PROJECT REPORT
Originator: CIA
From: M. K. HOLBIK, IRD
To: DIRECTOR OF SECURITY
Document date: 10/16/1964
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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

SEGMET

MES

16 October 1964

CNIV

MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Security

THROUGH

FROM

SUBJECT

: Chief, Security Research Staff

: M. K. Holbik, IRD

: Project AMWORLD

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. Ine second ranking Cuban in the Project was

Rafael QUINTERO, Whose cryptonym was AMfAVA/4 d Until this

summer, HECKSHER was the Agency staff employee in charge of

Subject.

HECKSHER was succeeded by MI Nestor SANCHEZ.

HECKSHER's group was a very small one and consisted of his sec-

retary, Mrs "Bobbie" HERNANDEZ; her husband Raul HERNANDEZ,

Carl JENKINS, DiCK BEAL, a career Logistics employee assigned to

AMWORLD; and BEAL's secretary, Mis Gwen XHORNTON.› HECK-

SHER. was one of the several special assistants to Mr. Fitzgerald,

then the Chief of SAS. This small group was extremely loyal to

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HECKSHER, particularly Raul and Bobbie HERNANDEZ. They re-

portedly will join HECKSHER at his new assignment in Venezuela.

The staff employee in Miami who handled AMWORLD matters was

Mik Karl ROHRER, It is believed that most of ROHRER's contacts

in Miami, lon behalf of the Project, were with Dr. Cesar BARO,

whose cryptonym was AMYUM/19. BARO, until a falling 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 AMWORLD matter's. These contacts have ranged

from Seymour BOLTEN Al RODRIGUEZ (both of whom were super

grade special 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 I can 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

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manned.

As was reported to me, the Santa Maria was cruising off of

Cuba and at a distarce 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-

ing to the newspaper publicity three Spaniards were killed and the

Spanish Government was up in arms. As fate would have it, the Santa

Maria reportedly attacked the wrong ship. The ship they were interested

in was of the same name; however, it in fact was not the Spanish ship..

I was further informed that because of this "flap"', Secretary Rusk and

MI. McCone immediately conferred.

What is of equal or even greater concern to me relates to

ARTIME's wife. 'In late February 1964, Henry HEOKSHER requested

that I check the OS Indices in the name of Adelaida Matilda PADRONY

Cruz. As a result of this check I made inquiry of OO/C and from that

office received a report relating to PADRON.

A copy of my resultant

memorandum to Mr. HECKSHER is attached as Tab A. This, to my

knowledge, was the first indication that PADRON, who was then re-

portedly ARTIME's mistress, was possibly a Lesbian. During con-

tinued contacts with HECKSHER, I would discreetly inquire about

whether or not ARTIME continued to have an interest in PADRON.

HECKSHER is quite shrewd and is extremely adept at double talk. In

essence, he replied in the affirmative and further said that ARTIME

planned to marry her. I am quite certain that the flow of information

to HECKSHER about PADRON was in this manner--from BARO to

ROHRER to either HERNANDEZ or HECKSHER. As time went on,

judging from the material that I saw and from the remarks that I

heard, it was obvious that BARO and QUINTERO had absolutely no

use for PADRON. Tab B, authored by HECKSHER, notes that the

political repercussions could be "calamitous" if ARTIME married

PADRON.

7. 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

been the former mistress of Fulgendio BATISTA For your information,

Tab C in part relates to PADRON's morals and to ARTIME's naivete.:

Tab D primarily concerns QUINTERO's feeling about PADRON.

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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 investi-

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 to do. 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 is a

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 G in part confirms the content of the Dispatch which

was derogatory to PADRON and AR TIME.

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

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Agency. There are a number of persons currently in WH/SA who have

very strong unfavorable opiniong about ARTIME. As an example, one

employee, quite outspoken. Grace/ROBERTSUtold me on one occasion

that it was a shame that the Agency was in any way involved with

ARTIMEDS ROBERTS is one of those who had earlier been with the

Cuban Project. She seemed to be knowledgeable about the derogatory

information relating to ARTIME and PADRON.

12. To my knowledge, Project AMWORLD 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

from JMWAVE since about the first of the year. I gathered that per-

sonnel at JMWAVE possessed certain ill feelings toward AMWORLD

and toward ARTIME since it was the only operation that was allowed to

conduct sabotage operations.

13. To repeat, it is not my intent to discredit HECKSHER, to

second guess operational personnel, or to predict future "flaps". I

view HECKSHER as a skilled operator who at times is a ''wild man''

This is 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, I apprised

my supervisor, Chet Crawford, of my intent to compile this information

and have asked him to peruse this memorandum.

M.K. Holbite

K. Holbik

Attachments:

Tab A

Tab B

lab

C

Tab

D

Tab

Tạb

Tab G

MKH: ko

2/52

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