuban affairs that just all got nationalized, such people could act as a funding mechanism. And CIA personnel could be documented as their representatives. So here's what they're saying they're going to do. Now, Fidel Castro was very vocal about giving all of the crap that the oligarchs had control back to the people of Cuba. So the CIA's idea is to get a bunch of businessmen,

23:42 millionaires like William Polly and have them invest in air quotes, like big air quotes, invest in Cuban projects that were just nationalized, but this is all fake. So they're going to set up basically a fund like a foundation or a front company, private equity, whatever. Put all your money in there.

24:08 And we will pay you through the back door with our drug profits. So you don't have to worry about getting your money back. But this front is then going to look like to the outside world that it's investing in Cuba that doesn't want any of these investments anymore. But the real investment is going to be training terrorists to go attack a foreign country. That's what they're really doing. But you have to have a front to do it. Okay.

24:41 And we're going to hire all of our lawyers and bankers that are CIA agents to be the businessmen assigned to this investment entity that is going to do all of this as cover. Money from private sources could also help disguise the agency's hand. Alan Dulles' proposal noted $100,000 in pledges that...

25:10 William Polly had already made. The secret war managers now estimated that the project was going to be $4.4 million. So we've already doubled and we haven't even started. On March 17th in the afternoon, President Eisenhower took the unusual step of convening a 5-4-1-2 group meeting. He also added several other senior officials in the Oval Office.

25:40 Eisenhower accepted the CIA's Cuba project. Not before some discussion, however. Once Allen Dulles presented the basic plan, Bissell did most of the talking. Bissell, whose skills lay elsewhere, and who had appointed Tracy Barnes as his assistant precisely because of Barnes' ability to be a salesman, did well enough here. The exile slogan was going to be...

26:10 restore the revolution. Now, keep in mind, this is so poetic. Cuba had a constitution that they adopted in 1940, I believe. Batista, with the help of outside players, overthrew a democratic leader and was basically in bed with the mafia and the CIA. So the irony of

26:44 restore the revolution isn't talking about the Cuban. They want their Batista-like guy back in charge. Most likely, they would be located in Puerto Rico. Isn't Puerto Rico part of the U.S. where they're not supposed to be operating? They also looked at Mexico and thought if they could get the Mexican government.

27:17 to agree that would be a much better place because it's not technically in the U.S., a group of American businessmen would be in New York. Of course they would be, probably on Wall Street. The paramilitary force Dallas injected would require eight months and begin with a cadre of leaders outside of Cuba. The spy chiefs took the approval back to the CIA.

27:48 Alan Dulles had barely begun his introductory remarks when he had to take a call from the president. The group waited, Bissell silent, worked through a stack of cables. General Cabell slouched in his chair. Gossip over a Georgetown party was chatted about among the group, including Tracy Barnes and Richard Helms. Colonel King didn't even attend the meeting.

28:20 among the people that were going to be discussing this, just sat around twiddling their thumbs. The sense could have served as a metaphor for what was to come. Dulles reported the president had given his go-ahead. Eisenhower wanted everyone prepared to swear they had never heard of any of this. The problem would be leaks. Thus,

28:50 it turned out would be just one of many headaches for the group. Eisenhower awaited results on Castro. Alan Dulles came to the National Security Council time after time to report progress. Every time he did, he had another horrible update on Castro. Oh my gosh, he's appropriating, ex-appropriating properties.

29:20 he's putting the newspaper under government control. Yet popular support stayed high. Now, again, I'd have to point out these ironies. The CIA went into Chile and basically bought their version of the New York Times. But it's a bad thing if Castro controls his newspaper. You see the irony there? The CIA controls just about every mainstream media.

29:52 entity in the United States, but they list that as a negative on a country that they want to overthrow. I just have to put that out there. Okay, by early April 1960, the CIA task force began producing daily progress reports. In May, the government completed nationalization of the United Fruit Company and their 200

30:28 and 72,000 acre sugarcane fields. United Fruit owned 272,000 acres of Cuban sugarcane fields. They also managed two mills. And that's not including all of the other oligarchs in the United States that had sugar plantations because William Polly was one of them.

31:01 On June 3rd, Tracy Barnes attended a meeting at CIA that considered retaliation in kind. Again, retaliation for United Fruit? You don't work for United Fruit. Supposedly, you work for the United States government. Why are we getting involved in commercial ventures that went bad for a company we get no profits for?

31:31 He was trying to persuade U.S. oil companies to stop refining crude for Castro at their Cuban refineries. Three weeks later, Charles Cabell briefed Vice President Nixon on the developments. Richard Bissell and J.C. King were on hand to take questions. That nothing had weakened Castro was disturbing in the CIA presentation.

32:02 Nixon was upset. He demanded the OAS action and wanted immediate economic sanctions. We have to make people hate him. A few days later, a large group met at the State Department to look at other economic measures. OAS approval remained problematic.

32:32 pushing to isolate Cuba in that organization might harm regional allies. Arguments about support for right-wing versus left-wing dictators, because they've already installed dictators in Latin America overthrowing their governments and we're paying them aid. But there are dictators. They're killing their people.

33:04 They're setting up black site prisons. They're torturing their people. They're disappearing their people. But they're our dictator. And a few people in the meeting had the wherewithal to say, you know, that might be a problem. General Cabell and Colonel King again represented the agency. Secretary of State Harder questioned them.

33:34 Cabell expressed general satisfaction with the CIA progress on its covert operation, but warned that Castro's popularity remained very high. Economic warfare would be necessary to make Project ATE work. Around the end of June, Eisenhower told Gordon Gray he could not remember the details of the March 17th discussion where he had approved the project.

34:03 Gray reminded the president of what Allen Dulles had proposed, then reported the current thinking about the timetable and events. Weeks later, with Eisenhower at Newport, Rhode Island, Gray told him of a fresh CIA bid to expand the exile force using Guatemalan bases. You know, because we overthrew that country about seven years ago.

34:33 And they needed more money. By August, Esterling's task force had reworked its plan and presented it in a new memorandum to Eisenhower. The key meeting took place at the White House on August 18th. Present were Alan Dulles, NSC officials, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is our other Forrest Gump guy, Lyman Lemonsker, by the way.

35:04 the Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson, who coordinated the U.S. trade policy with Cuba, after talk of the U2 affair, which had consumed Eisenhower since May, the group turned to ATE. Alan Dulles cited success in creating the Cuban political front. They were going to call it the FRD. Gotta have a political party.

35:34 if we're going to wage political warfare. They were temporarily setting it up in Mexico. The CIA director also went on about how great Radio Swan on Swan Island was with all of their propaganda. Its broadcast had expanded who they were attacking in the local area. So they're not just

36:10 putting propaganda out there about Fidel Castro. They're actually propagandizing anybody within range that they didn't care about. Cuba had already began jamming the transmissions from Swan Island. At Fort Gulick in Panama, the CIA had trained a cadre of 20 or more exiles who would go to Guatemala and get advanced training.

36:42 with an additional 500 men. Several dozen radio operators were also learning their trade. Oh, and let me just add, the training at Panama was at the School of Americas. Dulles noted that he now needed U.S. military people to start helping with the training. Really? Because Camp Gulick is School of Americas ran by the U.S. Army? Okay.

37:13 But he's talking about we want hands-on training, not in a schoolhouse like School of America's. We want them in the field like in Guatemala. Secretary of Defense Thomas, he shot back that the training did not concern him. Just the possibility that U.S. military might find themselves going on to a beach in Cuba. Richard Bissell basically deflected this objection.

37:40 saying that only 15 to 20 people were involved, most of them already on assignment to the CIA. Oh, they're part of those thousands of military people that we read about earlier that's already working in the CIA. We don't need any more of your people. We're just going to re-detail the people you have over here into this operation. Quote, there would be no conceivable hazard involved.

38:10 And they would get no closer to paramilitary operations than an airstrip in Guatemala, unquote. General Lyman Lemitsker, the chairman, saw no difficulty in any of this. He was right on board. Because what are we doing? We're training American versions of Gladio people, which he helped create at Operation Sunrise with Alan Dulles. Way back.

38:40 During World War II, same guy. Deputy Director Bissell also spoke of the Cuban exile force. He expected they'd be ready for action by November and would constitute a standby force, preferably of non-Americans, preferably with special forces type training. Secretary Gates renewed his objection.

39:07 Hot debate over the use of Americans as part of a force ended with Alan Dulles, who said the decision could be put aside and reexamined later, meaning we're going to do whatever we want. Gordon Gray added that an abortive project would be worse than none. It would be unwise to mount any action without the determination to see it through. If a backup force was necessary, this should be considered now.

39:36 Director Dulles still wished to defer the issue. In other words, they are talking about using the US military and the people that they want to train for this operation as the quote unquote backup force in November of 1960. That's what Alan Dulles had in mind. So we've already talked about this and we'll go through it in this book as well.

40:06 Alan Dulles didn't give a shit if this plan worked or not because it was his intent from day one. And this is just another confirmation of that, that no matter how fucked up it is and how many people get killed, the U.S. was committed to doing this and they would be sending in the U.S. military to finish it. All he had to do was get it started. That was his.

40:36 intent this entire time. So the operational concept centered on the internal resistance to Castro, which they've already said repeatedly didn't exist. He was very popular. It might succeed without quote unquote outside help. They literally have no intelligence that supports this. And they've already been lying to the 5412 group.

41:13 Some B-26 bombers would have Cuban exile pilots and they could fly in support of the quote unquote local resistance that doesn't exist. They would be supplied by air and sea and some exiles would be sent to stiffen them up. The CIA had identified a dozen anti-Castro or alleged groups. They were, according to the plan,

41:47 going to be used as the backup force to the backup force of the U.S. military. Okay, Allen Dulles admitted the project had blown through the budget. The CIA now estimated it to cost $10 billion, so it's more than doubled again. If everyone believed that JMATE had a good chance, Eisenhower was for it.

42:22 Cost was not an obstacle. Eisenhower declared he would defend this kind of action against all comers. And if we could be sure of freeing Cubans from this horrible dictator, 25 million was a small price to pay. So it just doubled again. And we haven't even done anything. So money basically...

42:52 was not going to be an issue as far as Eisenhower was concerned. But later on, Alan Dulles was saying, it is needed to supply and train somewhere in Central America, a group of exiled Cubans who are preparing for a guerrilla invasion to overthrow Castro. The director refused to supply documentation to support his demands. And he's trying to get the money.

43:22 from the director of the Bureau of Budget, Maurice Stans. Stans was like, what are you talking about? Because he's not been involved in any of these meetings. Alan Dulles responds to him, it's none of your damn business. If you question my authority, go to the president and ask him, because the president actually works for the Dulles brothers, not the other way around. Stan did that. Eisenhower.

43:53 smoothed him over and said, I authorized Dulles to spend that money, but I did not authorize any specific military action by the anti-Castro Cubans. That's just a plausible deniability line because he's already authorized the operation. That will have to come later, like you're not supposed to know it. And I won't give it an okay unless I'm convinced it's essential.

44:22 And I'm convinced it won't fail. Stans went back and wrote a check to the CIA. One piece of the Cuban scheme was held so tightly that only a handful knew about it. Richard Bissell had a whole other track underway. During the spring there had been a talk about neutralizing Castro. J.C. King's comments in an early memo at a March staff meeting are examples.

44:54 Not much had been done. Bissell made that talk into something real. Only days before Eisenhower approved the original JMATE program, Tracy Barnes had been in a dinner with Senator JFK at his home. John Bross, B-R-O-S-S, now Bissell's top planner, also attended it.

45:24 The star attraction was the Englishman, former spy and author of the James Bond thriller, Ian Fleming. Asked about Castro, Fleming ruminated that what he would do would be discredit the Cuban leader, subject him to ridicule, harping on Cubans' fascination with money, religion, and sex. A huge Fleming fan, like Alan Dulles himself, Barnes,

45:52 Passed this vague notion along, and early the next morning, Dulles telephoned the home where Fleming was staying. The historian, even Thomas, is correct to note that it remains impossible to connect Fleming's suggestion to the early CIA program by anything more than suggestion. Under orders from President LBJ in 1967, the CIA's inspector general carried out

46:22 An internal investigation of efforts to kill Castro. And the same ground was later plowed by a presidential commission. Not really. It wasn't really plowing anything, but whatever. The Rockefeller Commission. The same Rockefeller Commission that had financial investments in Cuba. A Senate investigation committee called the Church Committee, who we just found out belonged to a secret society too, in 1975, and a house.

46:54 committee meeting called the Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979. Both the internal and independent investigations found CIA plots against Castro beginning around the time of this dinner party and found early ones factored in discrediting the Cuban leader. You know, like the porno flick that they did on Sukarno. That probably was one of those recommendations too.

47:25 One plot envisioned radioactive chemicals sprinkled in Castro's shoes, presumably during a scheduled visit to Chile, which could cause his hair to fall out, robbing the image of his vitality. The CIA had agents on staff of a radio station on Castro's itinerary. Fidel unaccountably canceled the visit.

47:56 Much more concrete was what occurred following Eisenhower's decision on August 18th. Deputy Director Richard Bissell called up Colonel Sheffield Edwards and asked him to drop by. Edwards, another of the ex-FBI folks at the agency, headed the Office of Security, part of the CIA Directorate, for support. Bissell asked Edwards to contact the mafia.

48:26 whose gambling profits from Havana casinos had disappeared as Castro prohibited the practice. So we've got a motivated player here. Edwards undertook the task. This track of the Cuba operation remained entirely separate from the exile project. Jacob Esterling knew of the plot, but had no knowledge.

48:57 of any of the details. Its purpose was assassination. Later inquiries into the plot go to considerable lengths to determine whether Alan Dulles approved it. Dulles died in 1969 before the plots became known. Edwards passed away in 1975, never clarifying this point. Oh, 75, isn't that when all those investigations happened? Yeah, so Edwards just conveniently dies. Richard Bissell

49:27 who died in 94, is exceedingly sparse on the murder plots in his memoirs, but claims he first learned of the mafia approaching completely independent of the CIA from Edwards. Sure, the guy that's in charge heard it from a guy that's not in charge. The CIA inspector general in 1967 was quite specific that it was Bissell,

49:59 who asked Edwards to get involved. Edwards' other figures in these events all recalled specific exchanges discussing it with Richard Bissell because he was in charge. But Bissell doesn't remember it that way. His generic stance with investigators was that he didn't recall. I don't recall. I don't recall. I don't recall. But...

50:32 That's not what everybody else said. Bissell's memoir remark, quote, I had no desire to become personally involved, unquote. So you've got a bunch of micromanager assholes at the CIA. There's not one of them that has ever said, I don't want to be involved in helping to kill somebody. None of them. They were overly eager to do these operations.

51:05 He then goes on to say the idea didn't originate with me. And that may be true. It may have originated with Ian Fleming. Who knows? It doesn't matter. You're the one that carried it out. It has been established that Colonel Edwards personally briefed Director Dulles and General Cabell about a month after initiating the mafia contact in Bissell's presence, standing in the room. Edwards used...

51:35 Terms to refer to the plot. Updating the CIA director and his deputy. Bissell personally handled the details, but a key point never made is that Richard Bissell had no authority over an officer from the support directorate. For Bissell to have asked Edwards to do anything required Dulles' approval. Of course, Bissell had no experience dealing with the mafia, as he acknowledged.

52:05 And that, plus his high-ranking CIA position, were good reasons for him not to become directly involved. But he was in the meetings because it coincided with the operation he is actually running. Because if you are likely to kill the guy, it would directly affect Richard Bissell's operation. Colonel Edwards asked his deputy, James O'Connell, to find someone with the right connections. You know, a hitman.

52:37 Among their officers, Robert Cunningham knew a detective named Robert Mayhew. I've also written a lot about him that you can find on my ex profile. Richard or Robert Mayhew had close contacts with the mafia. O'Connell and Cunningham, like Edwards, were FBI men before they came to the CIA. And Mayhew had also been an FBI agent.

53:16 before he became a contract CIA guy that was the liaison to Hittman. Mayhew had let go his CIA retainer a little before this operation, but he was happy to do any work for the CIA. And Chef Edwards had told Richard Bissell that he had a man with suitable underworld connections.

53:54 The Dulles briefing then happened. The CIA inspector generals comment at this point, quote, it is appropriate to conjecture as to just what the director did approve. It is safe to conclude, given the men participating and the general subject of the meeting, that there was little likelihood of misunderstanding, unquote. The mafia go-to guy was Johnny Roselli.

54:25 Bob Mayhew had worked with Johnny Ruzelli before. So Bob Mayhew and Jim O'Connell went to Miami the week of September 23rd. And Mayhew met with Sam Gold, later identified as Salvador Giacconi. Yeah, Giaccona. Sam Giaccona. He in turn introduced the CIA cutout to his courier.

54:56 Joe, who turned out to be Santo Trafficani, the Tampa slash Miami mob boss, who was already working with the CIA, by the way, on all of the heroin trafficking through Cuba. The agency offered $150,000 to assassinate Castro. O'Connell never met with the mafioso himself.

55:27 no doubt to avoid any direct link between the CIA and the mafia. O'Connell, who headed the operational support branch of Sheffield's office, happened to be very senior for a case officer, another indication of the sensitivity. In fact, only three persons at the CIA, O'Connell, Edwards, and Bissell, and Dulles, were apprised of the plot. Meanwhile, at headquarters,

55:56 Colonel Edwards went to the technical services division of his directorate, the scientist, who concocted exotic weapons and equipment for the agency, where Chief Cornelius Roosevelt, Cornelius Roosevelt, and yes, he is related, filled in his request. But the doctor who headed the operations division of the Office of Medical Services made notes indicating

56:24 that on August 16th, he was asked about a box of Cuban cigars impregnated with lethal chemicals. The cigars were ready by October, but not delivered until four months later. Jake Esterling recalled keeping a box of poison cigars in his safe for months until disposing of it. Roosevelt and O'Connell remember the cigar scheme as having been considered but rejected.

56:55 except they made it. Edwards next turned to the technical services brands for poison caplets, bacteria in liquid form. What he got would be solid white pills, but the support chief tested one. It lay inert at the bottom of the glass. That was unacceptable. Maybe it was too visible. Other caplets were crafted.

57:25 tested on monkeys. And they worked. They killed the monkeys. A pencil was also hollowed out and prepared as a device, which could be used to smuggle the capsules into Cuba. The CIA inspector general proved unable to determine exactly when the capsules reached O'Connell, who passed them on to Johnny Roselli for Traficani. But this happened in February 1961. What happened in

57:57 1961. Oh, that's right. JFK is now president. By then, the plot had already failed. The mafia men in Havana, Juan Orta, director general of Castro's personal office, had been slated as the hitman to poison Castro. Orta had apparently gotten into Traficani's pocket by taking bribes on casino license back during the Batista days.

58:28 But Fidel fired him on January 26th after the CIA had no way to deliver the poison. Castro always seems to be one step ahead of these guys. Weird. Traficani briefly favored using a prominent exile identified as Tony Verona as the assassin. But that too fell through.

58:55 Though O'Connell and Edwards told the inspector general, money went to Verona for the job. He got paid for it. He just didn't do it. When Jake Esserling learned this, he went through the roof, properly insisting that the anti-Castro leaders could not be involved in any such plot. Just the mafia. The mafia is our hitman. Don't use those Cuban exiles. We want them for the invading force.

59:21 In the spring of 1961, Edwards had word sent to Roselli that the project had gone on to the back burner. There would be no neutralizing Castro. The Cuban operation would have to succeed on its own. And we'll stop right there. Dang, that's good. Five o'clock on the dot. So we'll continue tomorrow. Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. Go ahead, SR.

1:00:04 SR? Hello. There we go. Would help if I hit the mic. It does. It does help a lot. But thank you, everybody, for attending here on Rumble and on Spaces. What I'm wondering here is how Castro always stayed a step ahead. He always did. And I'm beginning to think that the real reason behind that.

1:00:36 is Dulles wanted a war, period. He didn't want regime change. He wanted a war. And nothing else was going to satisfy him until he got it. What are your thoughts? Possibly. That's not normally the case with him. But like I've said many times, the sacrifice.

1:01:05 It's kind of like a loss leader, you know, in marketing when you put a staple item out on the end cap in a grocery store and you sell it for less than it costs the grocery store so that you can advertise this deeply discounted entity and draw people into the store hoping that they're going to buy 10 things and not one. It's called a loss leader in marketing.

1:01:33 So Cuba was the lost leader for Dulles. Now, I'm going to suggest, I have no evidence of this. We've talked about it many times. If you look at it from a marketing perspective, if you want to sell the ability to have access to all of the resources in the Western Hemisphere, in Latin America, in South America, you kind of need a Castro.

1:02:01 Right? So you're going to label him a communist and he's going to do socialist things like nationalizing the sugar plantations and the oil and whatever. But if you can keep him contained and act like you're trying to kill him and act like you're trying to overthrow him, you get a lot of money.

1:02:28 to do all kinds of different things. You get to train Cuban exiles, which by the way, as we've documented, and this book will document as well, get used all over the world. So you have this constant supply of money under the label of Cuba to train these people as our own indigenous Gladio people, and you get to deploy them all over the world. And you just keep Cuba contained.

1:02:57 And then you use Castro as the way of controlling the leadership throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. So whatever money is put towards Castro, as long as he stays alive, he justifies spending billions of dollars throughout Latin America and making trillions of dollars for the people the CIA actually works for, the oligarchs.

1:03:26 in all of their ventures. Because if you don't control the governments all over the Western hemisphere, you don't have access to the resources. And he just became convenient. Now, that may be a complete coincidence, or it might not. I've never seen anybody actually explore that line of thinking. But in my mind, once you go through like we did,

1:03:52 Every single one of those countries, and you read every single time, we did it because of Castro. We did it because of Castro. You're like, damn, that's awful convenient that you had a Castro. So, and we do know that the CIA helped, and this book doesn't cover it. We've read it in other books, that the CIA was helping Castro in the mountains in Cuba train.

1:04:17 to overthrow Batista because he had become very inconvenient, not unlike some of the other dictators like Saddam Hussein, Noriega. So it's not like that would be a pattern. Oh, except for that it is. So I don't know. That's my take on it. But he also, to his credit, and it was later discovered that Castro had a lot of spies in the CIA camp. Not all of the Cuban exiles were

1:04:48 really on CIA team. There were several that have been identified that were actual double agents. They pretended to be Cuban exiles and carried back information to Castro as well. So there's that. The other thing that's puzzled me about this a little bit, Colonel, is even had Castro been eliminated or taken care of,

1:05:20 Who in the world did they have waiting in the wings to fill his shoes? Oh, they had a whole bunch of them. Because keep in mind, there's a whole group. So basically, the Cuban exiles kind of created two pools. The paramilitary guys primarily ended up in Miami, and the more elite businessmen from the island ended up in New York City.

1:05:47 And so they have lots of people to choose from. And I don't know if this book will get into it, but we got into it in a couple of other books where the group that was in New York were more the business leaders. Because keep in mind, when the CIA and this oligarch

1:06:13 installs a dictator like Batista. You remember how we were talking about how they developed this elite class of plantation owners and they allow these elites to own some of the businesses there or they run the businesses for these absentee landlords like United Fruit and William Polly. So there would have been somebody running William Polly's bus.

1:06:41 because William Polly's jutting all over, getting in all kinds of shit all over the world. So they're not just, so they have this groomed population in these countries that they could pick any one of them. Those types of people, though, generally were in the group that went to New York. The kind of second tier of leadership, like Philip,

1:07:10 Felix Rodriguez's parents, they were very well off, but they weren't in that top tier. Those people and their kids all went to Miami and eventually joined Alpha 66 or the Brigade 2506, whatever, and became part of the paramilitary part. So I couldn't pick a name out of the hat, but they had people that they had groomed during the time that Batista was there.

1:07:43 Because they always have a dictator in the waiting. Remember what we were talking about in Iraq, where they had already been grooming Saddam Hussein's minister of defense. And through his own intelligence, Saddam found out about it and assassinated him. So they normally have the next guy waiting in the wings that they have been working very closely with.

1:08:16 Did you have something more hamster? Yeah, I just wanted to respond. You have speculation of Alan Dulles' motives. You know, having, I guess, read my share of books about Alan Dulles over time, I think it's important you look at it, understand what his background is. He's an investment banker. And the mindset really is you target an asset that you want to purchase on the cheap.

1:08:42 And you get your people in place, you get access to an asset cheap, and then you can manipulate events so that an asset can, when it's ripe, can be harvested. And that's a lot different than a mindset of saying, let's just go in with tanks. Yeah. So, I mean, that's really, that's all I really wanted to add. But as long as you remember that he's an investment banker first. Yes. A lot of stuff starts to make sense. And to SR's point, it was clear.

1:09:12 that in other books that we've read, Alan Dulles never actually thought that they could take Cuba with this ragtag group of Cuban exiles. He never did. And that's the reason why he was making backroom deals with Lyman Lemonsker to have the Navy pre-positioned off the coast during the Bay of Pigs invasion. He thought that he could get a brand new president.

1:09:42 who had just taken office, if they could just get boots on the ground and have some type of a beachhead, that they could bully JFK into authorizing the troops that were already there that were not supposed to be there and that JFK would send the US Air Force there. So he actually thought that was going to happen. And you can tell by how chagrined they were after all of that and JFK stuck to his ground.

1:10:12 because he said the entire time, no U.S. military, no U.S. military. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. But they all thought he would. So, you know, depending on which briefing you are during this whole, because they talk about this all the time, as you guys can see, every one of these meetings for the 5412, the National Security Council meetings, every single one of them, depending on which book you read,

1:10:44 Sometimes they gave actual numbers. And one of the books I read, and it may have been Colonel Prouty's book, said they never gave it, the military never gave, in reviewing the Bay of Pigs plan, never gave it above a 20% chance of working. And Alan Dulles went through with it anyway, because he believed he could bully this new president into committing military force.

1:11:12 And he knew he had Lyman Lemesker on his side. And they literally did. I mean, Curtis LeMay and Lyman Lemesker goes and bullies JFK during the Bay of Pigs. They were so disgusted with JFK that he would not allow them to use the U.S. military. So they definitely had that in their back pocket. And of course, as we've established,

1:11:44 Dulles has known Lyman Lemesker for a very long time since Operation Sunrise during World War II. They're buddies. So anything else? No? All right. Well, we will be back tomorrow with our next. Go ahead. If I may, Colonel, real quick, I'm going to step aside from the subject for the moment. And I want to thank you profusely for that article you put out.

1:12:21 concerning the people of Quill and Dagger, Darren Cornell. That begins to fill out the dance card of how deep this really goes and who all's involved. Thank you so very much. I appreciate that. Yeah, I had talked about Sandy Berger, and in the research that I did, I had not come across his name.

1:12:49 as part of that secret society. And I may have actually seen it, but now it's not a secret society. I didn't know that it had started out as a secret society. But at a certain point in time, like mid 1900s, they actually started publishing every year the class. So I did find that very interesting. And that's quite an array of people.

1:13:15 especially in the roles that they played. But obviously it doesn't surprise any of us after Warhamster has taken us through all of the Skull and Bones and Squirrel and Key people that these things exist. They exist for a reason. They establish an informal network that these people are able to, and you can see they're both sides of the aisle. That's the reason why I keep saying there's no aisle in the same class.

1:13:44 there will be Republicans and Democrats. It's literally like they just draw straws. And they accomplish the same thing. They stay in administration after administration, regardless of what party's in charge, because they're part of this elite group that is basically the fifth column. It's crazy. What I found interesting about the roster you put together is obviously there's some very influential and powerful people, but just doing a quick,

1:14:15 cursory survey of their backgrounds it seems that there's a lot less connections into the true blue blood families as we saw absolutely yes it's almost more like a junior varsity or a praetorian guard yes which is absolutely necessary yes to make the whole machine work but you know it's almost like it's a specific you know they treat that university as a specific farm system for bureaucrats yes

1:14:39 And that's the same school that Frank Wisner. I did not see Frank Wisner's name on any of the, but that's where he went to school, which is very interesting. But they are the next rung down.

1:14:53 um from the blue blood skull and bones and scrolling key people definitely um i i too went and looked in how many of them had actually gone to prep school or whatever a handful of them had so i didn't really put any of that information in there because the majority of them did not um it is definitely the next rung down on the ladder but if you guys remember to me this whole thing acts as an um

1:15:21 a mobile, like you put over your baby's bed. The top table of the syndicate is like the top rung. And then the next rung down are the Scroll and Key and the Allen Dulles's and the George H.W. Bush and those people. And they sit on all of the right places, the CFR.

1:15:45 But then they also have a subordinate. And I would say that to Warhamster's point that this particular once secret society is that next level down from the Skull and Bone guys. But in order to make this thing work, you have to have a bench. It's like playing a ball game.

1:16:11 You have to have the farm team and the farm team is out there in order for you to pull out of and know that they're in the club and you can plug and play these people into the different positions, whether it's the deputy CIA director, because the CIA director is going to be, you know, from the upper tier table.

1:16:36 Or in the State Department, somebody that may never be the Secretary of State, but the Professional Ambassador Club or the Research and Intelligence Division Chief. This is your farm team. They're definitely a farm team. I agree. The other analogy that kind of popped into my head is if you look at it like a corporate structure, these people are not C-suite.

1:17:01 But they're the regional managers. That's a great way of putting it. Hey, do you want me to give a quick sneak preview of what we're going to do on Friday? Sure. Well, our last show, we went through the maritime empires to some degree. And I wanted to spend some more time on the Dutch Republic and the rise and fall and what happened and why. They went from being the most powerful empire in the planet to, you know.

1:17:29 back to a second tier player it's very interesting but it takes us into the goal it'll take us into the golden age of the dutch republic and um some of the philosophers who were the early thought leaders that led to this what we call the european brain brain rot disease of um and it's the dutch philosophers were the very there they were pioneers of that and i think that'll tee us up really good for getting into the rest of the philosophers and eventually um

1:17:59 You know, everything from Tavistock to the, why am I drawing a blank on the name, the Fabian Socialists. Yes. And how that got to America. And that leads straight to what I think is the crown jewel of all of our work together is looking at the foundations who actually control all of this mechanism. So that's kind of what I'm looking at Fridays, spending some time on the Netherlands. Okay. Sounds good.

1:18:29 And just so all of you know, there will not be an Alpha Warrior show tonight. He's traveling to Gart in Nashville. And so we're not going to be doing the Alpha Warrior show tonight. So just FYI, I get a Wednesday night off. So, okay. If that's all, we're going to... Bridget, did you want to say anything? Nope.

1:19:01 Okay. She's probably cooking dinner. All right, guys. Take care, everybody. And I will see you tomorrow.

Entities here

CIA50 Allen Dulles41 Cuba25 Fidel Castro25 United States22 Dwight D. Eisenhower15 Richard M. Bissell Jr.14 Jacob Esterlin13 Sheffield Edwards12 Mafia10 J.C. King9 James O'Connell9 Operation Mongoose8 5412 Committee8 Congo Task Force6 Skull and Bones6 Guatemala6 John F. Kennedy6 Lyman Lemnitzer6 Gordon Gray5 William Pawley4 United Fruit Company4 National Security Council4 Santo Trafficante Jr.4 Miami4 Charles Cabell4 Johnny Roselli4 Richard Nixon3 Richard Drain3 Organization of American States3 Ian Fleming3 Tracy Barnes3 Maurice Stans3 Quill and Dagger3 Radio Swan3 Robert Maheu3 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état3 Operation Pluto3 Swan Island3 Frank Wisner2

Claims made here

Edward Stanulis member_of CIA documented ▶ 0:44

“We were talking about the different operations and Cuba and Dwight D. Eisenhower and all that stuff. So that's what we're going to pick up. From their offices around the reflecting pool, CIA officials…”

Edward Stanulis recruited Congo Task Force documented ▶ 1:15

“S-T-A-N-U-L-I-S, planning full-time for CIA action in Latin America contingencies since September. Cuba became his number one priority. That November, the agency ordered that operations were to be bas…”

Allen Dulles headed CIA documented ▶ 2:18

“of communism spreading, especially for assassination attempts. Director Dulles asserted in a December 4th speech that Latin communist would use nationalism as a slogan to justify breaking ties with th…”

J.C. King ordered_assassination_of Fidel Castro documented ▶ 3:24

“dictatorship not be permitted to stand. The White House division chief advocated a range of actions, among them that, quote, thorough consideration be given to the elimination of Fidel Castro, which w…”

Allen Dulles attempted_assassination_of Fidel Castro documented ▶ 3:54

“not yet willing to go that far, crossed out King's word elimination, substituting it for removal from Cuba. I'm not sure what the difference is. I mean, I know what it is, but he doesn't want to actua…”

Allen Dulles funded Operation Mongoose documented ▶ 4:29

“who would assemble other exiles in the Latin community country, after which they would infiltrate Cuba and lead anti-Castro dissidents. This formed the heart of the eventual covert paramilitary plan. …”

J.C. King headed Congo Task Force documented ▶ 5:59

“Examination of special group records by the Senate committee in the 1970s shows that Dulles recommended that the CIA prepare plans to affect Castro's fall. Five days later, a dozen people met with J.C…”

Jacob Esterlin headed Congo Task Force documented ▶ 6:29

“18 persons were assigned to WH-4 at headquarters, 20 at the Havana station, and two more under diplomatic cover at the U.S. consulate in Cuba. Jacob Esterling became chief of the task force. A Burma O…”

CIA trained Jacob Esterlin documented ▶ 6:58

“He was recalled into service during the Korean conflict. He had been noticed among the names of assignment list by Ray Pierce, who had him seconded to the CIA. The agency used Esterlin at its Fort Ben…”

Jacob Esterlin member_of CIA documented ▶ 6:58

Jacob Esterlin headed 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état documented ▶ 8:00

“and Congress forced it to be closed, they just increased and changed the name of the presence at Fort Benning and continued running their operation. Esterling had never had anything to do with Latin A…”

Frank Wisner recruited Jacob Esterlin documented ▶ 9:05

“but he didn't get listened to. Then he witnessed a state visit by Fidel Castro and he was widely heralded in Venezuela. Frank Wisner passed through town about then and Esterling told him that if the a…”

Allen Dulles attempted_assassination_of Che Guevara documented ▶ 10:05

“February 17th, and it became the first one he presented to Eisenhower. Direct action to eliminate Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Dulles met with the president and Gordon Gray. Accompanied by aides, Dul…”

Allen Dulles funded Operation Mongoose documented ▶ 10:05

Richard Drain member_of Congo Task Force documented ▶ 12:37

“King also noted that unless the top folks could be eliminated in one package, the operation might draw out, in which Castro could be overthrown by force. The plan crafted by Esterling and Richard Drai…”

William Pawley funded Operation Mongoose documented ▶ 24:41

“And we're going to hire all of our lawyers and bankers that are CIA agents to be the businessmen assigned to this investment entity that is going to do all of this as cover. Money from private sources…”

Dwight D. Eisenhower funded Operation Mongoose documented ▶ 25:40

“Eisenhower accepted the CIA's Cuba project. Not before some discussion, however. Once Allen Dulles presented the basic plan, Bissell did most of the talking. Bissell, whose skills lay elsewhere, and w…”

Richard M. Bissell Jr. member_of CIA documented ▶ 25:40

Richard Helms member_of CIA documented ▶ 27:48

“Alan Dulles had barely begun his introductory remarks when he had to take a call from the president. The group waited, Bissell silent, worked through a stack of cables. General Cabell slouched in his …”

Tracy Barnes member_of CIA documented ▶ 31:01

“On June 3rd, Tracy Barnes attended a meeting at CIA that considered retaliation in kind. Again, retaliation for United Fruit? You don't work for United Fruit. Supposedly, you work for the United State…”

United Fruit Company funded Operation Mongoose host_asserted ▶ 31:31

“He was trying to persuade U.S. oil companies to stop refining crude for Castro at their Cuban refineries. Three weeks later, Charles Cabell briefed Vice President Nixon on the developments. Richard Bi…”

Charles Cabell member_of CIA documented ▶ 33:04

“They're setting up black site prisons. They're torturing their people. They're disappearing their people. But they're our dictator. And a few people in the meeting had the wherewithal to say, you know…”

Christian Herter member_of United States documented ▶ 33:04

Lyman Lemnitzer member_of National Security Council documented ▶ 34:33

“And they needed more money. By August, Esterling's task force had reworked its plan and presented it in a new memorandum to Eisenhower. The key meeting took place at the White House on August 18th. Pr…”

Robert Anderson member_of National Security Council documented ▶ 35:04

“the Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson, who coordinated the U.S. trade policy with Cuba, after talk of the U2 affair, which had consumed Eisenhower since May, the group turned to ATE. Alan Dulles cite…”

Radio Swan front_for Operation Mongoose documented ▶ 35:34

“if we're going to wage political warfare. They were temporarily setting it up in Mexico. The CIA director also went on about how great Radio Swan on Swan Island was with all of their propaganda. Its b…”

CIA trained Congo Task Force documented ▶ 36:10

“putting propaganda out there about Fidel Castro. They're actually propagandizing anybody within range that they didn't care about. Cuba had already began jamming the transmissions from Swan Island. At…”

Allen Dulles member_of Operation Sunrise documented ▶ 38:10

“And they would get no closer to paramilitary operations than an airstrip in Guatemala, unquote. General Lyman Lemitsker, the chairman, saw no difficulty in any of this. He was right on board. Because …”

Lyman Lemnitzer member_of Operation Sunrise documented ▶ 38:10

Allen Dulles funded JM/WAVE documented ▶ 41:47

“going to be used as the backup force to the backup force of the U.S. military. Okay, Allen Dulles admitted the project had blown through the budget. The CIA now estimated it to cost $10 billion, so it…”

Ian Fleming proposed Fidel Castro documented ▶ 45:24

“The star attraction was the Englishman, former spy and author of the James Bond thriller, Ian Fleming. Asked about Castro, Fleming ruminated that what he would do would be discredit the Cuban leader, …”

CIA attempted_assassination_of Fidel Castro documented ▶ 47:25

“One plot envisioned radioactive chemicals sprinkled in Castro's shoes, presumably during a scheduled visit to Chile, which could cause his hair to fall out, robbing the image of his vitality. The CIA …”

Richard M. Bissell Jr. recruited Sheffield Edwards documented ▶ 47:56

“Much more concrete was what occurred following Eisenhower's decision on August 18th. Deputy Director Richard Bissell called up Colonel Sheffield Edwards and asked him to drop by. Edwards, another of t…”

Richard M. Bissell Jr. ordered_assassination_of Fidel Castro documented ▶ 47:56

Sheffield Edwards recruited James O'Connell documented ▶ 52:05

“And that, plus his high-ranking CIA position, were good reasons for him not to become directly involved. But he was in the meetings because it coincided with the operation he is actually running. Beca…”

Robert Cunningham recruited Robert Maheu documented ▶ 52:37

“Among their officers, Robert Cunningham knew a detective named Robert Mayhew. I've also written a lot about him that you can find on my ex profile. Richard or Robert Mayhew had close contacts with the…”

James O'Connell recruited Robert Cunningham documented ▶ 52:37

Robert Maheu recruited Johnny Roselli documented ▶ 54:25

“Bob Mayhew had worked with Johnny Ruzelli before. So Bob Mayhew and Jim O'Connell went to Miami the week of September 23rd. And Mayhew met with Sam Gold, later identified as Salvador Giacconi. Yeah, G…”

CIA trafficked Santo Trafficante Jr. host_asserted ▶ 54:56

“Joe, who turned out to be Santo Trafficani, the Tampa slash Miami mob boss, who was already working with the CIA, by the way, on all of the heroin trafficking through Cuba. The agency offered $150,000…”

CIA paid Santo Trafficante Jr. documented ▶ 54:56

Johnny Roselli recruited Santo Trafficante Jr. documented ▶ 54:56

CIA attempted_assassination_of Fidel Castro documented ▶ 56:55

“except they made it. Edwards next turned to the technical services brands for poison caplets, bacteria in liquid form. What he got would be solid white pills, but the support chief tested one. It lay …”

Juan Orta attempted_assassination_of Fidel Castro documented ▶ 57:57

“1961. Oh, that's right. JFK is now president. By then, the plot had already failed. The mafia men in Havana, Juan Orta, director general of Castro's personal office, had been slated as the hitman to p…”

Tony Verona attempted_assassination_of Fidel Castro documented ▶ 58:28

“But Fidel fired him on January 26th after the CIA had no way to deliver the poison. Castro always seems to be one step ahead of these guys. Weird. Traficani briefly favored using a prominent exile ide…”

CIA paid Tony Verona documented ▶ 58:55

“Though O'Connell and Edwards told the inspector general, money went to Verona for the job. He got paid for it. He just didn't do it. When Jake Esserling learned this, he went through the roof, properl…”

CIA trained Fidel Castro host_asserted ▶ 1:03:52

“Every single one of those countries, and you read every single time, we did it because of Castro. We did it because of Castro. You're like, damn, that's awful convenient that you had a Castro. So, and…”

Lyman Lemnitzer recruited Allen Dulles host_asserted ▶ 1:09:12

“that in other books that we've read, Alan Dulles never actually thought that they could take Cuba with this ragtag group of Cuban exiles. He never did. And that's the reason why he was making backroom…”

Curtis LeMay recruited Lyman Lemnitzer host_asserted ▶ 1:11:12

“And he knew he had Lyman Lemesker on his side. And they literally did. I mean, Curtis LeMay and Lyman Lemesker goes and bullies JFK during the Bay of Pigs. They were so disgusted with JFK that he woul…”

Sandy Berger member_of Quill and Dagger host_asserted ▶ 1:12:21

“concerning the people of Quill and Dagger, Darren Cornell. That begins to fill out the dance card of how deep this really goes and who all's involved. Thank you so very much. I appreciate that. Yeah, …”

Frank Wisner member_of Quill and Dagger host_asserted ▶ 1:14:39

“And that's the same school that Frank Wisner. I did not see Frank Wisner's name on any of the, but that's where he went to school, which is very interesting. But they are the next rung down.…”

Allen Dulles member_of Quill and Dagger host_asserted ▶ 1:15:21

“a mobile, like you put over your baby's bed. The top table of the syndicate is like the top rung. And then the next rung down are the Scroll and Key and the Allen Dulles's and the George H.W. Bush and…”

George H.W. Bush member_of Quill and Dagger host_asserted ▶ 1:15:21

Quill and Dagger front_for U.S. State Department host_asserted ▶ 1:16:36

“Or in the State Department, somebody that may never be the Secretary of State, but the Professional Ambassador Club or the Research and Intelligence Division Chief. This is your farm team. They're def…”