Cryptonym: AMBUD-1
See 104-10233-10432: During March 1962, Lt. Commander Harold Feeney with Mr. Bilbao/AMCRAG-1 met with Cardona. Cardona was struck by how well Feeney spoke Spanish.
104-10308-10265: MEMORANDUM: PRO-GOBIERNO CONSTITUCIONAL DE CUBA (PGCC)
AMBUD is the crypt for the Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC). This memo makes the explicit identification of its leader, Dr. Jose Miro Cardona, as AMBUD-1.
HSCA Report, Volume X Current Section: IV. Cuban Revolutionary Council: A Concise History
In March, 1961, the State Dept and the White House wanted to broaden the political base of the FRD, "in an effort to attract Ray and his group (Manuel Ray and MRP) into the FRD, Antonio de Varona resigned voluntarily and Dr. Jose Miro Cardona was elected its new president. Dr. Miro Cardona was a former Havana jurist who broke with Castro after serving him as his first Prime Minister." The CRC was then formed to coordinate and direct FRD activities with US government support shortly before the Bay of Pigs. Miro Cardona was the chairman. The Board of Directors included Varona, Justo Carrillo, Carlos Hevia, Antonio Maceo, Manuel Ray, and Manuel Artime. Miro Cardona resigned in April 1963, stating that the US had promised a second invasion after the failure at the Bay of Pigs, but had instead opted for coexistence.
104-10227-10347: MEMORANDUM:RELATIONSHIPS WITH DR. MIRO CARDONA
10/23/61: Tracy Barnes is uncomfortable with the CIA funding a "State operation" by pushing Miro Cardona. On the other hand, he points out that Morales (Dr. Arturo Morales-Carrion, Asst. Sec'y of State for Inter-American Affairs) believes that "anti-Castro attitudes throughout the Hemisphere need to be pushed, and since Miro and the CRC are in existence, we might just as well consider carrying out this effort under the sponsorship of Miro and the CRC."
104-10227-10345: MEMORANDUM: MEETING WITH MR. ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER, JR. ON DR. MIRO CARDONA
10/24/61: Arthur Schlesinger is informed that Miro Cardona wants to resign. He cannot control the FORD group (FORDC) nor the DRE (AMSPELL). Also has problems with Sanjenis (AMOT-2) Schlesinger speaks with Esterline, and the suggestion is made that Wendell Johnson (PASSAVOY) "should take immediate steps to establish liaison between Dr. Miro, FORD, and DRE, individually but not as a triumvirate." Action will also be taken to focus Sanjenis on FI/CI and keep him out of politics. See 104-10271-10022: On 11/9/61, "Ignacio Memdoza, MRR coordinator USA told WAVE case officer that unnamed source said starting 1 December 1961 General Maxwell Taylor to have direct liaison with AMBUD-1 re aid for anti-Castro groups."
104-10233-10152: MEMO FOR: AT MY 16 MARCH TALK WITH DR. MIRO HE INFORMED ME
3/20/62 Passavoy memorandum for "Al, Bob, Rocky, Phil": "(Dr. Miro) informed me that despite being a good Catholic himself he is opposed to the dogmatic attitude of many Cubans and of the Jesuits. He is somewhat concerned with indications of a sort of banding together of the ultra-Catholic elements of the Council: the MRR and its delegate, the MDC under Lucas, also Sr. Lasaga, and Nino Diaz. The DRE is also in this grouping according to Dr. Miro and Roberto Perez San Roman likewise is associated with them and associated with MRR...(Miro) learned from Lucas (Fernandez Badue) of MDC that a phone call (apparently long distance) came to MDC office in Miami and the party, speaking English, asked for Laureano Batista (leader of the dissident faction that promoted and kept up the hunger strike in Bayfront Park, Miami 10-12 March)...(the caller said) it was all right to go ahead with demonstration in Bayfront Park and indicated that the message came from some Congressman or Senator with whom Batista Falla had apparently been in contact...the call was intended for the Miami office of the dissident part of the MDC which is not in the Revolutionary Committee."
Unknown Subjects: Bombing of Automobile Used by Jose Miro Cardona , November 20, 1962, Miami, Fl
Circa 11/20/62: Luis Bottifoll suggests that the bomb in Miro's car was designed not to kill him but to scare him. He thought it was planted either by Castro's followers or Batista's followers after Miro returned to Miami. Miro had seen Nestor Carbonell and Enrique Huerta in DC before he went to NY. Plans to return to Miami from NY only commenced after 6 pm on 11/19 - everyone who was with him during those hours in NY was a close associate. His associates also believe it was done to scare not kill him - otherwise it would have ignited in the auto on his trip from the airport back home rather than going off while he was asleep in his bed. 104-10227-10199, the CRC Progress Report for Nov. 1962, points out at page 4 of 7: "a little over an hour after MIRO (and his family and his secretary and her mother) arrived home from the airport (upon Miro's return from Washington) Miro's secretary's car was destroyed by an explosion...According to FBI procedure Miro's eecretary has been subjected to a lie detector test in this regard." Miro had been conferring with RFK and others from Nov. 11-19.
On 11/26/62, Jorge Nobregas of Miami was interviewed about the bombing. Nobregas said that Cuban opinion on the bombing noted that the bomb was not a big one, and was "not intended to do harm to anyone, but to get the idea across that the neighborhood would be a better place without Miro Cardona" because he had visitors at all hours who were noisy; or that it might be pro-Castro elements to accomplish its end of making him nervous "without causing an extensive man-hunt". Most pages of this memo are missing. Page 1112 of 23 adds that it was ignited by an "M-1 time delay device", which is a "non-attributable item" - it "bears no trademark or identification number through which it can be traced...many Cuban exiles in Miami have been training in the use of the M-1 time delay firing device." Others familiar with its use are local American adventurers and soldiers of fortune such as Gerald Patrick Hemming, Larry LaBorde and Roy Hargraves.
104-10236-10349: CABLE: 23 JAN UNIDENTIFIED MEMBER EXILE COMMUNITY REPORTED
1/23/63 GYROSE cable WAVE 3751 from CI/JIMBISON(?) to Director at 345: "When AMBUD-1 in NY 13 Jan he contacted by three Brigade members whose trip to New York financed by Julio Lobo and International Rescue Committee: (FNU) Atreaga, Orlando (Guervo) and Alberto (Fowler). In conversation (with) these three AMBUD-1 learned that Lobo planned send them on tour 27 US citizens in behalf Cuban cause." Alberto Fowler is a paradoxical character: He was a militant anti-Castro activist that also became a trusted investigator in the Jim Garrison probe of the JFK assassination.
104-10236-10343: CABLE: ACCORDING HURWITCH, FOLLOWING CONSENSUS REACHED WITH
2/6/63, memo from unknown to WAVE: After meetings with US officials, agreed that the 2506 Brigade will be reintegrated and accept at least "nominal authority" from Dr. Miro. "FYI, (CIA) officer, known to them as 'Bob', had several meetings with Roberto San Roman and other Brigade leaders for morale purposes and to provide them with travel and per diem funds." The officer known as 'Bob' may have been a reference to Henry Hecksher who ran the AMWORLD project - a number of leads point to 'Bob' as one of his aliases.
104-10231-10203: MFR: POSSIBLE CRC CRISIS ON 16 MARCH BETWEEN FORDC AND OTHER CRC GROUPS
3/15/63: Crisis between FORDC and other CRC groups. FORDC groups complain that other CRC groups do not coordinate their labor activities with FORDC. Groups not part of FORDC say they should be allowed in, as FORDC is supposed to be the democratic labor organization of the CRC. FORDC's case officer says it is not a labor organization, but a "staff" to coordinate labor activities and speak for CRC on labor matters only. See: 3/29/63, PASSAVOY report #396: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=55643&relPageId=3 Miro called for the violent overthrow over Castro "this year". He attached lists of professional officers, rebel army officers, and liberation officers and urged they be trained.
104-10297-10149: CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL (CRC) INTERNAL SECURITY -CUBA
April 18, 1963: The 25-page resignation of Jose Miro Cardona. As summarized on page 2, the CIA interpretation is that Miro had concluded that the new US policy was one of "peaceful coexistence" with Cuba. Pages 5-6: Miro was joined by the resignations of Francisco Carrillo, AM; Orlando Rodriguez, November 30th; Ricardo Lorie, CRC member, Antonio Silio, secretary, Jose Montegudo, of the military section. Resignations later that day came from MRR, Union Nacional Democratica, UR, Corporacion Economica de Cuba (professional section), and FORDC. No resignation by MDC, Rescate, and ARD. Varona and Maceo, members of the CRC, remained in the organization.
1994.06.24.14:24:01:600005: Reel 70, Folder E - AMBUD INTEL PRODUCTION
5/6/63 heavily redacted memo from JMWAVE: Information from Jose Fernandez Dadue (Lucas) MDC delegate to the CRC to AMBUD-1. The case officer says that "the real and complete names cannot be obtained from the MDC because they belong to the anti-Miro, residual faction of the CRC, plus the fact that MDC (as well as other groups) do not want to divulge true names of underground members except perhaps on urgent and very selective basis." See page 8: 6/6/63 Report Source Data Sheet by PW Alice B. Caponong (ABC). Source was AMBUD-1. Informants with the AAA-1 (ARD). Information went directly to C/CI James Angleton, as well as an odd source "IS/Green Door". Was this Staff D, which ran traces with a Green List?