GARRISON INVESTIGATION OF KENNEDY ASSASSINATION: ALLEGATIONS OF INVOLVEMENT, CIA AND CUBAN.
Originator: CIA
Document date: 02/28/1968
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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2022 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

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28 February 1968

MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT:

Garrison Investigation of Kennedy Assassination:

Allegations of Involvement, CLA and Cuban

1. Mr. (Calvin Thomas of the SB Division wrote a memorandum

entitled 'Possible DRE Animus Toward President Kennedy" and dated

8 March 1967. At that time Mr. Thomas had recently returned from a

tour of duty in Yugoslavia, While there he had read about the Warren

Commission's investigation and had noted the pre-assassination encounter

in New Orleans between Carlos Bringuier of the Student Revolutionary

Directorate (DRE) and Lee Harvey Oswald. He recalled his own dealings

in Miami with the DRE, a CIA-subsidized group. He considered the

DRE members whom he knew to be unpredictable and untrustworthy. He

speculated as to whether DRE elements could have been involved in the

Kennedy assassination. He recommended that CLA investigate this

possibility if it had not already done so. (T'homas was assigned to Miami

from July 1962 to August 1963. Neither CI/R&A nor SB has a retention

copy of the memorandum, but Mr. (Thomas is still at Headguarters.

2. Mr. Arthur Dooley of CI/R&A discussed this matter with the

following members of WH/COG:

Miss Margaret Forsythe. She stated that CLA's

interest in the DRE had been made known to the office of the

Attorney General by letters of 9 January and 18 April 1963

addressed to J. Walter Yeagley. The earlier letter said, in

part, "The DRE is of interest to this Agency which sponsors

and supports its propaganda and intelligence collection activity

in the Western Hemisphere.:. as the DRE is not a group

under complete Agency control, the above does not insure that

they will not undertake isolated paramilitary operations without

prior notification."

b. Messrs. Howard Brubaken then recently returned

from a tour of the Miami Station, and Carl Trettin, DC of the

CI Branch, WH/COG, who knew Bringuier and was stationed

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in New Orleans at the time of the Oswald-Bringuier

confrontations in August 1963. It was concluded that

Oswald was never a member

of the DRE, which in fact

rejected him, and that the DRE was not involved in the

assassination.

3.

In April 1967 the undersigned showed a copy of the (Thomas

memorandum to Mr. (Tom Flores, then C/WH/COG, who considered

that it reflected inadequate information and bias. It was agreed,

nevertheless, that the charges which District Attorney James Garrison

was then beginning to level against anti-Castro Cubans and this Agency

necessitated careful checking.

4. The first report in the CI/R&A series on Garrison, 26 April

1967, listed seven Cuban refugees then linked to the case (Sergio

ARCACHA Smith, Carlos BRINGUIER, Julio BUZNEDO, Manuel GARCIA

Gonzalez, Pascual GONGORA, Miguel Silva TORRES, and Carlos

QUIROGA.) It requested any additional WH/COG information about them

and about the following groups: the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary

Front, the DRE, the Information Council of the Americas, and any other

anti-Castro groups active in the New Orleans area.

The reguest added,

"Information about CIA relationships with the above-named groups should

not be restricted to New Orleans but should also include Miami and other

areas to which Garrison's investigations may lead. " Information was

also requested on Edward S. BUTLER, Alberto FOWLER, Emilio

SANTANA, and a paramilitary training site at Lake Pontchartrain. By

a memorandum forwarded on 8 May 1967 the then AC/WH/COG, Mr. Cart

J. Williamsor, provided the requested information and added, "WH/COG

will continue to review all material that may contain information pertinent

to this subject and will forward such information to CI/R&A on a priority

basis. "

5. Since that date CI/R&A has prepared a series of reports on

the Garrison case. All of these have been forwarded to WH/COG. In

turn, WH/COG has provided additional information from its own files

and those of the Miami Station, to which it has addressed several inquiries.

6. CI/R&A is currently compiling a separate list of all Cubans

(as well as other Latin Americans) whose names have been linked to the

Garrison investigation.. This list will be forwarded to WH/COG with a

request for checks if it contains any identities not previously traced

against their files (including those of JMWAVE).

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7. The problem arising from Garrison's charges of Agency

involvement in the assassination is compounded by the nature of

some of our former Cuban operations, which resulted in a form of

indirect association. For example, Garrison has sought without

success to extradite Sergio ARCACHA Smith from Dallas. FBI reporting

of 28 March 1967 stated that according to Layton Patrick Martens,

Garrison will try to prove that Arcacha was the "second trigger man"

in the assassination.. The checks run by WH/COG and CI/R&A have not

shown any link between Arcacha and CIA. However, WH/COG has

reported that Arcacha was the delegate of the Frente Revolucionario

Democratico (ERD) in New Orleans before the Bay of Pigs, that he

maintained regular postal contact with FRD headguarters in Miami.

that the FRD and the Cuban Revolutionary Council were supported by

Cla, and that funds were supplied to the head of these groups, DI. Jose

MIRO Cardona. Consequently Arcacha may have believed that his

activities in New Orleans were CIA-supported. This phenomenon of

indirect association appears in other cases as well and may well underlie

some of Garrison's accusations. "

8. It is suggested that C/WH or his representative might

profitably query Mr. Thoma? about the allegations summarized in

paragraph 1, above. Although the date for the trial of Clay Shaw has

not been set, it is plainly drawing closer. Once it starts, the newspapers

will carry a flood of accusations, old and new; and it would be judicious

to be prepared in advance.

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