From 698f6427f64ff78ff5075ab7249b3e7247bf95a8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "disinfo.zone" Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2026 22:39:08 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] vault backup: 2026-09-21 22:39:08 --- 00 - META/CHANGELOG.md | 122 +++++++++--------- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Armando Fernandez Larios.md | 3 + 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bruce Berckmans.md | 39 ++++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Justin Gleichauf.md | 35 +++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manuel Contreras.md | 25 ++-- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Mariana Callejas.md | 3 + 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Pedro Espinoza.md | 13 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ricardo Cañete.md | 35 +++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Tom Clines.md | 15 ++- 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Colby.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/James McCord.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John McCone.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Orlando Letelier.md | 4 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Raúl Iturriaga Neumann.md | 13 +- .../(H-M)/Ricardo Morales Navarrete.md | 13 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Rolando Mosqueira.md | 27 ++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ruth Ray Hunt.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sherman Kaminsky.md | 31 +++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Harvey.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Alvin Ross.md | 7 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Eugene Propper.md | 6 + 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Felipe Rivero.md | 39 ++++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Guillermo Novo.md | 17 ++- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Héctor Orozco.md | 28 ++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ignacio Novo.md | 35 +++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jose Dionisio Suarez.md | 13 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Lee Pennington.md | 11 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/René Riveros.md | 35 +++++ 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Scherrer.md | 2 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rolando Otero.md | 3 + 10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michael Townley.md | 21 ++- 10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Vernon Walters.md | 8 +- 10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/William Walter.md | 36 ++++++ .../GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/DINA.md | 2 +- .../USA/Domestic Contact Service.md | 3 + .../Cuban Nationalist Movement.md | 10 +- .../PRIVATE/Audio Intelligence Devices.md | 44 +++++++ .../PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md | 70 ++++++---- .../Operation Condor.md | 2 +- .../1958 C-118 shootdown over Azerbaijan.md | 35 +++++ 42 files changed, 669 insertions(+), 150 deletions(-) create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bruce Berckmans.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Justin Gleichauf.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ricardo Cañete.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Rolando Mosqueira.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sherman Kaminsky.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Felipe Rivero.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Héctor Orozco.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ignacio Novo.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/René Riveros.md create mode 100644 10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/William Walter.md create mode 100644 20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Audio Intelligence Devices.md create mode 100644 40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/1958 C-118 shootdown over Azerbaijan.md diff --git a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md index cc00ad23..5f95c232 100644 --- a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md +++ b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md @@ -1,4 +1,64 @@ -- 2026-09-21T2017 · [[_manifest]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[_manifest]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[Mariana Callejas]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[Eugene Propper]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[Rolando Otero]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[Pedro Espinoza]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[Manuel Contreras]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[Audio Intelligence Devices]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[Michael Townley]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[Héctor Orozco]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[René Riveros]] +- 2026-09-21T2139 · [[Rolando Mosqueira]] +- 2026-09-21T2134 · [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] +- 2026-09-21T2134 · [[Guillermo Novo]] +- 2026-09-21T2134 · [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete]] +- 2026-09-21T2134 · [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] +- 2026-09-21T2134 · [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann]] +- 2026-09-21T2134 · [[Armando Fernandez Larios]] +- 2026-09-21T2134 · [[Vernon Walters]] +- 2026-09-21T2134 · [[Rolando Mosqueira]] +- 2026-09-21T2134 · [[René Riveros]] +- 2026-09-21T2134 · [[Héctor Orozco]] +- 2026-09-21T2130 · [[_NOTES_Causa_Contreras_Espinoza_1991]] +- 2026-09-21T2129 · [[Domestic Contact Service]] +- 2026-09-21T2129 · [[Justin Gleichauf]] +- 2026-09-21T2129 · [[Wackenhut Corporation]] +- 2026-09-21T2129 · [[Bruce Berckmans]] +- 2026-09-21T2125 · [[Tom Clines]] +- 2026-09-21T2125 · [[Bruce Berckmans]] +- 2026-09-21T2122 · [[_NOTES_DCS_Wackenhut_full_read]] +- 2026-09-21T2122 · [[Audio Intelligence Devices]] +- 2026-09-21T2121 · [[_NOTES_Audio_Intelligence_Devices]] +- 2026-09-21T2111 · [[Alvin Ross]] +- 2026-09-21T2111 · [[Ignacio Novo]] +- 2026-09-21T2111 · [[Felipe Rivero]] +- 2026-09-21T2111 · [[Sherman Kaminsky]] +- 2026-09-21T2111 · [[Ricky Ross]] +- 2026-09-21T2111 · [[San Diego]] +- 2026-09-21T2106 · [[Robert Scherrer]] +- 2026-09-21T2105 · [[Ricardo Cañete]] +- 2026-09-21T2105 · [[Orlando Letelier]] +- 2026-09-21T2105 · [[Sherman Kaminsky]] +- 2026-09-21T2105 · [[Ricardo Cañete]] +- 2026-09-21T2105 · [[Justin Gleichauf]] +- 2026-09-21T2105 · [[Ignacio Novo]] +- 2026-09-21T2105 · [[Felipe Rivero]] +- 2026-09-21T2052 · [[_NOTES_Wackenhut_bundles_Letelier_filings]] +- 2026-09-21T2048 · [[William Walter]] +- 2026-09-21T2048 · [[Ruth Ray Hunt]] +- 2026-09-21T2048 · [[William Walter]] +- 2026-09-21T2046 · [[_NOTES_William_Walter]] +- 2026-09-21T2032 · [[Johnny Roselli]] +- 2026-09-21T2031 · [[William Harvey]] +- 2026-09-21T2031 · [[John McCone]] +- 2026-09-21T2031 · [[William Colby]] +- 2026-09-21T2031 · [[Lowell Jensen]] +- 2026-09-21T2031 · [[Operation Condor]] +- 2026-09-21T2031 · [[DINA]] +- 2026-09-21T2029 · [[Lee Pennington]] +- 2026-09-21T2028 · [[1958 C-118 shootdown over Azerbaijan]] +- 2026-09-21T2028 · [[1958 C-118 shootdown over Azerbaijan]] +- 2026-09-21T2027 · [[James McCord]] - 2026-09-21T2017 · [[William Bradford Huie]] - 2026-09-21T2016 · [[Raymond Rocca]] - 2026-09-21T2016 · [[Paul Gaynor]] @@ -7,9 +67,7 @@ - 2026-09-21T2016 · [[Paul Gaynor]] - 2026-09-21T2015 · [[Howard Hunt]] - 2026-09-21T2015 · [[Percy Foreman]] -- 2026-09-21T2015 · [[Lee Pennington]] - 2026-09-21T2015 · [[Arthur Hanes]] -- 2026-09-21T2015 · [[James McCord]] - 2026-09-21T2015 · [[Elizabeth Dunlevy]] - 2026-09-21T2015 · [[William Bradford Huie]] - 2026-09-21T2014 · [[_NOTES_Wackenhut_CIA_file]] @@ -19,82 +77,24 @@ - 2026-09-21T2010 · [[George de Mohrenschildt]] - 2026-09-21T2010 · [[David Popper]] - 2026-09-21T2010 · [[José Zara]] -- 2026-09-21T2010 · [[Operation Condor]] - 2026-09-21T2010 · [[William Luers]] - 2026-09-21T2010 · [[David Popper]] - 2026-09-21T2008 · [[Walter Sheridan]] - 2026-09-21T2008 · [[Cubana Flight 455 bombing]] -- 2026-09-21T2008 · [[Rolando Otero]] - 2026-09-21T2008 · [[CIA Office of Security]] - 2026-09-21T2008 · [[Stefano Delle Chiaie]] - 2026-09-21T2008 · [[Frank Castro]] -- 2026-09-21T2008 · [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete]] - 2026-09-21T2008 · [[Lawrence Houston]] - 2026-09-21T2008 · [[Garrison Group]] - 2026-09-21T2007 · [[_NOTES_Condor_round3]] -- 2026-09-21T1958 · [[Wackenhut Corporation]] - 2026-09-21T1957 · [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] - 2026-09-21T1954 · [[Edward Wegmann]] - 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Florida]] - 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Opa Locka]] - 2026-09-21T1950 · [[JM-WAVE]] - 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Bay of Pigs]] -- 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] -- 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Alvin Ross]] - 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Orlando Bosch]] - 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Luis D. Elizondo III]] - 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Danilo Blandon]] - 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Allen Dulles]] - 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Orlando García Vásquez]] -- 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] -- 2026-09-21T1950 · [[CORU]] -- 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Orlando García Vásquez]] -- 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Cubana Flight 455 bombing]] -- 2026-09-21T1950 · [[Rolando Otero]] -- 2026-09-21T1949 · [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete]] -- 2026-09-21T1949 · [[Virgilio Paz]] -- 2026-09-21T1949 · [[Guillermo Novo]] -- 2026-09-21T1949 · [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] -- 2026-09-21T1949 · [[Alvin Ross]] -- 2026-09-21T1949 · [[Frank Castro]] -- 2026-09-21T1949 · [[CORU]] -- 2026-09-21T1945 · [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann]] -- 2026-09-21T1945 · [[Enrique Arancibia Clavel]] -- 2026-09-21T1944 · [[Ordine Nuovo]] -- 2026-09-21T1944 · [[Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria]] -- 2026-09-21T1944 · [[SISMI]] -- 2026-09-21T1944 · [[Stefano Delle Chiaie]] -- 2026-09-21T1943 · [[William Luers]] -- 2026-09-21T1943 · [[Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria]] -- 2026-09-21T1943 · [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann]] -- 2026-09-21T1943 · [[Enrique Arancibia Clavel]] -- 2026-09-21T1934 · [[William J. Casey]] -- 2026-09-21T1921 · [[James O'Connell]] -- 2026-09-21T1920 · [[Sheffield Edwards]] -- 2026-09-21T1920 · [[Richard Kleindienst]] -- 2026-09-21T1920 · [[Howard Osborn]] -- 2026-09-21T1920 · [[Richard Kleindienst]] -- 2026-09-21T1920 · [[Sheffield Edwards]] -- 2026-09-21T1920 · [[James O'Connell]] -- 2026-09-21T1920 · [[Arthur Hanes]] -- 2026-09-21T1920 · [[Lee Pennington]] -- 2026-09-21T1920 · [[James McCord]] -- 2026-09-21T1918 · [[_NOTES_Cuban_exile_network]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Donald Regan]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Donald M. Kerr]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Robert Owen]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[William Colby]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Ronald Lister]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Richard V. Allen]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Johnny Roselli]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[John McCone]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[John LaMothe]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Caspar Weinberger]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Richard Helms]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[Lowell Jensen]] -- 2026-09-21T1910 · [[William Harvey]] -- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Iran]] -- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Newport Beach, California]] -- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Berlin]] -- 2026-09-21T1909 · [[Gulf of Tonkin Incident]] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Armando Fernandez Larios.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Armando Fernandez Larios.md index 4d500d6c..e843f134 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Armando Fernandez Larios.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Armando Fernandez Larios.md @@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ In October 1973 he was one of the squad of General [[Sergio Arellano Stark]] tha In July 1976 Fernández and [[Michael Townley]] went to [[Paraguay]] for false passports in the names Alejandro Romeral and Juan Williams, which Ambassador [[George Landau]] photographed. That September he went ahead of Townley to Washington to watch [[Orlando Letelier]], and met Townley at [[John F. Kennedy International Airport|Kennedy Airport]] on September 9. Letelier and [[Ronni Moffitt]] were killed on September 21. A Washington grand jury indicted Fernández in 1978 with [[Manuel Contreras]] and [[Pedro Espinoza]], and Chile refused to extradite them.[^2] +In his statement of March 22, 1978, Fernández said that in mid-July 1976, while at the National Intelligence School, he was ordered to DINA headquarters, where Espinoza "told me I would have to go to Paraguay to obtain Paraguayan passports," accompanied "by a gringo" who "would serve as my interpreter and support," and that "once in the US I had to speak with a CIA chief named [[Vernon Walters]], because he was going to give me a list of people sympathetic to Chile for purposes of presenting the Chilean position before the United Nations." On the flight the gringo "began a real interrogation about my status as a military officer, my rank, time in rank, and my chances of promotion." He recalled signing the Paraguayan passport as Alejandro Romeral himself. His sister, Rose Marie Fernández Larios de Guest, interviewed informally by Propper and Barcella, said his travelling companion in September 1976 had called herself Iliana Walker and that he left for Chile about September 9; the Chilean court asked whether she had been told that her brother "should seek asylum or leave the territory of the Republic of Chile, since he could suffer an accident or be violently eliminated."[^3] + ### The 1987 Arrangement In mid-January 1987 he met American officials secretly in [[Santiago]] for ten hours. He left for [[Brazil]] on January 22, was questioned there by officers of the [[Department of State|State Department]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], and was brought to the United States. Polygraph examinations found "consistent signs of deception" in his denial that he had known the purpose of the mission. A [[State Department]] memorandum of January 26 declared that "Fernandez is not a murderer" and that "the foreign policy benefits are substantial." On February 4 he pleaded guilty before Judge [[Barrington Parker]] to being an accessory after the fact. The government promised that it "would neither seek to deport [him] to Chile nor to cooperate in his extradition to Chile." Parker sentenced him on May 6 to up to seven years. In July the State Department's lawyer [[Michael Kozak]] wrote to the parole commission: "I personally have come to know Mr. Fernandez Larios and his character well." He was paroled on September 11, 1987, after five months.[^1][^2] @@ -38,3 +40,4 @@ In 2005 he applied without success for the visa given to foreign informants. On [^1]: Cabello v. Fernandez-Larios, 402 F.3d 1148 (11th Cir. 2005). [^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, and Sebastian Santana. "'Worst of the Worst': ICE and the Case of Chilean Intelligence Operative Armando Fernandez Larios," National Security Archive, July 10, 2026. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2026-07-10/worst-worst-ice-and-case-chilean-intelligence-operative-armando +[^3]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaraciones of Armando Fernández Larios, March 22 and April 12, 1978, and resolution before May 4, 1978; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, memorandum of Eugene M. Propper and E. Lawrence Barcella, June 5, 1978. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bruce Berckmans.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bruce Berckmans.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..58ec4ba3 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Bruce Berckmans.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - BruceBerckmans + - CIA + - Wackenhut + - DomesticContactService + - Jamaica + - TomClines +alias: + - Bruce Berckmans, Jr. + - Bruce E. Berckmans +summary: "Former CIA staff agent asked to resign in 1970 who became Wackenhut's director of international operations, threatened to sue the agency in June 1976, and instead offered himself as its contact." +location: "Coral Gables, Florida" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Bruce Berckmans, Jr., was "a former staff agent under the LPGLOBE program" of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], with the file number 201-309117, "who was asked to resign from the Agency in 1970." By 1976 he was director of international operations of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]], and the [[Domestic Contact Service]]'s index card on the company lists him under that title. He was later described, as a former Wackenhut vice president for international operations, as having seen a formal proposal from [[George R. Wackenhut]] to the agency offering the company's offices around the world as fronts.[^1][^2] + +### The Contact + +A process sheet apparently of 1974 records Berckmans as the Miami office's contact for a report on [[Algeria]] in which "FR Atlanta has reiterated interest."[^3] On June 22, 1976, the chief of the Caribbean branch of the Latin America Division, Lloyd C. Burnett, telephoned the service on the green line: Berckmans "recently telephoned an Agency staff officer with whom he is acquainted, indicating that he had information of interest and needed to talk with someone from the Agency." The assistant general counsel for the operations directorate, Anthony Goldin, "felt that a representative of the Agency should meet with" him, said "we would not be in violation of any Agency regulations or guidelines since [he] was the one requesting the meeting," and recommended "an overt employee (DCD) rather than the LA/Miami Station." Burnett added: "Upon learning of your two immediate intel reports on 22 June, [redacted] we felt there may be a connection between these reports and [his] information." The headquarters cable of the same day named [[Tom Clines]] as the officer through whom he had asked for contact, said the division "believe[d] that Berckmans may have information on political developments in [[Jamaica]]," and stated that it "has no operational interest in Berckmans nor his company."[^4] + +### The Grievance + +The Miami officer met him at the Wackenhut offices on the morning of June 24. "Berckmans began the interview by requesting that I read a multipage letter which he is thinking of sending to the Inspector General. It is a detailed statement of grievances stemming from his forced resignation and indicates that he is considering a suit against the Agency. He has in fact retained counsel, apparently another former Agency staffer." Berckmans, "who is fond of saying that he resigned from the Agency but not the United States, offered to serve as a fairly typical DCD contact with respect to the information he derives in his regular Wackenhut duties," having "many useful contacts especially in [[Latin America]] and soon in the [[Middle East]]." The officer told him that in view of the suit "I felt it inappropriate for us to maintain any systematic relationship at this time." The one item Berckmans offered concerned "the current Jamaican situation": through a subcontractor his company was considering a contract "which would provide custodial services for Revere bauxite holdings which the company is apparently planning to withdraw."[^5] + +Late on June 28 he telephoned the officer at home "to tell me that after consultations with his attorney he has decided not to sue the Agency." Goldin "foresees no problem in acceding to Berckmans' request for another meeting. In fact, it may help defuse the situation." On July 2 Berckmans repeated that "he will not sue the Agency or any staffers or former staffers," attributing the decision "to what he called the inordinate costs in both time and money," and "volunteered his feeling that the Agency was being kicked from every side and he did not wish to add to the problem." He was "considerably more composed and relaxed," and renewed "what appears now to be a sincere offer to act on a voluntary basis and in a nonoperational capacity as a normal DCD contact." The officer wrote: "There is no doubt that Berckmans is involved in various foreign projects which could be of informational interest to us." Copies went to the inspector general, the special assistant to the deputy director for operations, and the Caribbean branch. An undated paper in the file, "volunteered for possible operational consideration on a very preliminary and noncommittal basis," describes a prospective contract for a national system of industrial security in an unnamed country, with a burn and trauma hospital, a fire department, a security control center, a training institute, an emergency communications system, and modular housing. A review log entry records Wackenhut "deleted from OSG & DDO files"; on September 9 Burnett and Goldin "posed no objection" to ending contact, and the Miami office formally closed the case on June 30, 1977.[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Collection Division, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corp.," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10017, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10017.pdf, pp. 17-18, memorandum of Lloyd C. Burnett, "Contact with Former Staff Agent," June 23, 1976; Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, pp. 13-14. +[^2]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. TrineDay, 2010, as already cited on the Wackenhut Corporation page; the title there is vice president. +[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, p. 31. +[^4]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Collection Division, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corp.," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10017, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10017.pdf, pp. 17-18; Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, p. 14, cable DCD/Headquarters 15693, June 22, 1976. +[^5]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, p. 18, cable DCD/Miami 13377, June 24, 1976. +[^6]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, p. 17; Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Collection Division, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corp.," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10017, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10017.pdf, pp. 2, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Justin Gleichauf.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Justin Gleichauf.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a7a3a5f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Justin Gleichauf.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - JustinGleichauf + - CIA + - DomesticContactService + - Wackenhut + - Miami + - Dallas +alias: + - Justin F. Gleichauf + - J. F. Gleichauf +summary: "Chief of the CIA Domestic Contact Service field offices in Miami and Dallas who ran the Wackenhut Corporation as a reporting source in 1970 and by 1974 worked for the company himself." +location: "Coral Gables, Florida" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Justin F. Gleichauf was an officer of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s [[Domestic Contact Service]], the overt component that interviewed American businessmen and travellers for foreign intelligence. Agency records describe him as "the former Chief of the [[Miami]] and [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]] Field Offices."[^1] In an article the agency published in 2001 he described the Miami office's debriefing of Cuban refugees before the missile crisis of 1962.[^2] + +### The Wackenhut File + +As chief of the Miami office Gleichauf signed the memorandum of December 13, 1967, recording the office's first contact with Wackenhut Services, Inc., made by Gus C. Guerrero, and the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] of [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]] became a standing contact, organization number A154531, whose reports on [[Chile]], [[Panama]], [[Colombia]], and [[Ecuador]] he signed as field office chief through the end of 1970; from 1971 the sheets carry B. E. Mainwaring as chief. On September 21, 1970, [[George R. Wackenhut]] invited him to a demonstration of a tracking transmitter "less than the size of a half pack of cigarettes" made by the subsidiary Electro-Finders, which he reported to the [[Technical Services Division]]; in May 1972, as chief of the Dallas office, he forwarded the company's brochure for the system from "an old friend" there. A process sheet of April 8, 1970, covering "Presidential Elections/Student Riots at National University/Maintenance Problems with Soviet Supplied Trolley Cars and Jeeps/Hire Soviet Helicopter to be Used During Construction of Pipeline/Recent Insurgency (Colombia)," is signed by J. F. Hennessey with Gleichauf as chief. Another, "Status of Lorenzo D. ('Wimpy') Barry ([[Dominican Republic]])," dated November 13, 1970, gives Gleichauf as both case officer and field office chief, with a copy "passed to JMCOSBA locally."[^3] + +### Wackenhut + +By 1974 Gleichauf was employed at the company's headquarters, 3280 Ponce de Leon Boulevard. A Domestic Contact Service report of March 19, 1974, numbered OO-A(S)-322 06270-74, on "Possible Identification and Surveillance References of 'CIA Agents'" by the security authorities of a country whose name is redacted, came from him. The case officer, E. B. Ames, wrote: "Mr. Gleichauf, who as you know is the former Chief of the Miami and Dallas Field Offices, currently is employed with a company with extensive contractual arrangements overseas. He learned the information contained in this report quite by chance from a co-worker who returned from [redacted] last week." The report said the authorities "have already identified six 'CIA agents.'" The service's Miami office closed its Wackenhut case on June 30, 1977.[^1][^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Collection Division, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corp.," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10017, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10017.pdf, pp. 4, 6-7. +[^2]: Gleichauf, Justin F. "Red Sky in the Morning: The Cuban Missile Crisis," *Studies in Intelligence,* 2001. Cited from memory, not read for this page. +[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, record 104-10291-10016, pp. 24, 29, 30; Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, pp. 35, 45, 55. +[^4]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Collection Division, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corp.," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10017, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10017.pdf, p. 3. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manuel Contreras.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manuel Contreras.md index 4a1c16cb..b7119b1a 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manuel Contreras.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Manuel Contreras.md @@ -22,19 +22,23 @@ Manuel Contreras Sepulveda was the army officer who organized and commanded [[DI From September 1966 to September 1967 Contreras attended the [[United States Army]] career officers school at [[Fort Belvoir]], [[Virginia]]. In the middle 1960s he taught strategy and intelligence at the Chilean war college, where [[Augusto Pinochet]] was deputy commandant. On November 12, 1973, he presented the intelligence chiefs of the four services with his plan for a national directorate. The American defense attaché reported within weeks of its formation that DINA "is directly subordinate to Junta President Pinochet," and the air attaché learned that Contreras briefed Pinochet every morning at half past seven: "The president issues instructions on DINA; is aware of its activities; and in fact heads it." Its foreign branch, called "Luis Gutierrez" in its communications, was run by Major [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann]] under Contreras's deputy, [[Pedro Espinoza]].[^2] +### The 1978 Statement + +In a sworn statement of March 22, 1978, in the file of the ad hoc military prosecutor [[Héctor Orozco]], Contreras said that "around June or early July 1976, CIA Chile informed me that the Deputy Director of the CIA, General [[Vernon Walters]], needed a contact in the US to give us a list of lobbyists and people who could cooperate with Chile before the US Senate and also for the UN's forthcoming session that year," Captains [[René Riveros]] and [[Rolando Mosqueira]] testified that he sent them to Washington in August for the purpose. Of [[Michael Townley]]: "I know this individual as Andrés Wilson and only recently learned from the press that he had this other name. Wilson was a good informant of my Service and acted as an informant to one of my Officers." Walters told the FBI in June that his only contact with Contreras had been the 1975 visit and that the claim was "ludicrous on its face." In February 1979 Contreras and Espinoza, through [[Sergio Miranda Carrington]], asked the Supreme Court for access to the file in the extradition proceedings.[^3] + ### The CIA Relationship -The agency told Contreras at the outset that it would not support activities of his service "which might be construed as 'internal political repression,'" and urged him to follow a Chilean defense ministry circular of January 17, 1974, on the treatment of prisoners under the [[Geneva Conventions]]. "By April 1975," its report states, "intelligence reporting showed that Contreras was the principal obstacle to a reasonable human rights policy within the Junta, but an interagency committee directed the CIA to continue its relationship with Contreras." The American ambassador in [[Santiago]] urged the deputy director of central intelligence, General [[Vernon Walters]], to receive him in Washington "in the interest of maintaining good relations with Pinochet." The meeting took place in August 1975 with interagency approval.[^1] +The agency told Contreras at the outset that it would not support activities of his service "which might be construed as 'internal political repression,'" and urged him to follow a Chilean defense ministry circular of January 17, 1974, on the treatment of prisoners under the [[Geneva Conventions]]. "By April 1975," its report states, "intelligence reporting showed that Contreras was the principal obstacle to a reasonable human rights policy within the Junta, but an interagency committee directed the CIA to continue its relationship with Contreras." The American ambassador in [[Santiago]] urged the deputy director of central intelligence, General Vernon Walters, to receive him in Washington "in the interest of maintaining good relations with Pinochet." The meeting took place in August 1975 with interagency approval.[^1] "In May and June 1975," the report continues, "elements within the CIA recommended establishing a paid relationship with Contreras to obtain intelligence based on his unique position and access to Pinochet. This proposal was overruled, citing the US Government policy on clandestine relations with the head of an intelligence service notorious for human rights abuses. However, given miscommunications in the timing of this exchange, a one-time payment was given to Contreras."[^1] General Vernon Walters came to Santiago to confer with Pinochet on the agency's help, and Pinochet told him he had "hand-picked Contreras." The CIA gave Contreras a long lunch with Walters and officers of the Western Hemisphere Division. The State Department's Chile desk noted that "Colonel Manuel Contreras considers himself a bosom buddy of the general." On Saturday, July 5, 1975, the two met secretly at a CIA office at [[Fort Myer]], where Contreras asked how Chile might get American arms despite the congressional ban: "Wonder if there is any way they could get it indirectly via [[Spain]], [[Brazil]], or the Republic of Korea." They lunched again at Langley on August 25. On November 4, 1977, Pinochet removed him, with promotion to brigadier general, in favor of General [[Odlanier Mena]]. A CIA source said he was "completely shocked," like "a cuckolded husband who is the last to realize his wife was being unfaithful." In 1978 the agency reported that he planned to defend himself by claiming "that Michael Townley and the Cuban exiles implicated were all under CIA control, and that the Agency ordered Letelier's assassination to throw blame on Pinochet," and to implicate Ambassador [[George Landau]]. "While this defense is of course fabricated completely of whole cloth, it could cause us embarrassment."[^2] -Contreras gave his own account of the beginning. "In the year 1974, in the month of March, the president sent me to the United States. I met with Vernon Walters about how to do national intelligence. So the CIA promised to help us," he said, and "he sent us eight high-level CIA agents to organize courses or seminars here in Chile, which lasted until the middle of August of 1974." He named [[Stewart Burton]], the station chief, as the officer he dealt with. The disappeared numbered seventeen in June of that year, forty-six in July, forty-nine in August, and forty in September. On May 20, 1974, the agency ordered a "covert name trace" on him, a step that precedes a close and often paid relationship with a source. The agency's statement was that it "made clear to Contreras that no training or support which could aid internal repression could be given," but did "brief Contreras on the fundamentals of intelligence organization and management." A former DINA agent said: "I thought Contreras was some kind of genius to have built up such a large, complicated apparatus in such a short time."[^3] +Contreras gave his own account of the beginning. "In the year 1974, in the month of March, the president sent me to the United States. I met with Vernon Walters about how to do national intelligence. So the CIA promised to help us," he said, and "he sent us eight high-level CIA agents to organize courses or seminars here in Chile, which lasted until the middle of August of 1974." He named [[Stewart Burton]], the station chief, as the officer he dealt with. The disappeared numbered seventeen in June of that year, forty-six in July, forty-nine in August, and forty in September. On May 20, 1974, the agency ordered a "covert name trace" on him, a step that precedes a close and often paid relationship with a source. The agency's statement was that it "made clear to Contreras that no training or support which could aid internal repression could be given," but did "brief Contreras on the fundamentals of intelligence organization and management." A former DINA agent said: "I thought Contreras was some kind of genius to have built up such a large, complicated apparatus in such a short time."[^4] -Of the 1975 visit he told a Chilean reporter: "Vernon Walters proposed that we take on a lobby of North American senators, to get them to stop harassing Chile in the international arena," five senators of both parties "who would be paid $2 million a year so that they will act in favor of Chile." The memorandum of the August 25 conversation says only that Walters "took the opportunity to express concern over the human rights situation in Chile." Contreras said he had refused an offer from Walters to station CIA officers inside DINA. He testified in court that [[Robert Scherrer]] of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] was in "permanent contact" with Condor's representative in [[Buenos Aires]] "and received the information that he asked for." Scherrer said he learned that the CIA had provided DINA with the computer systems and training he presumed were used for the Condor data bank.[^3] +Of the 1975 visit he told a Chilean reporter: "Vernon Walters proposed that we take on a lobby of North American senators, to get them to stop harassing Chile in the international arena," five senators of both parties "who would be paid $2 million a year so that they will act in favor of Chile." The memorandum of the August 25 conversation says only that Walters "took the opportunity to express concern over the human rights situation in Chile." Contreras said he had refused an offer from Walters to station CIA officers inside DINA. He testified in court that [[Robert Scherrer]] of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] was in "permanent contact" with Condor's representative in [[Buenos Aires]] "and received the information that he asked for." Scherrer said he learned that the CIA had provided DINA with the computer systems and training he presumed were used for the Condor data bank.[^4] -An American intelligence officer described him: "Contreras is mild-mannered and polite. When you talk to him he seems gentle and disarming." As a young officer he was known as a beato. His military specialty was engineering.[^3] +An American intelligence officer described him: "Contreras is mild-mannered and polite. When you talk to him he seems gentle and disarming." As a young officer he was known as a beato. His military specialty was engineering.[^4] ### Condor @@ -42,15 +46,16 @@ Within a year of the coup the agency knew of cooperation among the security serv ### Letelier -In the summer of 1976 two DINA officers obtained American visas in [[Asuncion]] on Paraguayan passports, telling Ambassador [[George W. Landau]] that their trip was known to the CIA. Landau sent photographs of the passports to Washington. Walters replied that the agency had no connection with the men. The bomb that killed Letelier and [[Ronni Moffitt]] was placed by the DINA agent [[Michael Townley]], an American.[^4][^5] +In the summer of 1976 two DINA officers obtained American visas in [[Asuncion]] on Paraguayan passports, telling Ambassador [[George W. Landau]] that their trip was known to the CIA. Landau sent photographs of the passports to Washington. Walters replied that the agency had no connection with the men. The bomb that killed Letelier and [[Ronni Moffitt]] was placed by the DINA agent Michael Townley, an American.[^5][^6] -The agency's first report naming Contreras in connection with the murder is dated October 6, 1976. "During 1977, CIA met with Contreras about half a dozen times; three of those contacts were to request information on the Letelier assassination. On 3 November 1977, Contreras was transferred to a function unrelated to intelligence so CIA severed all contact with him." Chile refused to extradite him. A [[State Department]] cable of January 22, 1987, quotes him as saying he "authorized the assassination of Letelier on orders from Pinochet." The CIA's assessment of May 1, 1987, concluded that Augusto Pinochet personally ordered the killing and afterward considered having Contreras eliminated to keep him silent.[^1][^6] +The agency's first report naming Contreras in connection with the murder is dated October 6, 1976. "During 1977, CIA met with Contreras about half a dozen times; three of those contacts were to request information on the Letelier assassination. On 3 November 1977, Contreras was transferred to a function unrelated to intelligence so CIA severed all contact with him." Chile refused to extradite him. A [[State Department]] cable of January 22, 1987, quotes him as saying he "authorized the assassination of Letelier on orders from Pinochet." The CIA's assessment of May 1, 1987, concluded that Augusto Pinochet personally ordered the killing and afterward considered having Contreras eliminated to keep him silent.[^1][^7] ### Footnotes [^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, "CIA Activities in Chile," report to Congress (Hinchey Report), September 18, 2000. [^2]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 158-167, 172, 213-215, 401-402. -[^3]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 63-70, 103-104, 121-124. -[^4]: Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, "'The First Terrorist Attack in the U.S.': The Letelier-Moffitt Assassinations," oral history of Ambassador George W. Landau. https://adst.org/2014/02/the-first-terrorist-attack-in-the-u-s-the-letelier-moffitt-assassinations/ -[^5]: "Interview with Dinges and Landau," Radio TV Reports transcript, June 30, 1980, CIA Reading Room document 05535911. -[^6]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "CIA: 'Pinochet personally ordered' Letelier bombing," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 560, September 23, 2016; "The Pinochet File: U.S. Declassifies Missing Documents in the Letelier-Moffitt Case," Electronic Briefing Book No. 532, October 8, 2015. +[^3]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, March 22, 1978; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, FBI report of the interview of Vernon Walters, June 14, 1978, and pleading of February 19, 1979. +[^4]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 63-70, 103-104, 121-124. +[^5]: Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, "'The First Terrorist Attack in the U.S.': The Letelier-Moffitt Assassinations," oral history of Ambassador George W. Landau. https://adst.org/2014/02/the-first-terrorist-attack-in-the-u-s-the-letelier-moffitt-assassinations/ +[^6]: "Interview with Dinges and Landau," Radio TV Reports transcript, June 30, 1980, CIA Reading Room document 05535911. +[^7]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "CIA: 'Pinochet personally ordered' Letelier bombing," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 560, September 23, 2016; "The Pinochet File: U.S. Declassifies Missing Documents in the Letelier-Moffitt Case," Electronic Briefing Book No. 532, October 8, 2015. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Mariana Callejas.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Mariana Callejas.md index a10d4df9..b744aa29 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Mariana Callejas.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Mariana Callejas.md @@ -24,8 +24,11 @@ At seventeen, in 1950, she left school in secret after her favorite teachers, Je In 1974 Colonel [[Pedro Espinoza]] of [[DINA]] "hired both Michael Townley and Ines Callejas for a combined salary of about $600 a month." She went with Townley to [[Buenos Aires]] that September to kill General [[Carlos Prats]]. Her attempt to fire the bomb failed, and a second attempt killed Prats and his wife. In 1975 she, Townley, and [[Virgilio Paz]] "set off on a nine-month, eight-country DINA mission to terrorize targeted Chilean exiles and the enemies of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]]," in which she "participated as an equal member of the DINA team." They prepared six detonators for an attempt in [[Mexico]], stopped at [[Munich]], "where DINA had cultivated contacts with former Nazi sympathizers associated with [[Christian Social Union]] leader [[Franz Josef Strauss]]," and in [[Rome]] engaged the Italian fascists who shot [[Bernardo Leighton]]. In September 1976, from [[National Airport]] in Washington, Townley telephoned her "a coded message to pass on to DINA: the bomb was in place."[^1][^3] +Callejas told the military prosecutor on April 4, 1978, that her landlady, hearing of the couple's part in the clandestine radio at Concepción, had introduced her to an army officer who "turned out to be then-Lt. Col. Pedro Espinoza," and that after talking about Radio Liberación "we concluded we could both be useful to the organization Lt. Col. Espinoza served." She knew Andrés Wilson as her husband's cover name and Kenneth Enyart as another he had used. She had seen in his office a document "bearing stamps and a signature but otherwise blank," explained to her as being "for purchasing electronic equipment whose sale in the US was restricted to governments and their security departments," and believed she had helped draft its text; "the signature was already on the document." The prosecutor ordered a handwriting sample from her against a document in the file on April 10, 1978, and a comparison again on March 9, 1979.[^4] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 21, 95-96, 106, 130, 152-157. [^2]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 483-486. [^3]: National Security Archive, "The Pinochet Regime at 50: The Assassination of General Carlos Prats and Sofia Cuthbert," October 1, 2024. +[^4]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Mariana Callejas Honores, April 4, 1978, and resolution of April 10, 1978; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, resolution of March 9, 1979. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Pedro Espinoza.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Pedro Espinoza.md index 9b12e754..ebebd35c 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Pedro Espinoza.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Pedro Espinoza.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ tags: - OperationCondor alias: - Pedro Espinoza Bravo -summary: "Chilean army officer, operations director of DINA, indicted in Washington for the Letelier murder in 1978, named by Michael Townley as the man who asked for the killing of General Prats, and convicted in the Horman case." +summary: "Operations director of DINA, indicted in Washington for the Letelier murder in 1978, named by Michael Townley as the man who asked for the killing of General Prats, and convicted in the Horman case." location: "Santiago, Chile" created: 2026-09-21 updated: 2026-09-21 @@ -21,12 +21,15 @@ Pedro Espinoza Bravo was a [[Chile|Chilean]] army colonel and director of operat [[Michael Townley]] testified that Espinoza came to him several times in July and August 1974 about "doing something" about General [[Carlos Prats]], the former army commander living in [[Buenos Aires]], who Espinoza feared might lead a government in exile. Townley called it "a patriotic request." Prats and his wife were killed by Townley's bomb on September 30, 1974. The Chilean judge [[Alejandro Solís]] later indicted Contreras, Espinoza, and three other DINA officers for the killing.[^1] -A federal grand jury in Washington indicted Contreras, Espinoza, and [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]] in 1978 for the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]]. Chile put the three under military detention and refused to extradite them, and a military court dismissed the domestic case. On an appeal by Letelier's sister the [[Supreme Court of Chile|Chilean Supreme Court]] ruled in January 1982 that the dismissal "was temporary and not definitive." Contreras was sentenced to seven years for the murder in 1995.[^2] +In a sworn statement of April 24, 1978, in the file of the military prosecutor [[Héctor Orozco]], Espinoza said that in 1976 "the Director of DINA ordered me to designate an agent to carry out a mission abroad, who in any case had to be accompanied by another person fully fluent in English. For this I chose then-Lieutenant Armando Fernández Larios. The name of the second man was suggested by then-Major [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann|Iturriaga]], under the name Andrés Wilson. This Andrés Wilson turned out to be the same person I had known since November or December 1974 as Michael Townley. The mission consisted of traveling to the USA to meet with Gen. [[Vernon Walters]], then head of the CIA, who would hand over information related to people who could disinterestedly help the Government and our country's cause." When the second pair of officers could not find Walters in August they telephoned Espinoza, who authorized their return. On April 10 the prosecutor had ordered a confrontation between Townley and Espinoza "as to who assigned Townley each of the operations he carried out abroad."[^2] -A man who sought asylum in 1987 told American officials that [[Charles Horman]] had been put to death in the [[Estadio Nacional (Chile)|National Stadium]] in September 1973 on Espinoza's orders. A Chilean court sentenced Espinoza to seven years in the Horman and [[Frank Teruggi]] case in 2015, and the Supreme Court raised the term to fifteen years in 2016.[^3] +A federal grand jury in Washington indicted Contreras, Espinoza, and [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]] in 1978 for the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]]. Chile put the three under military detention and refused to extradite them, and a military court dismissed the domestic case. On an appeal by Letelier's sister the [[Supreme Court of Chile|Chilean Supreme Court]] ruled in January 1982 that the dismissal "was temporary and not definitive." Contreras was sentenced to seven years for the murder in 1995.[^3] + +A man who sought asylum in 1987 told American officials that [[Charles Horman]] had been put to death in the [[Estadio Nacional (Chile)|National Stadium]] in September 1973 on Espinoza's orders. A Chilean court sentenced Espinoza to seven years in the Horman and [[Frank Teruggi]] case in 2015, and the Supreme Court raised the term to fifteen years in 2016.[^4] ### Footnotes [^1]: National Security Archive, "The Pinochet Regime at 50: The Assassination of General Carlos Prats and Sofia Cuthbert," October 1, 2024. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-10-01/pinochet-regime-50-assassination-general-carlos-prats-and-sofia -[^2]: "Letelier Case Reversal," *The Washington Post,* January 16, 1982, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680022-8; "Ex-Chile spy chief dies while serving 500-year sentence," Al Jazeera, August 8, 2015. -[^3]: National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 33, document 2; "Sentencing in Chile begins to bring closure in 41-year-old murder cases of US citizens Frank Teruggi and Charles Horman," *The Tico Times,* January 30, 2015. +[^2]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Pedro Espinoza Bravo, April 24, 1978; declaración of René Riveros Valderrama, March 22, 1978; resolution of April 10, 1978. +[^3]: "Letelier Case Reversal," *The Washington Post,* January 16, 1982, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680022-8; "Ex-Chile spy chief dies while serving 500-year sentence," Al Jazeera, August 8, 2015. +[^4]: National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 33, document 2; "Sentencing in Chile begins to bring closure in 41-year-old murder cases of US citizens Frank Teruggi and Charles Horman," *The Tico Times,* January 30, 2015. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ricardo Cañete.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ricardo Cañete.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a747dfcd --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Ricardo Cañete.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +tags: + - Person + - RicardoCanete + - FBI + - Informant + - CubanNationalistMovement + - OrlandoLetelier + - IgnacioNovo +alias: + - Ricardo Canete +summary: "FBI informant in Brooklyn who in the spring of 1977 sold forged identity papers to Ignacio Novo of the Cuban Nationalist Movement and reported his talk of counterfeit money and war to the bureau." +location: "Brooklyn, New York" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Ricardo Cañete, of 2730 West 33rd Street, [[Brooklyn]], was an informant of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s [[New York City|New York]] office, debriefed by Special Agent [[Larry Wack]] in May 1977, fifteen months before the indictments in the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]]. His reports concerned [[Ignacio Novo]] of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]].[^1] + +### Frederick Pagan + +Novo drove him to the Bergenline Avenue district of [[Union City, New Jersey|Union City]], "seemed 'uptight,'" and wrote on the back of a restaurant guest check what he wanted: a DD-214 discharge form, a [[New York]] State temporary security card, a birth certificate, and a West German passport, all in the name Frederick Pagan. On another evening Novo carried under his coat a 9-millimeter Uzi that "appeared to have a silencer attached" and "appeared to be 'cut down' in length." Cañete delivered a DD-214, two baptismal certificates from [[Baton Rouge]], a blank New York temporary license, and two [[Louisiana]] birth certificates, all for Frederick Pagan, born April 20, 1942, hidden in a motorcycle magazine at a restaurant at 2332 Broadway, where a woman introduced as "Martha" was present. Novo took the magazine to the men's room and came back to say "he needed four more sets of forged identification papers and that one set must be 'completely built up.'" Wack kept copies "for evidentiary value." On May 18 Novo said that four men had left for [[Miami]], by bus, by plane, by car, and by way of [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], each carrying copies of the Pagan papers.[^1] + +### Wine + +Novo told him that the movement referred to counterfeit money as "wine" on the telephone, "because that country exports a lot of wine," and "since the NSA listens to calls placed to foreign countries and NOVO believes [[Chile]] is one of those countries monitored." Any purchase would be made through lockers at an airport or bus terminal. Asked "Did the Chilean wine get in?" Novo answered "Not yet."[^1] + +### The Photograph + +On May 2, 1977, Novo showed him a photograph of an FBI agent and said: "This is the cocksucker, who wants Guillermo." On May 13 Cañete recognized the man in the photograph as Wack. Around May 9 Novo told him of the bureau's pressure over the Letelier investigation: "If GUILLERMO goes inside, it's war. This was already decided on tonight." Asked who would be involved, he named the prosecutor and the FBI and said "up to BELL if we have to," and that if the [[United States]] and [[Cuba]] normalized relations "the bodies are going to be all over." At Novo's office at a [[New Jersey]] Ford dealership on May 5 Cañete heard him take a call: "Let me speak to ALEJANDRO first," then "FLACO, what's happening?"[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York office, reports of interviews of Ricardo Cañete by Special Agent Larry E. Wack, May 10 to May 18, 1977, scans at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/canete.pdf. The FBI file on the same site also holds Cañete's telephone toll records and his false identity papers. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Tom Clines.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Tom Clines.md index 2bb99940..7967440b 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Tom Clines.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Tom Clines.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ aliases: - Tom Clines - Thomas G. Clines created: 2026-05-17 -updated: 2026-05-17 +updated: 2026-09-21 category: "Intelligence & Government" tags: - Person @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ tags: - Vietnam - 1970s - 1980s -summary: "CIA career officer who served under Ted Shackley at JMWAVE, Laos, and the Western Hemisphere Division, joined the private Safari Club and Iran-Contra Enterprise network after Shackley's 1979 departure, and was convicted in 1993 of underreporting Iran-Contra income." +summary: "CIA officer under Ted Shackley at JMWAVE, in Laos, and in the Western Hemisphere Division, later of the Safari Club and Iran-Contra Enterprise network, convicted in 1993 of underreporting Iran-Contra income." location: "United States" --- @@ -30,17 +30,22 @@ After Laos, Clines continued in CIA operations roles in Southeast Asia and [[Lat After leaving CIA, Clines became involved in the arms and intelligence consulting business that grew around the network of former CIA officers associated with Shackley. One significant connection was to [[Edwin Wilson]], the former CIA officer who was selling arms and providing paramilitary training to Libya's Muammar Qaddafi. Clines, like [[Richard Secord]], had documented contacts with Wilson during the period Wilson was running the Libya operations. Congressional investigations into Wilson's activities examined Clines's role, and while Clines was not charged in the Wilson case, the investigation contributed to the end of his government career.[^1] +### Wackenhut, 1976 + +A [[Domestic Contact Service]] cable of June 22, 1976, records a request from the Latin America Division for contact with [[Bruce Berckmans]], director of international operations of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] in [[Miami]], "a former staff agent under the LPGLOBE program" who "was asked to resign from the Agency in 1970." He had asked, "through an LA Division officer, Tom Clines," to see an agency representative about information believed to concern "political developments in [[Jamaica]]," and "the name of Tom Clines may be used to facilitate contact." A week later Berckmans told the Miami officer that "after consultations with his attorney he has decided not to sue the Agency."[^2] + ### Iran-Contra Enterprise Clines became an operational participant in the Enterprise, the private covert network directed by Secord and [[Albert Hakim]] that executed the Iran arms sales and Contra funding operations. His primary role was in the logistics and transportation aspects of the Enterprise's weapons movements - specifically managing air freight and cargo operations for weapons shipments.[^1] -In 1993, Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh's prosecution resulted in Clines's conviction on four counts of tax-related offenses: specifically, underreporting income from transactions connected to the Enterprise. The prosecution established that Clines had received income from Enterprise operations that he failed to report on his tax returns. He was sentenced to sixteen months in prison and fined.[^2] +In 1993, Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh's prosecution resulted in Clines's conviction on four counts of tax-related offenses: specifically, underreporting income from transactions connected to the Enterprise. The prosecution established that Clines had received income from Enterprise operations that he failed to report on his tax returns. He was sentenced to sixteen months in prison and fined.[^3] ### Shackley Network -Clines's career illustrates the structural feature of the Shackley network: officers who had served together in the most sensitive Cold War operations built deep personal and professional loyalties that persisted after their government careers ended, creating a private network of experienced covert operators available for work that the CIA's official structure could not or would not undertake. The network's connection to [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]], Egyptian, and French intelligence resources through the [[Safari Club]] provided funding channels; the experience of the former officers provided operational capability; and the relationships with Secord, Hakim, and eventually North provided the institutional interface that connected this network to official Reagan administration policy.[^1] +Clines's career illustrates the structural feature of the Shackley network: officers who had served together in the most sensitive Cold War operations built deep personal and professional loyalties that persisted after their government careers ended, creating a private network of experienced covert operators available for work that the CIA's official structure could not or would not undertake. The network's connection to [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]], Egyptian, and French intelligence resources through the Safari Club provided funding channels; the experience of the former officers provided operational capability; and the relationships with Secord, Hakim, and eventually North provided the institutional interface that connected this network to official Reagan administration policy.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Corn, David, and Jeff Goldberg. "The Old Boy Network." *Mother Jones*, October 1994. Trento, Joseph. *Prelude to Terror: The Rogue CIA and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network*. Carroll & Graf, 2005. -[^2]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Iran-Contra: The Final Report*. Random House, 1994. Walsh, Lawrence E. *Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up*. W.W. Norton, 1997. +[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Collection Division, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corp.," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10017, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10017.pdf, pp. 19-22. +[^3]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Iran-Contra: The Final Report*. Random House, 1994. Walsh, Lawrence E. *Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up*. W.W. Norton, 1997. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Colby.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Colby.md index 7b1e9dd1..81fa2683 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Colby.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Colby.md @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ tags: - 1960s - 1970s - Stargate -summary: "William Egan Colby served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1973 to 1976, dismissing James Angleton, cooperating with the Church Committee, and revealing the Family Jewels, having earlier directed the Vietnam-era Phoenix Program under the CORDS framework." +summary: "Director of central intelligence from 1973 to 1976 who removed James Angleton, gave the Family Jewels to the Church Committee, and had earlier run the Phoenix program in Vietnam." born: 1920-01-04 died: 1996-04-27 location: "Saint Paul, Minnesota" diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/James McCord.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/James McCord.md index c3d9db3b..d3861f83 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/James McCord.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/James McCord.md @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ created: 2026-09-21 updated: 2026-09-21 --- -James Walter McCord Jr. was born at [[Waurika, Oklahoma]], on January 26, 1924, and finished high school at [[Electra, Texas]], in 1940. He kept books at the Electra State Bank, joined the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] in March 1942 as a radio technician, served as a bombardier in the Army Air Corps from November 1943 to November 1945, took a business degree at the [[University of Texas]] in 1948, and was an FBI special agent in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], [[San Diego]], and [[San Francisco]] from October 1948 to February 1951. He joined the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] on August 22, 1951, and served in the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] until August 31, 1970. The agency's summary of his service records two years as an investigator, seven years "engaged in research and report writing," appointment in May 1957 as deputy chief "of a research staff of some six professional and clerical personnel," two years abroad as "Chief of a regional staff of some ten professional and clerical personnel providing a full spectrum of security support," a year at the [[Air War College]] from August 1964, command of the technical security division from 1965 to 1968, "some 40 professional and clerical personnel," and from October 1968 command of the physical security division of about 70, which "produced for the Agency a physical security posture of pre-eminent quality within the US Government." A personnel form of July 2, 1970, records his separation as "Retirement (Involuntary) Under CIA Retirement and Disability System," at grade GS-15, step 8, salary 24,228 dollars, "pursuant to a request from the Head of the Security Career Service." [[Richard Helms]] wrote to him at Rockville on August 19: "Your faithful and loyal support has measured up to the high ideals and traditions of the Federal service."[^1] On an [[Atomic Energy Commission]] security questionnaire of May 1962 he reported official trips to Britain and the Continent every year from 1955 to 1961.[^2] An agency cable after his arrest shows it had been "concerned with McCord's emotional stability prior to his retirement."[^3] +James Walter McCord Jr. was born at [[Waurika, Oklahoma]], on January 26, 1924, and finished high school at [[Electra, Texas]], in 1940. He kept books at the Electra State Bank, joined the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] in March 1942 as a radio technician, served as a bombardier in the Army Air Corps from November 1943 to November 1945, took a business degree at the [[University of Texas]] in 1948, and was an FBI special agent in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], [[San Diego]], and [[San Francisco]] from October 1948 to February 1951. He joined the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] on August 22, 1951, and served in the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] until August 31, 1970. The agency's summary of his service records two years as an investigator, seven years "engaged in research and report writing," appointment in May 1957 as deputy chief "of a research staff of some six professional and clerical personnel," two years abroad as "Chief of a regional staff of some ten professional and clerical personnel providing a full spectrum of security support," a year at the [[Air War College]] from August 1964, command of the technical security division from 1965 to 1968, "some 40 professional and clerical personnel," and from October 1968 command of the physical security division of about 70, which "produced for the Agency a physical security posture of pre-eminent quality within the US Government." A personnel form of July 2, 1970, records his separation as "Retirement (Involuntary) Under CIA Retirement and Disability System," at grade GS-15, step 8, salary 24,228 dollars, "pursuant to a request from the Head of the Security Career Service." [[Richard Helms]] wrote to him at Rockville on August 19: "Your faithful and loyal support has measured up to the high ideals and traditions of the Federal service."[^1] His security file holds the office's report of November 1958 on the [[1958 C-118 shootdown over Azerbaijan|C-118 forced down in Soviet Azerbaijan]] that June while carrying cargo for the agency, to whose debriefing the office sent two of its men. On an [[Atomic Energy Commission]] security questionnaire of May 1962 he reported official trips to Britain and the Continent every year from 1955 to 1961.[^2] An agency cable after his arrest shows it had been "concerned with McCord's emotional stability prior to his retirement."[^3] From June 1962 to June 1964 he was chief of the agency's Regional Security Support Staff in [[Frankfurt]]. The director of security told the inspector general in 1975, answering a question from the [[Church Committee]], that "neither Mr. Hunt nor Mr. McCord were in charge of Mexican operations at the time of the Kennedy assassination."[^4] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John McCone.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John McCone.md index 0739af90..5e400468 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John McCone.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John McCone.md @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ tags: - LatinAmerica - Nuclear - Israel -summary: "Industrialist and former director of Standard Oil of California who served as CIA Director from 1961 to 1965, clashed with President Kennedy over the test-ban treaty and covert-operations control, shaped Johnson's Latin America team around Rockefeller allies, and later, as an ITT director, financed the effort to block Salvador Allende." +summary: "Industrialist and director of central intelligence from 1961 to 1965 who clashed with Kennedy over covert operations, sat on ITT's board while a consultant to the agency, and offered Helms a fund against Allende." born: 1902-01-04 died: 1991-02-14 location: San Francisco, California diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md index 8e654d87..8b98ef9d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lowell Jensen.md @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ tags: - DoJ - Lawyer - INSLAW -summary: "D. Lowell Jensen served as Alameda County District Attorney, then as Associate Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General under Edwin Meese, and was named by INSLAW and the House Judiciary Committee as a key figure in the alleged conspiracy to steal and suppress the PROMIS software." +summary: "Alameda County district attorney, then associate and deputy attorney general under Edwin Meese, named by INSLAW and the House Judiciary Committee as a central figure in the taking of the PROMIS software." born: 1928-06-03 location: "Brigham City, Utah" alias: diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Orlando Letelier.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Orlando Letelier.md index 8f0e9b7e..cd5e0dec 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Orlando Letelier.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Orlando Letelier.md @@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Townley was expelled from [[Chile]] in 1978, pleaded guilty, and testified for t ### Compensation -The families sued Chile in 1978. Chile defaulted, and Judge [[Joyce Hens Green]] entered judgment in 1980 for more than five million dollars. They then tried to collect from the [[New York City|New York]] assets of the state airline, [[LAN Chile]], which the district court found had carried Townley, his explosives, and his money. Judge [[Morris Lasker]] called Chile's use of the airline a "gross abuse of the corporate form." The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|Second Circuit]] reversed him on November 20, 1984, finding only that "Michael Townley was able to enlist the cooperation of certain LAN pilots and officials with whom he had a pre-existing social relationship," and added that "hard cases make bad law." After Pinochet left office the two governments agreed on June 11, 1990, that Chile, "without admitting liability," would make an ex gratia payment to be fixed by a commission under a treaty of 1914. The commission awarded 2,611,892 dollars on January 11, 1992: 1.2 million to Isabel Letelier and her four sons for lost support, with 160,000 to her and 80,000 to each of them in moral damages, 483,000 to [[Michael Moffitt]], and 300,000 to Ronni Moffitt's parents. It excluded Letelier's income from lectures and publications and "took into account the significant steps undertaken by the Chilean Government and Congress to remedy human rights problems." The payment extinguished all other claims.[^11] +The families sued Chile in 1978. Chile defaulted, and Judge [[Joyce Hens Green]] entered judgment on November 5, 1980, for more than five million dollars. Townley, Ross, and Ignacio Novo had been in default since September 20, 1978, and Guillermo Novo since October 24; Contreras, Espinoza, and Fernández Larios, served by registered mail in 1978 and by letters rogatory on September 22, 1980, were defaulted on October 23. The judgment against Chile, Contreras, Espinoza, Fernández, Townley, Ross, and Guillermo Novo, jointly and severally, included 30,000 dollars for Letelier's pain and suffering, one million in punitive damages, and 1,526,479 dollars in wrongful death, and for Ronni Moffitt 80,000, one million, and 916,096 dollars. They then tried to collect from the [[New York City|New York]] assets of the state airline, [[LAN Chile]], which the district court found had carried Townley, his explosives, and his money. Judge [[Morris Lasker]] called Chile's use of the airline a "gross abuse of the corporate form." The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|Second Circuit]] reversed him on November 20, 1984, finding only that "Michael Townley was able to enlist the cooperation of certain LAN pilots and officials with whom he had a pre-existing social relationship," and added that "hard cases make bad law." After Pinochet left office the two governments agreed on June 11, 1990, that Chile, "without admitting liability," would make an ex gratia payment to be fixed by a commission under a treaty of 1914. The commission awarded 2,611,892 dollars on January 11, 1992: 1.2 million to Isabel Letelier and her four sons for lost support, with 160,000 to her and 80,000 to each of them in moral damages, 483,000 to [[Michael Moffitt]], and 300,000 to Ronni Moffitt's parents. It excluded Letelier's income from lectures and publications and "took into account the significant steps undertaken by the Chilean Government and Congress to remedy human rights problems." The payment extinguished all other claims.[^11] ### The 1987 Assessment @@ -58,5 +58,5 @@ In 1987 Secretary of State [[George Shultz]] asked the CIA to assess responsibil [^8]: De Letelier v. Republic of Chile, 488 F. Supp. 665 (D.D.C. 1980). [^9]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "'Worst of the Worst': ICE and the Case of Chilean Intelligence Operative Armando Fernandez Larios," National Security Archive, July 10, 2026. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2026-07-10/worst-worst-ice-and-case-chilean-intelligence-operative-armando [^10]: United States v. Henry, 447 U.S. 264 (1980). -[^11]: De Letelier v. Republic of Chile, 748 F.2d 790 (2d Cir. 1984); "Dispute Concerning Responsibility for the Deaths of Letelier and Moffitt (United States, Chile)," decision of January 11, 1992, *Reports of International Arbitral Awards,* vol. XXV, pp. 1-19. https://legal.un.org/riaa/cases/vol_XXV/1-19.pdf +[^11]: *Letelier v. Republic of Chile,* 502 F. Supp. 259 (D.D.C. 1980), memorandum opinion of November 5, 1980. De Letelier v. Republic of Chile, 748 F.2d 790 (2d Cir. 1984); "Dispute Concerning Responsibility for the Deaths of Letelier and Moffitt (United States, Chile)," decision of January 11, 1992, *Reports of International Arbitral Awards,* vol. XXV, pp. 1-19. https://legal.un.org/riaa/cases/vol_XXV/1-19.pdf [^12]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "CIA: 'Pinochet personally ordered' Letelier bombing," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 560, September 23, 2016. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2016-09-23/cia-pinochet-personally-ordered-letelier-bombing ; "The Pinochet File: U.S. Declassifies Missing Documents in the Letelier-Moffitt Case," Electronic Briefing Book No. 532, October 8, 2015. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Raúl Iturriaga Neumann.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Raúl Iturriaga Neumann.md index 14b1fc8b..972d7d9b 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Raúl Iturriaga Neumann.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Raúl Iturriaga Neumann.md @@ -20,21 +20,24 @@ updated: 2026-09-21 Raúl Iturriaga Neumann was an officer of [[DINA]], the secret police of [[Augusto Pinochet]]'s [[Chile]], and by 1975 head of its foreign operations. The prosecutors of the Letelier case knew him as Eduardo Iturriaga.[^1][^2] +Townley told the Chilean military prosecutor in 1978 that he had met "then-Major Eduardo Iturriaga" in 1974 to "coordinate the information I had on anti-Castro organizations in the US" and build "a coherent network of informants and sub-informants," and that early in 1975 Iturriaga took a telephone call in his presence and asked whether he knew [[Orlando Bosch]], [[Guillermo Novo]], and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez|Dionisio Suárez]]. Espinoza testified that for the 1976 mission to General [[Vernon Walters]] "the name of the second man was suggested by then-Major Iturriaga, under the name Andrés Wilson." On April 10, 1978, the prosecutor ordered Iturriaga re-examined with Espinoza and Townley on the code names Quetropillán and Avispa.[^3] + ### Buenos Aires -In late July 1974 he "traveled to [[Buenos Aires]] with a bag of cash to hire assassins and to coordinate the operation with the Argentine service, [[Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado|SIDE]]." The station chief, [[Enrique Arancibia Clavel]], paid 20,000 dollars to men who did nothing; "the Argentines didn't have the guts to kill them," [[Michael Townley]] said. Townley's own bomb killed General [[Carlos Prats]] and his wife on September 30. In 2010 the Chilean courts convicted Iturriaga, [[Manuel Contreras]], [[Pedro Espinoza]], and [[José Zara]] of the murders.[^1][^3] +In late July 1974 he "traveled to [[Buenos Aires]] with a bag of cash to hire assassins and to coordinate the operation with the Argentine service, [[Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado|SIDE]]." The station chief, [[Enrique Arancibia Clavel]], paid 20,000 dollars to men who did nothing; "the Argentines didn't have the guts to kill them," [[Michael Townley]] said. Townley's own bomb killed General [[Carlos Prats]] and his wife on September 30. In 2010 the Chilean courts convicted Iturriaga, [[Manuel Contreras]], [[Pedro Espinoza]], and [[José Zara]] of the murders.[^1][^4] ### Rome -In 1975 he "added a new name to Townley's hit list: [[Bernardo Leighton]], the grandfatherly Christian Democrat who was working in [[Rome]] to forge an alliance between his party and the remnants of Allende's forces," and ordered Townley to enlist the organization of [[Stefano Delle Chiaie]]. Leighton and his wife were shot on October 6, 1975, and lived. An Italian court later convicted Iturriaga in his absence on Townley's testimony; he has said that Townley is the only accuser and that he never met the Italians.[^1][^3] +In 1975 he "added a new name to Townley's hit list: [[Bernardo Leighton]], the grandfatherly Christian Democrat who was working in [[Rome]] to forge an alliance between his party and the remnants of Allende's forces," and ordered Townley to enlist the organization of [[Stefano Delle Chiaie]]. Leighton and his wife were shot on October 6, 1975, and lived. An Italian court later convicted Iturriaga in his absence on Townley's testimony; he has said that Townley is the only accuser and that he never met the Italians.[^1][^4] ### Washington -Iturriaga briefed Townley on the mission against [[Orlando Letelier]] in 1976 and approved his taking [[Virgilio Paz]] of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]]. When the Chilean police came for Townley in 1978, Iturriaga led the search party into his house. On June 15, 2026, Judge [[Paola Plaza]] sentenced him, Espinoza, and Zara to fifteen years each for the death of [[Ronni Moffitt]]. He was then 88 and serving cumulative sentences of 500 years.[^2][^4] +Iturriaga briefed Townley on the mission against [[Orlando Letelier]] in 1976 and approved his taking [[Virgilio Paz]] of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]]. When the Chilean police came for Townley in 1978, Iturriaga led the search party into his house. On June 15, 2026, Judge [[Paola Plaza]] sentenced him, Espinoza, and Zara to fifteen years each for the death of [[Ronni Moffitt]]. He was then 88 and serving cumulative sentences of 500 years.[^2][^5] ### Footnotes [^1]: Dinges, John. *The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents*. New Press, 2004, pp. 74, 130. [^2]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 303, 464. -[^3]: Chilean press reports of the 2010 judgments of Judge Alejandro Solís and the Supreme Court and of the 2022 court resolution on DINA's exterior department (La Tercera, CNN Chile, El Mostrador), not read in full. -[^4]: Kornbluh, Peter. "A Modicum of Justice for Ronni Karpen Moffitt," *The Nation,* September 2026. +[^3]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaraciones of Michael Vernon Townley Welch (March 29, 1978) and Pedro Espinoza Bravo (April 24, 1978); resolution of April 10, 1978. +[^4]: Chilean press reports of the 2010 judgments of Judge Alejandro Solís and the Supreme Court and of the 2022 court resolution on DINA's exterior department (La Tercera, CNN Chile, El Mostrador), not read in full. +[^5]: Kornbluh, Peter. "A Modicum of Justice for Ronni Karpen Moffitt," *The Nation,* September 2026. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ricardo Morales Navarrete.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ricardo Morales Navarrete.md index 4efb0563..7d54a8d8 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ricardo Morales Navarrete.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ricardo Morales Navarrete.md @@ -21,18 +21,21 @@ updated: 2026-09-21 Ricardo Morales Navarrete, called El Mono, gave his birth as [[Havana]], June 14, 1939, in his 1981 deposition. In 1968 he helped [[Orlando Bosch]] with instruction in bombs "and then suddenly surfaced in court as an FBI informant and as the chief witness against the baby doctor, who went to jail." By 1976 he was a comisario of [[DISIP]], the Venezuelan security police, in charge of Section D-54, its counterintelligence section, under the code name Comisario Moises.[^1][^2] +Michael Townley told the Chilean military prosecutor in 1978 that when [[DINA]] asked him early in 1975 about Orlando Bosch's group, he advised against contact because it "had been infiltrated by the CIA, the FBI, and specifically by a certain 'Mono' Navarrete."[^3] + ### Caracas -On September 8, 1976, he, [[Luis Posada Carriles]], and [[Orlando García Vásquez]] met Bosch at Maiquetía airport and dined with him that night. Morales lived at the Anauco Hilton. In late October he told Detective Raúl Díaz of the Dade County organized crime bureau, who had come to persuade him to testify at the trial of [[Rolando Otero]], that the [[Cubana Flight 455 bombing|bombing of the Cubana airliner]] had been discussed at the hotel bar by [[Frank Castro]], Gustavo Castillo, Posada, and himself, and again in his apartment, and that after the second meeting he "had nothing more to do with this matter." "Some people in the Venezuelan government are involved in this airplane bombing," he said, "and if Posada Carriles talks, then Morales Navarrete and others in the Venezuelan government will 'go down the tube.'" He passed on Bosch's claim that [[Orlando Letelier]]'s death "was the result of an agreement between [[Guillermo Novo]] and the [[Patria y Libertad]] organization," and named Castillo's group, "Youth of the Star," for four Miami bombings of 1975. After the strategy meeting of October 15 he signed the DISIP arrest warrant for Bosch and went with the party that escorted him to prison. On October 27 the government announced that there was no Morales in DISIP. He telephoned a friend in Miami and told her not to call, since "he does not exist." In January 1977 he was replaced by Mario Jiménez Rojo.[^2][^3][^4] +On September 8, 1976, he, [[Luis Posada Carriles]], and [[Orlando García Vásquez]] met Bosch at Maiquetía airport and dined with him that night. Morales lived at the Anauco Hilton. In late October he told Detective Raúl Díaz of the Dade County organized crime bureau, who had come to persuade him to testify at the trial of [[Rolando Otero]], that the [[Cubana Flight 455 bombing|bombing of the Cubana airliner]] had been discussed at the hotel bar by [[Frank Castro]], Gustavo Castillo, Posada, and himself, and again in his apartment, and that after the second meeting he "had nothing more to do with this matter." "Some people in the Venezuelan government are involved in this airplane bombing," he said, "and if Posada Carriles talks, then Morales Navarrete and others in the Venezuelan government will 'go down the tube.'" He passed on Bosch's claim that [[Orlando Letelier]]'s death "was the result of an agreement between [[Guillermo Novo]] and the [[Patria y Libertad]] organization," and named Castillo's group, "Youth of the Star," for four Miami bombings of 1975. After the strategy meeting of October 15 he signed the DISIP arrest warrant for Bosch and went with the party that escorted him to prison. On October 27 the government announced that there was no Morales in DISIP. He telephoned a friend in Miami and told her not to call, since "he does not exist." In January 1977 he was replaced by Mario Jiménez Rojo.[^2][^4][^5] ### Miami -An FBI source reported in December 1977 that Morales, back in Miami, was the go-between for Frank Castro and [[Rafael Villaverde]] in negotiations over the release of Bosch and Posada until the two fell out, and that he was seeking explosives to retaliate for attacks on Venezuelan interests. In January 1978 he was linked by an informant to the young [[CORU]] cell of [[Alvin Ross]] and Raciel Rodríguez. When the writer [[Taylor Branch]] tried to reach Bosch in Venezuela in 1976, "at five o'clock in the morning, Branch had been dragged out of bed and thrown out of the country by none other than Ricardo Morales." His deposition in Dade County criminal case 81-17247 ran to nine volumes. He was shot dead in a bar in [[Key Biscayne, Florida|Key Biscayne]] on December 20, 1982.[^1][^4][^5] +An FBI source reported in December 1977 that Morales, back in Miami, was the go-between for Frank Castro and [[Rafael Villaverde]] in negotiations over the release of Bosch and Posada until the two fell out, and that he was seeking explosives to retaliate for attacks on Venezuelan interests. In January 1978 he was linked by an informant to the young [[CORU]] cell of [[Alvin Ross]] and Raciel Rodríguez. When the writer [[Taylor Branch]] tried to reach Bosch in Venezuela in 1976, "at five o'clock in the morning, Branch had been dragged out of bed and thrown out of the country by none other than Ricardo Morales." His deposition in Dade County criminal case 81-17247 ran to nine volumes. He was shot dead in a bar in [[Key Biscayne, Florida|Key Biscayne]] on December 20, 1982.[^1][^5][^6] ### Footnotes [^1]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 101, 113. [^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, teletype to Director, "Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados, West Indies, October 6, 1976," November 2, 1976, JFK Assassination Records Collection. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 10. -[^3]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 13. -[^4]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU)," January 24, 1977. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 12. -[^5]: Deposition of Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Dade County Circuit Court, criminal case 81-17247, index; death date from press accounts, not read in full. +[^3]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Michael Vernon Townley Welch, March 29, 1978. +[^4]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 13. +[^5]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU)," January 24, 1977. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 12. +[^6]: Deposition of Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Dade County Circuit Court, criminal case 81-17247, index; death date from press accounts, not read in full. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Rolando Mosqueira.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Rolando Mosqueira.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7d37286b --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Rolando Mosqueira.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - RolandoMosqueira + - DINA + - OrlandoLetelier + - VernonWalters + - Chile +alias: + - Rolando Mosqueira Jarpa + - Alejandro Romeral Jara +summary: "DINA captain who went to Washington with René Riveros in August 1976 as Alejandro Romeral Jara, on a passport handed to him already filled in and signed in a hand not his own." +location: "Santiago, Chile" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Rolando Mosqueira Jarpa, a captain of the Chilean army, testified on March 20, 1978, that "in the first half of August 1976 I was called to the National Intelligence Directorate. There I met Captain [[René Riveros]], and we went together before the Director," [[Manuel Contreras]], who "told us we had been designated to carry out a mission to be conducted in Washington, United States of America." On the day of departure Riveros "handed me a passport and an air ticket for the trip. The passport given to me on that occasion is the one bearing the name Alejandro Romeral," an official Chilean passport: "at that time the document already had all its entries filled in, with my photograph affixed on page 4. The signature was even already stamped under my photograph, which therefore is not in my own hand." [[DINA]]'s passport clerk, Luis Humberto García González, confirmed that "Alejandro Romeral Jara" was "the one used by Captain Mosqueira on a trip to the USA." [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]], who had carried the same name on a Paraguayan passport in July, testified that he recalled signing that one himself.[^1][^2] + +The two flew to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] by Aeroperú on August 21, 1976, on a mission to see General [[Vernon Walters]], who had retired from the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] the month before; Mosqueira knew a Chilean general there personally and they called on him "giving our true names and ranks, but without revealing the true link and content of our mission." They returned on [[LAN Chile]]. A letter rogatory from the federal court in Washington asked "Alejandro Romeral Jara" 55 questions on the mission, on the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]], and on [[Augusto Pinochet]]; a resolution in the file, largely illegible in the scan, concerns the two captains' release on bail.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: The Foreign Ministry's list gives the Romeral passport as 523/76 and Williams Rose as 529/76; the court's inspection gives Williams Rose as 528/76 and the American letter rogatory gives Romeral as 529/76. Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Rolando Mosqueira Jarpa, March 20, 1978; declaración of Luis Humberto García González, April 12, 1978; oficio of the Ministry of Foreign Relations on the custody of official passports 523/76 and 529/76. +[^2]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Armando Fernández Larios, April 12, 1978. +[^3]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of René Miguel Riveros Valderrama, March 22, 1978; letter rogatory, Exp. 20931; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, ticketing reconstruction of August 1976 departures through Exprinter S.A. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ruth Ray Hunt.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ruth Ray Hunt.md index 4bfdd1ed..87a57219 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ruth Ray Hunt.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ruth Ray Hunt.md @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ In the fall of 1942 she stopped coming to work. Hunt moved her to an apartment i ### Marriage -Lyda Hunt died in May 1955, and Ruth and her children began to keep house at Mount Vernon. In the fall of 1957, by Hunt's account, the fourteen-year-old [[Ray Hunt|Ray]] came to his office and said: "You will marry my mother." They were married on a Sunday that November at the home of her pastor. The Dallas Times Herald described her as "Mrs. Ruth Ray Wright," mother of four. Her own mother told the [[Associated Press]] she had known nothing of it. Hunt gave the children his name. Soon afterward he gave up gambling, as a federal grand jury opened an inquiry into a syndicate at [[Terre Haute, Indiana|Terre Haute]], and on the first Sunday of 1960 he was baptized with her and the children at the [[First Baptist Church of Dallas]] by the Reverend [[W.A. Criswell]]. She later let it be known that the children were his.[^3] +Lyda Hunt died in May 1955, and Ruth and her children began to keep house at Mount Vernon. In the fall of 1957, by Hunt's account, the fourteen-year-old [[Ray Hunt|Ray]] came to his office and said: "You will marry my mother." They were married on a Sunday that November at the home of her pastor. The [[Dallas Times Herald]] described her as "Mrs. Ruth Ray Wright," mother of four. Her own mother told the [[Associated Press]] she had known nothing of it. Hunt gave the children his name. Soon afterward he gave up gambling, as a federal grand jury opened an inquiry into a syndicate at [[Terre Haute, Indiana|Terre Haute]], and on the first Sunday of 1960 he was baptized with her and the children at the [[First Baptist Church of Dallas]] by the Reverend [[W.A. Criswell]]. She later let it be known that the children were his.[^3] On November 22, 1963, she was visiting Ray at his fraternity house at [[Southern Methodist University]] when Hunt telephoned and told her to keep the children away from home. The couple went to the [[Mayflower Hotel]] in Washington on the FBI's advice and came back for Christmas. In early 1965 she persuaded Hunt to bring his lobotomized son [[Hassie Hunt|Hassie]] home from an institution in the East. She did not go to Shreveport for the trial of [[Frania Tye Lee]]'s claim in 1978, because the lawyers feared she would be questioned about the birth of her children "out of wedlock and before the death of H.L.'s first wife." Hunt's will made Ray sole independent executor of the estate.[^4] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sherman Kaminsky.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sherman Kaminsky.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..33f12040 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Sherman Kaminsky.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +category: "Organized Crime" +tags: + - Person + - ShermanKaminsky + - Informant + - OrlandoLetelier + - AlvinRoss + - UnitedStatesVHenry +alias: + - Sherman Kaminsky +summary: "Racketeer and fugitive who, awaiting sentence in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in 1978, heard Alvin Ross talk of the Letelier bomb and testified against him, a use of informants the appeals court found unlawful." +location: "New York City" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Sherman Kaminsky was convicted of racketeering and extortion in 1966 and fled. Arrested and brought to [[New York City|New York]] for sentence, he was held at the [[Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York|Metropolitan Correctional Center]], where he informed on other inmates: threats to a judge and an undercover policeman, and a planned escape from Danbury. At his sentencing on June 14, 1978, the prosecutor said his cooperation was continuing. The judge, "expressing contempt for his conduct," suspended the prison term on part of the charges and deferred the rest for six months "to see how far he goes." Ross had heard that he was a former member of the [[Haganah]].[^1] + +### Ross + +[[Alvin Ross]] of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]], moved to the center at his lawyers' request, then began talking to him. "I never initiated any conversation with Mr. Ross, but there is no need to initiate a conversation with Mr. Ross. Mr. Ross will talk and talk and talk as long as you are able to listen. There were times when I literally had to run to get away from him." Over June and July 1978 Ross spoke of an alliance between the movement and [[Chile]], of a meeting where [[Michael Townley]] said that [[DINA]] and General [[Manuel Contreras]] wanted "a Marxist agent" killed, and of the two wires he had contributed to the bomb that killed [[Orlando Letelier]]. In August Ross said he planned to blow up Russian ships in American harbors. Kaminsky wrote notes and gave them to his lawyer, William Aronwald, asking that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] be told, "because he felt that Ross was a dangerous man." The notes did not mention Letelier by name but recorded Ross saying "that a person blown up in Washington was a double agent of the CIA." They reached the prosecutor [[Eugene Propper]] on August 28. Kaminsky first met Propper on October 31, when an agreement was proposed that he "would report what he heard and possibly testify," and he was warned not to start conversations or discuss the defense.[^1] + +### Henry + +He testified at the trial in January 1979 to the conversations before October 31. The convictions of Ross and [[Guillermo Novo]] were reversed on September 15, 1980, under *[[United States v. Henry]]*, the court holding that his testimony, and one statement Novo made to a second informant, Antonio Polytarides, had been obtained in violation of the right to counsel. The government's petition for rehearing argued that, unlike the paid informant in *Henry*, Kaminsky had no government instruction when Ross spoke to him. The petition was denied on December 9, 1980.[^1][^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Petition of the United States for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., October 29, 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-rehearing.pdf +[^2]: Motion for bail and for reassignment, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., 1981), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-bail.pdf; Motion for bail, defendant Alvin Ross Diaz, Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-alvin-bail.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Harvey.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Harvey.md index b985ae55..25e3dbc9 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Harvey.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/William Harvey.md @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ tags: - Assassination - AntiCastro category: "Intelligence & Government" -summary: "William Harvey was the CIA's chief of Berlin Base from 1952 to 1959 who engineered Operation Gold (the Berlin Tunnel), then headed Staff D and ZR/RIFLE (the CIA's assassination planning unit), ran the agency-mafia anti-Castro plots with Johnny Roselli, and was exiled to Rome station by Robert Kennedy for insubordination during Operation Mongoose." +summary: "CIA chief of Berlin base who built the Berlin tunnel, then ran Staff D and ZR/RIFLE, took over Johnny Roselli and the Castro plots in 1962, and was sent to Rome by Robert Kennedy." born: 1915-09-13 died: 1976-06-09 location: "Washington, D.C. / Berlin / Rome" diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Alvin Ross.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Alvin Ross.md index 6d31d8e8..173c0ecf 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Alvin Ross.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Alvin Ross.md @@ -20,13 +20,18 @@ Alvin Ross Díaz had been a blackjack dealer at the [[Tropicana Club|Tropicana]] ### Trial -An FBI informant reported in January 1978 that "a young action oriented cell under the control of Francisco 'Frank' Castro of the [[CORU]] organization," made up of Ross and Raciel Rodríguez, had bombed the Viasa Airlines office in Miami Beach on December 23, 1977. Indicted for the Letelier murders on August 1, 1978, Ross was tried with the Novo brothers from January 8, 1979. [[Sherman Kaminsky]], a racketeer awaiting sentence who had met him in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, testified that Ross said "he was involved in the murder of Orlando Letelier together with generals in DINA," called Townley "a traitor, a rat, an informer," called Letelier "a rotten Communist Marxist," said he was "glad Letelier was dead," admitted "he had contributed two wires used in the bomb," and said "he would not pay for Letelier's murder because the CIA would be the scapegoat, people would believe anything of the CIA." The sentencing judge had told Kaminsky: "I am going to suspend the operation of that sentence depending on how you come through." Ross was convicted on February 14, 1979, and sentenced to two concurrent life terms.[^2][^3] +An FBI informant reported in January 1978 that "a young action oriented cell under the control of Francisco 'Frank' Castro of the [[CORU]] organization," made up of Ross and Raciel Rodríguez, had bombed the Viasa Airlines office in Miami Beach on December 23, 1977. Indicted for the Letelier murders on August 1, 1978, Ross was tried with the Novo brothers from January 8, 1979. [[Sherman Kaminsky]], a racketeer awaiting sentence who had met him in the [[Metropolitan Correctional Center]] in New York, testified that Ross said "he was involved in the murder of Orlando Letelier together with generals in [[DINA]]," called Townley "a traitor, a rat, an informer," called Letelier "a rotten Communist Marxist," said he was "glad Letelier was dead," admitted "he had contributed two wires used in the bomb," and said "he would not pay for Letelier's murder because the CIA would be the scapegoat, people would believe anything of the CIA." The sentencing judge had told Kaminsky: "I am going to suspend the operation of that sentence depending on how you come through." Kaminsky's notes, given to his lawyer in August 1978 with a request that the CIA be told, recorded Ross saying "that a person blown up in Washington was a double agent of the CIA" and that he planned to blow up Russian ships in American harbors. Ross was convicted on February 14, 1979, and sentenced on March 23 to concurrent life terms on four counts and a consecutive life term for the murder of Moffitt; one of the four was vacated on March 27.[^2][^3] On September 15, 1980, the court of appeals reversed: after *[[United States v. Henry]]*, decided that June, testimony so obtained was inadmissible. At the retrial in May 1981 Townley, asked what Ross had done to carry out the assassination, answered: "There is nothing I can think of." The jury acquitted Ross and Novo of the murders.[^2][^4] +### Bail + +His motion for bail after the reversal, filed from the penitentiary at [[Marion, Illinois|Marion]] when he had "been incarcerated for over two years," said that before his arrest he had been questioned repeatedly by FBI agents in New Jersey about Letelier, subpoenaed to the grand jury, and had "made no attempt to flee or leave the country." He was born in [[Cuba]], had lived in the [[United States]] for more than twenty years, eight of them at 541 36th Street in Union City and eight before that in [[Hackensack, New Jersey|Hackensack]], was divorced with two children, and had sold cars for ten years at Carter Ford and Ascione Motors in [[North Bergen, New Jersey|North Bergen]], after work as a draftsman in Moonachie. "Although he has been arrested on other criminal charges, the defendant has no criminal record." Judge [[Barrington Parker]] refused to reassign the case on December 23, 1980, asked for appraisals of the New Jersey property offered as collateral, and had not ruled five weeks after receiving them when the defense went to the court of appeals.[^5] + ### Footnotes [^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, p. 14. [^2]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980). [^3]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 13.; "USA v. Guillermo Novo Sampol et al., 78-CR-367," case synopsis, latinamericanstudies.org, not verified against the docket. [^4]: "Michael Moffitt, who survived a car bomb that killed his wife," United Press International, May 13, 1981; "New Tactics Led to Acquittal in Letelier Case," CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680028-2, as summarized. +[^5]: Motion for bail and for reassignment, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., 1981), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-bail.pdf; Motion for bail, defendant Alvin Ross Diaz, Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-alvin-bail.pdf; Petition of the United States for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., October 29, 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-rehearing.pdf, footnote 3; Orders of transfer, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., August 1978 and 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-transfer-2.pdf and Letelier-transfer.pdf. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Eugene Propper.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Eugene Propper.md index 87f8bed9..cea45ac4 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Eugene Propper.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Eugene Propper.md @@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ Eugene M. Propper was the assistant [[United States Attorney]] in Washington ass The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] began sending him classified files, most of them on Chilean leftists. It "withheld from Propper the information that Deputy Director [[Vernon Walters]], a few weeks before the assassination, had learned about a covert mission to Washington by two Chilean intelligence officers using the names Juan Williams and [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Alejandro Romeral]]," the subject of Ambassador [[George Landau]]'s cable from [[Paraguay]], which Director [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]] "had personally handled." A source with personal knowledge said that Bush, meeting Propper, "made no mention of the mysterious Chilean agents or of his discussions with Walters." On October 21, 1976, Propper sat beside Attorney General [[Edward Levi]] when Letelier's widow and her lawyer asked that the CIA be subpoenaed, which Levi declined. The photographs from the Paraguayan passports, which the [[Department of State|State Department]] had given him in the fall of 1976, were first shown to a witness on July 12, 1977, and identified [[Michael Townley]]. Propper obtained Townley's expulsion from [[Chile]] in April 1978 and his guilty plea that August.[^2] +Newspaper clippings filed by the defense in 1978 reported that Propper, Assistant Attorney General [[Stanley Pottinger]], and the director of central intelligence, George Bush, had "met to determine to what extent that agency could help in the investigation," and that "a carefully worded agreement placing the Letelier case in a 'national security' status allowed that cooperation." During the trial Townley telephoned Chile from Propper's office, with his consent for calls about the extradition proceedings, and once, on January 30, 1979, without it, a call that was taped at the other end and given to the defense.[^3] + +The letter rogatory that carried the investigation to Chile, signed by Chief Judge William B. Bryant and certified by [[Cyrus Vance]] and [[Griffin Bell]], asked the Supreme Court of Chile to have "[[René Riveros|Juan Williams Rose]]" and "[[Rolando Mosqueira|Alejandro Romeral Jara]]" answer 55 written questions under oath, with Propper present. It stated that "at least one of these men met with one of the persons believed to be responsible" for the murders. The Chilean prosecutor in turn asked for a statement from Vernon Walters; Propper had already noted on June 9 that Walters had retired on July 2, 1976, and "was no longer there at the time either mission to the United States by DINA personnel took place"; he and Barcella sent the FBI's interview of June 14 on June 22.[^4] + ### Afterward With the journalist [[Taylor Branch]] he wrote *Labyrinth* (1982), an account of the case. By 1988 he was with the Washington law firm of Lane and Edson and a partner, without title, in [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], formed with Cornick, Scherrer, who had "recently retired from the FBI as its records chief," and Barcella. The firm offered governments, airlines, shipping companies, and the sponsors of events such as the Olympic Games "pro-active" plans against attack, the management of kidnappings and hijackings, "in-depth intelligence files," and "liaison programs with national and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies."[^1] @@ -30,3 +34,5 @@ With the journalist [[Taylor Branch]] he wrote *Labyrinth* (1982), an account of [^1]: "A group of top former FBI agents and federal prosecutors," United Press International, August 2, 1988. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/02/A-group-of-top-former-FBI-agents-and-federal/9684730900658/ [^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 242-243, 252, 297, 309-311. +[^3]: Motion for change of venue, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C. 1978), with newspaper clippings attached as exhibits, legible only in fragments, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-venue.pdf; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington field office, file 185-425, reports of interviews of Michael Vernon Townley by Special Agents Robert W. Scherrer and L. Carter Cornick, February 6, 8, and 16, 1979, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-townley-phone.pdf. +[^4]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, letter rogatory, Exp. 20931, and oficio of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, February 27, 1978; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, memoranda of Eugene M. Propper and E. Lawrence Barcella, June 5, 9, and 22, 1978. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Felipe Rivero.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Felipe Rivero.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ae664439 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Felipe Rivero.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +tags: + - Person + - FelipeRivero + - CubanNationalistMovement + - CubanExiles + - Brigade2506 + - OrlandoLetelier + - MichaelTownley +alias: + - Felipe Rivero Díaz + - Felipe Rivero Diaz +summary: "Founder and ideological chief of the Cuban Nationalist Movement whom Michael Townley named as the man who sent him to Guillermo Novo in 1975, called before the Letelier grand jury in 1977 and never charged." +location: "Miami, Florida" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Felipe Rivero Díaz, a veteran of [[Brigade 2506]] at the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]], founded the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] with the brothers [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Ignacio Novo]] and wrote its political thesis, "La guerra por los caminos del mundo," war along the roads of the world. In [[Miami]] he worked at Biltmore Motors, a car dealership.[^1][^2] + +### Townley + +In December 1974 Rivero sent Guillermo Novo and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] to [[Chile]] "to pay homage to Pinochet," and they entered the country with [[Orlando Bosch]].[^3] Early in 1975 [[Michael Townley]] of [[DINA]] came to Miami looking for Cuban exiles to help kill two Chilean exiles in [[Mexico City]]. According to the government's summary of his testimony at the 1979 trial, "the Cuban groups whom he was able to contact appeared to be too talkative and loose in security. Finally, a man named Felipe Rivero suggested he talk to appellant Guillermo Novo, the head of the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM) in [[New Jersey]]. Townley remembered the name as being one of the people who had arrived with Orlando Bosch in Chile in late 1974."[^4] Townley's wife, [[Mariana Callejas]], said in August 1978, hours before leaving [[Santiago]] for the United States under [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] protection, that she had known Rivero in Miami, where Townley worked at Amco Transmission near Rivero's dealership, that Rivero was one of her husband's friends, and that he was "the man who established the contact between Townley and Guillermo Novo."[^2] + +### The Grand Jury + +Rivero was summoned to appear on Wednesday, May 4, 1977, before the federal grand jury in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] investigating the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]], the fifteenth Cuban exile called in seven months. "They summon me because of my dual role, on the one hand as ideological chief of the Cuban Nationalist Movement and on the other as a member of the Brigade. Both groups fall under certain suspicions," he said, calling the suspicions "absurd" and "unfounded." At least seven of the fifteen belonged to the movement, and three, Rivero and the Novo brothers, were founders; others were [[Alvin Ross]], Suárez, Roberto Carballo of the veterans' association, and its military operations chief [[Armando López Estrada]].[^1] In August 1978 an FBI source in New York refused to comment on links between Rivero and Townley, confirmed that Rivero had been before the grand jury months earlier, and called "absurd" the suggestion that the bureau had agreed to leave him out of the prosecution in return for information.[^2] + +That month Rivero called General [[Augusto Pinochet]] "a coward and a traitor" for surrendering to the American authorities men they had linked to the death of Letelier, whom he called "the notorious spy of Allende and Castro." He said the five accused Cubans, Guillermo Novo, Ross, [[Virgilio Paz]], Ignacio Novo, and Suárez, "do not deserve this kind of accusation," and asked "all exiled Cubans" for 100,000 dollars for their defense.[^5] The Chilean investigation of [[Manuel Contreras]] and [[Pedro Espinoza]] later put to a witness by letters rogatory: "Have you met or spoken to Felipe Rivero? If so, state the date and purpose of each such meeting, its location, and the subjects discussed," between the same questions about Bosch and about false documents from the Novos, Suárez, and Ross.[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Marina, Gloria. "Citan a Felipe Rivero en el caso Letelier," *El Miami Herald,* May 3, 1977, scan at latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/Rivero-Letelier.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish +[^2]: de Dios Unanue, Manuel. "FBI no comenta posibles nexos Rivero y Townley," *El Diario-La Prensa,* August 21, 1978, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/DLP-8-21-1978-11.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish +[^3]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 147-152. +[^4]: Brief for Appellee, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-brief-appellee.pdf, statement of facts, citing trial transcript pp. 1599-1600. +[^5]: Alles, Agustín. "Pinochet es un cobarde y un traidor, dice Felipe Rivero," *Réplica,* August 3, 1978, p. 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Replica-8-3-1978-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish +[^6]: Corte Suprema de Justicia de Chile, proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo, ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, interrogatories in English, scan at latinamericanstudies.org, Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Guillermo Novo.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Guillermo Novo.md index 95d857c2..c8684a04 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Guillermo Novo.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Guillermo Novo.md @@ -27,19 +27,28 @@ In December 1964 Novo fired a bazooka at the [[United Nations]] building while [ In December 1974 the movement's leader, [[Felipe Rivero]], sent Novo and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] to [[Chile]] "to pay homage to Pinochet." They entered the country with [[Orlando Bosch]]. When [[Michael Townley]] of [[DINA]] and his wife, [[Mariana Callejas]], first came to a Union City motel, Novo, Suarez, and Armando Santana "drew guns and ordered the couple to sit down," searched the luggage, and found an American passport in the name Kenneth Enyart and a Chilean identity card in the name Andres Wilson. "Finally, Novo put away his pistol and extended his hand to Townley." The movement lent Townley [[Virgilio Paz]] for a DINA mission to [[Mexico]] and Europe. A communique in the name of "Zero," a label used by Novo, his brother [[Ignacio Novo|Ignacio]], and Suarez, claimed the shooting of [[Bernardo Leighton]] in [[Rome]] in October 1975. The FBI credited it "because it provided details of the attack that only the assassins could know."[^2] +A card of the Chilean [[Central Nacional de Informaciones|CNI]] records that Novo entered Chile on December 3, 1974, "together with Orlando Bosch Ávila," on American passport E-2.380.607, from [[Venezuela]]. Townley told the Chilean prosecutor in 1978 that Novo's nom de guerre was Santiago Otero, that they met at the restaurant La Estrella in Union City in September 1976, and that the movement's directorate asked him for "a quiet place, preferably in the countryside," in Chile where its people could train. A Chilean admiral recalled a letter signed by Novo to the consul in New York declining to attend the visit of the training ship Esmeralda in July 1976 because Chile had handed [[Rolando Otero]] to the Americans.[^3] + ### Letelier -On September 10, 1976, at Union City, Townley "outlined my DINA mission to assassinate Letelier and requested the assistance of the Cuban Nationalist Movement." Novo demanded a full explanation and argued that "DINA should have killed Otero rather than turn him over to the FBI," a reference to the surrender of [[Rolando Otero]] to [[Robert Scherrer]]. After a meeting at the Chateau Renaissance Motel he sent formal word that the movement would help. He introduced Townley to [[Alvin Ross]], once a blackjack dealer at the [[Tropicana Club|Tropicana]] in [[Havana]]. On September 15 "Novo handed Townley a paper bag" holding detonating cord, C-4, and TNT. Paz and Suarez went with Townley to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], where [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]] were killed on September 21.[^2] +On September 10, 1976, at Union City, Townley "outlined my DINA mission to assassinate Letelier and requested the assistance of the Cuban Nationalist Movement." Novo demanded a full explanation and argued that "DINA should have killed Otero rather than turn him over to the FBI," a reference to the surrender of Rolando Otero to [[Robert Scherrer]]. After a meeting at the Chateau Renaissance Motel he sent formal word that the movement would help. He introduced Townley to [[Alvin Ross]], once a blackjack dealer at the [[Tropicana Club|Tropicana]] in [[Havana]]. On September 15 "Novo handed Townley a paper bag" holding detonating cord, C-4, and TNT. Paz and Suarez went with Townley to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], where [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]] were killed on September 21.[^2] Asked by the prosecutor [[Eugene Propper]] and the agent [[Carter Cornick]] where he had been the night before the bombing, Novo said: "That is my trump card. That is the ace up my sleeve." The informant [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete|Ricardo Morales]], then an officer of the Venezuelan [[DISIP]], had planted a story that Bosch was telling associates the "Novo brothers" had killed Letelier. "Bosch is a liar and a traitor to freedom," Novo said.[^1] ### Trials -Indicted on August 1, 1978, Novo was tried with Alvin Ross and his brother Ignacio Novo from January 8, 1979. Michael Townley, who had pleaded, testified that DINA "ordered him to secure assistance from the CNM" so as to isolate itself, and that Novo had insisted Townley take part personally. A jailhouse informant, Antonio Polytarides, testified to Novo's admissions. The defense argued that Townley "was in fact an agent of the United States Central Intelligence Agency which had planned the assassination of Letelier." On February 14, 1979, the jury convicted all three; Novo received two life terms and five years for lying to the grand jury. On September 15, 1980, the court of appeals reversed under *[[United States v. Henry]]*, decided that June, which barred testimony from informants cultivated by the government among pretrial detainees; Ignacio's conviction fell for want of a separate trial. At the retrial of May 1981 the jury acquitted Novo and Ross of the murders and convicted Novo of the false declarations. In October 1981 he was released from federal prison by mistake, officials having confused him with his brother. An FBI informant had reported in January 1978 that he was organizing [[CORU]] cells in Union City "for military action in the U.S. and against the country of Venezuela."[^3][^4] +Indicted on August 1, 1978, Novo was tried with Alvin Ross and his brother Ignacio Novo from January 8, 1979. Michael Townley, who had pleaded, testified that DINA "ordered him to secure assistance from the CNM" so as to isolate itself, and that Novo had insisted Townley take part personally. A jailhouse informant, Antonio Polytarides, testified to Novo's admissions. The defense argued that Townley "was in fact an agent of the United States Central Intelligence Agency which had planned the assassination of Letelier." On February 14, 1979, the jury convicted all three. On March 23 Judge [[Barrington Parker]] sentenced Novo and Ross to concurrent life terms for conspiracy, for killing a foreign official, for the murder of Letelier under District of Columbia law, and for destroying a vehicle in interstate commerce, and a consecutive life term for the murder of Moffitt under District law; the judgment on the third count was vacated on March 27. Novo received five years, concurrent, on each count of false declarations; Ignacio received eight years. Polytarides's evidence was one sentence Novo spoke to him in mid-December 1978, when Polytarides was reporting to a customs agent on gun purchases: "I have been betrayed by some persons in my case, but we will pay them back." On September 15, 1980, the court of appeals reversed under *[[United States v. Henry]]*, decided that June, which barred testimony from informants cultivated by the government among pretrial detainees; Ignacio's conviction fell for want of a separate trial. The government's petition for rehearing was denied on December 9, 1980. Novo, held at [[Leavenworth]], and Ross, at [[Marion, Illinois|Marion]], were moved to Washington for the retrial; Parker refused on December 23, 1980, to hand the case to another judge and let their bail applications lie for weeks. At the retrial of May 1981 the jury acquitted Novo and Ross of the murders and convicted Novo of the false declarations. On June 26, 1981, his lawyer asked that another judge sentence him, since Parker "sentenced this defendant to two life sentences in the first case"; Parker refused and gave him 54 months with credit for the three years served, recommending a minimum-security prison near New York. In October 1981 he was released from federal prison by mistake, officials having confused him with his brother. An FBI informant had reported in January 1978 that he was organizing [[CORU]] cells in Union City "for military action in the U.S. and against the country of Venezuela."[^4][^5] + +### The CIA Defense + +Defense counsel told the jury in opening that "the CIA and not the Chilean government masterminded the Letelier assassination." Parker ruled: "I'm not going to let you put the CIA on trial in this case," and barred cross-examination of government witnesses on the subject, so that the prosecutor could ask Senator [[George McGovern]] what Letelier had said to him about the agency ("Nothing that I can recall") while the defense could not follow. The appeal brief rested the theory on "Townley's admissions that he had had several contacts with the CIA," on discovery material showing he "had been interviewed by the CIA and had been given 'operational status,'" on the absence from the agency's folder on Townley of any indication that he had worked for DINA, and on "a CIA front organization" in [[Florida]] said to have "attempted to establish an alibi for Townley on the day of the Letelier assassination." The organization was [[Audio Intelligence Devices]] of John Holcomb in [[Fort Lauderdale, Florida|Fort Lauderdale]], where Townley, by his own testimony, spent several hours on the morning of September 21, "signing in and out as was required," while the bomb went off in Washington. The government answered that Townley had twice telephoned the agency's public office in [[Miami]], in 1970 and 1973, and "never did any work whatsoever for the CIA"; that its director of security, [[Robert Gambino]], had testified he did not know whether there were agents in Chile in the early 1970s; and that Audio Intelligence Devices "has never been a 'front,' proprietary, or any other type of sub-organization owing allegiance to the CIA," while quoting a study of freelance operators to the effect that Holcomb "won't talk about any connections he may have to the CIA, but creates the impression that the ties are there, and binding." Newspaper clippings the defense filed to show prejudicial publicity reported that Propper, Assistant Attorney General [[Stanley Pottinger]], and the director of central intelligence, [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]], had met to decide how far the agency could help, under "a carefully worded agreement placing the Letelier case in a 'national security' status."[^6][^7] ### Footnotes [^1]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 101-108. [^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 9-21, 147-152, 240. -[^3]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980). -[^4]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 13. "Wrong Man Freed in Letelier Case," *Washington Post,* October 21, 1981, as summarized. +[^3]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, CNI ficha on Guillermo Novo Sampol; declaración of Admiral McIntyre, 1978; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Michael Vernon Townley Welch, March 29, 1978. +[^4]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980). +[^5]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 13. "Wrong Man Freed in Letelier Case," *Washington Post,* October 21, 1981, as summarized. +[^6]: Brief for Appellants, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-appeal.pdf, points on cross-examination and discovery, citing trial transcript pp. 1233, 1262, 1348-1360, 1474, 4657-4668, 5019, 5061; Brief for Appellee, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-brief-appellee.pdf, citing trial transcript pp. 1584-1590, 4995, 5024-5031, and footnote 72; Motion for change of venue, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C. 1978), with newspaper clippings attached as exhibits, legible only in fragments, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-venue.pdf. +[^7]: Petition of the United States for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., October 29, 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-rehearing.pdf, footnote 4; Transcript of sentencing, *United States v. Guillermo Novo Sampol,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., June 26, 1981), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-novo-sentence.pdf; Motion for bail and for reassignment, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., 1981), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-bail.pdf; Motion for bail, defendant Alvin Ross Diaz, Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-alvin-bail.pdf; Orders of transfer, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., August 1978 and 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-transfer-2.pdf and Letelier-transfer.pdf. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Héctor Orozco.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Héctor Orozco.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7b713332 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Héctor Orozco.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - HectorOrozco + - Chile + - OrlandoLetelier + - DINA + - MilitaryJustice +alias: + - Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda + - Hector Orozco +summary: "Chilean army general named ad hoc military prosecutor in March 1978 for the Letelier passport case, who took the DINA officers' statements and had the FBI interview Vernon Walters." +location: "Santiago, Chile" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda was appointed ad hoc military prosecutor of causa 192-78 by decree of March 21, 1978, with Major Jaime Vergara Lönnberg as his secretary, after the letter rogatory from the federal court in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] on the two Chilean officers who had entered the [[United States]] in August 1976 under false names. Two days later the civilian case on the passports, in which the judge Marcos Libedinsky had found that they were used by "two Army Captains, in fulfillment of a confidential mission assigned to them by their superiors," was joined to his file.[^1] + +### The Statements + +His file holds the sworn statements of [[Manuel Contreras]], [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]], [[René Riveros]], and [[Rolando Mosqueira]] (March 22), [[Michael Townley]] (March 29), [[Mariana Callejas]] (April 4), [[Pedro Espinoza]] (April 24), and [[DINA]]'s passport clerk (April 12); Mosqueira had already testified before the civilian judge on March 20. On March 23 he widened the investigation with requests to Enrique Montero, General Odlanier Mena of the CNI, General Washington Carrasco, General Nilo Floody, and the military mission in Washington. On April 10 he ordered Espinoza, [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann]], Townley, and others re-examined on the code names Quetropillán and Avispa, a confrontation between Townley and Espinoza "as to who assigned Townley each of the operations he carried out abroad," and a handwriting sample from Callejas against a document in the file. Before May 1 he asked the American authorities for a sworn statement from General [[Vernon Walters]], or failing that his answers to whether "in exercising his duties as former Deputy Director of the CIA, he asked General Contreras to send him some contacts to receive the names of certain lobbyists." The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] interviewed Walters on June 14, 1978, and the Chilean embassy reported by secret telex that this had been done "acceding to Fiscal Orozco's request." His oficio of June 23 explained that routine requests went through the CNI to the FBI, while letters rogatory were reserved for the sworn interrogatories. On March 14, 1979, the military judge Enrique Morel replaced him with General Santiago Sinclair, a month after Contreras and Espinoza, through [[Sergio Miranda Carrington]], had asked the Supreme Court for access to the file in the extradition proceedings.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, decree of March 21, 1978, and order of March 23, 1978. +[^2]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, resolutions of April 10 and before May 1, 1978, and the declaraciones cited; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, oficio of June 23, 1978; telex of the Chilean embassy in Washington; decree of Enrique Morel Donoso, March 14, 1979; pleading of February 19, 1979. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ignacio Novo.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ignacio Novo.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0fa8c92f --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ignacio Novo.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +tags: + - Person + - IgnacioNovo + - CubanNationalistMovement + - CubanExiles + - OrlandoLetelier + - FBI +alias: + - Ignacio Novo Sampol +summary: "Co-founder of the Cuban Nationalist Movement, brother of Guillermo Novo, who bought forged papers from an FBI informant in 1977 and was convicted in 1979 of lying to the Letelier grand jury." +location: "Union City, New Jersey" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Ignacio Novo Sampol founded the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] with his brother [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Felipe Rivero]].[^1] The communiques in the name of "Zero" that claimed the shooting of [[Bernardo Leighton]] in [[Rome]] in 1975 used a label shared by the brothers and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]].[^2] + +### The Informant + +In the spring of 1977, as the grand jury in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] examined the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]], Novo bought forged identity papers in the name Frederick Pagan from [[Ricardo Cañete]] of [[Brooklyn]], who was reporting to Special Agent [[Larry Wack]] of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]. He showed Cañete a photograph of an FBI agent, "This is the cocksucker, who wants Guillermo," not knowing that the agent was Wack. He said of the bureau's pressure: "If GUILLERMO goes inside, it's war. This was already decided on tonight." He explained that counterfeit money was called "wine" on the telephone because the [[National Security Agency|NSA]] listened to calls to [[Chile]], and reported that four men had left for [[Miami]] with copies of the Pagan papers. He was carrying a cut-down Uzi with a silencer.[^3] By May 1977 he was among fifteen exiles summoned before the grand jury.[^1] + +### Trial + +The indictment of August 1, 1978, charged him with two counts of false declarations to the grand jury and one of misprision of felony. His lawyer, Jerry Feldman, moved for a separate trial: the charges against his co-defendants were "substantially more serious," and "since one of the defendants named in the more serious charges in this indictment is Ignacio Novo Sampol's brother, the jury in a joint trial would be inclined to consider the evidence against the brother as incriminatory." Judge [[Barrington Parker]] denied it. The jury convicted him on February 14, 1979, and on March 23 he was sentenced to five years on each false declaration count, concurrent, and three years consecutive for misprision. On September 15, 1980, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|court of appeals]] reversed "on the ground that he should have been severed from the other defendants."[^4][^5] In October 1981 federal officials released his brother by mistake, confusing the two.[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Marina, Gloria. "Citan a Felipe Rivero en el caso Letelier," *El Miami Herald,* May 3, 1977, scan at latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/Rivero-Letelier.pdf +[^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 147-152. +[^3]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York office, reports of interviews of Ricardo Cañete by Special Agent Larry E. Wack, May 10 to May 18, 1977, scans at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/canete.pdf +[^4]: Motion for a Severance, defendant Ignacio Novo Sampol, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C. 1978), with order granting, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-severance-ignacio.pdf; Petition of the United States for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., October 29, 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-rehearing.pdf, footnote 1; Brief for Appellee, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-brief-appellee.pdf, statement of the case. +[^5]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980). +[^6]: "Wrong Man Freed in Letelier Case," *Washington Post,* October 21, 1981, as summarized. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md index 91979e0f..eb222440 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ tags: - LasCosas - PROMIS category: "Organized Crime" -summary: "Johnny Roselli was a senior Chicago Outfit figure operating in Las Vegas and Hollywood who was recruited by the CIA in 1960 as the primary organized crime conduit for assassination plots against Fidel Castro, testified before the Church Committee in 1975-1976, and was murdered and stuffed in an oil drum in Dumfoundling Bay, Florida, shortly after his second Senate appearance." +summary: "Chicago Outfit man in Las Vegas and Hollywood recruited by the CIA through Robert Maheu in 1960 against Castro, who testified to the Church Committee and was found in an oil drum off Miami." born: 1905-07-04 died: 1976-08-09 location: "Los Angeles, California / Las Vegas, Nevada" diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jose Dionisio Suarez.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jose Dionisio Suarez.md index 363e67a7..715bfdfe 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jose Dionisio Suarez.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jose Dionisio Suarez.md @@ -20,17 +20,20 @@ updated: 2026-09-21 José Dionisio Suárez Esquivel, a former officer of the Cuban revolutionary army, was called "El Cepillo" and "Charco de Sangre," pool of blood, "for his work in carrying out executions since the revolutionaries' victory." In December 1974 he went with [[Guillermo Novo]] to [[Chile]] "to pay homage to Pinochet," entering with [[Orlando Bosch]]. At a [[Union City, New Jersey|Union City]] motel he and Armando Santana searched [[Michael Townley]]'s luggage at gunpoint and found the passport of Kenneth Enyart.[^1] +A card of the Chilean [[Central Nacional de Informaciones|CNI]] records that Suárez, "Cuban exile of the MNC," entered Chile on December 4, 1974, on Venezuelan passport 1.289.386, and left on December 19 for [[Colombia]] "posing as an American tourist"; Guillermo Novo had entered the day before "together with Orlando Bosch Ávila" on an American passport.[^2] + ### September 1976 -Suárez was at the meeting of September 10, 1976, where Townley asked the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] for help. He "drove to Washington in his late-model American car" on September 18, lent Townley more than a hundred dollars, and because he had a new job to start in [[New Jersey]] on Monday pressed the others to move quickly. He supplied a blasting cap. "During the ride to Letelier's house, I was informed by Paz and Suarez that they expected me to place the device on the car as they wished to have a DINA agent, namely myself, directly tied to the placing of the device," Townley stated. Suárez drove him to [[National Airport]] for the first flight to Newark. Townley told investigators he believed Suárez set off the bomb "by pressing two buttons on a telephone beeping device as he trailed Letelier at [[Sheridan Circle]]."[^1][^2] +Suárez was at the meeting of September 10, 1976, where Townley asked the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] for help. He "drove to Washington in his late-model American car" on September 18, lent Townley more than a hundred dollars, and because he had a new job to start in [[New Jersey]] on Monday pressed the others to move quickly. He supplied a blasting cap. "During the ride to Letelier's house, I was informed by Paz and Suarez that they expected me to place the device on the car as they wished to have a [[DINA]] agent, namely myself, directly tied to the placing of the device," Townley stated. Suárez drove him to [[National Airport]] for the first flight to Newark. Townley told investigators he believed Suárez set off the bomb "by pressing two buttons on a telephone beeping device as he trailed Letelier at [[Sheridan Circle]]."[^1][^3] ### Fugitive -Indicted on August 1, 1978, with Novo, [[Alvin Ross]], [[Manuel Contreras]], [[Pedro Espinoza]], [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]], and [[Virgilio Paz]], he had earlier "spent 11½ months in a D.C. jail rather than testify before a grand jury." FBI agents found him on April 11, 1990, in a modest house in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], an unemployed painter known as Jose Suárez, with his wife and a fifteen-month-old son. "Jose is basically a scapegoat," his wife said. "In exchange for a promise not to prosecute his wife," he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder a foreign official and was sentenced to eight years. Released on probation in 1997, he was held by the immigration service at [[Bradenton, Florida|Bradenton]] because [[Cuba]] would not take him, until the Supreme Court's ruling of June 2001 against indefinite detention. Freed on August 14, 2001, he said: "I want to clarify a lot of things. There have been many lies."[^2][^3][^4] +Indicted on August 1, 1978, with Novo, [[Alvin Ross]], [[Manuel Contreras]], [[Pedro Espinoza]], [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]], and [[Virgilio Paz]], he had earlier "spent 11½ months in a D.C. jail rather than testify before a grand jury." FBI agents found him on April 11, 1990, in a modest house in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], an unemployed painter known as Jose Suárez, with his wife and a fifteen-month-old son. "Jose is basically a scapegoat," his wife said. "In exchange for a promise not to prosecute his wife," he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder a foreign official and was sentenced to eight years. Released on probation in 1997, he was held by the immigration service at [[Bradenton, Florida|Bradenton]] because [[Cuba]] would not take him, until the Supreme Court's ruling of June 2001 against indefinite detention. Freed on August 14, 2001, he said: "I want to clarify a lot of things. There have been many lies."[^3][^4][^5] ### Footnotes [^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 16-21, 148-151, 240. -[^2]: McAllister, Bill. "Suspect Arrested in Letelier Slaying," *Washington Post,* April 12, 1990. -[^3]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980).; "USA v. Guillermo Novo Sampol et al., 78-CR-367," case synopsis, latinamericanstudies.org, not verified against the docket. -[^4]: "Conspirator in '76 Letelier Assassination Released," Reuters, *Washington Post,* August 16, 2001, p. A13. +[^2]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, CNI fichas on José Dionisio Suárez Esquivel, Guillermo Novo Sampol, and Virgilio Pablo Paz Romero, undated, 1978. +[^3]: McAllister, Bill. "Suspect Arrested in Letelier Slaying," *Washington Post,* April 12, 1990. +[^4]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980).; "USA v. Guillermo Novo Sampol et al., 78-CR-367," case synopsis, latinamericanstudies.org, not verified against the docket. +[^5]: "Conspirator in '76 Letelier Assassination Released," Reuters, *Washington Post,* August 16, 2001, p. A13. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Lee Pennington.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Lee Pennington.md index 6ca05575..7bea7849 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Lee Pennington.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Lee Pennington.md @@ -20,18 +20,19 @@ Lee R. Pennington Jr. was "a former FBI inspector" and "an old family friend of ### June 1972 -Shortly after [[James McCord]] was arrested at the [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]], Pennington visited the McCord house, "where he found Mrs. McCord, with her daughter and son-in-law, destroying papers." He reported it. In August 1972 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s Alexandria office asked the Office of Security about a "Pennington" who might have been McCord's supervisor. The agency answered with "the name of another Pennington, an employee of the CIA Office of Security, but who had never been a supervisor of McCord." The Senate minority staff found the purpose was "to withhold the name of Lee R. Pennington." In November and December 1972 he passed his case officer a memorandum by McCord about [[Jack Anderson]].[^1][^3] +Shortly after [[James McCord]] was arrested at the [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]], Pennington visited the McCord house, "where he found Mrs. McCord, with her daughter and son-in-law, destroying papers." He reported it. In August 1972 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s Alexandria office asked the Office of Security about a "Pennington" who might have been McCord's supervisor. The agency answered with "the name of another Pennington, an employee of the CIA Office of Security, but who had never been a supervisor of McCord." The Senate minority staff found the purpose was "to withhold the name of Lee R. Pennington." The Kennedy assassination records include memoranda of 1960 and 1961 by a C. H. Pennington of the agency's Alien Affairs Staff on [[Tony Varona|Manuel Antonio Varona]], [[José Miró Cardona]], and the visa of [[Marcos Díaz Lanz]]; whether he was the employee named to the bureau is not stated in the record.[^4] In November and December 1972 he passed his case officer a memorandum by McCord about [[Jack Anderson]].[^1][^3] -The published minority report of the Senate committee gives the retainer as "$250 per month until December of 1973" and states: "The Agency has advised that the Security Research Staff was abolished in August of 1973."[^4] +The published minority report of the Senate committee gives the retainer as "$250 per month until December of 1973" and states: "The Agency has advised that the Security Research Staff was abolished in August of 1973."[^5] ### 1974 -In January 1974, when the agency's inspector general was to review the Watergate files, [[Howard Osborn]] "ordered that the Pennington materials be removed." An employee of the Personnel Security Division copied them to his safe and told the inspector general. Osborn's memorandum of February 22, 1974, went to the Senate committee, the oversight committees, and the special prosecutor. Pennington testified in executive session on February 23 "that he did not go to the McCord home for the purpose of searching for or destroying CIA-related documents, but does acknowledge witnessing the destruction of documents." The testimony of others, the staff wrote, indicated "more active participation." Osborn retired on February 26. "The Security Research Staff has now been abolished." The staff noted that Pennington "may have been a 'domestic agent,' possibly in violation of the CIA's charter," and that his agency file "apparently has portions missing from it." The file itself went only to the House subcommittee of [[Lucien Nedzi]], with "gaps" the agency acknowledged. Nedzi concluded that the agency had not sent him to burn the papers. McCord wrote that Pennington, then 60, "came over to bring food to my family" and destroyed nothing.[^1][^2][^5] +In January 1974, when the agency's inspector general was to review the Watergate files, [[Howard Osborn]] "ordered that the Pennington materials be removed." An employee of the Personnel Security Division copied them to his safe and told the inspector general. Osborn's memorandum of February 22, 1974, went to the Senate committee, the oversight committees, and the special prosecutor. Pennington testified in executive session on February 23 "that he did not go to the McCord home for the purpose of searching for or destroying CIA-related documents, but does acknowledge witnessing the destruction of documents." The testimony of others, the staff wrote, indicated "more active participation." Osborn retired on February 26. "The Security Research Staff has now been abolished." The staff noted that Pennington "may have been a 'domestic agent,' possibly in violation of the CIA's charter," and that his agency file "apparently has portions missing from it." The file itself went only to the House subcommittee of [[Lucien Nedzi]], with "gaps" the agency acknowledged. Nedzi concluded that the agency had not sent him to burn the papers. McCord wrote that Pennington, then 60, "came over to bring food to my family" and destroyed nothing.[^1][^2][^6] ### Footnotes [^1]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, minority staff, "CIA Investigation," memorandum of Senator Howard H. Baker Jr., 1974, later printed in *Final Report,* S. Rept. 93-981, pp. 1115-1165. CIA Reading Room copy, document 01481990. [^2]: Anderson, Jack. "Washington Merry-Go-Round," *Washington Post,* April 2, 1974, p. B15. [^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Questions Raised About Lee R. Pennington," 1974. CIA Reading Room, document 01435032. -[^4]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. "Minority Report on CIA Involvement, Submitted at the Request of Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr.," in *The Senate Watergate Report,* Dell, 1974, vol. 2, pp. 732 ff. (S. Rept. 93-981, 1974), "Pennington Matter." -[^5]: McCord, James W., Jr. Letter to the editor, *Washington Star-News,* July 3, 1974. CIA Reading Room, document 01482011. +[^4]: Pennington, C. H., Alien Affairs Staff. Memoranda of August 19, 1960, February 20, 1961, and March 27, 1961, JFK records 104-10130-10149, 104-10130-10142, 104-10130-10140; telephone note of March 24, 1960, JFK record 104-10260-10095. +[^5]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. "Minority Report on CIA Involvement, Submitted at the Request of Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr.," in *The Senate Watergate Report,* Dell, 1974, vol. 2, pp. 732 ff. (S. Rept. 93-981, 1974), "Pennington Matter." +[^6]: McCord, James W., Jr. Letter to the editor, *Washington Star-News,* July 3, 1974. CIA Reading Room, document 01482011. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/René Riveros.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/René Riveros.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1b3b1adc --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/René Riveros.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - ReneRiveros + - DINA + - OrlandoLetelier + - VernonWalters + - Chile +alias: + - René Riveros Valderrama + - Rene Riveros Valderrama + - Juan Williams Rose +summary: "DINA captain who flew to Washington on August 21, 1976, as Juan Williams Rose, the false name Townley had carried on a Paraguayan passport, on a mission to find General Vernon Walters." +location: "Santiago, Chile" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +René Miguel Riveros Valderrama, a captain of the Chilean army serving in an "extra-institutional commission" of [[DINA]], testified on March 22, 1978, that in August 1976 [[Manuel Contreras]] gave him and Captain [[Rolando Mosqueira]] a mission to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] "to make contact with the North American General [[Vernon Walters]] in order to receive certain information relating to the names of certain persons." They left on August 21 on official Chilean passports, his in the name Juan Williams Rose and Mosqueira's as Alejandro Romeral Jara, "handed to us ready by the passport staff at DINA, together with the tickets via Aero Perú." The passport was issued on August 17, 1976, number 528/76, with a birth date of March 12, 1949, an address at Bustamante 24, and blue eyes; the American embassy in [[Santiago]] issued official A-2 visas the same day. The names were those on the Paraguayan passports that [[Michael Townley]] and [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]] had carried in July, whose visas the [[United States]] had revoked.[^1][^2] + +### Washington + +They could not find Walters, who was giving up his post and on leave; "finally a CIA secretary whom we could not identify told us that General Walters no longer worked at that intelligence agency." They called on a Chilean general Mosqueira knew, giving their real names and ranks but not their errand, and when every approach failed telephoned [[Pedro Espinoza]], DINA's chief of operations, who authorized their return. Walters, interviewed by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] on June 14, 1978, "laughed and dismissed the idea as being ludicrous on its face," since he had retired on July 2, 1976.[^1][^3] + +### The Letters Rogatory + +A letter rogatory of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, signed by Chief Judge William B. Bryant and certified by Secretary of State [[Cyrus Vance]] and Attorney General [[Griffin Bell]], was delivered unsealed to the Chilean foreign ministry by the chargé d'affaires, Thomas Boyatt, and forwarded to the Supreme Court on February 27, 1978. It stated that "two members of the Chilean armed forces entered the United States one month before the murder of Mr. Letelier and Mrs. Moffitt. At least one of these men met with one of the persons believed to be responsible for the acts in question. Previously, both had obtained visas to enter the United States by using fraudulent documents from a country other than Chile," the Paraguayan passports of Townley and Fernández Larios, and asked that "Juan Williams Rose" and "Alejandro Romeral Jara" answer 55 written questions under oath with [[Eugene Propper]] present: who gave the orders; whether they had discussed the mission with Contreras or with "the President of Chile, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, or with any of his direct subordinates"; their contacts with [[Guillermo Novo]], [[Ignacio Novo]], [[Jose Dionisio Suarez|José Dionisio Suárez]], [[Alvin Ross]], [[Orlando Bosch]], and [[Felipe Rivero]]; whether they had brought explosives; whether they had stayed at the Chilean embassy or military mission; and a meeting in February 1976 with [[Rolando Otero]], "at that time a fugitive from United States law," attended by "a man who introduced himself as Major Torres of DINA" and another calling himself Marcelo Estobel. Chile's Supreme Court noted that no treaty on letters rogatory existed between the two countries. General Nilo Floody, the officer the two captains had called on in Washington, reported to the prosecutor that they had visited him. In March 1978 the civilian judge Marcos Libedinsky, who had taken the statements of the two captains on March 20 and released them on bond, found that the passports "were used in August 1976 to travel to the United States and then return to Chile by two Army Captains, in fulfillment of a confidential mission assigned to them by their superiors," and sent the case to the military courts, where on March 23 it was joined to the file of the ad hoc military prosecutor [[Héctor Orozco]], before whom Riveros testified on March 22.[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of René Miguel Riveros Valderrama, March 22, 1978. +[^2]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, letter rogatory, Exp. 20931, and inspection of official passport 528/76; declaración of Luis Humberto García González, April 12, 1978. +[^3]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, memorandum of Eugene M. Propper and E. Lawrence Barcella, June 22, 1978, with the FBI report of the interview of Vernon Walters, June 14, 1978, and addendum of June 9, 1978. +[^4]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, tomo 1, oficio of General Nilo Floody Buxton to the prosecutor, 1978 (column-bled scan, read in part); Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, letter rogatory with questionnaire of 55 questions; oficio of the Ministry of Foreign Relations to the President of the Supreme Court, February 27, 1978; resolution of the Supreme Court; resolution of Ministro en Visita Marcos Libedinsky, March 21, 1978, and order of March 23, 1978, joining causa 88.112-2 to causa 192-78. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Scherrer.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Scherrer.md index 3b4098e6..36ed62d3 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Scherrer.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Scherrer.md @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ updated: 2026-09-21 Robert Scherrer was the legal attaché of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] at the embassy in [[Buenos Aires]], responsible from 1972 for the southern cone of [[South America]]. The bureau "recruited him when he was eighteen, gave him a job as a filing clerk, and sent him to [[Fordham University]] to get a law degree." In the middle 1960s he served on the [[New York City|New York]] squad that watched Cuban exiles. "He had made it his business to get to know Chile's [[Manuel Contreras]]," on whom he called "on each trip to Chile."[^1] -"In fact, he was a one-man intelligence station whose sources in all of the [[Southern Cone]] countries were the envy of the CIA and U.S. military intelligence." He had gone abroad with the first wave of legal attachés after [[J. Edgar Hoover]] persuaded President [[Richard Nixon]] in 1970 to approve the program. After arrests of members of the [[Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria]] in [[Paraguay]], "Scherrer sent a letter informing his main police source in Chile, General [[Ernesto Baeza]]," which has been called "the first documented case of U.S. official participation in the multicountry operations against the JCR." The bureau called it a "routine and traditional form of cooperation." "They should be rounded up," Scherrer said of the revolutionaries in 1979. "But they should be tried, not slaughtered." He said the military governments in 1975 formally proposed that the bureau have a "more open exchange of information with them" about people in the [[United States]] they considered terrorists. Contreras later testified that Scherrer was in "permanent contact" with Condor's representative in Buenos Aires "and received the information that he asked for." Scherrer said he learned that the CIA had provided DINA with the computer systems he presumed were used in the Condor data bank.[^2] +"In fact, he was a one-man intelligence station whose sources in all of the [[Southern Cone]] countries were the envy of the CIA and U.S. military intelligence." He had gone abroad with the first wave of legal attachés after [[J. Edgar Hoover]] persuaded President [[Richard Nixon]] in 1970 to approve the program. After arrests of members of the [[Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria]] in [[Paraguay]], "Scherrer sent a letter informing his main police source in Chile, General [[Ernesto Baeza]]," which has been called "the first documented case of U.S. official participation in the multicountry operations against the JCR." The bureau called it a "routine and traditional form of cooperation." "They should be rounded up," Scherrer said of the revolutionaries in 1979. "But they should be tried, not slaughtered." He said the military governments in 1975 formally proposed that the bureau have a "more open exchange of information with them" about people in the [[United States]] they considered terrorists. Contreras later testified that Scherrer was in "permanent contact" with Condor's representative in Buenos Aires "and received the information that he asked for." Scherrer said he learned that the CIA had provided [[DINA]] with the computer systems he presumed were used in the Condor data bank.[^2] ### The Condor Cable diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rolando Otero.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rolando Otero.md index faaf8a11..537ae1d9 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rolando Otero.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rolando Otero.md @@ -22,9 +22,12 @@ At 5:58 on the morning of October 17, 1975, an Eastern Airlines reservation cler Otero fled to [[Chile]]. In 1976 the FBI's legal attaché in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Robert Scherrer]], obtained his surrender. "The Chilean government first denied having Otero, then offered to turn him over in a coffin." Cuban exiles complained that Chile had given haven to Otero and [[Orlando Bosch]], "both fugitives from the FBI, only to betray them." When [[Michael Townley]] of [[DINA]] asked the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] for help against [[Orlando Letelier]] in September 1976, [[Guillermo Novo]] argued that "DINA should have killed Otero rather than turn him over to the FBI." A Dade County detective went to Venezuela in October 1976 to persuade [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete]] to testify at Otero's trial. An index to Morales's deposition of 1981, as transcribed on an exile website, lists Otero under the alias "Condor."[^3][^4] +The letter rogatory sent by the federal court in Washington to Chile in February 1978 put to the bearer of the name Juan Williams Rose, which Michael Townley had carried on a Paraguayan passport in July 1976 and Captain [[René Riveros]] of DINA on a Chilean one in August: "In February 1976, you met with Rolando Otero Hernández, who at that time was a fugitive from United States law. Present at that meeting was a man who introduced himself as Major Torres of DINA," and another "under the name Marcelo Estobel," and asked their true names. Townley testified that at the meetings in Union City in September 1976 the talk included "spreading rumors to justify and explain Otero's arrest in Chile and his subsequent handover to the FBI. The idea was to blame Otero himself for his 'blunder.'"[^5] + ### Footnotes [^1]: *United States v. Otero-Hernandez,* 418 F. Supp. 572 (M.D. Fla. 1976). [^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, teletype to Director, "Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados, West Indies, October 6, 1976," November 2, 1976, JFK Assassination Records Collection. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 10. [^3]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 9-10, 130. [^4]: Deposition of Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Dade County Circuit Court, criminal case 81-17247, index. +[^5]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, letter rogatory, Exp. 20931, questionnaire; declaración of Michael Vernon Townley Welch, March 29, 1978. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michael Townley.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michael Townley.md index 3c3ba5ea..b1f9b22b 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michael Townley.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michael Townley.md @@ -28,6 +28,10 @@ Townley had collaborated with the paramilitary [[Patria y Libertad]] in operatio He was born in Waterloo, [[Iowa]], first worked in Chile in the early 1960s as an encyclopedia salesman, and lived from 1967 in [[Miami]], where he came to know the Cuban exiles. In December 1970 he offered himself to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] as an agent against the Allende government. The operations directorate asked for "preliminary security approval to use Mr. Townley in an operational capacity," and on December 21, 1971, told the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] that the station had cancelled its interest. In March 1973, during a raid by Patria y Libertad on a jamming station at [[Concepción]], he gagged and bound a homeless man sheltering there, who was found dead of asphyxiation the next day. The American consul in Santiago, [[Frederick Purdy]], later gave him a new passport in his own name. An embassy officer, [[Jeffrey Davidow]], wrote in June 1974 that Townley was an "AMCIT with rather unsavory past with crypto-fascist Chilean groups" and suggested "keeping him at arms length."[^3] +### The 1978 Statement + +In a sworn statement of March 29, 1978, in the file of the military prosecutor [[Héctor Orozco]] in Santiago, Townley gave his profession as electronics technician and expert in hydraulic mechanics and said that on joining DINA he had met "then-Major Eduardo Iturriaga": "we first tried to coordinate the information I had on anti-Castro organizations in the US, and then look at how to use this information and my contacts to expand them and build a coherent network of informants and sub-informants." In late January or early February 1975, in Iturriaga's office, "he received a phone call in connection with which he asked me if I knew [[Orlando Bosch]], [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez|Dionisio Suárez]]. I told him I only knew of Orlando Bosch by reference and that I didn't like him," because "his group had been infiltrated by the CIA, the FBI, and specifically by a certain 'Mono' [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete|Navarrete]]. My final recommendation was that the service not make contact with this group." He had obtained an American passport as Kenneth Enyart in October 1973 "to return safely to Chile" after the Concepción affair; the real Enyart, a memorandum of the American prosecutors recorded, "knew Michael Townley only because Enyart took his car to be repaired at the shop where Mr. Townley worked in 1973" and did not know Townley had briefly taken his driver's license. In December 1974 Townley went to the United States as Enyart "to explore the possibility of acquiring electronic countermeasure equipment"; [[Jack Holcomb]] of [[Audio Intelligence Devices]] identified his photograph to American investigators as the "Enyart" who had presented a purchase authorization "purportedly signed by Enrique Montero" and given the name of General Washington Carrasco as a reference. Callejas testified that she had seen the document in her husband's office "bearing stamps and a signature but otherwise blank," meant "for purchasing electronic equipment whose sale in the US was restricted to governments and their security departments," and had helped him fill it in. Of September 1976 he said he met Novo, "whose nom de guerre is Santiago Otero," at the restaurant La Estrella in Union City, and that the movement's directorate asked "What can you give us in Chile," wanting "a quiet place, preferably in the countryside," to train; his conversation with [[Felipe Rivero]] "was short and quite cold," his contacts with [[Ignacio Novo]] in Miami "very friendly." Contreras told the same prosecutor: "I know this individual as Andrés Wilson and only recently learned from the press that he had this other name. Wilson was a good informant of my Service and acted as an informant to one of my Officers."[^4] + ### Prats In June 1974 Pinochet ordered the DINA director, Colonel [[Manuel Contreras]], to eliminate Prats, his predecessor as army commander, who was living in exile in Buenos Aires under restrictions the CIA reported he had "faithfully carried out." The DINA station chief in [[Argentina]], [[Enrique Arancibia Clavel]], failed to arrange it through Argentine paramilitaries, and Contreras's deputy, Colonel [[Pedro Espinoza]], turned to Townley. "It was a patriotic request," Townley told an Argentine judge in 1999. "So, I did it." He and Callejas arrived on September 10, 1974. He followed Prats into a park and decided against shooting him because "there were too many people around." On September 29 he entered the garage of the general's building and fixed two cartridges of C4 to the chassis of his Fiat 125. Four days before the killing the Chilean foreign ministry told its consul that it would be "inconvenient" to issue the couple passports to leave for [[Brazil]]. Prats and [[Sofía Cuthbert]] returned from visiting friends just after midnight on September 30. Callejas pressed the detonator, "but it did not function," Townley said. "I took it from her, pressed it, and it worked."[^2] @@ -46,7 +50,7 @@ The equipment for the laboratory, a large microwave oven and gas canisters, was ### Letelier -Townley wrote that Espinoza's orders were explicit: "Find Letelier's home and workplace and contact the Cuban group to eliminate him, or use SARIN gas, or orchestrate an accident, or in the end by whatever method, but the government of Chile wanted Letelier dead." He first went to [[Paraguay]] for false documents and American visas, which the United States canceled. He entered the United States on September 9, 1976, and met the leaders of the Cuban Nationalist Movement in a hotel room in [[New Jersey]] the next day: [[Guillermo Novo]], [[Alvin Ross Díaz|Alvin Ross]], [[Virgilio Paz]], and [[José Dionisio Suárez]]. Novo told him the group would cooperate but insisted that Townley take part in person. Townley, Paz, and Suárez assembled the device in Washington, and at midnight on September 18 Townley taped it to the cross member under the driver's seat of Letelier's car. It was detonated by remote control at [[Sheridan Circle]] on September 21.[^1][^4] +Townley wrote that Espinoza's orders were explicit: "Find Letelier's home and workplace and contact the Cuban group to eliminate him, or use SARIN gas, or orchestrate an accident, or in the end by whatever method, but the government of Chile wanted Letelier dead." He first went to [[Paraguay]] for false documents and American visas, which the United States canceled. He entered the United States on September 9, 1976, and met the leaders of the Cuban Nationalist Movement in a hotel room in [[New Jersey]] the next day: Guillermo Novo, [[Alvin Ross Díaz|Alvin Ross]], [[Virgilio Paz]], and [[José Dionisio Suárez]]. Novo told him the group would cooperate but insisted that Townley take part in person. Townley, Paz, and Suárez assembled the device in Washington, and at midnight on September 18 Townley taped it to the cross member under the driver's seat of Letelier's car. It was detonated by remote control at [[Sheridan Circle]] on September 21.[^1][^5] ### The Insurance File @@ -54,12 +58,21 @@ In March 1978, after the American and Chilean press had named him, Townley wrote ### Trials -Novo and Ross were convicted of murder in 1979 and Novo's brother Ignacio of lying to the grand jury. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|court of appeals]] reversed all three convictions in 1980, because the government had used the testimony of jailhouse informants, one of whom said Ross had told him he was involved in the murder "together with generals in DINA." At the retrial in May 1981 Townley, "now serving 3½ to 10 years," admitted on the stand that he had lied to a Chilean military investigator and given a false statement of innocence to [[El Mercurio]]. In 1983 the Prats daughters came to Washington to support an Argentine request for his extradition. A federal judge ruled that his plea agreement barred it. The Argentine judge [[María Servini de Cubría|María Servini]] deposed him in the United States in 1999. Chilean courts convicted Contreras and Espinoza of the Letelier murder in 1993 and of the Prats murders in June 2010. Arancibia Clavel was imprisoned in Argentina for almost two decades.[^1][^2][^4][^5] +Novo and Ross were convicted of murder in 1979 and Novo's brother Ignacio of lying to the grand jury. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|court of appeals]] reversed all three convictions in 1980, because the government had used the testimony of jailhouse informants, one of whom said Ross had told him he was involved in the murder "together with generals in DINA." At the retrial in May 1981 Townley, "now serving 3½ to 10 years," admitted on the stand that he had lied to a Chilean military investigator and given a false statement of innocence to [[El Mercurio]]. In 1983 the Prats daughters came to Washington to support an Argentine request for his extradition. A federal judge ruled that his plea agreement barred it. The Argentine judge [[María Servini de Cubría|María Servini]] deposed him in the United States in 1999. Chilean courts convicted Contreras and Espinoza of the Letelier murder in 1993 and of the Prats murders in June 2010. Arancibia Clavel was imprisoned in Argentina for almost two decades.[^1][^2][^5][^6] + +### The Telephone + +During the trial persons connected with the Cuban defendants gave reporters a cassette, brought from Chile by [[Sergio Miranda Carrington]], the lawyer for Contreras, of a call Townley had made on January 30, 1979, from the office of the prosecutor [[Eugene Propper]] to Gustavo Etchepare in Santiago, "a former member of 'Patria y Libertad'" with "connections with DINA." Interviewed by [[Robert Scherrer]] and [[Carter Cornick]] on February 6, 8, and 16, Townley denied threatening Judge [[Barrington Parker]] or asking anyone to, and denied that any agent had suggested it. He said he had made the call without authorization, by direct dialing from Propper's desk while the prosecutors were in court, and that Propper on returning "ordered him to terminate his conversation." He had made other calls to Chile from the same office with Propper's or [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.|Barcella]]'s consent, to Etchepare for information on the extradition proceedings against Contreras, Espinoza, and Fernández, and to his Chilean lawyer Manuel Acuña about his property and the civil suit brought by Letelier's widow, reimbursing the government for the personal ones, since the marshals' safe house could not dial Chile direct. He recalled telling Etchepare that Miranda Carrington's actions on Contreras's behalf might be read in Washington as an attempt by the Chilean government to discredit him for the Cubans' benefit, and that "Contreras' free-wheeling activities had to be curtailed," since they "would severely damage the credibility and image of the Chilean Government." The defendants' appeal quoted his own account of the tape: "That was one of the things that was talked about confidentially with people from the FBI ... how many friends we all had who could ... make threatening phone calls to the judge to get him to withdraw from the case."[^7] + +In its brief on appeal the government gave its account of his dealings with the CIA: before leaving for Chile in late 1970 "he called the public office of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Miami," an employee came to his workplace, Townley offered to supply information, and "he heard nothing further"; in 1973, in Miami between March and September, he called again "at the request of people he had been working with in Chile who wanted CIA help in their opposition to Allende," and "no further relationship developed." The defense had argued from discovery material that he "had been given 'operational status.'"[^8] ### Footnotes [^1]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Dictatorship Declassified: Confessions of a DINA Hit Man," National Security Archive, November 22, 2023. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2023-11-22/pinochet-dictatorship-declassified-confessions-dina-hit-man [^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Regime at 50: The Assassination of General Carlos Prats and Sofía Cuthbert," National Security Archive, October 1, 2024. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-10-01/pinochet-regime-50-assassination-general-carlos-prats-and-sofia [^3]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 167-171, 195-196. -[^4]: United States v. Novo Sampol, 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980). -[^5]: Kiernan, Laura A. "Townley Admits Lying to Chilean Questioners," *The Washington Post,* May 17, 1981, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730006-5. +[^4]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaraciones of Michael Vernon Townley Welch (March 29, 1978), Mariana Callejas (April 4, 1978), and Manuel Contreras (March 22, 1978); Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, memorandum of Eugene M. Propper and E. Lawrence Barcella, June 5, 1978. +[^5]: United States v. Novo Sampol, 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980). +[^6]: Kiernan, Laura A. "Townley Admits Lying to Chilean Questioners," *The Washington Post,* May 17, 1981, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730006-5. +[^7]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington field office, file 185-425, reports of interviews of Michael Vernon Townley by Special Agents Robert W. Scherrer and L. Carter Cornick, February 6, 8, and 16, 1979, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-townley-phone.pdf; Brief for Appellants, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-appeal.pdf, citing appendix 3 and trial transcript pp. 5072-5077. +[^8]: Brief for Appellee, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-brief-appellee.pdf, citing trial transcript pp. 1584-1590; Brief for Appellants, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-appeal.pdf. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Vernon Walters.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Vernon Walters.md index 9fc9557c..ae5353a8 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Vernon Walters.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Vernon Walters.md @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ born: 1917-01-03 died: 2002-02-10 location: New York, NY / Washington, DC / Rio de Janeiro created: 2026-06-05 -updated: 2026-06-05 +updated: 2026-09-21 --- Vernon Anthony Walters (January 3, 1917 - February 10, 2002) was the US Army attaché in Brazil from 1962 to 1967, including the period of the military coup that overthrew President [[Joao Goulart]], and later served as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence (DDCI) under President [[Richard Nixon]] from May 2, 1972 to July 2, 1976. His role in the 1964 Brazilian coup was the most consequential of his long career as a military diplomat and intelligence officer, and illustrated the importance of personal relationships, cultivated over years, in enabling US-backed coups without direct US military intervention.[^1] @@ -72,6 +72,10 @@ On Saturday, July 5, 1975, Walters met Contreras secretly at a CIA office at [[F In June 1976 Walters went to [[Paraguay]] to remove the CIA station chief, who had deceived Ambassador [[George Landau]], and to ask the government of General [[Alfredo Stroessner]] not to kill a Paraguayan agent of the CIA who had been arrested and tortured. He was received by Stroessner's aide [[Conrado Pappalardo]] and left in the last week of June with the agent still in prison. In July Pappalardo asked Landau for American visas in false Paraguayan passports for two Chilean officers, saying that they were to contact Walters in Washington. Landau told Walters that the request appeared to be "the quid pro quo that Paraguay was demanding in exchange for sparing the CIA agent's life," issued the visas, and sent photographs of the passports to Walters through the State Department's "Roger Channel" on July 28. Walters was on leave in [[Florida]] before retirement, and the cable went to Director [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]]. On August 4 Walters replied that he had made no arrangement with Pappalardo, that he and Bush "had agreed that the agency wanted nothing to do with the DINA matter," and that the request was "highly irregular" and "a strange way of doing business." Two DINA captains using the same false names reached Washington on August 22 and had the Chilean embassy telephone Walters's office at Langley. The CIA did not tell the prosecutor of the [[Orlando Letelier|Letelier]] murder, [[Eugene Propper]], of any of this when it began sending him files that fall.[^20] +One of the two, Captain René Riveros Valderrama, gave a sworn statement in Santiago on March 22, 1978, to the Chilean court investigating Contreras and Espinoza. He and Captain Rolando Mosqueira Jarpa had left for Washington on August 21, 1976, on official passports in the names Juan Williams Rose and Alejandro Romeral Jara, prepared by DINA's passport section, on a mission given them by Contreras "to make contact with the North American General Don Vernon Walters in order to receive certain information relating to the names of certain persons." They could not reach him: he was handing over his post and on leave, and "finally a CIA secretary whom we could not identify told us that General Walters no longer worked at that intelligence agency." They then called on a Chilean general Mosqueira knew, giving their real names and ranks but not their errand, and when every approach failed telephoned Espinoza, DINA's chief of operations, who authorized them to return.[^21] + +Contreras told the Chilean military prosecutor on March 22, 1978, that "around June or early July 1976, CIA Chile informed me that the Deputy Director of the CIA, General Vernon Walters, needed a contact in the US to give us a list of lobbyists and people who could cooperate with Chile before the US Senate and also for the UN's forthcoming session that year." Espinoza testified on April 24 that Contreras ordered him to designate an agent for the mission with a companion fluent in English; he chose Fernández Larios, and "the name of the second man was suggested by then-Major [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann|Iturriaga]], under the name Andrés Wilson," who "turned out to be the same person I had known since November or December 1974 as Michael Townley." Fernández Larios said he was told "once in the US I had to speak with a CIA chief named Vernon Walters, because he was going to give me a list of people sympathetic to Chile for purposes of presenting the Chilean position before the United Nations." The second pair, Captains [[René Riveros]] and [[Rolando Mosqueira]], could not find him. The FBI interviewed Walters on June 14, 1978, at the Chilean prosecutor's request. "When told that several DINA officials were claiming that their trip to the US in August of 1976 was to see him, the General laughed and dismissed the idea as being ludicrous on its face, saying it was impossible since he had retired during the previous month." He said his trip to Paraguay "had been completely unrelated to the Letelier assassination," that "at no time had he discussed with any Paraguayan officials the issuance of false passports," that his only contact with Contreras had been the 1975 visit, and he "offered to take a polygraph examination." Propper added: "I have been advised by the CIA that General Vernon Walters retired from the CIA on July 2, 1976. He was no longer there at the time either mission to the United States by DINA personnel took place."[^22] + As ambassador at large for President [[Ronald Reagan]], Walters visited Pinochet in February 1981. "We spoke as old friends," he reported. "He offered full support and said he would do anything we wanted to help us in the Salvadoran situation." He told a congressional committee that the Letelier bombing had been "a mistake," like [[Napoleon]]'s execution of the Duke of Enghien: "You can't rub their noses in it forever."[^19] ### Later Career @@ -102,3 +106,5 @@ Under President Ronald Reagan, Walters served as Ambassador-at-Large from 1981 t [^18]: National Security Archive, "The Pinochet Regime Declassified: DINA," June 2024; Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, "Staff Report on Covert Action in Chile, 1963-1973," December 18, 1975 (released by Church Committee); Contreras CIA payroll: CIA Inspector General report on DINA relationship, released 2023. [^19]: Kornbluh, Peter. *The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability*. New Press, 2003, pp. 213-215, 409-410, and note 34 at p. 522. [^20]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 200-201, 242-243, 309-311, 383-384. +[^21]: Corte Suprema de Justicia de Chile, proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo, ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, declaración de René Miguel Riveros Valderrama, Santiago, March 22, 1978, scan at latinamericanstudies.org, Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish +[^22]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaraciones of Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda (March 22, 1978), Armando Fernández Larios (March 22, 1978), and Pedro Espinoza Bravo (April 24, 1978); Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, memorandum of Eugene M. Propper and E. Lawrence Barcella, June 22, 1978, with the FBI report of the interview of June 14, 1978, and addendum of June 9, 1978. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/William Walter.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/William Walter.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2eacbca9 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/William Walter.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - WilliamWalter + - FBI + - NewOrleans + - LeeHarveyOswald + - JimGarrison + - HSCA +alias: + - William S. Walter +summary: "FBI New Orleans night clerk who said a November 17, 1963 teletype warned of an attempt on Kennedy in Dallas and that the office kept an informant file on Oswald, claims the House committee rejected." +location: "New Orleans, Louisiana" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +William S. Walter was a security clerk of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s [[New Orleans]] field office in 1963.[^1] + +### The Files + +Walter told the [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] that he was on duty on August 10, 1963, when Special Agent [[John Quigley]] went to the parish jail to interview [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] at Oswald's request, that Quigley asked for a file check, and that "he had determined that the New Orleans FBI office maintained both a security file and an informant file on Oswald." Quigley, who had sworn to the [[Warren Commission]] in February 1964 that Oswald was no informant, told the committee's investigator on March 12, 1978, with his lawyer present and after asking to see the notes: "It would not have been Walter. It would have been an Agent." The indices, he said, showed "Security Investigation assigned to Kaack" and no informant number. "I am and I can state there is no truth to his statements." Special Agent [[Milton Kaack]] and the special agent in charge, [[Harry Maynor]], said the same. "The committee could find no independent basis for verifying Walter's testimony about an Oswald informant file."[^1][^2] + +### The Teletype + +In his deposition Walter said that on the night of November 17, 1963, he received a teletype from headquarters "warning of a possible assassination attempt against President Kennedy during the forthcoming trip to Dallas on November 22 or 23, 1963," addressed to all special agents in charge and instructing them "to contact criminal, racial and hate group informants," and that it was removed from the office's files soon after the assassination. He first said so publicly in 1968, when [[Jim Garrison]] repeated the story on the [[Johnny Carson]] show. The bureau then interviewed more than fifty employees of the New Orleans office and found none who knew of it. In 1975, after Walter produced what he called a replica, the bureau found that it "varied in format and wording from the standard," searched all 59 field offices, and again found nothing; its file that autumn records interviews of Walter by J. B. Adams, information from Tom Johnson of the *[[Dallas Times Herald]]*, inquiries of Kaack, Thomas Cecil McCurley of Jackson, Mississippi, and Special Agent Harold Ratchford, and a further allegation by Walter of a second teletype of November 10. His former wife, Sharon Covert, who had also worked in the office, "advised the committee that she could not support any of Walter's allegations against the FBI and that Walter had never mentioned his allegations to her during their marriage." Maynor denied that Walter had told him of a threat.[^1][^3] + +"The committee found it difficult to believe that such a message could have been sent without someone 15 years later, a special agent in charge or an employee who might have seen the teletype, coming forward in support of Walter's claim." It "concluded that Walter's allegations were unfounded." The [[Church Committee]]'s 1976 report on the FBI's handling of Oswald does not mention him. His 70-page testimony of March 23, 1978, has not been placed online by the National Archives.[^1][^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: House Select Committee on Assassinations. *Report.* 95th Cong., 2d sess., 1979, pp. 191-193. +[^2]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, interview of John Lester Quigley by Harold D. Leap, March 12, 1978, JFK record 180-10074-10477. +[^3]: National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection, record identification forms 157-10006-10112 (February 1, 1968), 157-10006-10065, 157-10006-10073, 157-10006-10092, 157-10006-10098, 157-10006-10102, 157-10006-10109, and 180-10027-10013 (September and October 1975); titles and dates from the index, the documents not being online. +[^4]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, testimony of William S. Walter, March 23, 1978, JFK record 180-10076-10413; U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report, Book V,* 1976. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/DINA.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/DINA.md index fa424d7b..202684e8 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/DINA.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/DINA.md @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ tags: alias: - Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional - Direccion de Inteligencia Nacional -summary: "Secret police of the Pinochet government under Manuel Contreras, 1974 to 1977, which killed Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires and Orlando Letelier in Washington while its director was in liaison with, and once paid by, the CIA." +summary: "Pinochet's secret police under Manuel Contreras, 1974 to 1977, which killed Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires and Orlando Letelier in Washington while its director was in liaison with, and once paid by, the CIA." start: 1974 location: "Santiago, Chile" created: 2026-09-21 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Domestic Contact Service.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Domestic Contact Service.md index 6c1067c5..12dc6fe4 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Domestic Contact Service.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Domestic Contact Service.md @@ -30,9 +30,12 @@ The Domestic Contact Service was one of two overt collection components of the [ In [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]] the service's officer [[J. Walton Moore]] was in contact with [[George de Mohrenschildt]], the friend of [[Lee Harvey Oswald]].[^4] +The Miami office made contact with the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] on November 27, 1967, seven months after the Office of Security had severed the agency's relations with its founder, and carried it as a contact for reports on Latin America, under [[Justin Gleichauf]] as chief of the office through 1970. By 1974 Gleichauf worked for the company and reported to his former office as a private citizen. The case was closed on June 30, 1977.[^5] + ### Footnotes [^1]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Final Report, Book I*. S. Rept. 94-755, 1976, pp. 101, 438-442. [^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Family Jewels," memorandum of Howard J. Osborn, Director of Security, to the Executive Secretary, CIA Management Committee, May 16, 1973, with attachments, p. 00448. [^3]: Holland, Max. "The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination," *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 45, no. 5, 2001. [^4]: House Select Committee on Assassinations. *Appendix to Hearings,* vol. XII, staff report on George de Mohrenschildt. Government Printing Office, 1979. +[^5]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, pp. 35, 45, 55, 65-66; Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Collection Division, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corp.," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10017, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10017.pdf, pp. 3, 6-7. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Cuban Nationalist Movement.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Cuban Nationalist Movement.md index aef6d45c..6b257172 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Cuban Nationalist Movement.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Cuban Nationalist Movement.md @@ -21,19 +21,25 @@ The Cuban Nationalist Movement was an anti-Castro exile organization based in [[ In December 1964 Guillermo Novo fired a bazooka at the [[United Nations]] building while [[Che Guevara]] was speaking there. In December 1974 the movement's leader, [[Felipe Rivero]], sent Novo and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] to [[Chile]] "to pay homage to Pinochet," and they entered the country with [[Orlando Bosch]]. Suarez, a former officer of the revolutionary army, was called "Charco de Sangre," pool of blood, for his part in its executions. When [[Michael Townley]] first approached them at a [[Union City, New Jersey|Union City]] motel, Novo, Suarez, and Armando Santana "drew guns and ordered the couple to sit down," searched the luggage, and found an American passport in the name Kenneth Enyart and a Chilean identity card in the name Andres Wilson. "Finally, Novo put away his pistol and extended his hand."[^3] +The movement was founded by Felipe Rivero, its "ideological chief" and the author of its thesis "La guerra por los caminos del mundo," with the Novo brothers. By May 1977 the Washington grand jury investigating the murder of Orlando Letelier had summoned fifteen Cuban exiles, at least seven of them members, including the three founders, [[Alvin Ross]], Suárez, and [[Armando López Estrada]] of the [[Brigade 2506]] veterans' association.[^4] + ### The Letelier Operation Michael Townley testified that in the summer of 1976 DINA assigned him to go to the [[United States]] and arrange the murder, and told him to get in touch with the movement. The orders of Colonel [[Pedro Espinoza]], as Townley recorded them in 1978, were to "contact the Cuban group to eliminate him, or use SARIN gas, or orchestrate an accident." He arrived on September 9 and the next day met Novo, [[Alvin Ross Díaz|Alvin Ross]], [[Virgilio Paz]], [[José Dionisio Suárez]], and other members in a hotel room in New Jersey. Novo told him the following day that the movement would cooperate but insisted that Townley take part himself. Townley, Paz, and Suárez went to Washington and built the bomb, and Townley fixed it under the driver's seat at midnight on September 18. It was set off by remote control at [[Sheridan Circle]].[^1][^2] +Townley told the Chilean prosecutor in 1978 that early in 1975 DINA had asked him about Bosch, Novo, and Suárez and he had advised against contact, and that at a meeting with the movement's directorate in September 1976, at which he believed Alvin Ross was present, "they asked some specific questions, such as: 'What can you give us in Chile.' We need a quiet place, preferably in the countryside, to have our 'sick' people, to train. Weapons or war material were not discussed at all. I did not commit to anything and only offered to pass the request up through regular channels."[^5] + ### Trials Novo and Ross were convicted in 1979 of murder, murder of a foreign official, and conspiracy, and Novo's brother [[Ignacio Novo]] of lying to the grand jury. Part of the evidence came from jailhouse informants working with the government. One of them, [[Sherman Kaminsky]], testified that Ross "told me that he was involved in the murder of Orlando Letelier together with generals in DINA, Sepulveda, Michael Townley, and other members of the Cuban Nationalist Movement in this country." In 1980 the Supreme Court held such testimony inadmissible in [[United States v. Henry]], and the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|court of appeals]] reversed the convictions of Novo and Ross and ordered a new trial. It reversed Ignacio Novo's for the failure to try him separately.[^1] -At the retrial in May 1981 the defense undertook to prove "that Townley and DINA alone plotted to kill Letelier." Townley, the government's witness, admitted that he had lied to a Chilean military investigator and had given [[El Mercurio]] a false statement that he had nothing to do with the killing. Paz and Suárez were not tried with them.[^4] +At the retrial in May 1981 the defense undertook to prove "that Townley and DINA alone plotted to kill Letelier." Townley, the government's witness, admitted that he had lied to a Chilean military investigator and had given [[El Mercurio]] a false statement that he had nothing to do with the killing. Paz and Suárez were not tried with them.[^6] ### Footnotes [^1]: United States v. Novo Sampol, 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980). [^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Dictatorship Declassified: Confessions of a DINA Hit Man," National Security Archive, November 22, 2023. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2023-11-22/pinochet-dictatorship-declassified-confessions-dina-hit-man [^3]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 147-151, 240. -[^4]: Kiernan, Laura A. "Townley Admits Lying to Chilean Questioners," *The Washington Post,* May 17, 1981, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730006-5. +[^4]: Marina, Gloria. "Citan a Felipe Rivero en el caso Letelier," *El Miami Herald,* May 3, 1977, scan at latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/Rivero-Letelier.pdf +[^5]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Michael Vernon Townley Welch, March 29, 1978. +[^6]: Kiernan, Laura A. "Townley Admits Lying to Chilean Questioners," *The Washington Post,* May 17, 1981, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730006-5. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Audio Intelligence Devices.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Audio Intelligence Devices.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a3d9cb01 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Audio Intelligence Devices.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - AudioIntelligenceDevices + - Surveillance + - FortLauderdale + - JackHolcomb + - OrlandoLetelier + - MichaelTownley + - PrivateIntelligence +alias: + - AID + - Audio Intelligence Devices, Inc. + - National Intelligence Academy +summary: "Fort Lauderdale maker of eavesdropping equipment run by the Anguilla adventurer Jack Holcomb, where Michael Townley spent the morning of the Letelier bombing, and which his co-defendants called a CIA front." +location: "Fort Lauderdale, Florida" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +Audio Intelligence Devices, Inc., of [[Fort Lauderdale, Florida|Fort Lauderdale]], manufactured "twenty-first century electronic eavesdropping and countermeasures equipment." Its proprietor was [[Jack Holcomb]], "a manic and balding spook with a somewhat dicey past," an ex-policeman "who brags that he's had 'wide experience in the field of law.'" Tried on two counts of wiretapping, Holcomb was acquitted; a charge of possessing barbiturates was dropped. He "has hinted at 'Mission Impossible assignments' he's performed, supposedly for the FBI."[^1] + +### Anguilla + +During [[Anguilla]]'s secession from the British Commonwealth in 1967 Holcomb, without legal training, became the island's magistrate and the "legal advisor" of the rebel leader Ronald Webster, and drafted a constitution that "reserved for private investors various rights ordinarily belonging to sovereign governments," with monopolies and tax exemptions for himself "until the year 2000." When British paratroopers ended the secession he "was reportedly ejected as 'a gangster-type element.'" He appeared in [[Haiti]] two weeks before an attempted coup and was deported "as a suspected secret agent." He "won't talk about any connections he may have to the CIA, but creates the impression that the ties are there, and binding." The same account places him in "that [[Miami]] milieu which gave the world [[Frank Sturgis]], Jack Holcomb, [[Loran Hall]], and others."[^1][^2] + +### The National Intelligence Academy + +On his return from Haiti Holcomb founded the National Intelligence Academy, a tax-exempt school for police in electronic surveillance, which "has always shared a modernistic, two-story office building" with the company. A sign at the door read: "U.S. Government regulations prohibit discussion of this organization or facility." Students practiced on "Surveillance City," a scale model of an American town. The academy's motel was donated, and more than three million dollars provided, by [[Leo Goodwin, Jr.]], heir to the [[GEICO]] fortune. "AID executives have doubled as NIA officers," students toured the factory, and the techniques taught used the company's products, among them "Unitels," attack kits in an attaché case, and a telephone transmitter stamped "Western Electric Noise Filter." Most of the original instructors, retired from the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], the [[Drug Enforcement Administration|DEA]], and the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]], left "charging that NIA existed solely to create a market for the surveillance devices made by Holcomb."[^3] + +### Townley + +[[Michael Townley]] of [[DINA]] had equipment on order at the company. On the morning of September 21, 1976, having flown from New York to Miami the afternoon before, he went to the firm's premises and "spent several hours there, signing in and out as was required." While he was there [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]] were killed by his bomb at [[Sheridan Circle]] in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]]. At the 1979 trial the lawyers for [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Alvin Ross]] asked for CIA files on the company and Holcomb, on the theory that it was "a CIA 'front' organization in [[Florida]]" that "had apparently attempted to create an alibi for Townley on the day of the Letelier assassination." The government answered that "no such files existed," that the company "has never been a 'front,' proprietary, or any other type of sub-organization owing allegiance to the CIA," and that the defense had built the request on a newspaper article, quoting against it the passage above on freelance operators who trade on "incidental or wholly imaginary ties to the CIA."[^4] + +A memorandum of the American prosecutors sent to Chile in June 1978 recorded that a customer calling himself Kenneth Enyart had "presented Holcomb with a document purportedly signed by Enrique Montero authorizing the purchase of goods for [[Chile]]," that the purchase order "contained the name of General Washington Carrasco, since 'Enyart' had given Holcomb that name as a reference to verify 'Enyart's' credentials," and that "Holcomb was shown photographs and positively identified Michael Vernon Townley's photograph as the person he knew as Kenneth Enyart." Townley had told the Chilean prosecutor that his trip to the United States as Enyart in December 1974 was "to explore the possibility of acquiring electronic countermeasure equipment."[^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Hougan, Jim. *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents*. William Morrow, 1978, pp. 12, 66-69 (index pagination; read through the archive.org search index). +[^2]: Hougan, *Spooks,* p. 319. +[^3]: Hougan, *Spooks,* pp. 66-69, citing Ellison, James M. "A Report from the Wiretap Subculture," *The Washington Monthly,* December 1975, and the Institute of Current World Affairs newsletters of Frank McDonald, FJM-4, 5, 9, and 10. +[^4]: Brief for Appellee, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), citing trial transcript pp. 1692-1694, and discovery section with footnote 72, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-brief-appellee.pdf; Brief for Appellants, same case, statement of facts p. 16 and discovery point, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-appeal.pdf +[^5]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, memorandum of Eugene M. Propper and E. Lawrence Barcella, June 5, 1978; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Michael Vernon Townley Welch, March 29, 1978. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md index e10d007e..d16d576b 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md @@ -49,33 +49,47 @@ The same item went on April 30, 1968, from the Office of Security to its New Yor The 1975 memorandum ends: "In November of 1974 it was learned that Wackenhut Corporation was providing guard coverage to Global Marine Development, Incorporated (GMDI), [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], a firm that the Agency office of DDS&T was dealing with. This Agency made no attempt to persuade GMDI to terminate their contract with Wackenhut Corporation, and it is assumed that GMDI is still receiving guard coverage from them." Global Marine Development built and operated the [[Hughes Glomar Explorer]] for the [[Directorate of Science and Technology]], which used the ship in the summer of 1974 to raise part of a sunken Soviet submarine in [[Project Azorian]]. The [[Los Angeles Times]] disclosed the operation on February 7, 1975.[^4][^10] +### The Domestic Contact Service File + +A second agency file on the company, case 65805 of the [[Domestic Contact Service]], the overt office that debriefed businessmen and travellers, opens seven months after the Office of Security severed relations. On November 27, 1967, Gus C. Guerrero of the Miami field office met the vice president of Wackenhut Services, Inc., who "is cognizant of all contractual services in being with the company in foreign countries" and "will make arrangements for Guerrero to meet with Mr. Wackenhut and other members of the corporation whom he feels will be able to assist us." The company was "attempting to establish investigative and guard service agencies in several Latin American countries and are well established in [[Colombia]] at the present time." Information reports of January 2 and 10, 1968, on guerrilla operations, business, and government in Colombia and [[Ecuador]], each beginning "During a recent business trip," followed within weeks.[^11] + +Process sheets of 1970 and 1971, with [[Justin Gleichauf]] as field office chief and R. Heller of the international division as case officer, list the company as the contact for reports on [[Panama]] ("Attempt to Establish Intelligence Apparatus in US," "List of Suspects of Subversive Activities"), [[Brazil]] ("Background on Carlos Lacerda"), [[Guatemala]], Ecuador, a photograph of a probable Soviet Mi-10 helicopter at [[Medellín]], and, in the months around the election of [[Salvador Allende]], [[Chile]]: "Expectation of Allende Victory/Fear of Industrial Violence/Interest in Developing Industrial Security Measures" (July 28, 1970), "Alessandri Leading in Election Preference/Fear of Urban Terrorism" (September 2), "[[El Mercurio]] Fear of Urban Terrorism/Security Measures" (September 10), "LAN-Chile Officials Desire Background Checks on Employees to Determine Anti-Communist Sentiments" and "Key Positions in [[LAN Chile|LAN-Chile]] Airlines Given to Allende Regime Sympathizers" (December, both marked "Air Force report"), "Concern re Security of LAN-Chile Aircraft" (December 15), "Chile: The Threat of a New Cuba" (December 16), "Background Information on Reverend [[Roger Vekemans]], S.J., Alleged Left-Wing Priest Affiliated with the Christian Democratic Party," and "Boycott of Chilean Newsprint/Anti-Allende Propaganda" (December 7, 1971). In March 1970 Wackenhut guards hired to see a deported Panamanian through Miami airport onto a LAN-Chile flight copied the list of Miami contacts in his luggage for the Salvadoran consul and for the agency.[^12] + +On September 21, 1970, George Wackenhut "invited me to a demonstration of a new device his company has developed," Gleichauf reported: a transmitter "less than the size of a half pack of cigarettes" made by the subsidiary Electro-Finders, Inc., which "can be used to track vehicles as well as persons," carried "in a heel" or at the waist, recently tested by the [[Los Angeles Police Department]]. The [[Technical Services Division]] asked for a demonstration in November, and a cable under case 55539 reported that two men, Riley and Rohrer (the second name uncertain in the scan), would "be picked up by [redacted] of the Wackenhut Corporation and taken to the demonstration." Two technicians visited Coral Gables and the company was invited to demonstrate in Washington at agency expense; in May 1972 Gleichauf, by then chief of the [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]] office, forwarded a brochure from "an old friend" at the company, "the system is now available on the market," recalling one of the visiting technicians as Paul Reilly.[^13] + +On October 1, 1973, "a former Agency staffer now employed by the Wackenhut Corporation" passed the Miami office a tip from the Dade County Organized Crime Bureau, "with the understanding that Wackenhut would in turn convey it to the Agency": a man had been arrested "apparently in the course of installing a mike or wire," had "immediately claimed that he was on a mission for the CIA and apparently successfully avoided charges and publicity," and was "the top wire man for local State's Attorney [[Richard Gerstein]]," who "is known for his efforts to bring local conspiracy charges against the Watergate group, a plan which we believe [[Archibald Cox]] successfully blocked," and "we believe has also acted on behalf of Dade County Sheriff E. Wilson Purdy." The officer noted "for the record, we maintain some slight contact with a few Wackenhut employees, several of whom are former Agency staffers," and reported it "in the belief that [[Angus Thuermer]] and perhaps others might wish to be forewarned." In December the office recorded that a Wackenhut man had become a senior Latin American security executive of a company whose name reads as [[ITT]], "in view of the considerable interest expressed from time to time in any Agency involvement" with it. In January 1974 the company "offered this information gratuitously" on a "Cuban Terrorist Program Designed to Affect US-Bahamian Relations": "for security reasons, they have made this look like a report to a client, thus 'addressee' and 'firm' refer to CIA." A copy went to the "WH Station."[^14] + +By March 1974 Gleichauf, "the former Chief of the Miami and Dallas Field Offices," was himself employed at the Coral Gables headquarters and passing on what a co-worker had heard in [[Algeria]] about the identification of "CIA agents." On June 25, 1975, the chief of the service's [[Denver]] office, James M. Sommerville, answered a headquarters inquiry, prompted by a German newspaper article and repeated by a local FBI agent, about a private organization in Denver "staffed with ex-government types and performing such things as telephone taps for wealthy private citizens." His staff recalled that "shortly after the CIA expose first appeared in the New York Times, we received in the mail a brochure from The Wackenhut Corporation, 262 Havana, Denver, Colorado," describing "a private investigative service with capabilities beyond that of the average private investigator in that they are staffed with men and women formerly employed by the FBI, Secret Service and DIA," and "we also believe that under the list of services they offered was some type of electronic surveillance." They had thrown it away, and passed the recollection to the FBI "stressing that this was indeed a long shot."[^15] + +On June 22, 1976, headquarters opened a new case under the same number, "LA Division Request for Contact of Wackenhut Corporation Officer." The officer was [[Bruce Berckmans]], the company's director of international operations, "a former staff agent under the LPGLOBE program" who "was asked to resign from the Agency in 1970." Through [[Tom Clines]] of the Latin America Division he "has requested contact with an Agency representative as he has information which may be of interest to the Agency," believed to concern "political developments in [[Jamaica]]"; the division "has no operational interest in Berckmans nor his company," and the Office of General Counsel had concurred. At the Wackenhut offices on June 24 Berckmans produced a letter of grievances over his forced resignation for the inspector general and said he was considering a suit; on June 28 he telephoned to say "he has decided not to sue the Agency," and on July 2 offered himself as "a normal DCD contact." The Miami office closed case 65805 on June 30, 1977: "action completed."[^16] + ### Federal Contracts, the Board, and the Files -The law firm of Senator [[George Smathers]] of Florida found the way around the 1893 federal statute that barred employees of private detective agencies from government work by creating a Wackenhut subsidiary that supplied only guards. The first large federal contracts, at [[Cape Canaveral]] and the Nevada Test Site, followed. The early board included Captain [[Eddie Rickenbacker]], General [[Mark W. Clark|Mark Clark]], and the [[John Birch Society]] leader [[Ralph E. Davis]]. After the [[Fair Credit Reporting Act]] took effect in 1971 the company cut its files from about 2.5 million names to about 250,000, and in 1975 it gave them to the [[Church League of America]] of [[Wheaton, Illinois]], to which [[George Wackenhut]] was a major contributor, keeping the right to consult them. The files are now in the [[Tamiment Library]] at [[New York University]].[^11][^12] +The law firm of Senator [[George Smathers]] of Florida found the way around the 1893 federal statute that barred employees of private detective agencies from government work by creating a Wackenhut subsidiary that supplied only guards. The first large federal contracts, at [[Cape Canaveral]] and the Nevada Test Site, followed. The early board included Captain [[Eddie Rickenbacker]], General [[Mark W. Clark|Mark Clark]], and the [[John Birch Society]] leader [[Ralph E. Davis]]. After the [[Fair Credit Reporting Act]] took effect in 1971 the company cut its files from about 2.5 million names to about 250,000, and in 1975 it gave them to the [[Church League of America]] of [[Wheaton, Illinois]], to which [[George Wackenhut]] was a major contributor, keeping the right to consult them. The files are now in the [[Tamiment Library]] at [[New York University]].[^17][^18] -The retired FBI agent [[William Hinshaw]] told Connolly: "It is known throughout the industry that if you want a dirty job done, call Wackenhut." [[Philip Agee]] said: "I don't have the slightest doubt that the CIA and Wackenhut overlap." Asked whether his company was an arm of the CIA, George Wackenhut answered, "No!" At the end of the interview he said to the reporter: "You've done an awful lot of research. How would you like to run all our [[New York City|New York]] operations?" Connolly reported that in June 1991 the head of the company's special investigations division, [[Wayne Black]], traveled to [[Caracas]] on an [[Abu Dhabi]] passport for a client, [[Blanca Ibanez]], to discredit the security chief of President [[Carlos Andres Perez]].[^11] +The retired FBI agent [[William Hinshaw]] told Connolly: "It is known throughout the industry that if you want a dirty job done, call Wackenhut." [[Philip Agee]] said: "I don't have the slightest doubt that the CIA and Wackenhut overlap." Asked whether his company was an arm of the CIA, George Wackenhut answered, "No!" At the end of the interview he said to the reporter: "You've done an awful lot of research. How would you like to run all our [[New York City|New York]] operations?" Connolly reported that in June 1991 the head of the company's special investigations division, [[Wayne Black]], traveled to [[Caracas]] on an [[Abu Dhabi]] passport for a client, [[Blanca Ibanez]], to discredit the security chief of President [[Carlos Andres Perez]].[^17] ### Horsch -The [[Philadelphia]] filmmaker [[R.C. Horsch]] said in a recorded interview that after leaving high school in 1961 he worked freelance for Wackenhut, "a security firm staffed by FBI agents," until about 1965. "I bugged telephones and committed burglaries for them," he said. "The burglaries were mostly to install electronics or bug telephones or just things like burglarizing a potential client to demonstrate that their security was not up to par." He said one regular client, introduced as "Mr. Smith," was [[Howard Hunt|E. Howard Hunt]] of the CIA, and described jobs at the [[Fairchild Hiller]] plant in [[Hagerstown, Maryland]], in [[Trenton, New Jersey]], and in Philadelphia. Horsch was convicted in later years of forgery, counterfeiting, and passport fraud.[^13] +The [[Philadelphia]] filmmaker [[R.C. Horsch]] said in a recorded interview that after leaving high school in 1961 he worked freelance for Wackenhut, "a security firm staffed by FBI agents," until about 1965. "I bugged telephones and committed burglaries for them," he said. "The burglaries were mostly to install electronics or bug telephones or just things like burglarizing a potential client to demonstrate that their security was not up to par." He said one regular client, introduced as "Mr. Smith," was [[Howard Hunt|E. Howard Hunt]] of the CIA, and described jobs at the [[Fairchild Hiller]] plant in [[Hagerstown, Maryland]], in [[Trenton, New Jersey]], and in Philadelphia. Horsch was convicted in later years of forgery, counterfeiting, and passport fraud.[^19] ### Florida, 1967 -On January 13, 1967, FBI headquarters instructed its Florida offices to give Kirk's investigators nothing: "The Bureau does not recognize the Wackenhut Corporation as a properly constituted law enforcement agency." The order was repeated by telephone on April 3, after Kirk had seen the attorney general. [[Hank Messick]], the Miami Herald crime reporter whose articles had led to the indictment of two county sheriffs in 1966, and to whom the bureau had itself been passing leads, joined Wackenhut that December and left after six weeks. "I quit the Wackenhut Corp. because I have reluctantly concluded a cruel hoax is being perpetrated upon the people of Florida," he said. He objected that the company kept as a private client Sir [[Stafford Sands]], the former Bahamian minister with gambling interests, while it was supposed to be pursuing [[Meyer Lansky]]. Wackenhut replied: "I do not find it necessary to dignify Mr. Messick's remarks with a reply." In September 1967 the Miami office reported the reaction of an informant inside the [[Bonanno crime family|Bonanno family]] to press reports that a "contract" had been let on the Dade County state attorney, [[Richard Gerstein]], a tip that "had been 'leaked' to the press by GERSTEIN'S office, which had received the tip from a Wackenhut Detective Agency source." The informant "stated that this was the biggest laugh to hit Miami in some time, in that GERSTEIN was, and still is, 'their' number one connection in the Miami area." He said: "Them guys, including Wackenhut, and all the locals haven't yet come close to us. The only people who have the proper line on us are those in the FBI."[^14] A former Wackenhut detective, [[Norman Casper]], later worked as an informant for the [[Internal Revenue Service]] against the [[Castle Bank and Trust|Castle Bank]] in the [[Bahamas]].[^15] +On January 13, 1967, FBI headquarters instructed its Florida offices to give Kirk's investigators nothing: "The Bureau does not recognize the Wackenhut Corporation as a properly constituted law enforcement agency." The order was repeated by telephone on April 3, after Kirk had seen the attorney general. [[Hank Messick]], the Miami Herald crime reporter whose articles had led to the indictment of two county sheriffs in 1966, and to whom the bureau had itself been passing leads, joined Wackenhut that December and left after six weeks. "I quit the Wackenhut Corp. because I have reluctantly concluded a cruel hoax is being perpetrated upon the people of Florida," he said. He objected that the company kept as a private client Sir [[Stafford Sands]], the former Bahamian minister with gambling interests, while it was supposed to be pursuing [[Meyer Lansky]]. Wackenhut replied: "I do not find it necessary to dignify Mr. Messick's remarks with a reply." In September 1967 the Miami office reported the reaction of an informant inside the [[Bonanno crime family|Bonanno family]] to press reports that a "contract" had been let on the Dade County state attorney, Richard Gerstein, a tip that "had been 'leaked' to the press by GERSTEIN'S office, which had received the tip from a Wackenhut Detective Agency source." The informant "stated that this was the biggest laugh to hit Miami in some time, in that GERSTEIN was, and still is, 'their' number one connection in the Miami area." He said: "Them guys, including Wackenhut, and all the locals haven't yet come close to us. The only people who have the proper line on us are those in the FBI."[^20] A former Wackenhut detective, [[Norman Casper]], later worked as an informant for the [[Internal Revenue Service]] against the [[Castle Bank and Trust|Castle Bank]] in the [[Bahamas]].[^21] -In the course of Governor Kirk's campaign Wackenhut told the legislature that "overlord of the whole state's criminal syndicates" was [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante]], "longtime [[Trafficante crime family|Tampa Mafia]] boss, now living in Miami." The clippings are in the FBI's Miami file on the company. Trafficante's casino manager in [[Havana]], [[Lewis McWillie]], had been visited there in 1959 by his friend [[Jack Ruby]], and a CIA memorandum in the [[Warren Commission]]'s files reported that Trafficante, while held by [[Fidel Castro]]'s government that year, was "frequently visited" by "an American gangster" named "Ruby." McWillie told the House committee in 1978 that he had twice visited the detention camp and seen Trafficante there, and was not clear whether Ruby had gone with him. The FBI's four files on the company contain no reference to Ruby, to McWillie, or to a Wackenhut office in [[Texas]] before 1968.[^15][^16][^17] +In the course of Governor Kirk's campaign Wackenhut told the legislature that "overlord of the whole state's criminal syndicates" was [[Santos Trafficante, Jr.|Santo Trafficante]], "longtime [[Trafficante crime family|Tampa Mafia]] boss, now living in Miami." The clippings are in the FBI's Miami file on the company. Trafficante's casino manager in [[Havana]], [[Lewis McWillie]], had been visited there in 1959 by his friend [[Jack Ruby]], and a CIA memorandum in the [[Warren Commission]]'s files reported that Trafficante, while held by [[Fidel Castro]]'s government that year, was "frequently visited" by "an American gangster" named "Ruby." McWillie told the House committee in 1978 that he had twice visited the detention camp and seen Trafficante there, and was not clear whether Ruby had gone with him. The FBI's four files on the company contain no reference to Ruby, to McWillie, or to a Wackenhut office in [[Texas]] before 1968.[^21][^22][^23] ### The Assassinations Committee -The security file reached the public through the [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]]. On January 6, 1978, the committee's chief counsel, [[G. Robert Blakey]], sent the CIA a request for 38 files. Item 18 was E. Howard Hunt. Item 19 was "[[Jim Garrison]] aka Wackenhut Corp.," item 28 "Garrison 1967 investigation," and item 36 "Southern Research Corp." The [[National Photographic Interpretation Center]] answered on January 30 that it had "no documented information or files on the [[Southern Research Company|Southern Research Corporation]], presently known as the Wackenhut Corporation." The [[CIA Office of Logistics|Office of Logistics]] found under item 36 contract actions with Wackenhut for 1970 to 1975 in the management information system of the Directorate of Science and Technology. [[Bruce Solie]] of the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] certified on July 18, 1978, that committee staff had reviewed the Wackenhut file "in conjunction with the HSCA's investigation into the deaths of President [[John F. Kennedy]] and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."[^18] +The security file reached the public through the [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]]. On January 6, 1978, the committee's chief counsel, [[G. Robert Blakey]], sent the CIA a request for 38 files. Item 18 was E. Howard Hunt. Item 19 was "[[Jim Garrison]] aka Wackenhut Corp.," item 28 "Garrison 1967 investigation," and item 36 "Southern Research Corp." The [[National Photographic Interpretation Center]] answered on January 30 that it had "no documented information or files on the [[Southern Research Company|Southern Research Corporation]], presently known as the Wackenhut Corporation." The [[CIA Office of Logistics|Office of Logistics]] found under item 36 contract actions with Wackenhut for 1970 to 1975 in the management information system of the Directorate of Science and Technology. [[Bruce Solie]] of the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] certified on July 18, 1978, that committee staff had reviewed the Wackenhut file "in conjunction with the HSCA's investigation into the deaths of President [[John F. Kennedy]] and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." His memorandum adds: "Under procedures established with the HSCA, certain items of information were not reviewed by HSCA staff members. These items were placed in envelopes, sealed, appropriately identified, and put back into the security file prior to HSCA review." Material the staff did see was marked "with a green circular dot."[^24] -The pairing of the names goes back to [[New Orleans]]. The lawyers who defended [[Clay Shaw]] against District Attorney Garrison's conspiracy charge, [[Edward Wegmann]] and his brother William, engaged two firms of former federal agents, Wackenhut and [[Holloway Associates]] of Texas. Edward Wegmann's files, given to the [[Assassination Records Review Board]] by his daughter in 1995, show Wackenhut men reporting to the defense with the WDSU television reporter [[Rick Townley]] on April 19, 1967, and interviewing the Cuban exile [[Carlos Bringuier]] on May 9. The researcher who first went through the files wrote that Wackenhut "was the same company that did the reports for [[Eastern Air Lines|Eastern Airlines]] in the dismissal proceedings against [[David Ferrie]]. The firm was then called Southern Research." The company's own histories do not mention the name, and the phrase "presently known as" first appears in Blakey's letter. [[Louisiana]]'s corporate register shows a Southern Research Company, Inc., chartered in [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]] on December 2, 1958, which absorbed a polygraph firm, [[Truth Verification of Louisiana]], in 1973 and is still in business, with sister companies in [[Baton Rouge]] and [[Lake Charles, Louisiana|Lake Charles]]. Its New Orleans company, Southern Research Company of New Orleans, Inc., was chartered on September 5, 1963. It filed notice of dissolution on October 5, 1967, and was dissolved on December 13. The Wackenhut Corporation had qualified to do business in Louisiana on May 3, 1965. Shaw was arrested on March 1, 1967. The CIA rescinded George Wackenhut's security approval the following month.[^19] +The pairing of the names goes back to [[New Orleans]]. The lawyers who defended [[Clay Shaw]] against District Attorney Garrison's conspiracy charge, [[Edward Wegmann]] and his brother William, engaged two firms of former federal agents, Wackenhut and [[Holloway Associates]] of Texas. Edward Wegmann's files, given to the [[Assassination Records Review Board]] by his daughter in 1995, show Wackenhut men reporting to the defense with the WDSU television reporter [[Rick Townley]] on April 19, 1967, and interviewing the Cuban exile [[Carlos Bringuier]] on May 9. The researcher who first went through the files wrote that Wackenhut "was the same company that did the reports for [[Eastern Air Lines|Eastern Airlines]] in the dismissal proceedings against [[David Ferrie]]. The firm was then called Southern Research." The company's own histories do not mention the name, and the phrase "presently known as" first appears in Blakey's letter. [[Louisiana]]'s corporate register shows a Southern Research Company, Inc., chartered in [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]] on December 2, 1958, which absorbed a polygraph firm, [[Truth Verification of Louisiana]], in 1973 and is still in business, with sister companies in [[Baton Rouge]] and [[Lake Charles, Louisiana|Lake Charles]]. Its New Orleans company, Southern Research Company of New Orleans, Inc., was chartered on September 5, 1963. It filed notice of dissolution on October 5, 1967, and was dissolved on December 13. The Wackenhut Corporation had qualified to do business in Louisiana on May 3, 1965. Shaw was arrested on March 1, 1967. The CIA rescinded George Wackenhut's security approval the following month.[^25] -The New Orleans office of Southern Research was run by [[Joseph Oster]], a former city police detective who had worked for [[Guy Banister]]. A credit report of July 1960 in a CIA security file describes him as vice president of "Southern Research, Inc., whose home office is in Shreveport," a firm of ten or twelve employees, and as having come to it from "[[Guy Banister Associates|Guy B------ Associates]], Inc." Oster told a lawyer for the Assassination Records Review Board in January 1996 that he had left Banister "because Banister was getting more involved in controversial political causes, to the detriment of attracting paying clients," that he had investigated Ferrie for Eastern Air Lines in 1962 and 1963, and that he had gone with the district attorney's men to Ferrie's house on the night of the assassination. He left the firm in the middle 1960s. The president of the Shreveport company, [[Thomas Ostendorff]], gave the board its file on Ferrie, number 11-N-224. Wegmann's records, the board wrote, "indicate that the Shaw defense team had retained Southern Research Company as of mid-1967," a witness before the [[Orleans Parish]] grand jury was asked in January 1969 whether he had been "interviewed by Southern Research or any investigating firm that is doing Shaw's investigation," and a file on [[Gordon Novel]] records that Southern Research interviewed his lawyer, [[Steven Plotkin]], on April 7, 1967. "Mr. Oster stated that neither he nor Southern Research had worked for the Clay Shaw defense team." The board's lawyer noted "the conflicting accounts we have found."[^20] +The New Orleans office of Southern Research was run by [[Joseph Oster]], a former city police detective who had worked for [[Guy Banister]]. A credit report of July 1960 in a CIA security file describes him as vice president of "Southern Research, Inc., whose home office is in Shreveport," a firm of ten or twelve employees, and as having come to it from "[[Guy Banister Associates|Guy B------ Associates]], Inc." Oster told a lawyer for the Assassination Records Review Board in January 1996 that he had left Banister "because Banister was getting more involved in controversial political causes, to the detriment of attracting paying clients," that he had investigated Ferrie for Eastern Air Lines in 1962 and 1963, and that he had gone with the district attorney's men to Ferrie's house on the night of the assassination. He left the firm in the middle 1960s. The president of the Shreveport company, [[Thomas Ostendorff]], gave the board its file on Ferrie, number 11-N-224. Wegmann's records, the board wrote, "indicate that the Shaw defense team had retained Southern Research Company as of mid-1967," a witness before the [[Orleans Parish]] grand jury was asked in January 1969 whether he had been "interviewed by Southern Research or any investigating firm that is doing Shaw's investigation," and a file on [[Gordon Novel]] records that Southern Research interviewed his lawyer, [[Steven Plotkin]], on April 7, 1967. "Mr. Oster stated that neither he nor Southern Research had worked for the Clay Shaw defense team." The board's lawyer noted "the conflicting accounts we have found."[^26] -On April 14, 1967, the FBI's [[FBI Domestic Intelligence Division|Domestic Intelligence Division]] recorded that [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Ramsey Clark]] had told reporters the bureau had investigated Shaw and cleared him. "This is not true and we so informed the Attorney General." The New Orleans office, it went on, had told "[[Charles R. Carson (Wackenhut)|Charles R. Carson]], a Wackenhut Corporation investigator, and [[Dean Andrews]]" only that it had no comment, and the bureau "has no intention of telling these or any other individuals that the Attorney General's statement is incorrect." A witness told the review board at a public hearing that the former FBI employee [[William Walter]] had said to Garrison in 1973 "that the FBI through Wackenhut, the [[Metropolitan Crime Commission]] and [[Aaron Kohn]], had wire tapped his office." On May 3, 1967, [[George Walker (Wackenhut)|George Walker]] of the company's Coral Gables headquarters gave the FBI in Miami a letter from a man who said that before the assassination a Cuban in his boarding house, known as "Cash," had remarked that to kill Kennedy one had only to excite a Cuban with a high-powered rifle.[^21] +On April 14, 1967, the FBI's [[FBI Domestic Intelligence Division|Domestic Intelligence Division]] recorded that [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Ramsey Clark]] had told reporters the bureau had investigated Shaw and cleared him. "This is not true and we so informed the Attorney General." The New Orleans office, it went on, had told "[[Charles R. Carson (Wackenhut)|Charles R. Carson]], a Wackenhut Corporation investigator, and [[Dean Andrews]]" only that it had no comment, and the bureau "has no intention of telling these or any other individuals that the Attorney General's statement is incorrect." A witness told the review board at a public hearing that the former FBI employee [[William Walter]] had said to Garrison in 1973 "that the FBI through Wackenhut, the [[Metropolitan Crime Commission]] and [[Aaron Kohn]], had wire tapped his office." On May 3, 1967, [[George Walker (Wackenhut)|George Walker]] of the company's Coral Gables headquarters gave the FBI in Miami a letter from a man who said that before the assassination a Cuban in his boarding house, known as "Cash," had remarked that to kill Kennedy one had only to excite a Cuban with a high-powered rifle.[^27] -In November 1967 [[William Harvey]], the former head of the CIA's [[Task Force W]], who was planning a law practice, asked the FBI's liaison officer, [[Sam Papich]], about "reputable private investigators that might be willing to use Harvey's services to establish contacts and investigative coverage on the Continent." The CIA's director of security, [[Howard Osborn]], recorded the answer: "Mr. Papich suggested Wackenhut Corporation or the [[Fidelifax|Fidelifax Company]] as having a good reputation in the trade." The same memorandum reports two telephone calls in October from [[Johnny Roselli|John Roselli]] asking Harvey to act as his lawyer.[^22] +In November 1967 [[William Harvey]], the former head of the CIA's [[Task Force W]], who was planning a law practice, asked the FBI's liaison officer, [[Sam Papich]], about "reputable private investigators that might be willing to use Harvey's services to establish contacts and investigative coverage on the Continent." The CIA's director of security, [[Howard Osborn]], recorded the answer: "Mr. Papich suggested Wackenhut Corporation or the [[Fidelifax|Fidelifax Company]] as having a good reputation in the trade." The same memorandum reports two telephone calls in October from [[Johnny Roselli|John Roselli]] asking Harvey to act as his lawyer.[^28] ### Controversies and Allegations @@ -87,7 +101,7 @@ George R. Wackenhut, the company's founder, was characterized as a "hard-line ri ### Allegations of CIA Front Operations -Multiple sources have alleged that Wackenhut served as a front for the CIA and other intelligence agencies. [[Richard Babayan]], identified as a CIA contract employee, claimed that Wackenhut had been used by the CIA for years to provide cover for clandestine operations. [[Bruce Berckmans]], a former CIA agent who later became a Wackenhut international-operations vice president, reportedly saw a formal proposal from George Wackenhut to the CIA offering Wackenhut offices worldwide as fronts for CIA activities. [[William Corbett]], a terrorism expert and former CIA analyst, further stated that Wackenhut allowed the CIA to occupy positions within the company to conduct clandestine operations and supplied intelligence agencies with information in exchange for lucrative government contracts.[^1] +Multiple sources have alleged that Wackenhut served as a front for the CIA and other intelligence agencies. [[Richard Babayan]], identified as a CIA contract employee, claimed that Wackenhut had been used by the CIA for years to provide cover for clandestine operations. Bruce Berckmans, a former CIA agent who later became a Wackenhut international-operations vice president, reportedly saw a formal proposal from George Wackenhut to the CIA offering Wackenhut offices worldwide as fronts for CIA activities. [[William Corbett]], a terrorism expert and former CIA analyst, further stated that Wackenhut allowed the CIA to occupy positions within the company to conduct clandestine operations and supplied intelligence agencies with information in exchange for lucrative government contracts.[^1] ### El Salvador Operations @@ -103,7 +117,7 @@ A particularly controversial aspect of Wackenhut's operations was its joint vent Within the Cabazon Joint Venture, Michael Riconosciuto claimed to have modified the proprietary [[PROMIS]] computer software. This modification, allegedly spearheaded by [[Earl Brian]] and made available through [[Peter Videnieks]] of the [[Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]], was intended to facilitate the worldwide implementation of PROMIS in law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Riconosciuto's affidavit detailed his work on the software, including specific modifications for the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] and the [[Canadian Security Intelligence Service|CSIS]] in [[Canada]]. This alleged pirating and modification of the PROMIS software became a central component of the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]].[^1] -It was here that the "trap door" was built into the U.S. version of PROMIS, based on [[Israel|Israeli]] information. This operation was conducted by a small CIA group, headed by [[Robert Gates]], who sought to keep it secret from the NSA due to interagency competition.[^23] +It was here that the "trap door" was built into the U.S. version of PROMIS, based on [[Israel|Israeli]] information. This operation was conducted by a small CIA group, headed by [[Robert Gates]], who sought to keep it secret from the NSA due to interagency competition.[^29] ### Danny Casolaro Investigation @@ -129,16 +143,22 @@ The Wackenhut/Cabazon Joint Venture was terminated on October 1, 1984, following [^8]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, cable to SAC New York field office, "Wackenhut Corp.," April 30, 1968, JFK record 104-10130-10473. [^9]: National Archives, JFK Assassination Records Collection, record identification forms 104-10130-10459 (April 25, 1967), 104-10130-10466 (November 8, 1971), 104-10130-10463 (February 4, 1974), 104-10130-10461 (February 6, 1974), and 104-10130-10460 (February 11, 1974), agency file 80T01357A. Titles and dates from the index; the documents themselves have not been read. [^10]: Burr, William, ed. "Project Azorian: The CIA's Declassified History of the Glomar Explorer," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 305, 2010. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb305/index.htm -[^11]: Connolly, John. "Inside the Shadow CIA," *Spy,* September 1992, pp. 46-54. -[^12]: Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University, finding aid to the Church League of America Collection of the Research Files of Counterattack, the Wackenhut Corporation, and Karl Baarslag, TAM 148. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_148/ -[^13]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 1: Youth," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 171, September 13, 2026, audio at 18:34 to 22:49. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/13/ray-horsch-2/ -[^14]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami office to Director, September 15, 1967, file 92-6054, pp. 3-4, JFK record 124-10293-10312. -[^15]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, airtel to SAC Jacksonville, January 13, 1967, and memorandum recording the instruction of April 3, 1967, headquarters file on the Wackenhut Corporation; "Wackenhut Aide Quits; 'Cruel Hoax,'" *The Tampa Tribune,* February 17, 1967, and *St. Petersburg Times* clipping, Tampa file. https://archive.org/details/WackenhutCorporation ; Hougan, Jim. *Spooks*. William Morrow, 1978; House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* vol. 9, pp. 802-805, and testimony of Lewis McWillie, vol. 5. -[^16]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami file 80-1229, "The Wackenhut Corporation," with clipping "Wackenhut Is 'Shocked' At Crime's Extent In State," Times-Miami Herald Service, 1967. https://archive.org/details/WackenhutCorporation -[^17]: Hougan, Jim. *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents*. William Morrow, 1978, pp. 345-346, citing Warren Commission Document 206 and Commission Exhibit 1697. -[^18]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, "HSCA Chrono for 1977-1978 of Reports and Requests," CIA Reading Room document 00548292; Office of Legislative Counsel, HSCA request OLC 78-0070/1, January 12, 1978, with National Photographic Interpretation Center memorandum of January 30, 1978, document 00491180; McDonald, James H., Director of Logistics, memorandum on item 36, JFK record 104-10135-10200; Solie, Bruce L. "Wackenhut Corp.," memorandum for the record, July 18, 1978, JFK record 104-10130-10450. -[^19]: DiEugenio, James. "The Wegmann Files," *Probe,* vol. 4, no. 4, May-June 1997, pp. 8-9, in the Harold Weisberg Collection, Hood College; Central Intelligence Agency, "Names Traces on OLC Requests," February 6, 1978, CIA Reading Room document 00419231, listing item 36 as "Southern Research Corp (Wachenhut Corp)." Louisiana Secretary of State, business filings, charters 24407110D (Southern Research Company, Inc.), 26310590D (Southern Research Company of New Orleans, Inc.), and 27005970F (The Wackenhut Corporation), consulted September 21, 2026. -[^20]: Golrick, Philip D. Memorandum to David G. Marwell, "Phone Conversation with Joseph Oster," January 19, 1996, and letters and subpoena to Southern Research Company, Assassination Records Review Board electronic files of Philip G. Golrick (OSTER.WPD, SOURES.WPD); Central Intelligence Agency, report of investigation, September 13, 1960, JFK record 104-10109-10379, p. 14; Orleans Parish Grand Jury, testimony of Arthur Bidderson, January 9, 1969; Assassination Records Review Board, file inventory (082395.WPD). All consulted at the Mary Ferrell Foundation archive. -[^21]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Domestic Intelligence Division, informative note, April 14, 1967, JFK record 124-10369-10048; Assassination Records Review Board, public hearing transcript, testimony of James DiEugenio, p. 89; FBI Miami, memorandum of May 10, 1967, headquarters file 62-109060, section 129, p. 166. -[^22]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076. -[^23]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. +[^11]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, pp. 30, 59-64, 65-66, memorandum MIM-294-67, "Initial Contact," December 13, 1967, and information reports of January 10, 1968. +[^12]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, pp. 10-13, 37-58, process sheets of March 1970 to December 1971. +[^13]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, pp. 24-29, memoranda MIM-160-70 (September 21, 1970), MIM-178-70 (October 29, 1970), the TSD request of October 29, 1970, cables of November 4, 1970, and memorandum DAL-108-72 (May 1, 1972). +[^14]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, pp. 19, 21-23, 36, cable DCD/Miami 12422, October 2, 1973; memorandum MFI-125-73, December 3, 1973; process sheet of January 1974. +[^15]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, pp. 15, 32; Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Collection Division, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corp.," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10017, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10017.pdf, pp. 4, 6-7. +[^16]: Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Contact Service, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corporation," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10016, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10016.pdf, pp. 14, 17, 18; Central Intelligence Agency, Domestic Collection Division, case file 65805, "Wackenhut Corp.," JFK Assassination Records Collection, record 104-10291-10017, released 2023. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10291-10017.pdf, pp. 2, 3, 11, 13, 17-18. +[^17]: Connolly, John. "Inside the Shadow CIA," *Spy,* September 1992, pp. 46-54. +[^18]: Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University, finding aid to the Church League of America Collection of the Research Files of Counterattack, the Wackenhut Corporation, and Karl Baarslag, TAM 148. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_148/ +[^19]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 1: Youth," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 171, September 13, 2026, audio at 18:34 to 22:49. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/13/ray-horsch-2/ +[^20]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami office to Director, September 15, 1967, file 92-6054, pp. 3-4, JFK record 124-10293-10312. +[^21]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, airtel to SAC Jacksonville, January 13, 1967, and memorandum recording the instruction of April 3, 1967, headquarters file on the Wackenhut Corporation; "Wackenhut Aide Quits; 'Cruel Hoax,'" *The Tampa Tribune,* February 17, 1967, and *St. Petersburg Times* clipping, Tampa file. https://archive.org/details/WackenhutCorporation ; Hougan, Jim. *Spooks*. William Morrow, 1978; House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* vol. 9, pp. 802-805, and testimony of Lewis McWillie, vol. 5. +[^22]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami file 80-1229, "The Wackenhut Corporation," with clipping "Wackenhut Is 'Shocked' At Crime's Extent In State," Times-Miami Herald Service, 1967. https://archive.org/details/WackenhutCorporation +[^23]: Hougan, Jim. *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents*. William Morrow, 1978, pp. 345-346, citing Warren Commission Document 206 and Commission Exhibit 1697. +[^24]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, "HSCA Chrono for 1977-1978 of Reports and Requests," CIA Reading Room document 00548292; Office of Legislative Counsel, HSCA request OLC 78-0070/1, January 12, 1978, with National Photographic Interpretation Center memorandum of January 30, 1978, document 00491180; McDonald, James H., Director of Logistics, memorandum on item 36, JFK record 104-10135-10200; Solie, Bruce L. "Wackenhut Corp.," memorandum for the record, July 18, 1978, JFK record 104-10130-10450. +[^25]: DiEugenio, James. "The Wegmann Files," *Probe,* vol. 4, no. 4, May-June 1997, pp. 8-9, in the Harold Weisberg Collection, Hood College; Central Intelligence Agency, "Names Traces on OLC Requests," February 6, 1978, CIA Reading Room document 00419231, listing item 36 as "Southern Research Corp (Wachenhut Corp)." Louisiana Secretary of State, business filings, charters 24407110D (Southern Research Company, Inc.), 26310590D (Southern Research Company of New Orleans, Inc.), and 27005970F (The Wackenhut Corporation), consulted September 21, 2026. +[^26]: Golrick, Philip D. Memorandum to David G. Marwell, "Phone Conversation with Joseph Oster," January 19, 1996, and letters and subpoena to Southern Research Company, Assassination Records Review Board electronic files of Philip G. Golrick (OSTER.WPD, SOURES.WPD); Central Intelligence Agency, report of investigation, September 13, 1960, JFK record 104-10109-10379, p. 14; Orleans Parish Grand Jury, testimony of Arthur Bidderson, January 9, 1969; Assassination Records Review Board, file inventory (082395.WPD). All consulted at the Mary Ferrell Foundation archive. +[^27]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Domestic Intelligence Division, informative note, April 14, 1967, JFK record 124-10369-10048; Assassination Records Review Board, public hearing transcript, testimony of James DiEugenio, p. 89; FBI Miami, memorandum of May 10, 1967, headquarters file 62-109060, section 129, p. 166. +[^28]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076. +[^29]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Condor.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Condor.md index bad77211..a3607d72 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Condor.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Operation Condor.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ tags: - ColdWar - 1970s - 1980s -summary: "Operation Condor was a CIA-facilitated transnational program of political repression, intelligence sharing, and assassination coordinated among six South American military dictatorships from November 1975, tracking and killing an estimated 60,000 people including opponents who had fled across borders." +summary: "Arrangement of six South American military governments from November 1975, founded by DINA's Manuel Contreras, for exchanging intelligence on exiles and killing them abroad, of which Washington had notice before the Letelier murder." start: 1975-11-01 location: "Santiago, Chile / Buenos Aires, Argentina" --- diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/1958 C-118 shootdown over Azerbaijan.md b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/1958 C-118 shootdown over Azerbaijan.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5d73a87c --- /dev/null +++ b/40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/1958 C-118 shootdown over Azerbaijan.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence Scandal" +tags: + - Event + - C118Shootdown + - CIA + - SovietUnion + - USAF + - ColdWar + - Wiesbaden +alias: + - C-118 shootdown + - Gendarkh incident +summary: "Air Force C-118 carrying CIA cargo forced down by Soviet MiG-17s over Azerbaijan on June 27, 1958; its nine crew, two well informed on agency work, were questioned at Baku and freed after ten days." +start: 1958-06-27 +location: "Azerbaijan" +created: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-21 +--- + +On June 27, 1958, a C-118 cargo aircraft of the [[United States Air Force]] at [[Wiesbaden]], "en route from Wiesbaden to Teheran and Pakistan on a flight carrying cargo for CIA," strayed in bad weather from [[Nicosia]] into Soviet [[Armenia]], where three MiG-17s fired on it and set the left wing alight. Five of the nine crew bailed out; the rest landed the burning plane at a small airstrip at Gendarkh in Soviet [[Azerbaijan]]. The parachutists "were surrounded by Soviet peasants, some of whom beat and struck at the crew members. One of the men was taken by the mob to a telephone pole and narrowly escaped hanging before being rescued by the Soviet military."[^1] + +### Baku + +The crew were taken by way of Stepanakert and Yevlakh to [[Baku]] and interrogated from June 30 to July 3 in the headquarters of the [[MVD]]. One interrogator, Vladimir Bourdine, had served with the Soviet purchasing commission in the [[United States]] from 1943 to 1945 and as first secretary in [[Ottawa]] from 1949 to 1955, and in 1955 had interpreted for [[Nikita Khrushchev]] with [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]. Two of the crew "were separated from the group and given preferred treatment, apparently with the intention of developing them for information purposes." The crew were handed to the American air attaché at Astara on the Iranian border on July 7.[^1] + +### The Debriefing + +A team from headquarters, "including a medical officer, an Air Maritime officer, and two representatives of the Security Office," had gone to Wiesbaden in anticipation of the release. The crew were debriefed there jointly by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and the Air Force, briefed "as to the text and limitations to be observed" before press interviews, at which agency men were present "under appropriate cover arrangements," and flown to Washington on July 18 for debriefings that ended on August 6 and ran to "some 7,000 to 9,000 pages." Two of the men "were extremely knowledgeable of highly sensitive Agency operational activities and of the identities of numerous CIA personnel"; one "was knowledgeable of CIA operational activities on a world-wide basis." Two briefcases of classified material were believed burned in the aircraft. An address book "containing several names, addresses and telephone numbers of CIA personnel and cover units," with the agency's open telephone number EX 3-6115 written under the owner's name, was taken by peasants and returned by the Baku commission unexamined. "Several of the crew destroyed incriminating building passes and notations in their wallets while on their way down in their parachutes."[^1] + +The [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] concluded on November 1, 1958, that "the Soviets 'missed' on the true nature of the flight and personnel of the C-118," that "no major compromises occurred," that the crew "were all in uniform and not in mixed civilian and Air Force clothing, which properly established their cover," and that the early Soviet acknowledgment of the landing, together with American pressure over nine Army men held in [[East Germany]] after a helicopter landing, "tended to take the 'play' away from the MVD and military intelligence." "All possible steps were taken during the period immediately preceding and immediately after the release of the crew to effect the minimum of publicity."[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Security, "American C-118 Aircraft Downed in Soviet Azerbaijan 27 June 1958 by Soviet MIG-17's," November 1, 1958, released as sanitized 1998, JFK record 104-10124-10040, filed in the security file of James W. McCord Jr.