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Post by Paul Ernst on Jun 8, 2021 14:10:13 GMT -5
October 24, 1961
Still another plot to assassinate Castro is uncovered in Cuba.
Reynol Gonzales, the delegated trigger man, is arrested while hiding on a suburban farm
belonging to Manuel Ray’s supporters.
The mastermind behind this scheme is Antonio Veciana
Blanch, an accountant who, according to the U.S. News & World Report, had begun “working
with other accountants, embezzling government funds in Havana to finance an anti-Castro underground.”
Weapons are found in an apartment rented by Veciana’s mother near the Presidential Palace.
Veciana and his mother are able to escape and make their way to Miami. Veciana will
eventually become the first chief of Alpha 66, one of the most militant and durable of the
exile action groups.
October 30, 1961
Attorney General Bobby Kennedy announces the indictment of
Carlos Marcello by a Federal grand jury in New Orleans on charges of conspiracy in falsifying a
Guatemalan birth certificate and committing perjury.
November, 1961
Maurice Bishop (David Atlee Phillips[?]) contacts Antonio
Veciana in Miami and instructs him to establish an anti-Castro organization.
The organization is later called Alpha 66.
Also this month, Presidential Advisor Richard Goodwin and CIA Deputy Edward
Lansdale recommend the creation of Operation Mongoose as coordinated effort to depose
Castro’s government.
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Post by Paul Ernst on Jun 8, 2021 14:15:12 GMT -5
November 2, 1961
Oswald’s Diary: Nov-2 Marina arrives back, radient, with several jars of preserses for
me from her her aunt in Khkov.
Nov-Dec. Now we are becoming anoid about the delay Marina is beginning to waiver
about toing to the US.
Probably from the strain and her being pregrate, still we quarrel and
so things are not to bright esp. with teh approach of the hard Russian winter.
November 7, 1961
Records indicate that Judith Campbell places a telephone call to
the White House on this date. RK
November 14, 1961
It is announced that U.S. advisers in Vietnam will be raised to 16,000 over the next two years.
During this month, the rumor of JFK’s 1947 marriage to Florida socialite, Durie Malcolm,
reportedly first reaches J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI.
Hoover then brings the matter to RFK’s attention. Helen Gandy, Hoover’s secretary says, however, that Hoover had known about the
marriage as early as 1960 and discussed it with Richard Nixon in terms of using it for election
dirty tricks.
Also during this month, JFK is reportedly taped in a sexual liaison with Marilyn Monroe
at Peter Lawford’s home in California.
One of the men monitoring the bugs at the Lawford
house is private investigator John Danoff. “To my amazement,” he says, “I started to recognize the
voices -- because of the President’s distinct Bostonian accent and Marilyn Monroe’s voice . . .
Then you heard them talking and they were going about disrobing and going into the sex act on the bed . . .”
Also during this month, JFK is reportedly taped in a sexual liaison with Marilyn Monroe
at Peter Lawford’s home in California.
One of the men monitoring the bugs at the Lawford
house is private investigator John Danoff. “To my amazement,” he says,
“I started to recognize the
voices -- because of the President’s distinct Bostonian accent and Marilyn Monroe’s voice . . .
Then you
heard them talking and they were going about disrobing and going into the sex act on the bed . . .”
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Post by Paul Ernst on Jun 9, 2021 16:10:24 GMT -5
November 15, 1961
Richard Bissell orders William King Harvey to implement the
“application of ZR/RIFLE program (Executive Action) to Cuba.”
Harvey calls the ZR/RIFLE program “the Magic Button.
” Revered as one of the few CIA agents who can match wits with the
KGB, Bill Harvey drinks heavily, is pigeon-toed and physically ungainly.
He always carries a gun. Harvey will reestablish Agency contact with Mob liaison John Roselli.
Records indicate that Judith Campbell places a telephone call to the White House on this
date. RK
November 27, 1961
An unusual meeting on Vietnam takes place in the White House.
Allen Dulles (on his last day as CIA director) is there, but not his replacement, McCone.
Also attending are: Brigadier General Edward Lansdale, now in charge of anti-Castro operations --
code named “Mongoose”; Agency for International Development Administrator Fowler
Hamilton, and Bureau of the Budget Director David Bell.
From the NSC staff there is McGeorge Bundy and Walt Rostow.
From State there were Rusk and U. Alexis Johnson. From Defense
there are: McNamara, Lemnitzer and William Bundy. Basically, during this meeting, the
“baton” passes from Maxwell Taylor to Robert McNamara.
JFK plans to kill the proposal for
introducing U.S. combat forces into Vietnam. This leaves the bureaucracy that had planned it in
disarray.
November 28, 1961
JFK goes to Langley, Virginia to dedicate the CIA’s new
headquarters.
During the ceremony, he awards outgoing CIA director Allen Dulles the
National Security Medal.
Dulles is given the status of a CIA consultant in order to carry out
“historical research” and allowed to keep his bulletproof Cadillac limousine.
November 29, 1961
John McCone officially succeeds Allen Dulles, fired by
Kennedy, as CIA director.
McCone, a Republican industrialist has made a fortune in shipbuilding
and, since 1958, has chaired the Atomic Energy Commission.
Late this year, 1961, CIA official J. Walton Moore discusses agency “interest” in Lee
Harvey Oswald with George de Mohrenschildt.
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Post by Paul Ernst on Jun 11, 2021 19:41:55 GMT -5
November 30, 1961
A memorandum to all concerned instructs that Air Force Major
General Edward G. Lansdale’s program, called Operation Mongoose, “use our available assets ... to
help Cuba overthrow the Communist regime.”
Lansdale has been brought to Washington to
revitalize the CIA’s efforts against Cuba.
His idea is to take a different course from the
harassment operations of the past and try to crack the Castro regime from within.
The CIA’s branch of Operation Mongoose, Task Force W, is headed by William Harvey, boss of the
Agency’s ZR/RIFLE “Executive Action” section.
(One of his first measures is reinforcing the contacts
with the Mafia. Through Colonel Sheffield Edwards he establishes personal contact with John Roselli
to propose the reactivation of the poison capsule plan.)
Miami’s JM /WAVE station is the CIA’s
operational center for Mongoose.
Headed by Theodore Shackley, its chief of operations is David
Sanchez Morales, David Atlee Phillip’s close associate.
December 11, 1961
A report sent to the Minsk City Militia Department from the
Plant Director and the Personnel Department Chief:
“Lee Harvey Oswald ... hired as regulator in experimental
shop of this plant on January 13, 1960.
During his employment as regulator his performance was unsatisfactory.
He does not display initiative for increasing his skill as a
regulator.
Citizen Lee Harvey Oswald reacts in an
oversensitive manner to remarks from the foreman, and is
careless in his work.
Citizen L. H. Oswald takes no part in
the social life of our shop and keeps very much to himself.”
NOTE: Of particular interest is the fact that Fidel Castro’s intelligence corps was
known to have been trained by the Soviet KGB in Minsk, where many, like
Warren Commissioner Richard Russell, worried they may have had contact
with Lee Harvey Oswald.
General Al Haig concludes: “Castro was behind this
[assassination], but with KGB help.
Like Kennedy, the Pope’s assassination had KGB
footprints all over it.
I mean, these Soviets were bloody-minded people - probably even
more bloody-minded than Castro.”
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Post by Paul Ernst on Jun 15, 2021 7:17:03 GMT -5
December 19, 1961
While playing golf in Palm Beach with his devoted niece Ann
Gargan, seventy-three year old Joseph Kennedy suffers a massive stroke.
He struggles home to bed, and apparently discourages a call for the doctors.
Rose Kennedy is so unconcerned about his condition that she goes off to her own golf game.
Joseph Kennedy slips into a coma and an
ambulance finally rushes him to the hospital around 2 P.M.
RFK and JFK immediately fly to Palm Beach on Air Force One.
Joseph Kennedy is left essentially speechless from the stroke for the
rest of his life.
All he can clearly say is “No,” which he often repeats in angry frustration.
December 20, 1961
With Carlos Marcello free on a $10,000 bond, the five-member
Board of Immigration Appeals upholds the deportation order against him, denying another
appeal by Marcello attorneys that it be declared invalid.
December 25, 1961
Marina Oswald is called to the local passport office in Minsk,
where he is told that authority has been received to issue exit visas to her and her husband.
Marina is pregnant with their first child - who is to be born in June.
Oswald’s Diary: Dec 25th Xmas Day Tues.
Marina is called to the passport & visa office.
She is told we have been granted Soviet exit visa's.
She fills out the completing blank and then comes home with the news.
Its great (I think!). N
New Years, we spend at the Zeger's at a dinner party at midnight. Attended by 6 other persons.
December 29, 1961
Press reports that JFK today accepts the resignation of Gen. Charles P. Cabell as deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Cabell has been deputy director since 1953.
(During JFK’s ill-fated motorcade in Dallas, Gen. Cabell’s brother is mayor of that city.)
JFK wires Khrushchev from Palm Beach that 1961 has been a “troubled” year: “It is my
earnest hope that the coming year will strengthen the foundations of world peace and will bring an
improvement in the relations between our countries, upon which so much depends.”
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Post by Paul Ernst on Jun 23, 2021 2:30:33 GMT -5
1962.
January 1, 1962
Today is J. Edgar Hoover’s sixty-seventh birthday.
This month, JFK begins his affair with Mary Pinchot Meyer-- Ben Bradlee’s blond sisterin-law. Mary has known JFK since his student days at Choate and will boast that she and JFK smoked marijuana on more than one occasion in a White House bedroom.
Beginning early this year, David Ferrie - by his own account - begins working as “investigator and law clerk” in the New Orleans office of Wray Gill, one of Carlos Marcello’s many lawyers.
A New Orleans witness who knew both men says, “Marcello thought Ferrie was very intelligent.”
January 4, 1962
Oswald’s Diary: Jan. 4. I am called to the passport office since my Residenceal passport expires today, since I now have a US. passport in my position.
I am given a totly new resid. pass. called, "Pass. for Forin," and since they have given US perrmission to leave, and know we shall, good to July 5, 1962.
January 5, 1962
A letter to Lee Harvey Oswald from the American Embassy in Moscow suggests that since there might be difficulties in obtaining an American visa for Marina, he should consider returning alone and bringing her over later.
January 6, 1962
Columnist Drew Pearson makes a public prediction: “J. Edgar Hoover doesn’t like taking a back seat, as he calls it, to a young kid like Bobby [Kennedy] . . . and he’ll be eased out if there is not too much of a furor.”
January 11, 1962
A report -- dated today -- reveals that Miami Police’s intelligence unit is notified by the Secret Service that a Rafael Anselmo Rodriquez Molins, known as “Rafael Molina,” is a suspect in a plan to assassinate John F. Kennedy when he visits the family home in Palm Beach.
January 13, 1962
First Republic of China Air Force U-2 mission over Peoples Republic of China (PRC). January 14, 1962 Juan Manuel Guillot Castellanos, a CIA agent, is infiltrated into Cuba. Guillot is with the MRR, Manuel Artime’s organization, although at this time Artime is in prison in Cuba, where he has been since the Bay of Pigs expedition. Guillot begins working to reform the counterrevolutionary groups.
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Post by Paul Ernst on Jun 25, 2021 19:23:14 GMT -5
January 14, 1962
Juan Manuel Guillot Castellanos, a CIA agent, is infiltrated into
Cuba. Guillot is with the MRR, Manuel Artime’s organization, although at this time Artime is in
prison in Cuba, where he has been since the Bay of Pigs expedition. Guillot begins working to
reform the counterrevolutionary groups.
January 16, 1962
In a written reply to the American Embassy in Moscow, Lee
Harvey Oswald informs them that he will not leave Russia without his wife Marina.
January 30, 1962
Lee Harvey Oswald writes an angry letter to John Connally,
who has been Secretary of the Navy in 1961, betraying considerable anxiety over the change in
status of his military discharge. In defending himself, he asserts that he has “always had the full
sanction of the U.S. Embassy ... and hence the U.S. government” during his stay in the Soviet Union.
He also warns, “I shall employ all means to right this gross mistake or injustice ...” and asks Connally
to “look into this case and take the necessary steps to repair the damage ...”
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Post by Paul Ernst on Jun 28, 2021 1:55:42 GMT -5
February 1, 1962
Marilyn Monroe meets Robert Kennedy at a dinner party in
Peter Lawford’s California beach house.
Later this night, the actress will tell a friend, the two of
them talk alone in the den. In characteristic fashion, Monroe has prepared questions of topical
interest and asks whether it is true that J. Edgar Hoover might soon be fired.
Robert replies that
“he and the President didn’t feel strong enough to do so, though they wanted to.
” Lawford’s house has
been bugged by the FBI, so this information goes directly to J. Edgar Hoover.
This month, Richard Bissell leaves the CIA. (JFK has forced this move following the Bay of
Pigs disaster) JFK had offered Bissell a lateral move to a position within the agency, but Bissell
feels it is of the “fast track” and has turned it down. He accepts another political “plum” -- the
presidency of the Institute for Defense Analysis.
February 9, 1962 Angelo Bruno, boss of the leading organized crime family of
Philadelphia, is overheard talking with one of his capiregime, Willie Weisburg:
Weisburg: “See what Kennedy done. With Kennedy a guy should take a knife, like one of them other guys,
and stab and kill the fucker, where he is now. somebody should kill the fucker.
I mean it. This is true.
Honest to God. It’s about time to go. But I tell you something. I hope I get a week’s notice. I’ll kill. Right
in the fuckin’ . . . in the White House. Somebody’s got to get rid of this fucker.”
Angelo Bruno agrees with Weisburg but advises him to be cautious, telling him that sometimes
the man following the man who has been eliminated turns out to be worse.
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Post by Paul Ernst on Jun 28, 2021 21:24:59 GMT -5
February 10, 1962
The Soviet Union releases American pilot Francis Gary Powers
in exchange for the freedom of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, convicted in 1957 for espionage against
the United States.
February 14, 1961
Records indicate that Judith Campbell places a telephone call to
the White House on this date.
February 15, 1962
A baby girl -- June Lee Oswald -- is born to Lee and Marina
Oswald.
Oswald’s Diary: Feb. 15.
Days of cold Russian winter. But we feel fine. Marina is
supposed to have baby on March 1st.
Feb 15 -- Dawn. Marina wakes me up. Its her time. At 9:00 we arrive at the hospital I
leave her in care of nurses and leave to go to work. 10:00 Marina has a baby girl. when I
vist the hospital at 500 after work, I am given news. We both wanted a boy. Marina feels
well, baby girl, O.K.
This month, David Ferrie goes to work in New Orleans as investigator for Guy Banister
and Carlos Marcello.
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Post by Paul Ernst on Jul 8, 2021 3:59:49 GMT -5
February 19, 1962
Richard Helms replaces Richard Bissell as the CIA’s deputy
director for Plans, in charge of all covert operations.
Before his resignation, one of Bissell’s last
acts is to name William Harvey to a new post: Head of Task Force W, a unit created exclusively
for the purpose of carrying out anti-Cuba operations on a worldwide level, and which will
function out of the CIA’s central offices. In a memo from Helms, Harvey is authorized to hire an
assassin known as QJ/WIN for the Executive Action capability code-named ZR/RIFLE.
According to Helms’ directive, QJ/WIN is to be paid $14,700 per annum in salary and expenses.
(This secret memo will finally surface and become public in the ‘70s.)
February 20, 1962
John Glenn blasts off from Cape Canaveral in Friendship 7 to
go into orbit around the earth
February 23, 1962
Oswald’s Diary: Feb. 23 Maria leaves hospital I see June for first time.
February 27, 1962
J. Edgar Hoover sends memos to the attorney general, RFK and
Ken O’Donnel detailing JFK’s relationship with Judith Campbell. The stated FBI concern is that
Sam Giancana will use his Campbell connection and his CIA relationship as a double blackmail
against future prosecution.
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