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Cryptonym: AMJAVA-4

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Definition:
Rafael Quintero, aka Rafael Aureli Quintero Ibarbia, aka Jose M. Hernandez Valdes, aka "Omar".
Status:
Documented
Discussion:
See 104-10077-10077: On 11/22/63 Harry Hecksher sent the following cable asking for IMMEDIATE ACTION: "With reference to broadcast plan, base call sign 86 RW?, field call sign LF9F, tell AMBIDDY-1 and AMJAVA-4 to change field broadcast frequency 14364 to 14355 for both broadcast times."
Sources:

104-10110-10584: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INQUIRY REGARDING RAFAEL QUIINTERO ET AL

April 1, 1961 document cited in a 1977 DOJ inquiry regarding Quintero, Rafael Villaverde, Raul Villaverde, Jesus Lazo, Valentine Hernandez, and Anthony Nestor Izquierdo Diaz. Quintero and the Villaverde brothers were "of interest" to CIA for long periods of time in the 1960s. No records of Jesus Lazo or Valentine Hernandez. Due to lack of biographic data, no records could be located on Izquierdo. Izquierdo is prominently listed in this 4/1/61 memo where Artime is seeking him to be used with infiltration force at Bay of Piga, presently stationed in Mexico: http://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62353&search=anthony_tony+AN D+IZQUIERDO#relPageId=47&tab=page For better copy of initial page: http://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=21117&relPageId=2&search=%22SERVING_AS%20COOKS%22%20AND%20%22EMPLOYED%20BY%20BRIGADE%22

Bill Simpich, State Secret, Chapter 3. http://maryferrell.org/pages/State_Secret_Chapter3.html

5/24/61, first see 104-10193-10133, from WH/4/PM/OPS Tony Sileo to Bell Signal Center: "For Quintero and Monty. Plans for the immediate future not yet formalized. Unless we advise you to the contrary suggest you leave Cuba when safe conducts granted. We can then discuss in person possible future plans with you. Tell us the persons who expect to depart and who will remain in Cuba to continue reporting to us." Then see State Secret, August 1961: Two of the Operation Patty leaders went to Miami to debrief with Chief of Base Clarence Smeryage and Dominick Pantleone (Rocky Farnsworth): Memo by Dominick Pantleone, C/PM at JMWAVE to Chief, 8/15/61, NARA Record Number: 104-10193-10180. The two Operation Patty leaders were AMBRONC-5 (Juan Manuel Guillot Castellanos) and AMJAVA-4 (Rafael Quintero). Quintero is better known for his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair and his never-proven claim that he knew the story about behind the death of JFK...(after this meeting) AMBRONC-5 was arrested on 5/29/62 and executed on 8/30/62.

104-10192-10198: CABLE RE: 1. ANDRES ZAYAS "JUSTO", LUIS SANCHEZ "PICOLINO", AND TONY NUNEZ "TONY"

10/2/61 cable from Cal Hicks, WH/4/PM to JMWAVE: "Andres Zayas (Justo)...feels he has the cooperation of Junco (AMBLESS-1) of the MDC and will work with the 'Rufino-Antonio' MRP complex (not Marcos Williams) and 'Omar-Monty' of the MRR...They asked if they had to go through AMDENIM-1 and were told they could deal directly with PETERS.

104-10226-10032: CONTACT REPORT BETWEEN "JUSTO" AND MR. HICKS.

10/3/61 meeting of Cal Hicks, Jim Pekich and Justo (Andres Zayas) and Luis Sanchez ("Piccolino"), Tony Nunez ("Tony"), Angel Ros ("Guilin"), Wilfredo Brito ("Bebo", using name E. I. Harrison), Fernando Cavada (using name Frank Dutton) "They indicated a willingness to cooperate with the MRR, that is, 'Omar' and "Monty'...the relations with the other groups would be much the same as advocated by AMCOAX-1, consequently, it is felt that this is a chance to facilitate AMCOAX-1's effort at producing a united resistance."

104-10193-10167: REPORT: INFORMATION ON SEVEN CUBAN INTERNAL RESISTANCE GROUPS

11/4/61 memo from WH/4 to DDP: Seven groups opposing Castro are trying to form one unified resistance. MRR..."primary strength of this group lies in the Havana area...the leader of this group, one OMAR, is presently in the United States and about to return to Cuba. In his absence, Esteban is the acting leader...this group gives the most promise for effective operations...Externally, the present representatives are Rafael Aurelio Quintero (the Omar) (AMJAVA-4) and Juan Manuel Guillot (AMBRONC-5) ...MRP...the current internal leader is one Antonio. Manolo Ray (AMBANG-1) was the former external representative of this group. Externally its principal representatives are Rogelio Cisneros, Igancio Mendoza, and Marcos Williams...UR (is)...thirty small factions...In August of 1961, of its leaders, CESAR was captured and JUSTO took asylum and is presently in the United States. Present internal leadership is RICARDO...principal representatives are Alberto Fernandez Echavarria (AMDENIM-1), Andres Zayas, and Cesar Brito...MDC (Catholic labor organization, strongest in Oriente and Matanzas areas)...the former group leader Lucas FERNANDEZ Badue is presently in the United States - the current internal leader is Alberto del Junco Mesa...former external leader of the MDC was Jose Ignacio Rasco. 30th of November, a small labor group...its current leader, one David Salvador, has been in prison in Havana for some time. The current internal leader is one BENITO. (Three external leaders) are competing for control: Jesus Fernandez, Carlos Rodriguez Quesada, and Andres Carrillo Mendoza. Rescate (RDR)...(Antonio) Varona is the titular head of the Rescate. DRE...this student group, which engages in hemispheric propaganda activity from Miami under Agency direction...its external leadership is currently Manuel SALVAT Roque (AMHINT-2)...

104-10074-10390 CABLE - REQUEST AUTHORITY MOUNT OPERATION PEPE

12/61 Quintero was one of the infiltrees in Operation Pepe, along with Juan Manuel Guillot Castellano aka Renato M. Lopez Zamoka (AMBRONC-5) Juan Manuel Salvat Roque (AMHINT-2) John Koch Gene (AMHINT-26) and Julio Hernandez Rojo also a major force with DRE/AMHINT.

Joan Mellen, The Kennedy Assassination and the Current Political Moment

Circa 1962: "I located a document from the CIA’s own Secret History, in which the CIA’s History Staff is interviewing a CIA officer named Sam Halpern. Halpern reveals his own incredulity that Bobby Kennedy should be working with the Mafia in attempts on the life of Castro at the very same time that he was trying to send other Mafia figures to jail. A CIA operative named Charley Ford, alias Charley Fiscalini, was assigned by Bobby Kennedy to make contact with Mafia types in this country and Canada for the purpose of murdering Castro. To all this, Charley Ford testified under oath before the Church Committee. That Bobby Kennedy repeatedly attempted to enlist anti-Castro Cubans for these assassination attempts against Castro I learned first-hand from Isidro Borja (AMHINT-5), of the DRE. “I know Bobby Kennedy was behind it,” he told me indignantly, “because his people approached ME!” Borja told me Bobby’s people did succeed in recruiting his good friend Rafael Quintero Ibaria, also known as “Chi Chi.” - See more at: http://joanmellen.com/wordpress/speeches/the-kennedy-assassination-and-the-current-political-moment/#sthash.yVfrd0ji.dpuf

157-10014-10046: TESTIMONY OF HALLEY, 19 AUG 1975

Early 1962 events discussed in Castro's Black Book of 1975, recounting assassination attempts on him: "In early 1962, following instructions from the CIA and the Guantanamo Naval Base, the counterrevolutionary Jorge Luis Cuervo Calvo reorganized several group and counter-revolutionary organizations, and created the Union de Unidades Revolucionarias - UDUR...Cuervo Calvo made contacts with the DRE organization and elaborated on what would be known as Plan Z, which consisted on attempting against the Minister of Foreign Relations Raul Roa, what would enable them to carry out a plot of bigger proportions against the Prime Minister (Fidel Castro) and other revolutionary leaders who would attend the burial. It is worth noticing that the intellectual authors of this plan were the counterrevolutionaries Cay Hernandez (and) Cay Gispert, members of the DRE organization, which was headed by Julio Hernandez Rojo, a CIA agent infiltrated into our country." AMBRONC-5 was executed in late 1962; and this document indicates that Hernandez Rojo may have been executed as well: http://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=111847&relPageId=3

104-10241-10049: MEMO/AMWORLD/BRIEFING OF AMJAVA-4

AMWORLD meeting Sept. 3-6, 1963 in San Juan, Henry Hecksher memo: "AMJAVA-4 was briefed by the undersigned on the general principles of AMWORLD. The security aspects of AMWORLD were stressed, the point being made that the (US government) role in support of AMWORLD has at all cost to be kept a closely guarded secret. Should any leakage occur which can be traced back to the three fully briefed AMWORLD principals, calamitous consequences could ensue...In the course of a general briefing, AMJAVA-4 was left in no doubt that AMBIDDY-1 had been selected as head of AMWORLD after a great deal of deliberation and that among several individuals considered, he had been found to be the one best qualified..."

104-10241-10014: CABLE:PER REQUEST AMBIDDY-1 AND AMJAVA-4, HQS HAS LOOKED

10/7/63, Hecksher memo, identifying AMJAVA-4 and AMBIDDY as needing immigration visas.

104-10241-10010: MEMO/TRAVEL OF MANUEL ARTIME AND RAFAEL QUINTERO

10/8/63, Hecksher memo, identifying Rafael Quintero and Manuel Artime as the two men who need immigration visas.

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/CIA%20Wilson%20Edwin%20P/Item%2007.pdf

9/5/96, Philip Taubman and Jeff Gerth, "Ex-CIA's Agent's Associates Run Arms Export Concerns", New York Times. Sidebar: "According to Justice Department officials...in 1976, Mr. (Edwin) Wilson hired Rafael Quintero, a former CIA contract agent who had reported to Mr. (Tom) Clines, for a fee of $1 million to assassinate a Libyan dissident living in exile in Egypt. Such an assassination plan, detailed in the 1980 indictment of Mr. Wilson, was never carried out. In 1978, public records show, Mr. Quintero became secretary and treasurer of A.P.I. Distributors...which sells oil-drilling equipment and explores for oil, primarily in Mexico." The Libyan dissident was Umar Abdullah Mahayshi, a former member of the Libyan Revolutionary Council who had defected to neighboring Egypt, a country hostile to Llbya. Wilson and Frank Terpil were indicted for conspiring to murder Mahayshi and illegally shipping explosives to Libya. "The central figure in the network of individuals and companies is Mr. (Tom) Clines, who worked at the CIA for 30 years. The companies are involved in Saudi Arabia, Latin America and the Far East as well as Libya, Egypt and Mexico." The treasurer was Ricardo A. Chavez (another ex-CIA contract employee who, like Quintero, had Clines as his control officer), and the consultant was Ted Shackley.

Contributors:
Bill Simpich

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