The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 26 (27)

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0:00 This is an awesome video. It makes my blood pump every time I hear it. Right? Yes. It's like they climbed inside our head to everything that we had together over the last few years and just boiled it down and spit it out. Yep. Yep.

0:25 It's so funny because I've had that on my iMusic thing since the day it came out. I love that band or group. And I bought the single and then I bought the album. And it was so funny that after we started talking about making a video, I have...

0:50 like my favorites that are in my iMusic, there's like 15 of them, you know, like John Rich's Revelation and just a few others. And this is one of them. And I'm just driving through downtown and that song came on and I'm like, oh my gosh. It was like I was hearing it for the first time and I have like every word memorized. So it was just, yeah. And they did such a brilliant job with editing. I mean. Yes, yes.

1:19 Yes, I could not recommend them more to anybody that wants to ever do a video. They are like exclusively the only people that I would recommend. And I know Alpha Warrior wanted to contact them. I don't know if he ever did, but that's okay. We've got one of their works of art. So anyway, so for those of you who've been following along, you know that

1:47 I interviewed Olivia Pollack, my neighbor, who was caught up in January 6th and her fiance, Lego Man, several months ago. I just got their wedding announcement in the mail. They will be getting married here locally in April. And I could not be more happy for them. Congratulations on that. And I wish you...

2:13 the best rest of your life you could ever enjoy because you both deserve it. Okay, we're on chapter 14, the secret war against Castro. As if we haven't already been at war with them. Yeah, there's a lot more. Okay, Ed Lansdale was, for Ed Lansdale, Kennedy's presidency became a rollercoaster ride.

2:46 Brought with threat and opportunity. One moment up and the next moment down. Lansdale's promotion to Brigadier General, and I'm telling you, he's a sheep-dipped CIA agent working in the military, had been confirmed. It was capped by the suggestion that he was going to be the next U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. Huh.

3:14 Have we ever had a military general as an ambassador, an actual ambassador to a country? Weird, right? That possibility evaporated, however, with objections from people like Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara. Certainly, the 53-year-old quote-unquote warrior had his troubles with the sect death. Lansdale once described

3:43 The last time McNamara allowed him to deliver a brief about Vietnam, trying to give some sense to the unique character of that conflict, the secret warrior brought a sack into McNamara's office, held it above the desk, and dumped an array of knives, pistols, sticks, and similar exotic items onto the desk. The display only scandalized the SecDef.

4:11 But Lansdale's forte had always been propaganda, back to advertising before World War II. McNamara's shot proved insufficient to move him to dismiss Lansdale. Probably because he wasn't allowed because he's actually CIA. Because any other general officer that would have done that would have been shown the door that minute. For their part, Max Taylor and Walt Rostow

4:41 failed to keep Lansdale off their mission to survey the South Vietnam situation in the fall of 1961. Because of his position, Lansdale was pulled into the anti-Castro enterprise. As early as May, Richard Bissell told Lansdale of the CIA's newest plan to keep the heat on Castro. In retirement, the general later conjectured that his involvement with Cuba had damaged his career.

5:11 This guy has done all kinds of nefarious shit. Killed people, trained terrorists. Yeah, yeah, it's Castro that did it. If there was one thing he could take back, that would be it. Not the vampire shit they were doing in the Philippines, scaring the living daylights out of people so they could manipulate them and control their government. That he didn't want to take back. But in 1961, at Lansdale, answered the summons of the White House.

5:43 Complaints about the handling of the Bay of Pigs brought no end to the secret war against Castro. If anything, it redoubled their effort. The brigadistas still roamed the Zapata swamps when Bobby Kennedy sent Jack a memorandum calling for new action. Even during the interval of stock-taking, the NSC affirmed,

6:12 The intent to get rid of Castro, the CIA strove to rebuild its covert capability against Cuba. The agency had a new proposal within a month of the failure. That summer, the president put aide Richard Goodwin in charge of a group to review proposals. In the fall, the special group reviewed the situation. The CIA, overwhelmed by its move to its new headquarters,

6:43 complex nevertheless furnished Maxwell Taylor's committee a full readout on Cuba. According to the CIA, the anti-Castro political groups were becoming more realistic, though Miro Codona being subsidized to the tune of $90,000 a month, $90,000 a month in the 1960s still represented a problem.

7:12 Exile groups were providing recruits for paramilitary training, and the CIA had a 35-man commando unit that was part of the Nino Diaz element of the Cuban Brigade, ready for action any minute. Propaganda efforts were in the best shape. Radio Swan continued its broadcast. CIA had gotten its programming onto dozens of...

7:41 stations in Latin America and several in Florida. What? What? They're propagandizing in Florida? Huh? Yeah, I thought that wasn't allowed. I thought there was a law that someone thinks that reinstating the law that was completely ignored is going to solve that. The agency had about a dozen agents or communicators ready to infiltrate and

8:12 retained contact with 26 more Cubans, mostly in the Havana area. The CIA carefully added that some anti-Castro Cubans were carrying out sabotage missions in Cuba, quote unquote, without the CIA's support. Its own plans were for minor actions. Any major missions would have to be cleared by the special group. At that stage, Jack Kennedy took a hand.

8:42 with his brother Bobby, discussing command operations inside Cuba. According to a journalist, Don Bonning, the impetus may have come from the outside, from a reporter, Tad Slack. I don't know how you say his last name. S-Z-U-L-E. Sluzly? Sluz? Sluke?

9:10 He had been running around Washington lobbying for renewed covert operations, even telling a friend, diplomat Robert Hertwich, that he hoped to see the president. He did in fact see JFK. How much of this was a result of that, how much was Kennedy, and how much was Richard Goodwin for that matter is not clear. Yeah, I'm sure that the president is persuasively

9:41 going to be pushed around by a reporter. Goodwin sent the president a memo at the beginning of November that analyzed the idea that the only effective way to handle an all-out attack was an all-out attack on the Cubans. Goodwin believed, assistant counsel to the president, he had talked with Bissell about a renewed covert program since the month after the Bay of Pigs.

10:11 taking Tracy Barnes' suggestion for deliberations of his task force. Goodwin then had an uncanny encounter with Shea Cavera at a Latin American conference in Uruguay that summer, at which Shea had thanked the Kennedy man for the Bay of Pigs. It had been a boon to Castro's effort to consolidate power. You gotta love that. Yeah.

10:41 Thanks for pushing the Cuban government into the hands of the Russians and consolidating his power by attacking them. No wonder they hate Che Guevara. That's damn, that's bold. That's very bold. Goodwin went on writing, the beauty of such an operation over the next few months is that we cannot lose.

11:15 Famous last words. Either the CIA would unseat Castro or it would end up with a stronger underground, better propaganda and a clearer idea of Castro's power. Yeah, that's a certain win somehow because you're not spending your own money doing a fishing expedition. But good ones recommended against CIA leadership, reckoning that it should be headed by Bobby Kennedy.

11:47 Goodwin helped the reporter in his quest to see administration higher ups. Over a period of the next few days in early November, Sluck met with both Bobby and Jack Kennedy. His meeting with the president is reported to have been at the suggestion of his brother. President Kennedy handled the situation carefully. He was one of those journalists who had ferreted out the Bay of Pigs plans.

12:16 had excellent contacts in Cuba, and had proven himself an acute observer. That summer, he had reported through author Schlesinger a private conversation with Castro after the Bay of Pigs. The only other person present at his Oval Office chat with the president on November 9th was Goodwin. Kennedy sat in his rocking chair, Goodwin on the sofa, and JFK mostly asked questions.

12:44 According to his own notes of the conversation, the reporter told the president that, quote, Castro thought that despite the Bay of Pigs, JFK was the only politician with whom he could deal in terms of improved relations, unquote. Kennedy expressed no interest. Instead, he asked how strong Castro seemed, whether new covert operations made sense, things like that. The president felt the need to control the CIA.

13:14 to make it impossible for the agency to construct another operation like the Bay of Pigs. He said something about setting up a special group on Cuba. Kennedy leaned forward in his chair, quote, what would you think if I ordered Castro to be assassinated? He is supposedly quoted saying, the reporter replied that it would be a terrible idea. Such a scene could only make Castro stronger.

13:46 Kennedy said he had only been testing him. He felt the same way, but he had been under terrible pressure to go ahead and do just that. The US, the president said, morally must not be a party to assassinations. The reporter made no use of this information, according to the author. But Kennedy went ahead and did.

14:18 what he had told the reporter. Lansdale received his own call from the White House around that time. He called it the late fall of 61. The timing narrows considerably because Lansdale's memo to McNamara was November 25th and shows him already at work on Cuba. Lansdale made out that his assignment had been vague, but that it was done directly for the president. And Kennedy personally asked him to do it.

14:48 according to Lansdale. Lansdale would look over the situation vis-a-vis the U.S. and Cuba and see what ideas he had. Lansdale reported back within days. He estimated Castro's overthrow to be possible, but the Cuban sugar crop should be attacked at once, and Fidel should be kept so busy with internal problems that he'd have no time to stir up trouble in Latin America.

15:18 Robert McNamara and Bobby Kennedy sat in on the meeting. A Goodwin note on November 22nd indicates that the secret warrior had already put his thoughts on paper. When Maxwell Taylor convened the special group the same day, he said that Edward Lansdale ought to be in another part of the world, a reference to the proposal that the general should go to Saigon.

15:48 That Taylor, who had struggled to exclude Lansdale from his own recent Vietnam inspection trip and then to minimize Lansdale's role on it, should want him to be ambassador is striking. Several days, maybe he was just trying to get rid of him, not as ambassador. Several days later in a memo, Lansdale actually thanked him for the suggestion that he go to Vietnam.

16:24 He further noted that it was a task that really needed to be done, whatever they were aiming at doing in Vietnam. He talked about working on a certain special project. Sam Halperin, whom Lansdell had known since the early 1950s, had recently been reassigned to the Cuba branch.

16:57 for the new Cuba project. In an effort to obscure the project, Halpern looked at a list of code names that had been set aside for Thailand and selected Mongoose. Lansdale became the man of Project Mongoose, planning and supervising this covert action. A presidential directive on November 30th declared Kennedy's determination to use available assets to go ahead with the discussed project.

17:26 in order to help Cuba overthrow a communist regime. The Pentagon State Department and CIA were to designate representatives to help Lansdell, and each should have effective operational control over all aspects of their department operations. On a single sheet of paper, President Kennedy cast the die. Robert Kennedy quickly emerged as a field marshal for this renewed effort. Though corridor gossip,

17:55 gave Lansdale the role, even nicknaming him FM, I guess for Field Marshal. Almost daily, Lansdale informed Bobby in a quick handwritten note or memorandum or a conversation in the hall of progress. Before a special group session in early December, for example, Lansdale frankly told RFK, quote, I decided to lay it out, lay it right on the line.

18:24 on what it will take to win against a communist team, unquote. He anticipated problems. He said that there needed to be a spirit among the bureaucrats, but doggone it, we have to work with what we have. A month later, Lansdale asked the Attorney General to personally clear Edward Morrow, head of the U.S. Information Agency, another CIA front.

18:55 Lansdale's authority to give him orders. So he wanted to have the U.S. Information Agency working under Lansdale on this project. A week after Lansdale warned Bobby of his presentation to the special group, when Lansdale actually presented the Mongoose plan on January 18th, 1962, he again supplied the first copies to Robert and JFK.

19:25 presented an elaborate proposal. He divided the new Cuba operation into six phases to end with Castro's overthrow. Like an escalation ladder, the phases began with intelligence gathering and proceeded through more strenuous actions. Lansdale included almost three dozen separate elements from establishing pathfinder agents, bases, clandestine headquarters, actions including sabotage, work slowdowns,

19:54 and open revolt. One item anticipated defections of Castro's henchmen, another attacks on revolutionary cadre, including key leaders. The special group consensus viewed this as a good start, but wanted it broken down into more explicit schedules. The next day, Bobby Kennedy convened Lansdale's assistance with CIA Deputy Director Marshall Carter attending for the agency. RFK

20:23 delivered a demand. Action on Cuba required not merely Lansdell's efforts, but theirs, and they were to use every resource at their command, spare no expense. This had become a chief priority. Bobby quoted his brother, the final chapter on Cuba has yet to be written. By February, Lansdell had completed a new version of his time phase plan. McGeorge

20:52 Bundy's doodles and notes reveal that the special group talked over a number of the Cuban exiles ready to fight teams necessary for various operations, their transportation needs, hardware, and then the point when the U.S. might intervene. Arrangements now fell into place quickly. Guidelines for Mongoose dated March 5th was prepared by Maxwell Taylor.

21:23 instructed the Secret Warriors to proceed in such a fashion as to permit disengagement. General Lansdell would continue as the project chief. The CIA's next day promised to ensure a steady flow of intel on Cuba. This flaw of the Bay of Pigs would be avoided. Secret Warriors actually hired the Zogby firm to conduct an opinion poll in Latin America.

21:53 They wanted to identify countries where propaganda gains against Castro were possible and issues the CIA could use to that end. For all the work built to a meeting with Kennedy in the Oval Office on March 14th, 1962, everyone was there. The Joint Chiefs Chairman, representatives of Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk.

22:21 Just before the president entered, Lansdale told the group that Taylor's guidelines would preclude success. Taylor emphasized the need to gather intelligence. President Kennedy, as he had done in the Bay of Pigs, shut off discussion of U.S. intervention. The group nonetheless considered certain military support for the CIA and contemplated sabotage plans for use in mongos. They rode on.

22:53 knocking out Castro's patrol boats. JFK congratulated his warriors on what they had accomplished, complained about the danger the press might guess what was happening, and wondered if the U.S. could refuse further Cuban migration. The president reassured his warriors he wanted them to carry on. Waiting in the ante room

23:21 During the key mongoose briefing were CIA officers Richard Helms and William Harvey. Lansdell had asked John McCone to let them in, but the CIA director nixed the idea. McCone had made Richard Helms his lieutenant for Cuba, and the new deputy director for operations spent part of every day on the issue, excluding the deputy DO and the task force chief.

23:51 was highly unusual. McCone may have wanted to keep the play in his own hands, or he may have anticipated the fight over the guidelines and wanted no witnesses. Or perhaps, just like Jack and Bobby, McCone felt the CIA had made a poor showing and risked to keep a low profile. The fact was that the CIA had begun reconstituting quite quickly after the Bay of Pigs.

24:21 something not evident to the Cuban agents left to flap in the wind as Castro's security services hunted them down. Records of the CIA director's morning staff meetings indicated the agency began planning new activities for Cuba within a week of the disaster. By May 19th, it had a proposal. The agency offered a revised plan with a price tag of $13 million. Author Schlesinger complained to Dick Goodwin.

24:51 the White House commissar of the secret war on Castro, that the CIA's notion of island-wide resistance under its own banner represented a focus on convenience rather than success. Because again, they have no idea. The same discrimination against the non-Castro left and favoritism for the Brigade 2506 guys that had characterized the Bay of Pigs remained pervasive.

25:22 It's a fallacy, Schlesinger warned, to suppose that clandestine activities can be carried out in a political vacuum. That August, Kennedy approved a plan. By September, the idea was that the CIA would act through Cuban groups with potential for effective political opposition and that covert activity would destroy important economic targets.

25:52 Kennedy's National Security Council formally adopted the goal of ousting Castro and considered means ranging from a naval blockade to an international Caribbean security force to strong economic sanctions, with the CIA one more arrow in Kennedy's quiver. The military dreamed up deception schemes that would establish a justification to invade Cuba and update its contingency plan.

26:19 which of course we know to be Operation Northwood. In mid-December 1961, John McCone had to explain to JFK when the press reported a new covert, Operation Snafu. The eight-man team intended to carry out Operation Well had suffered an engine failure and aborted their mission. Their boat had been rescued by the Coast Guard. A couple of the agents were picked up by a passing freighter.

26:48 leading to press attention when panicked operatives tried to hush up the episode. Eyes must have widened when McCone said that he could not establish who had given the order for the raid. What? What? Yeah, they're just off doing their own shit. And if you ask them any questions, they just shrug. We don't know. Plenty of CIA laundry would have to be washed at the special group. But the Kennedys kept...

27:22 CIA under a leash, at least they thought they did. Where Max Taylor told them to proceed on a low key, Bobby Kennedy insisted no time, money, or effort should be spared. He met with the managers of his Justice Department office to drive the point home. In January of 1962, he had begun regular sessions. The CIA maintained its Miami base in a colonial-style building on the campus of the University of Miami.

27:53 Huh. Bob Reynolds left temporarily, replaced by Robert Davis. The former Guatemalan chief stepped on toes like Jay Gleehoff's refugee reception center, a major source of recruits for the CIA exile teams. Next, the CIA dispatched Albert Cox.

28:22 best known for his role in acquiring and managing the Civil Air Transport Airline. Cox had been an OSS commando. Where? Oh, Italy and France. You know, the stay-behind places. He had run operations against mainland China from his perch in Hong Kong. He had managed the Civil Air Transport during the campaign of Benbenfu and had since worked.

28:57 at staff positions at the headquarter CIA. Cox had been the chief of the paramilitary branch of the CIA covert action staff, but though Cox could put pieces back together, some doubted his dedication to the initiative. He stood among those at the agency who had entertained hopes for Castro at the beginning and very early on had even suggested cooperating with them. About the time CIA moved to Langley,

29:27 William Harvey's task force boss learned that a colleague from Berlin was back in town. Harvey summoned Theodore Shackley and sent him to Miami to report on the base and what it needed to become a full CIA station. Shackley spent a few weeks looking over the situation and filed a report. Harvey then appointed him chief of operations under...

29:59 Shackley insinuates that Al Cox somehow was not serious. He records the man as absent when he arrived and suggests the chief turned up only intermittently. When Harvey came to review an operational schedule and Cox didn't show up, Shackley notes his reign ended. But it is equally likely that Harvey did not believe Cox.

30:25 had his heart in Mongoose, or that Cox thought this venture was ill-fated. Howard Hunt claims to have turned down an offer to lead the station, but there's no evidence of that. Hunt had been tarred by the Bay of Pigs fiasco and had no relationship with Harvey. On the other hand, Harvey had no problem asking Shackley, the former Berlin base chief, to do the job.

30:57 In May of 1962, Harvey's man took up the position. He had local knowledge. Ted Shackley came from Palm Beach and became known as the blonde ghost while playing football in high school. The star of Lansdale's operation had made his mark in the shadows of Washington and Berlin. The storied legend, 46-year-old Bill Harvey, held the distinction of having suspected Kim Philby.

31:30 as a Soviet mole, even though he had bamboozled Jim Angleton. He had then run the agency's Berlin base for seven years. Shackley had been his protege doing Polish operations out of Berlin. And in case you guys don't get the correlation, the mainstay of the Galen organization

32:03 While not directly located in Berlin, it was like the hotbed of the operation. So Shackley's presence there with the stay-behind units is very interesting. During this time, Harvey had witnessed the East Berlin riots, supervised the Berlin tunnel operation, and conducted a host of other spy missions.

32:31 Among those who transferred from the FBI to CIA in its first years, Harvey stood out as someone who could go up against the best Russian spies. He was a lawyer. But unlike the Ivy League at the top of the DO, his degree was from Indiana University. And I'm embarrassed to say that. Some thought Harvey inspired others.

33:00 Thought he was paranoid. A pedestrian drunk and womanizer. In early 1960, Richard Bissell ordered Harvey to create an ultra-secret unit for executive action, i.e. assassination. It was to be called ZR Rifle. It had only one field agent, the infamous Q.J. Wynn.

33:35 Depending on what literature you read, there were actually more than one because some of them are referred to as dash one, meaning there's multiple ones of them. So just take that with a grain of salt. Q.J. Nguyen would turn up in Congo later that year to help deal with Patrice Lumumba. There are some people that believe that Q.J.

34:11 when was Justin O'Donnell. There are, like we read in Major Gannis' book, he believed that it was Otto Skorzeny. So there's several opinions out there on who that is. Weird that we don't get that information from all of these declassified documents. To disguise Harvey's role, Richard Bissell located his unit within the CIA's in-house code-breaking staff.

34:40 for which the CIA officer supposedly qualified as a result of the Berlin Tunnel affair. A sloppy dresser, Harvey's nevertheless inspired awe among those who saw him sporting pistols in his pockets, even inside the CIA. Harvey had had guns in his desk on all of his assignments, which was a violation of agency regulations.

35:10 But he always had a good reason for it and nobody said anything about it. At one of Lansdale's sessions with JFK, the president had marveled that he seemed to be an American James Bond. Lansdale said the real James Bond was at CIA and his name was Bill Harvey. That's hilarious. Kennedy asked to meet Bill Harvey. As Lansdale told the story, the Secret Service had to relieve Harvey of his pistols.

35:47 Harvey himself denied ever carrying guns to the White House. Harvey had a hand in the assassination plots against Castro. And I argue he had a role in the assassination plot against JFK. Had Zolk, the reporter, is not the only one with whom JFK discussed assassinating Fidel Castro. Kennedy raised the same subject with,

36:18 Florida Senator George Smathers. In the guise of asking what he thought the reaction would be in Latin America, Smathers reacted much as had the reporter. Kennedy's response, almost identical, was that he completely agreed. But during the same period, members of the CIA Board of National Estimates were directed to write a paper on that subject. And in early October,

36:46 Acting on specific instructions from Maxwell Taylor, the executive secretary of the special group asked Taylor's assistant to develop a contingency plan. What was wanted was a plan against the contingency that Castro would in some way or another be removed. The special group official, CIA officer Thomas Parrott,

37:13 reported back that he had told Tracy Barnes that an up-to-date report be furnished as soon as possible on what was going on and what was being planned. Parrott then added, I did not tell Mr. Barnes about the presidential interest. Coincidentally or not, on November 15th, Bill Harvey, the ZR rifle chief, received orders to take over the mafia operation that had lain dormant

37:42 Since January, shortly thereafter, Harvey was also asked to head the CIA's in-house task force on Cuba. On the morning of January 18, 1962, a few hours before presenting Mongoose to the special group, Lansdale sent Bobby Kennedy a note, quote, my review does not include the sensitive work I have reported to you. I felt you preferred informing the president privately, unquote. Bill Harvey,

38:13 acquired more poison capsules from the CIA technical services. Bill Harvey, let's see, was acquiring them for mafia Johnny Roselli in April 1962, two months after getting a handover from Sheffield Edwards. Harvey and Edwards' deputy went to New York to see Roselli.

38:43 And Harvey alone went to Miami a couple of weeks later to hand over the poison. Cuban exile leader Tony Verona, the actor in the plot, asked for high-powered rifles and money and would be given those as well. But Harvey didn't think much about this operation, nor did Richard Helms, when he looked at it. Helms told Harvey to shut down the mafia hit squad. Harvey could halt the CIA support, but...

39:13 There was no way to stop Tony Verona. Sure, sure. Yeah, I'm sorry, we don't know how to do that. We just assassinate people all over the world, but we have no way at all of shutting down the mafia in the United States. At the Justice Department, Robert Kennedy presided over an FBI investigation of organized crime in the US through wiretaps, informers, and other means.

39:44 References to the mafia's CIA allegiance began to emerge. The FBI investigation terminated in the spring of 1962. One CIA security officers began objecting because their name kept popping up. Weird. As Attorney General, Robert Kennedy received a briefing on May 7th, the first time he was on record as learning about assassination plots.

40:12 Sheffield Edwards rejected Bobby's demand for a written report. That wasn't CIA's practice for sensitive operations. Yeah, we don't want to put that in writing because then maybe we would be held accountable at some point. Did the Kennedys know? Did John F. Kennedy order Castro's murder? Did Robert Kennedy have any involvement? Did both of them cover their tracks? In the 75, church committee.

40:43 It was decided it lacked evidence to conclude that either Eisenhower or Kennedy had ordered an assassination. But scattered in its reports and depositions of the Rockefeller Commission and other documents, the evidence and chronology are highly suggestive. Meanwhile, at Langley, Bill Harvey called his staff Task Force W.

41:13 Letters for William Walker, the 19th century American adventurer who had cut a swath across Central America. Huh, we may need to look him up. I wonder if he's related to the Walker family of George H. W. Bush. Miami Station went over the cover of Zenith Technical Enterprises.

41:44 or JM Wave by its agency designator. So JM Wave is the operation name, but it actually had a proprietary front company called Zenith Technical Enterprises. The walls were graced with phony charts purporting to display sales and production trends, even a certificate of contributions to a charity.

42:13 Theodore Shackley's JM Wave had 112 exiles on board from the beginning. In addition, it had 40 CIA officers and 39 more co-located at Opelika. At any given time, there was a dozen or more special forces training exile commandos. Bob Moore and later Gordon Campbell were his deputies.

42:47 David Morales led the paramilitary staff. Jack Corris, C-O-R-R-I-S, took charge of support. Seymour Bolton headed the political action staff. The station eventually grew larger than the one that had supported the Bay of Pigs. Soon, Shackley had a huge operation in an annual budget, annual, of $50 million.

43:16 a dozen buildings at Opelika alone, over 100 leased vehicles, several thousand Cuban agents, Cuban exiles, and more than 600 American employees. The Mongoose planners wanted real resources, the use of Air Force bombing ranges for demolition training.

43:44 Three U.S. Air Force transports and a pair of seaplanes for air missions. Several light planes for liaison work. A couple of Coast Guard cutters. Half a dozen PT boats. Even two large Navy vessels that were landing ship docks. And two submarines. The Navy and Air Force crews were to be sheep dipped in CIA practice.

44:13 a cover measure separating the individuals from any official government connection. And in this case, something that would have applied to hundreds of personnel. Clearly, Mongoose would have had the same deniability problems as the Bay of Pigs. Ya think? Instead, Project Mongoose proceeded in the most haphazard fashion. Paramilitary activities occurred more or less openly.

44:41 cloaked by an array of Miami Cuban groups conducting the operation from the U.S., compelled the CIA to create liaisons with federal, state, and local authorities, meaning they're all fucking corrupt. Absolutely ridiculous. These included the U.S. Customs Service and also involved numerous violations of law. You know, like they're not supposed to be here at all doing any of that shit.

45:11 It also violated things like the Neutrality Act, firearm possessions, because a lot of these Cuban exiles were crooks. But we're going to train them how to be terrorists. The frequent task for JM Wave staff became bailing out or otherwise rescuing when they ran afoul with the law. Oh, you got arrested for beating your wife? Here, here's a fire gun. Here's how to blow up shit. Not a problem.

45:43 Ted Shackley forged ahead. Beginning in March, he set up the first infiltration teams. Can you imagine? I just got to say this. Can you imagine being an honest cop in Miami at the time? And you're watching somebody get arrested for whatever. Robbing a local 7-Eleven, beating his wife, getting into a gunfight. They're all at this time.

46:14 I mean, they were into drug running by this time. So, and then arrest after arrest after arrest, these people are not convicted of anything and you start smelling a rat. Well, if you are too vocal about it, you're likely to get whacked yourself. This whole thing is just crazy. Ted Shackley forged ahead. Beginning in March, he set up the first infiltration teams.

46:47 of half a dozen Cubans, but Washington's priorities emphasized intelligence collections. So they wanted intelligence and he wants hit squads. The military worried about wasting time on preliminaries. Yeah, we don't need intel, just throw a bunch of shit at it. The CIA was worried about the...

47:19 The connection between them and what Washington was desiring. Lansdale was worried about putting collection ahead of action. Huh, worried about putting collection of intelligence before action. If you don't have collection of intelligence before you direct the actions, how do you know what the hell you're doing? The military worried about waste, let's see.

47:52 He tried to use the March 16th meeting of the special group and the president to alter the orders. Prompted by McComb, Lansdell commented that the priorities tied CIA's hands if sudden developments created opportunity. I'm sorry, that's hilarious. When the Joint Chiefs chairman pointed that plans for intervention were ready, President Kennedy shot them both down.

48:23 Later, Bill Harvey wrote Director McCone siding with those objecting to the tight control. Yeah, they didn't like being told no. Typically, on March 21st, Bobby told the group that the president stood ready to do whatever necessary. But a certain schizophrenic quality applied. The Kennedys restricted the operation to intelligence gathering.

48:53 Then continued to wonder why Castro still reigned. No, they weren't wondering why he was still in power. They wanted intelligence to be able to guide an actual attempted overthrow if they felt it was warranted. This just is so crystal clear that the CIA has no ability to actually gather intelligence. It's not their job. They don't want to do it.

49:24 And when asked to do that ahead of an actual operation of which should be built on the intelligence, they all sit around and piss and moan and groan. Holy crap. With intelligence gathering emphasized, few operatives in the field were in fact specializing in spying. The trainees were overwhelmingly paramilitary. So again, it's the when you have a hammer, everything's a nail.

49:56 We got all these people that like to shoot things and blow shit up. So let us just throw those people at this with no intelligence. Well, I need intelligence to know where to put those people to throw them into a fight if we expect to win the fight. Yeah, we don't have anybody that does that. You're a fucking intelligence agency. You don't have analysts to gather intelligence? It's literally mind-blowing.

50:27 The JM wave people reflected the trainees. Shackley's assistant, Thomas Klein, and the CIA men like Rudy Enders, George French, Robert Wall, Edwin Wilson. You guys all remember Edwin Wilson. Holy moly. And Harold Chipman were all paramilitary officers. French.

50:58 George French was a demolition expert and he loved to blow things up. Rip Robertson and Grayston Lynch were back, leading units comprising many teams of Cubans. A CIA contract officer's records that the word paramilitary declared verboten after the Bay of Pigs, they were considered the Special Operations Division. The Miami operating base set up under the

51:28 CIA station had not enough maritime capability, in their opinion. And in spite of the efforts of Gordon Campbell and Rudy Enders that tried to acquire it, training the commandos proved easier than finding boats to move them. Motorboats selling in Miami and throughout the Florida Keys made up the Corps.

51:57 The station's maritime branch had been described as huge, but the Special Forces Division remained the largest element. On March 12, 1962, Team Cobra infiltrated Pinar del Rio province, creating network active for some time. In June, AM Torrid went into Orient, but most of it was left behind and went in a few months.

52:27 The one remaining agent and a fresh radio man was set up in Santiago de Cuba on a spy mission. Mongoose's major achievements were few. The use of anti-Castro groups proved a double-edged sword. As paramilitary operations succeeded, many of them, beyond the exiles' capacity, cover became increasingly threadbare.

52:56 Cuban groups enjoyed a cache of their ties with the U.S., but in longer run, exposure of their CIA links made it harder to claim any political legitimacy, even more so inside of Cuba. Because again, these people in Cuba had lived through the CIA's presence and control during Batista. Any ties of these Cuban exiles

53:25 that was known to be CIA to people in Cuba would have been an immediate turnoff to them. The more immediate problem was that the CIA's relations with the exile groups precluded agency control in the covert war. Cubans striving to gain credibility with the CIA carried out their own attacks. Other raids the CIA canceled were made anyway by exiles who didn't want to hear no.

54:00 And the problem is, because we don't trust the CIA, we have no idea which ones those are. Because these CIA people have no problem telling them to go ahead and do something with basically plausible deniability to later on and say, no, they did that on their own. Reporter Tad Slog made a fresh appearance accompanying Cubans on a raid. His connections ran to the exiles.

54:33 not the CIA. Life magazine photographers went on another. And our Forrest Gump guy, businessman William Polly, financed at least one raid. Financed? He used his own yacht. Others by groups like the Second Naval Guerrilla or Alpha 66 supposedly had nothing to do with the CIA, but there's been lots written that that's not true.

55:07 But once the agency had furnished training and equipment, Castro could charge the CIA with the raids, independent or not. The covert action exacerbated Cold War tensions. Expansion of Soviet military aid to Cuba followed the Bay of Pigs, as did an attempt by Khrushchev to extend a nuclear umbrella over the Caribbean island. The Russian buildup that ended in the missile crisis had its roots in strategic considerations.

55:39 But Castro might not have accepted the Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba were it not for the consistent, continuous attacks of the Americans. And again, that's exactly where China found itself because we were doing the same damn thing to them. So, all right. That's a good place to stop for today. The CIA needs to be boarded up.

56:18 Plowed under. Covered with nuclear waste. Just saying. Just saying. I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. Okay. Enough of the fuckery. Enough of the fuckery for several lifetimes, I think. Yeah. I agree. Go ahead, all along. Okay, Colonel. So, this is a...

57:03 an area that's, you know, sometimes people say complex just to avoid a longer conversation. But when you talk about this, Cuba Ops between 61 and 63, there's a lot going on and there's different motives going on at the same time. There's people genuinely not knowing stuff and people pretending to not know stuff. So I just think it's really...

57:34 worth remembering how important it is to get different sources on this, possibly more so than in any other case in history, because of how much lying has gone on in this area. And the other thing is, you know, this guy, Sam Halperin, who was a right-hand man of Richard Helms, sometimes you get folks quoting him like,

58:06 and they don't really give, like, all his background. So I have found that to be a pattern, especially on the fake leftists, the left gatekeepers, who, again, in my opinion, are not really left because they're preserving a situation in which the working class gets, you know, billionaires, media, and almost no other opinion, right? But it's okay to disagree on that part, but it's more like the Sam Halpert guy is...

58:33 is a key guy who's been the source of a lot of disinformation, in my opinion. Okay. Do you want to elaborate on that? Yeah. As I said, particularly in propaganda, in sort of allegations made by Noam Chomsky and Alexander Coburn, and especially Cy Hirsch, there's a lot of threats running through it.

59:07 I think extreme over-reliance on Sam Halpern has, in my opinion, been used for a disinformation campaign. Again, nobody should accept my word for that because it does require reading a lot. For example, reading Fabian Escalante's book, reading the various books on the Cuban missile, the Cuban situation. But I think it just...

59:35 I think it's noteworthy that especially on the fake left that did so much to just to get left readers to not read on the up on the JFK stuff, because in my opinion, that's they were the dangerous audience. That was a real focal point on, you know, Sam Hopper and his God. He was really Richard Helms right hand man. But again, I'm not asking folks to believe me on that because you have to do a lot of readings for what it's worth.

1:00:04 Yeah, thank you. Renee, go ahead. Good afternoon, everyone. I don't see a purple pill today. Do you all see a purple pill on X? Because I was trying to share something with you all about a crypto crypto nim site. That's really cool. But I can't seem to do it.

1:00:26 I think this whole thing, I noticed there's not near the same amount of people in here. I think the whole thing's being attacked right now. There's definitely not a purple pill for me as well. And we were being attacked by bots over on Rumble even. Okay, Bridget, I forwarded you a direct message. It's maryferrell.org.

1:00:55 Mary, M-A-R-Y, F as in Frank, E-R-R-E-L-L.org. It's very cool for cryptonyms. And I typed in the QJ win, and there's a bunch of information on it. So it's a great, cool thing for everybody's reference. Yeah, there's several of those charts out there.

1:01:20 That's where I first learned, it wasn't on her website, but there's another website out there that had one. And that's when I first learned they had investment because it had all of their proprietary companies with a code name associated with them. And that's where I found out that they had investment firms, they had banks, they had all kinds of different proprietories. And when you search on those words,

1:01:48 on Yandex in parentheses, you can actually find stories that tell about, on most of them, because they've been mentioned in some literature somewhere about what their role was in some operation. It's quite fascinating, actually. Thanks for doing that, Renee.

1:02:12 Yeah, very cool. So you just went on Yandex and you put in the synonym, or excuse me, the cryptonym, and then it came up where there was a certain site that had a bunch of links to explore. There is not one that has links to them. I just found a list separate. It was not on her site that had like...

1:02:36 I don't know, 120 pages of them. And I was just going down through them to see which ones that I recognized when I came across the, some of them are just like, they're used for registered agent. And since so many of them were in Florida, I can find them on Sunbiz, some of them. And so I was just playing around with the list overall. Some of them were done for property management, real estate.

1:03:06 um it's actually fascinating some of them were used for particular um car dealers that they used all the time um and then like i said they had um some that were because the one i saw had it was like a spreadsheet and it had what they were used for on the right hand um column so wow amazing cool thank you yeah um ron go ahead hey how much how much of this is just

1:03:38 show to basically get the Soviets to bring the missiles in so that we can create scare tactics in Gladio style, scare the shit out of the people to duck and cover for, you know, how much of this is theater and how much of this is real? I don't know that we'll ever know. There's no way. I mean, I don't believe that that that

1:04:11 I don't even know how to say it. So is there a possibility that the CIA was doing all of these approved and non-approved raids into Cuba in order to provoke or push Cuba into the arms of the Soviet Union to ratchet up the possibility that they brought those missiles in to present?

1:04:42 So if you look at the whole context of that, the Soviet Union had been complaining for quite some period of time about us putting missiles in Turkey. And with the escalation in Cuba, the Soviet Union viewed that putting missiles on Cuba both placated

1:05:11 Castro's desire to be able to protect Cuba from the United States, but it also gave the Soviet Union the leverage to get the missiles out of Turkey, which is exactly what ended up happening. So there's all kinds of different political, military layers to all of this. And what's very interesting about this is

1:05:40 you can clearly see that the White House is supposed to be setting foreign policy. And everything downstream of that is supposed to line up with that foreign policy. You have the CIA with their own foreign policy because they don't work for the White House. They work for the International Syndicate. And they craft their own narratives, sometimes with the State Department.

1:06:07 Because sometimes the State Department acts with the president and sometimes they act with the CIA, depending on where their allegiance are. So the perception that Americans have of how our government works, it basically, at least since World War II that we've researched, doesn't work like that at all. And every one of these entities has their own agenda.

1:06:36 Especially when you get a person that people would consider a rogue element like JFK or Trump, where they're going to ignore what they know to be controlled nodes in the government, block them out and do whatever the hell they want. Then that makes them a target. And that's what's fascinating to me.

1:07:00 to simultaneously be watching it play out in real life and reading about it when you focus on JFK, because he was walking almost a parallel path back then that we see Trump walking today, which has absolutely nothing to do with the agenda of what people proverbially call the deep state.

1:07:27 So, Ron, there's no answer to that question. If you're not. I forgive me. I wasn't trying to put you on the spot. But I mean, you know, I see so much stuff that goes on. And, you know, when they say it's controlled opposition and both sides are controlled and it's banker wars and they fund both sides. To me, it just you know, I don't believe that every single.

1:07:53 aspect of everything is, there's not a checklist. What they do is they send all these people to all these elite schools, and they train them in how to think, and therefore by training them how to think, they can essentially predict the moves that they're going to make. And they only allow the people to get in there. And I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but it just feels like there's got to be the same thing. I'm wondering, is there a same type of apparatus in the Soviet Union that we

1:08:23 have never even really begun to look at, like a Yale and a Harvard and a London School of Economics, you know, a Soviet version of it? They definitely have their, I mean, during the Soviet Union, they had their own deep state operatives that, and just like we were watching in China right now, you have people in China that want to be, you know, more towards the

1:08:52 um non-communist elements and China's not been a communist country other than in a term you know more towards the um non-communist elements and China's not been a communist country other than in a term

1:09:11 You know, they have businesses that they obviously have government oversight of, but the government does not set production quotas. They don't own everything there. They have their oligarch class. And I just find it fascinating that the terminology that everybody uses to describe these government models no longer apply.

1:09:40 And that's the same thing with, we were talking about that off camera with a couple of other people. There's no longer standard terminology because as we've talked here often, if you call the Venezuelan a communist country, and many people have, again,

1:10:07 They're not a communist country. Could you say that they're quasi-socialist? Absolutely. But the sovereign wealth fund, which was supposedly going to be used to administer the oil profits under the whole concept that Chavez was setting up to build hospitals and the school system and stuff like that.

1:10:36 How is that any different than what we do in the United States, except for they extract the wealth out of us instead of the stuff in the ground, which they put EPA requirements on so they can't even get it. We're the slaves to the system here. They extort us and transfer our wealth as opposed to having, and that creates their basic sovereign wealth.

1:11:06 basically send that overseas to be laundered back to themselves. So again, when you start looking at the terminology that we have with this quote-unquote capitalist versus communist model, those things were thrown out the window a long time ago. I wholeheartedly agree.

1:11:33 And people forget that capitalism or the capitalist nomenclature is derived from Marx, just like the communists was. So, you know, it's I mean, it's it came the origin is the same. It's just, you know, I echo everything that you just said. It's.

1:11:52 And I think just the term communism was used specifically because it's just that boogeyman name that is going to scare the shit out of everybody. And to your point, I think the reason that they're extracting all the wealth out of us is because the whole point is they're trying to get rid of the Constitution, even though they don't even freaking use the Constitution anymore. I mean, they bypass it at every...

1:12:20 They bypass it at every turn, and they only bring it out when they want to sound like they're being a responsible representative in whatever fashion. So anyway, I didn't mean to ask such a loaded question. No, no, I love it. It's very thought-provoking. Yeah. Yeah, and that's what we need to do. We need to start thinking outside the box.

1:12:45 Not accepting the narrative that has been given to us and looking at other angles that could have been playing along at the same time. No, I love it. Renee, go ahead. Yeah. Speaking of capitalism, that was an interesting post. I don't know if everybody saw yesterday that CNN went into Cuba and had an interview with Raul Castro's grandson. And that was pretty interesting, too.

1:13:15 uh witness so it kind of is it was a a good sign how did you take that colonel um sure um what what is you know you can't lose the irony of it um the the thought that we've spent you know billions hundreds of billions of dollars um attacking castro and the potential of castro in a non um

1:13:43 agreed upon non-communist Cuba is, you just can't miss the irony of that. And the fact that that would, and I swear to God, if Trump does that, if that is the end result, can you not see every...

1:14:04 bastard that we talk about in the cia rolling around in their graves i mean that actually might be a physical phenomenon that may actually um uh generate an earthquake somewhere if there's a consolidated area in which they're buried in like you know around washington dc that could literally generate a seismic um registrable event that all of these years go by and you finally get rid of

1:14:32 you know, Raul and Fidel Castro, and then the non-communist, we introduced the non-communist, just using their words, the non-communist Cuba, and it has Castro as the president. I would pay money for that. Renee, go ahead. Yeah, to add to more Cuba interesting things, this morning you posted about,

1:15:04 Bolivia. Bolivia. Right. And that was a great post. Thanks. And it got me thinking of, you know, because NED and OTI and USAID and these organizations that kind of go into the Latin American countries, subversing and infiltrating on all different levels to kind of soft coup and change regime and stuff.

1:15:34 Interestingly enough, I was reading recently during the Obama administration, because he went in there saying, oh, yeah, we're going to open up Cuba. And Kerry was in there. And interestingly enough, Karen Bass.

1:15:56 I know we've heard about her being down in Cuba in the 70s when she was young and in that brigade and everything. But she was in Cuba under the Obama administration with NED, with Kerry. And also she went down there with Obama as well. And so then I was digging further. And most definitely.

1:16:23 OTI, excuse, is that it? OTI and USAID, they were all in there at that same time. So no wonder everyone's like, how dare Trump put the kibosh on all that progress and whatever, but it's because he had to kick out all that stuff. So OTI is the Office of Transition Initiative, which sat alongside the Office of Public Safety and all of the other nefarious parts of the USAID.

1:16:51 And I just wanted to clarify that for the audience. I made mention of the Office of Transition Initiatives several years ago when Alpha Warrior and I, towards the beginning of our series, because they played an integral part in alongside the Office of Public Safety and the Millennium Challenge, the MCC, they all nefariously appear.

1:17:20 in countries that we are destabilizing. So yeah, spot on, Renee. And the beauty of what Renee just said is that Trump is kind of kiboshing all of the places that these unhinged people in the United States like to try to pretend.

1:17:48 that they're involved in. And I have said, every time somebody brings up the Karen Bass trips to Cuba, Karen Bass does not go to Cuba without State Department approval. You can't get visas to go there. If they actually suspected her of subversive activity, they wouldn't let her back in the United States. So there's a... And...

1:18:15 In most cases, those people, whether they know it or not, are being debriefed on their way back for intelligence purposes. So just keep that in mind when you hear people talk about them visiting. They don't do it covertly. They know that these people are going there and they use that. The CIA infiltrates those types of activities with their own operatives.

1:18:43 Whether Karen Bass was one of their operatives, I have no way of knowing. But you always have to look at those things with a jaundiced eye because they're not allowing any of those activities in the United States, especially during the 60s and 70s, without the CIA targeting them and the FBI in order to figure out what they're doing. Ron, go ahead. Well.

1:19:11 They could also be allowing them to do that, knowing that they're going to cause some chaos. I mean, I think Karen Bass was directly related to M-19, which blew up the Capitol several times in the early 80s. But anyway, I digress. Put it this way, she's done a freaking hell of a job in Los Angeles, I'll tell you that. But I wanted to echo something you said earlier about JFK and Trump.

1:19:40 And I think, you know, even RFK was echoed that at CPAC last week when he said, you know, Trump is he said he believes that Trump is essentially following in his uncle's and father's footsteps and implementing a very similar agenda, you know, in the United States and for the world. And I, you know, when I saw that, I said, wow, that's interesting because I agree with that.

1:20:08 You know, in looking back at the presidents going back, studying the Gilded Age and all this other stuff, you know, I am no fan of the Republicans of Lincoln all the way up through the progressive era because they essentially, people have this idea that they were the Republicans of today. No, no, no, no, no. Those guys were basically like the Antifa or the Black Lives Matter. I mean, they were radical.

1:20:37 And, you know, we haven't had really a president outside of Trump and JFK, except, you know, maybe since, you know, before before the Civil War, my opinion. So, yeah, I basically.

1:20:54 We've made that point several times. The video that I did with Haquen and Tommy this morning kind of parallels that whole thought process. We got into that pretty deeply if you guys haven't gotten a chance to watch that. All right, guys, I'm going to log off here. I've got a six o'clock with CanCon and Ash again to do this horrible book.

1:21:23 I don't know if you guys saw the post that I made that Ralph Pizzolo is coming out with another book. Oh my God. And hopefully he has a different proofreader and editor on it than he did on this election book. But it does portend to be very interesting.

1:21:52 But anyway, I'm going to go ahead and jump off. Colonel, I sent you my book today on FedEx. You should get in a day or two. Okay. All right. I'm going to go ahead and jump off here, you guys. Thanks for being here. And I will see you tomorrow or in the chat on Badlands Book Club. You guys take care. Oh, I did want to.

1:22:18 Shout out here, Cognitive Nomad over there, linking YouTube videos in the chat on Rumble.

1:22:28 about the, I haven't watched the video. I don't know which video he put on there about the changes that occurred in 1913. And his comment, the progressives use the absence of representatives of the Christmas holiday to violate approval of changing the U.S. fiscal system. So Nomad's been very active over there in the chat. So thank you guys all for being both in the chat on Rumble and being in spaces today. So take care, everybody.

Entities here

CIA25 Fidel Castro25 Cuba25 Robert F. Kennedy24 John F. Kennedy23 Edward Lansdale22 William Harvey19 Operation Mongoose17 Operation Pluto17 United States16 National Security Council12 Ted Shackley11 Richard Goodwin9 Miami8 Soviet Union8 Maxwell D. Taylor8 Vietnam7 Tad Szulc7 Donald Trump6 Sam Halpern6 Karen Bass6 South Africa5 Albert Cox5 USAID5 China4 Washington, D.C.4 Allen Dulles4 West Berlin4 Richard Helms4 John McCone4 Richard M. Bissell Jr.4 Assassination plots against Fidel Castro3 Otto Skorzeny3 Office of Transition Initiatives3 Arthur Schlesinger Jr.3 Raul Castro3 U.S. Air Force2 Joint Chiefs of Staff2 Brigade 25062 Turkey2

Claims made here

Edward Lansdale appointed CIA host_asserted ▶ 2:46

“Brought with threat and opportunity. One moment up and the next moment down. Lansdale's promotion to Brigadier General, and I'm telling you, he's a sheep-dipped CIA agent working in the military, had …”

Edward Lansdale member_of CIA host_asserted ▶ 4:11

“But Lansdale's forte had always been propaganda, back to advertising before World War II. McNamara's shot proved insufficient to move him to dismiss Lansdale. Probably because he wasn't allowed becaus…”

Edward Lansdale carried_out_attack Philippines host_asserted ▶ 5:11

“This guy has done all kinds of nefarious shit. Killed people, trained terrorists. Yeah, yeah, it's Castro that did it. If there was one thing he could take back, that would be it. Not the vampire shit…”

Edward Lansdale trained Cuba host_asserted ▶ 5:11

John F. Kennedy appointed Richard Goodwin book_quoted ▶ 6:12

“The intent to get rid of Castro, the CIA strove to rebuild its covert capability against Cuba. The agency had a new proposal within a month of the failure. That summer, the president put aide Richard …”

CIA funded Miro Codona book_quoted ▶ 6:43

“complex nevertheless furnished Maxwell Taylor's committee a full readout on Cuba. According to the CIA, the anti-Castro political groups were becoming more realistic, though Miro Codona being subsidiz…”

CIA funded Radio Swan book_quoted ▶ 7:12

“Exile groups were providing recruits for paramilitary training, and the CIA had a 35-man commando unit that was part of the Nino Diaz element of the Cuban Brigade, ready for action any minute. Propaga…”

Edward Lansdale trained Brigade 2506 book_quoted ▶ 7:12

CIA carried_out_attack Cuba book_quoted ▶ 8:12

“retained contact with 26 more Cubans, mostly in the Havana area. The CIA carefully added that some anti-Castro Cubans were carrying out sabotage missions in Cuba, quote unquote, without the CIA's supp…”

John F. Kennedy ordered_assassination_of Fidel Castro book_quoted ▶ 13:14

“to make it impossible for the agency to construct another operation like the Bay of Pigs. He said something about setting up a special group on Cuba. Kennedy leaned forward in his chair, quote, what w…”

John F. Kennedy ordered_assassination_of Fidel Castro book_quoted ▶ 13:46

“Kennedy said he had only been testing him. He felt the same way, but he had been under terrible pressure to go ahead and do just that. The US, the president said, morally must not be a party to assass…”

Edward Lansdale targeted_for_regime_change Cuba book_quoted ▶ 14:48

“according to Lansdale. Lansdale would look over the situation vis-a-vis the U.S. and Cuba and see what ideas he had. Lansdale reported back within days. He estimated Castro's overthrow to be possible,…”

Maxwell D. Taylor member_of National Security Council book_quoted ▶ 15:18

“Robert McNamara and Bobby Kennedy sat in on the meeting. A Goodwin note on November 22nd indicates that the secret warrior had already put his thoughts on paper. When Maxwell Taylor convened the speci…”

Maxwell D. Taylor appointed Edward Lansdale book_quoted ▶ 15:18

Sam Halpern appointed CIA book_quoted ▶ 16:24

“He further noted that it was a task that really needed to be done, whatever they were aiming at doing in Vietnam. He talked about working on a certain special project. Sam Halperin, whom Lansdell had …”

Sam Halpern founded Operation Mongoose book_quoted ▶ 16:57

“for the new Cuba project. In an effort to obscure the project, Halpern looked at a list of code names that had been set aside for Thailand and selected Mongoose. Lansdale became the man of Project Mon…”

John F. Kennedy targeted_for_regime_change Cuba book_quoted ▶ 16:57

Edward Lansdale headed Operation Mongoose book_quoted ▶ 16:57

Dean Rusk member_of U.S. State Department book_quoted ▶ 17:26

“in order to help Cuba overthrow a communist regime. The Pentagon State Department and CIA were to designate representatives to help Lansdell, and each should have effective operational control over al…”

Robert F. Kennedy member_of Pentagon book_quoted ▶ 17:26

Robert F. Kennedy headed Operation Mongoose book_quoted ▶ 17:26

Edward Lansdale member_of National Security Council book_quoted ▶ 17:55

“gave Lansdale the role, even nicknaming him FM, I guess for Field Marshal. Almost daily, Lansdale informed Bobby in a quick handwritten note or memorandum or a conversation in the hall of progress. Be…”

United States Information Agency front_for CIA book_quoted ▶ 18:24

“on what it will take to win against a communist team, unquote. He anticipated problems. He said that there needed to be a spirit among the bureaucrats, but doggone it, we have to work with what we hav…”

Edward Lansdale appointed United States Information Agency book_quoted ▶ 18:24

Edward Lansdale member_of United States Information Agency book_quoted ▶ 18:55

“Lansdale's authority to give him orders. So he wanted to have the U.S. Information Agency working under Lansdale on this project. A week after Lansdale warned Bobby of his presentation to the special …”

Marshall Carter member_of CIA book_quoted ▶ 19:54

“and open revolt. One item anticipated defections of Castro's henchmen, another attacks on revolutionary cadre, including key leaders. The special group consensus viewed this as a good start, but wante…”

Edward Lansdale member_of Operation Mongoose book_quoted ▶ 21:23

“instructed the Secret Warriors to proceed in such a fashion as to permit disengagement. General Lansdell would continue as the project chief. The CIA's next day promised to ensure a steady flow of int…”

CIA funded Zogby Firm book_quoted ▶ 21:23

John F. Kennedy member_of Joint Chiefs of Staff book_quoted ▶ 21:53

“They wanted to identify countries where propaganda gains against Castro were possible and issues the CIA could use to that end. For all the work built to a meeting with Kennedy in the Oval Office on M…”

Robert F. Kennedy member_of Joint Chiefs of Staff book_quoted ▶ 21:53

Maxwell D. Taylor member_of Joint Chiefs of Staff book_quoted ▶ 21:53

Edward Lansdale member_of Joint Chiefs of Staff book_quoted ▶ 21:53

Dean Rusk member_of Joint Chiefs of Staff book_quoted ▶ 21:53

CIA carried_out_attack Cuba book_quoted ▶ 22:53

“knocking out Castro's patrol boats. JFK congratulated his warriors on what they had accomplished, complained about the danger the press might guess what was happening, and wondered if the U.S. could r…”

William Harvey member_of CIA book_quoted ▶ 23:21

“During the key mongoose briefing were CIA officers Richard Helms and William Harvey. Lansdell had asked John McCone to let them in, but the CIA director nixed the idea. McCone had made Richard Helms h…”

Richard Helms member_of CIA book_quoted ▶ 23:21

John McCone appointed Richard Helms book_quoted ▶ 23:21

John F. Kennedy appointed John McCone book_quoted ▶ 23:21

John McCone member_of CIA book_quoted ▶ 23:21

John F. Kennedy member_of National Security Council book_quoted ▶ 25:52

“Kennedy's National Security Council formally adopted the goal of ousting Castro and considered means ranging from a naval blockade to an international Caribbean security force to strong economic sanct…”

CIA carried_out_attack Cuba book_quoted ▶ 26:19

“which of course we know to be Operation Northwood. In mid-December 1961, John McCone had to explain to JFK when the press reported a new covert, Operation Snafu. The eight-man team intended to carry o…”

Robert F. Kennedy member_of U.S. Department of Justice book_quoted ▶ 27:22

“CIA under a leash, at least they thought they did. Where Max Taylor told them to proceed on a low key, Bobby Kennedy insisted no time, money, or effort should be spared. He met with the managers of hi…”

Robert F. Kennedy appointed Robert Dahl book_quoted ▶ 27:53

“Huh. Bob Reynolds left temporarily, replaced by Robert Davis. The former Guatemalan chief stepped on toes like Jay Gleehoff's refugee reception center, a major source of recruits for the CIA exile tea…”

CIA appointed Albert Cox book_quoted ▶ 27:53

Albert Cox headed Air America book_quoted ▶ 28:22

“best known for his role in acquiring and managing the Civil Air Transport Airline. Cox had been an OSS commando. Where? Oh, Italy and France. You know, the stay-behind places. He had run operations ag…”

Albert Cox member_of CIA book_quoted ▶ 28:57

“at staff positions at the headquarter CIA. Cox had been the chief of the paramilitary branch of the CIA covert action staff, but though Cox could put pieces back together, some doubted his dedication …”

CIA appointed Ted Shackley book_quoted ▶ 29:27

“William Harvey's task force boss learned that a colleague from Berlin was back in town. Harvey summoned Theodore Shackley and sent him to Miami to report on the base and what it needed to become a ful…”

William Harvey appointed Ted Shackley book_quoted ▶ 29:27

William Harvey spied_on Kim Philby book_quoted ▶ 30:57

“In May of 1962, Harvey's man took up the position. He had local knowledge. Ted Shackley came from Palm Beach and became known as the blonde ghost while playing football in high school. The star of Lan…”

Ted Shackley member_of CIA book_quoted ▶ 31:30

“as a Soviet mole, even though he had bamboozled Jim Angleton. He had then run the agency's Berlin base for seven years. Shackley had been his protege doing Polish operations out of Berlin. And in case…”

Ted Shackley member_of Gehlen Organization host_asserted ▶ 32:03

“While not directly located in Berlin, it was like the hotbed of the operation. So Shackley's presence there with the stay-behind units is very interesting. During this time, Harvey had witnessed the E…”

William Harvey member_of CIA book_quoted ▶ 32:31

“Among those who transferred from the FBI to CIA in its first years, Harvey stood out as someone who could go up against the best Russian spies. He was a lawyer. But unlike the Ivy League at the top of…”

William Harvey founded ZR Rifle book_quoted ▶ 33:00

“Thought he was paranoid. A pedestrian drunk and womanizer. In early 1960, Richard Bissell ordered Harvey to create an ultra-secret unit for executive action, i.e. assassination. It was to be called ZR…”

Richard M. Bissell Jr. ordered_assassination_of William Harvey book_quoted ▶ 33:00

Otto Skorzeny member_of ZR Rifle book_quoted ▶ 33:00

Otto Skorzeny carried_out_attack Patrice Lumumba book_quoted ▶ 33:35

“Depending on what literature you read, there were actually more than one because some of them are referred to as dash one, meaning there's multiple ones of them. So just take that with a grain of salt…”

William Harvey member_of CIA book_quoted ▶ 34:11

“when was Justin O'Donnell. There are, like we read in Major Gannis' book, he believed that it was Otto Skorzeny. So there's several opinions out there on who that is. Weird that we don't get that info…”

William Harvey carried_out_attack Assassination plots against Fidel Castro host_asserted ▶ 35:47

“Harvey himself denied ever carrying guns to the White House. Harvey had a hand in the assassination plots against Castro. And I argue he had a role in the assassination plot against JFK. Had Zolk, the…”

Maxwell D. Taylor ordered_assassination_of Fidel Castro book_quoted ▶ 36:46

“Acting on specific instructions from Maxwell Taylor, the executive secretary of the special group asked Taylor's assistant to develop a contingency plan. What was wanted was a plan against the conting…”

William Harvey appointed Operation Mongoose book_quoted ▶ 37:13

“reported back that he had told Tracy Barnes that an up-to-date report be furnished as soon as possible on what was going on and what was being planned. Parrott then added, I did not tell Mr. Barnes ab…”

William Harvey supplied_arms_to Johnny Roselli book_quoted ▶ 38:13

“acquired more poison capsules from the CIA technical services. Bill Harvey, let's see, was acquiring them for mafia Johnny Roselli in April 1962, two months after getting a handover from Sheffield Edw…”

Richard Helms removed_from_power Tony Verona book_quoted ▶ 38:43

“And Harvey alone went to Miami a couple of weeks later to hand over the poison. Cuban exile leader Tony Verona, the actor in the plot, asked for high-powered rifles and money and would be given those …”

Robert F. Kennedy spied_on CIA book_quoted ▶ 39:13

“There was no way to stop Tony Verona. Sure, sure. Yeah, I'm sorry, we don't know how to do that. We just assassinate people all over the world, but we have no way at all of shutting down the mafia in …”

John F. Kennedy ordered_assassination_of Fidel Castro speculative ▶ 40:12

“Sheffield Edwards rejected Bobby's demand for a written report. That wasn't CIA's practice for sensitive operations. Yeah, we don't want to put that in writing because then maybe we would be held acco…”

Church Committee covered_up Assassination plots against Fidel Castro book_quoted ▶ 40:43

“It was decided it lacked evidence to conclude that either Eisenhower or Kennedy had ordered an assassination. But scattered in its reports and depositions of the Rockefeller Commission and other docum…”

Zenith Technical Enterprises front_for Operation Mongoose book_quoted ▶ 41:44

“or JM Wave by its agency designator. So JM Wave is the operation name, but it actually had a proprietary front company called Zenith Technical Enterprises. The walls were graced with phony charts purp…”

Ted Shackley headed Operation Mongoose book_quoted ▶ 42:13

“Theodore Shackley's JM Wave had 112 exiles on board from the beginning. In addition, it had 40 CIA officers and 39 more co-located at Opelika. At any given time, there was a dozen or more special forc…”

CIA trained Cuba book_quoted ▶ 42:13

CIA funded Operation Mongoose book_quoted ▶ 42:47

“David Morales led the paramilitary staff. Jack Corris, C-O-R-R-I-S, took charge of support. Seymour Bolton headed the political action staff. The station eventually grew larger than the one that had s…”

William J. Polk financed_via Cuba book_quoted ▶ 54:33

“not the CIA. Life magazine photographers went on another. And our Forrest Gump guy, businessman William Polly, financed at least one raid. Financed? He used his own yacht. Others by groups like the Se…”

Soviet Union supplied_arms_to Cuba book_quoted ▶ 55:07

“But once the agency had furnished training and equipment, Castro could charge the CIA with the raids, independent or not. The covert action exacerbated Cold War tensions. Expansion of Soviet military …”

Sam Halpern member_of CIA host_asserted ▶ 57:34

“worth remembering how important it is to get different sources on this, possibly more so than in any other case in history, because of how much lying has gone on in this area. And the other thing is, …”

USAID targeted_for_regime_change Bolivia host_asserted ▶ 1:15:04

“Bolivia. Bolivia. Right. And that was a great post. Thanks. And it got me thinking of, you know, because NED and OTI and USAID and these organizations that kind of go into the Latin American countries…”

Office of Transition Initiatives targeted_for_regime_change Bolivia host_asserted ▶ 1:15:04

Office of Transition Initiatives targeted_for_regime_change Cuba host_asserted ▶ 1:16:23

“OTI, excuse, is that it? OTI and USAID, they were all in there at that same time. So no wonder everyone's like, how dare Trump put the kibosh on all that progress and whatever, but it's because he had…”

Office of Transition Initiatives member_of USAID host_asserted ▶ 1:16:23