4° ae ° * are (ie 10109: torn Les THROUGH ' : Chief, Security Research Staff FROM — : M. K, Holbik, IRD .SUBIECT : Project AMWORLD C Rafael QUINTERO, whose cryptonym was AMPAVA/ al al Until this summer,’ KSHER was the Agency staff employee in charge of ‘Subject. HECKSHER was succeeded by Mr CNestor SANCHEZ, estor GANCHEZ. HECKSHER's group was a ver ysmal) one an aq Gonsisted of His Se ed Of his sec- Mrs “Robbie HERNANDEZ? “her husbands Raul HBRNANDEZS . retar Se NKIN: SDIcKBEAL, a career ‘Logistics employee. Fl o 16 October 1964. MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Security * ‘1. The purpose of this memorandum is tO apprise you of . certain information about Project AMWORLD which I feel you should know, if you do-not already, and.to avoid possible embarrassment to the Agency and to the Office of Security. Its purpose is not to dis- credit Mr. Henry HECKSHER, the former Project head, or any other persons who have been affiliated with the Project. 2. Until July 1964, while a Security: Officer assigned to DDP/SAS, the majority of my time was devoted to Subject. Recent Project developments, coupled with. remarks that have been made to me about this Project, have motivated: me in submitting | this. account to you for your information. 3. Project AMWORLD was and is a so-called "autonomous" — operation, In theory, as I understand it, the Agency would furnish funds and materials, but the actual handling, direction, or control | - of the Project would be by the Project head, Manuel ARTIME; crypto- nym AMBIDDY/1. Tne second ranking Cuban in the Project was AMWORLD; and BEAL's secretary, Misé Gwen IHORNTON. HECK- SHER.was one of the several special assistants Td itzgerald, then the Chief of SAS. This small group was extremely loyal to - yan 2 eo" oe tee - . oe +0 g . ra ah 2 eee aoe cane ne nee on ee nes ranean mea tne etm nna etm re rene Nar nen tne hep trot tener ptt epee renner cement nmrmemntine tA nthe
14-00000 ‘grade spéciz z ey HECKSHER, particularly Raul and. Bobbie HERNANDEZ. They re- portedly will join HECKSHER at his new assignment in Venezuela. The staff em. loyee in Miami who handled AMWORLD matters was . Mx Karl ROHRERS It is believed that most of “Coes SAROS in Miami, fon behalf of the Project, were with Dr: X BARO.: whose cryptonym was AMYUM/19. BARO, until a fallihg out with. ARTIME, had been the number three man in the Project. As of my departure from SAS, then WH/SA, ROHRER was assigned to the British Guiana Desk of WH and I believe was located in Barton Hall. ROHRER returned from Miami to Headquarters in about the early summer of 1964. After returning, he showed some bitterness toward the Project and commented that ARTIME was a weak man, a poor leader, of questionable morals, and that Cuban Project personnel, including QUINTERO and BARO were about ready to leave ARTIME's group, the MRR. ROHRER opined to me that the Project was ''doomed". ROHRER'was then a Junior Officer Trainee, GS-8. I personally be- lieve that, if necessary, information could be elicited from ROHRER on a confidential basis. 4, Since leaving WH/SA, I have had occasional contact with persons:who were then and/or are now assigned to WH and who were knowledgeable of AMV OBLD matiegs. These contacts have ranged fro «Seymour BOLTEN Al RODRIGUEZ both of whom were super [assistants to Mr. Fitzgerald), secretaries in the "front office'' of what was SAS, and others. Since these persons knew of my intense involvement in the Project, they have commented to me about it. I did not intentionally solicit their remarks. A remark that was made to me recently renewed my effort to locate copies of certain materials that I had extracted from files while in SAS and submit this memorandum. The remark was, as Iocan recall it, ‘Wouldn't Senator Goldwater have a ball if he knew about the Spanish ship and about ARTIME's wife?'' This remark caused me to do considerable thinking’ -and recall. 5. As you might recall, a Spanish ship was attacked about two weeks ago. My knowledge of the attack upon the ship is based on com- ments made to me by persons whom I knew while in SAS. The attack upon the Spanish ship was reportedly made by the SS Santa Maria, one of two AMWORLD vessels (converted Navy AKL's). I was with this vessel in Hoboken, New Jersey, for about two weeks during the late spring of this year. At that time the vessel was being equipped and
14-00000 “manned. As-was reported to me, - the Santa Maria was cruising - off: 0! Cuba and at a distance noted the name on the Spanish ship; I believe — ‘it was "Sierra'' Inu. The Santa Maria, thinking ‘that this ship was‘one. | ‘of those on its "watch list", opened. fire on the’ Spanish ship: and accord-" S ae .°. ing to the newspaper publicity three Spaniards were killed and the. rns ' | Spanish Government was up in arms... As fate would have it, the Santas ‘Maria reportedly attacked. the wrong ship. - The ship they were interested ee Ty _ in-was of the same name; however, it in fact was not the Spanish ship. | | _ Iwas further ‘informed that because of this Nélap", Secretary F Rusk. and “ a oo Mr. “McCone immediately conferred, , Cle oy e relates t to. 7 oo ous pe 6. Whata is of equal o or even 1 gidater « concern’ to j en ARTIME's. wife. ‘In late February 1964, Henry-HEOKS HER requested et nu _that.I check the OS Indices in the name ofAdelaida Matilda PADRON’y 9." | ae. Cruz. As a result of this check I made inquiry of OO ‘and from that. ea mo o . office received a report relating to PADRON. A copy of my: resultant. ee oe _ memorandum to Mr. HECKSHER is. attached as Tab A. This,.tomy 00.00) |. knowledge, was the first’ indication that PADRON, who was then re- Phone - | 4 | { i -portedly ARTIME's mistress, was possibly a Lesbian. During con- .°. ‘tinued contacts with HECKSHER, I would discreetly inquire about oe whether or not ARTIME continued to have an: interest in PADRON. 7 HECKSHER is quite shrewd and is extremely adept at double talk. - essence, he replied in the affirrnative and further said that ARTIME. | ‘planned to marry her. I am quite. cértain: that the flow of information’ to HECKSHER about PADRON was in this manner--from BARO to | .° re ROHRER to either HERNANDEZ or HECKSHER. ‘As time went ‘on, re judging from the material.that I saw and'from the remarks thatI. 9 9 _ heard, it was obvious that BARO and QUINTERO had absolutely no. 7 | use for PADRON.: Tab B, authored by HECKSHER, notes thatthe — political repercussions could be "calamitous" ‘if. ARTIME married 7 PADRON, pe a “During the next couple of months, PADRON was investigated by INS at the Agency! s request, This was arranged through the Alien. Affairs Staff. I'm told there is a Security file on her. In addition, ~ there is a Subject file on her in WH Security, . That investigation indi- cated that PADRON was in all probability bi-sexual and that she had Lo been the former mistress o€ Fulgendio | ‘BATISTA. For your iniformation, Tab C in part relates to PADRON's” morals and to ARTIME's naivete.. Tab D primarily concerns QUINTERO's feeling about PADRON. .
14-00000 8. After my return from.Hoboken, HECKSHER expressed his appreciation to me for the departure of the ship without incident, and was quite friendly. I then felt it prudent to again inquire about ARTIME's plan to marry PADRON and as I recall, HECKSHER told me that they either were married or were going to definitely be married. I believe that during that same week HECKSHER gave me a copy of a Dispatch with the instructions that I was to return it to him immediately after I had read it. The Dispatch was extremely damaging to PADRON. Among other things, it reported on an inve sti- gation conducted by Cubans used by a CI shop at JMWAVE.. The © Dispatch was RYBAT and stated that PADRON had been the mistress _ of not only BATISTA, but also of former Venezuelan Dictator JIMINEZ. ' Further, it stated that PADRON and her sister were both homosexual and had "posed" (for pornography) for BATISTA and JIMINEZ. In addition, the Dispatch noted that informants had said that PADRON definitely visualized herself as being the next First Lady of Cuba. It was well known among Cubans in Miami that PADRON was undesirable and that she was ARTIME's romantic interest. Tab E relates to a con- versation of HECKSHER with ARTIME. I am quite certain that prior ‘to the date of this Dispatch (UFGA-16512), 29 June 1964, HECKSHER requested the assistance of SAS Security and of the Alien Affairs Staff to intervene with INS to allow PADRON's departure to Nicaragua where she and ARTIME would reside. It should have been pointed out earlier that by this time PADRON and ARTIME had become man and wife. 9. After I read the Dispatch, I allowed a colleague to read it and then returned it to HECKSHER,. If I had delayed its return, HECK- SHER would have become suspicious since I had voiced my concern about PADRON. I commented to HECKSHER that indeed the Dispatch was extremely derogatory to PADRON and also to ARTIME. I asked HECKSHER what he planned todo, HECKSHER shrugged his shoulders and then said that the Agency was stuck with ARTIME and that the Dis- patch had been shown to Messrs. Fitzgerald and Helms. Tab F isa copy I made of a Transmittal Slip. It indicates that apparently Mr. Fitzgerald did initiate some investigation because of the content of the Dispatch. 10. Tab Gin part confirms the content of the Dispatch which was derogatory to PADRON and ARTIME. 11. It would not be surprising if some of the derogatory infor - mation about ARTIME and/or his wife has leaked out of WH/SA or the meen enecaeatite ewer thee seree am tense nem SS theme tn ne amine Hae Ne Hotta
7490000 Agency. There aré a number of pérsons. currently 4 in'WH/SA who have ' very ‘strong unfavorable opinions -a¥out_AR- TIME As an: “example, one.. -employee;. quite outspoke old me on one. occasion 7 ' that it was_a shame that the A gency. was in any way involved. with ARTIMED is one of ‘those. ‘who had earlier been with. the oe Cuban Project. She seemed to be. knowledgeable : about the. ¢ derogatory - information relating to | ARTIME and PADRON.. oo a oe age Tomy lmowledge, ‘Project AMWORLD i is the. only Agency : activity: authorized by the ‘White House to. ‘conduct : ‘sabotage. operations | against and in Cuba. It was this group. that raided and devastated: the, - “sugar mill in approximately the spring of this: year. To my knowledge . ~ by. Presidential. request, no sabotage operations have been. launched ” on . “from: IMWAVE since about the first of the: year, . I gathered that | per- a ‘sonnel: at. IMWAVE possessed | certain ill feelings. toward AMWORLD and’ toward. ARTIME sincé it was ‘the only. operation that was allowed to conduct sabotage operations. . Oo 43. To repeat, it is. not : my intent 6. discredit HECKSHER, to. u second guess operational personnel, or to’ ‘predict. future "flaps", an : os view: HECKSHER as a.skilled operator who at. times is a wild man". °° This-ds. ‘submitted. for your information. If you previously were aware - Of. the content of this memorandum, I regret that I have caused. you to: - expend time. for a meaningless | endeavor. In conclusion, lapprised ...~. 1» omy: supervisor, Chet Crawford, ‘of my intent to compile this information cand have. asked him to peruse this. memorandum. 7 K Wolbs fefe “Holbik , Attachments: . Tab A Tab’ B: - Tab .C.. _ Tab D- “fab! EO o. Tab F- Tab G