Authors: John Newman
... The camp was located about 15 miles from New Orleans, right after crossing very long bridge right at entrance of state of Louisiana. Source of Report did not know name of ranch which belonged to some American millionaires who were defraying expenses for maintenance of men in training and providing equip ment. Approx 30 men were in training there. Source also stated that on 24 July 63 two automobiles left for Louisiana with Com- mandante Diego. (Note Diego is [also known as] Victor Manuel (Paneque) Batistia.....
Victor Batista was an assistant to Laureano Batista, military coordinator of MDC.
On August 3, 1963, Victor Batista was interviewed by the FBI. He said that a man named Fernando Fernandez had tried to ingratiate himself with the MDC Miami office in June. Apparently he tried too hard, and the MDC assigned Henry Ledea the task of gaining Fernandez's confidence to determine the reasons for Fernandez's "unusual interest" in the MDC. Ledea succeeded in this task, and Fernandez entrusted Ledea to mail some letters. Ledea promptly opened the letters, which exposed Fernandez as an infiltrator. In one letter, written on August 1 to the Cuban ambassador in Mexico, Fernandez said that he had "had infiltrated a commando group who was preparing to engage in an operation in Cuba." Fernandez stated he had "detailed reports" about this operation and asked for diplomatic asylum so that he could return to Cuba "in order to serve the revolution" under Castro. Not surprisingly, Ledea did not mail the letter.'
In spite of the fact that at least one person at the Ponchartrain camp was a member of the DRE, the New Orleans DRE delegate, Carlos Bringuier, professed only slight awareness of the camp. When the Church Committee interviewed him in 1976, Bringuier said he "was vaguely familiar with anti-Castro training camps on the north side of Lake Ponchartrain. He remembered that one Cuban named Fernando Fernandez Barcena (the same Fernandez mentioned above) was identified as a Castro agent."9 In 1963, Bringuier was anxious about the FBI's surveillance of DRE activities, a concern that had roots back into 1962. In April 1964 Bringuier told this to the Warren Commission:
And you see, in August 24, 1962, my organization, the Cuban Student Directorate, carry on a shelling of Havana, and a few days later when person from the FBI contacted me here in New Orleans-his name was Warren C. de Brueys. Mr. de Brueys was talking to me in the Thompson Cafeteria. At that moment I was the only one from the Cuban Student Directorate here in the city, and he was asking me about my activities here in the city, and when I told him that I was the only one, he didn't believe that, and he advised me-and I quote, "We could infiltrate your organization and find out what you are doing here." My answer to him was, "Well, you will have to infiltrate myself, because I am the only one."10
After that conversation with de Brueys, Bringuier explained, "I always was waiting that maybe someone will come to infiltrate my organization from the FBI, because I already was told by one of the FBI agent that they will try to infiltrate my organization."
On August 2, 1963, a series of events unfolded that aroused Bringuier's concern. On that day two Cubans showed up in his haberdashery, saying they had deserted the "training camp that was across Lake Ponchartrain here in New Orleans." This was the first he had heard of the camp. The two Cubans said the camp was a branch of the MDC and told Bringuier that they feared "there was a Castro agent inside that training camp."" A few days earlier, Bringuier recalled, the New Orleans police had found "a lot of ammunition and weapons" a mile from the camp.
Oswald and Bringuier
In the same breath that Bringuier told the Warren Commission about the arms bust at Ponchartrain, he added, "And when Oswald came to me on August 5 I had inside myself the feeling, well, maybe this is from the FBI, or maybe this is a Communist, because the FBI already had told me that maybe they will infiltrate my organization. ...12 Bringuier also testified that just "4 days later I was convinced that Oswald was not an FBI agent and that he was a Pro-Castro agent." This noteworthy testimony cuts to the heart of the double-agent role Oswald was apparently undertaking during August and September 1963.
Bringuier's disparate impressions of Oswald deserve close scrutiny. As previously discussed, Bringuier was the local delegate for the DRE, one of whose members had been caught in the FBI arms bust near Lake Ponchartrain. Bringuier had good reason to be guarded when, five days after the raid, Oswald sauntered into the Casa Roca, Bringuier's retail clothing store at 107 Decatur Street, and began talking about guerrilla warfare.13 According to Bringuier's testimony, this is what happened:
Now that day, on August 5, I was talking in the store with one young American-the name of him is Philip Geraci-and 5 minutes later Mr. Oswald came inside the store. He start to look around, several articles, and he show interest in my conversation with Geraci. I was explaining to Geraci that our fight is a fight of Cubans and that he was too young, that if he want to distribute literature against Castro, I would give him the literature but not admit him to the fight.
At that moment also he start to agree with I, Oswald start to agree with my point of view and he show real interest in the fight against Castro. He told me that he was against Castro and that he was against communism. He told me-he asked me first for some English literature against Castro, and I gave him some copies of the Cuban report printed by the Cuban Student Directorate.
After that, Oswald told me that he had been in the Marine Corps and that he had training in guerrilla warfare and that he was willing to train Cubans to fight against Castro. Even more, he told me that he was willing to go himself to fight Castro. That was on August 5.14
Bringuier says he "turned down" Oswald's offer, explaining that his duties were propaganda and information, not military activities. "Oswald insisted," Bringuier says, "and he told me that he will bring to me next day one book as a present, as a gift to me, to train Cubans to fight against Castro."
Oswald was not finished. He offered money to Bringuier too, whose recollection led to this exchange with Warren Commission lawyer Wesley Liebler:
MR. BRINGUIER: ... Before he left the store, he put his hand in the pocket and he offered me money.
MR. LIEBELER: Oswald did?
MR. BRINGUIER: Yes.
MR. LIEBELER: How much did he offer you?
MR. BRINGUIER: Well, I don't know. As soon as he put the hand in the pocket and he told me, "Well, at least let me contribute to your group with some money," at that moment I didn't have the permit from the city hall here in New Orleans to collect money in the city, and I told him that I could not accept his money, and I told him that if he want to contribute to our group, he could send the money directly to the headquarters in Miami, because they had the authorization over there in Miami, and I gave him the number of the post office box of the organization in Miami.
Oswald gave Bringuier his correct name and Magazine Street ad- dress.15 Bringuier then left the store to go to the bank. Oswald remained talking to Rolando Pelaez, Bringuier's brother-in-law, for about a half an hour.
When Bringuier returned to the Casa Roca, Pelaez told Bringuier that Oswald "looked like really a smart person and really interested in the fight against communism," but Bringuier claims he warned his brother-in-law that he did not trust Oswald, "because-I didn't know what was inside of me, but I had some feeling that I could not trust him. I told that to my brother that day."16 For the Oswald who had written the FPCC in April that he had stood in Dallas with a pro-Castro sign around his neck, this visit to the Casa Roca was a remarkable twist. It was all the more interesting because Oswald would shortly hand out his pro-Castro literature not far from the store. What Oswald was getting ready to spring on Bringuier was a deliberate provocation.
It is curious how the Warren Commission Report finessed the two-faced role demonstrated by Oswald's approach to Bringuier:
On August 5, he visited a store managed by Carlos Bringuier, a Cuban refugee and avid opponent of Castro and the New Orleans delegate of the Cuban Student Directorate. Oswald indicated an interest in joining the struggle against Castro. He told Bringuier that he had been a Marine and was trained in guerrilla warfare, and that he was willing not only to fight Castro but also to join the fight himself. The next day Oswald returned and left his "Guidebook for Marines" for Bringuier.""
The Warren Report then leaps right into Oswald's pro-Castro leafleting, which angers Bringuier and causes a scene, without at tempting to explain Oswald's contradictory behavior. The Warren Report also neglected to mention that Bringuier's organization had for years been covertly funded by the CIA. Did Commission member and former CIA director Allen Dulles realize that Bringuier might have been involved in a CIA program at the time of Oswald's visit?
A June 1, 1967, CIA memorandum by Counterintelligence Research and Analysis (CUR&A) said Bringuier had no "direct association with the Agency. But see enclosure one in respect to the Student Revolutionary Directorate (DRE), the New Orleans branch of which was once headed by Bringuier. The DRE was conceived, created, and funded by CIA." 18 Whether or not Allen Dulles knew about AMSPELL and Bringuier's connection to this program, important Agency memoranda describing this connection have emerged over the years. A memo written for the record by CUR&A, dated April 3, 1967, pointed out that Bringuier considered Oswald "either an FBI informant or a Communist penetration agent" and for this reason rejected his offer to train anti-Castro Cubans. The memorandum also said this:
The Student Revolutionary Directorate (DRE) was undoubtedly the group to which the Warren Commission referred. It was funded covertly by CIA. It was penetrated by the DGI [Cuban intelligence] and, in the fall of 1962, rolled up. We continued nominal support until September 1966 and terminated the relationship on 1 January 1967.19
This language avoids the ticklish question of what Bringuier's "indirect" association with the CIA in 1963 might have been. The same goes for Bringuier's associates Bartes, Quiroga, and Butler, all of whom had "indirect" links to the CIA and, together with Bringuier, were about to enter a three-week propaganda extravaganza with Oswald, which would be covered by local radio, television, and newspapers.
The same April memo complained about how writer-attorney Mark Lane was "trying to use" New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison's investigation to implicate anti-Castro Cubans in a "rightist plot" to assassinate Kennedy. The memo then contains this illuminating passage:
Bringuier is a leader of a New Orleans anti-Castro group. He was summoned to Garrison's office [date not reported] and asked to take a polygraph test. He agreed. During the test he was asked whether he had been contacted by the CIA. He said no and feels that deception reactions did not result because it was the other way around; he contacted CIA20 [emphasis added].
The questioner failed to ask the right question and Bringuier's answer did not give away his links to the Agency.
A similar failure marks the end of the FBI's inadequate answer to the Warren Commission on how it established Oswald's whereabouts and activities in New Orleans. It was August 5 that the FBI checked with the William B. Reily Coffee Company about when Oswald began employment there. By this time the FBI should have asked if Oswald was still working there, but they neglected to ask about his termination." "Mrs. Mary Berttucci, personal Secretary, William Reily Coffee Company, 640 Magazine St., advised on 8/5/ 63," said the FBI, "that Lee Harvey Oswald has been employed as a maintenance man since 5/15/63. His address at the time of his employment was 757 French St." Someone should have added that Oswald had been fired back on July 19. A New Orleans FBI cable to Dallas on August 13 said, "Mr. Jesse James Garner, 4909 Magazine St., New Orleans, advised on 8/5/63 that the subjects [Oswalds] have occupied the apartment at 4905 Magazine St. since about 6/63." As we have shown, however, the FBI had probably known since mid-May that Oswald had been residing on Magazine Street.
On August. 6, 1963, Oswald returned to the Casa Roca and, as he had promised the previous day, left his U.S. Marine Corps man- ual.22 He had underlined something on page 189: "Sight setting: 1 minute of angle or approximately 1 inch on target for each 100 yards." Bringuier recalled Oswald's second visit to the Casa Roca in this way:
Next day, on August 6, Oswald came back to the store, but I was not in the store at that moment, and he left with my brotherin-law a Guidebook for Marines. I was looking in the Guidebook for marines. I found interest in it and I keep it, and later-I forgot about that just for 3 days more-on August 9 I was coming back to the store at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and one friend of mine with the name of Celso Hernandez came to me and told me that in Canal Street there was a young man carrying a sign telling "Viva Fidel" in Spanish, and some other thing about Cuba, but my friend don't speak nothing in English, and the only thing that he understood was the "Viva Fidel" in Spanish. He told me that he was blaming the person in Spanish, but that the person maybe didn't understood what he was telling to him and he came to me to let me know what was going on over there.23
Bringuier's account of the second Oswald visit is corroborated by a secret service report written after the assassination by New Orleans Special Agent in Charge John Rice.24 On November 27, 1963, Rice called special agent in charge Robert I. Bouck to tell him Bringuier had turned over the "Guidebook for Marines" given to him by Oswald. "At the time Oswald pretended to be against Castro," Rice said, "and told Bringuier that he would be willing to assist in training Cubans with a view to overthrowing Castro."2S
It seems appropriate to review the two-sided role that Oswald had begun to play. The timing, flow, and changes of direction were not aimless. They seem intelligently related to the larger structure of Oswald's life and possibly to a great deal more. The Oswald character who emerges in FBI files and from there into CIA files begins in New Orleans by doing two things: infiltrating the FPCC as "Lee Harvey Oswald" while simultaneously forging an undercover identity. In this undercover role, his character, "A.J. Hidell," a proCastro activist, hands out FPCC literature under a false organizational title, "Fair Play for Cuba Committee, New Orleans Charter Member Branch," with a false post office box (30016), and a false office address (544 Camp Street).