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Cryptonym: ECJACK

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Definition:
According to Philip Agee in his book, Inside the Company, CIA Diary, ECJACK was Lieutenant Colonel Roger Paredes, head of the Ecuadorean Military Intelligence Service (SIME).
Status:
Documented
Discussion:
A dispatch in March of 1962 from Quito, Ecuador, mentioned that the (REDACTION)JACK surveillance team was also assigned to cover Ivan Alferiev's activities. The redaction was probably EC, which in turn was probably the digraph for operations and assets in Ecuador. The dispatch was signed by John A. Probert (a pseudonym for Jim Noland).

Philip Agee, in his book (mentioned above), stated that Paredes had been trained by the US Army at Fort Leavenworth. By 1959, Paredes had become disillusioned by the lack of support from his government for SIME, and suggested to the CIA officer, Jim Noland, that he might be more effective if he retired from the Army and worked full time with the CIA station. Roger Paredes's suggestion to Noland coincided with the alleged discovery of the CIA station's investigations and surveillance team's falsifying of reports and expenses. The old ECSERUM team was allegedly fired, and Paredes then retired from the Army to form a new team.
Sources:

104-10162-10008: DISPATCH - ACTIVITIES OF IVAN ALFERIEV, PRAVDA CORRESPONDENT, IN QUITO.

03/02/62: Dispatch from COS, Quito to Chief, WHD: "1. Ivan Alferiev, Pravda correspondent, arrived in Quito on 28 January 1962 on Panagra flight 719. (REDACTION) a leftist journalist in Quito was assigned the task of getting into contact with Alferiev for elicitation, etc. The (REDACTION)JACK surveillance team was also assigned to cover Alferiev's activities. The information that follows represents the significant information turned up by the (REDACTION)JACK surveillance team and by (REDACTION)...John A. Probert (Jim Noland)."

https://archive.org/stream/pdfy-DAzR701tP2dL_DNu/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee_djvu.txt

Inside the Company, CIA Diary (1975) by Philip Agee: Page 98: ..."ECJACK. About two years ago the Army established the Ecuadorean Military Intelligence Service (SIME) under Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Paredes, ECJACK, who then made contact with Noland. Paredes had been trained by the US Army at Fort Leavenworth some years earlier. In 1959, however, discouraged by the lack of support from his government for SIME, Paredes suggested to Noland that he might be more effective if he retired from the Army and worked full time with the station. At this point SIME was only a paper organization, and even today is still useless. Paredes's suggestion to Noland came just at the time the station investigations and surveillance team was discovered to be falsifying reports and expenses. The old ECSERUM team was fired and Paredes retired from the Army to form a new team. He now runs a five-man full-time team for surveillance and general investigations in Quito and, in addition, he has two reporting agents in the important southern sierra town of Loja. These two agents are on the fringes of communist activities there. Station direction of this operation is entirely through Lieutenant- Colonel Paredes, who uses the SIME organization as cover and as ostensible sponsor for the other agents in the operation. Another sub-agent is the chief of the identity card section of the Ministry of Government. As all citizens are required to register and obtain an official government-issued identity card, this agent provides on request the full name, date and place of birth, names of parents, occupation, address and photograph of practically any Ecuadorean. His main value is to provide this data for the station LYNX List, which is a list of about 100 communists and other activists of the extreme left whom the station considers the most dangerous." (CONTINUED BELOW)

https://archive.org/stream/pdfy-DAzR701tP2dL_DNu/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee_djvu.txt

Inside the Company, CIA Diary (1975) by Philip Agee: Pages 98-99: "The LYNX List is a requirement for all Western Hemisphere stations, to be maintained in case a local government in time of crisis should ask (or be asked by the US government) for assistance in the emergency preventive detention of dangerous persons. The ECJACK team spends part of its time updating addresses and place of employment of current LYNX List members and in getting the required information on new additions. The team is also used for following officers of the Cuban Embassy or for following and identifying persons who visit the Embassy. Their surveillance work is recognized by the station as clumsy and indiscreet, but plans call for additional training, vehicles (they have no team transportation) and perhaps radio equipment. Paredes, of course, maintains close contact with military officers in SIME so that the station can monitor that service and confirm the reporting from the US Army Major who is the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) intelligence advisor..."

https://archive.org/stream/pdfy-DAzR701tP2dL_DNu/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee_djvu.txt

Inside the Company, CIA Diary (1975) by Philip Agee: Page 108: ..."The problem is that the agent, ECALIBY-1, J missed a meeting several weeks ago and has also failed to appear for later alternative meetings. Blair Moffet, the former Guayaquil Base Chief who has gone temporarily to Quito until I arrive, is handling the case and has even checked at the agent's home. Nobody there knew anything of his recent movements. Moffet is afraid the chauffeur is in some kind of trouble because the ECJACK surveillance team has reported that he hasn't been showing up at the Embassy. For the time being Moffet will continue to work the alternative meeting-sites with extreme caution against a possible Cuban provocation..." - - - Page 120: ..."I've taken over my first operations and met my first real-live agents — at last I'm a genuine clandestine operations officer. The first operation I took over was ECJACK, the surveillance and general investigations team run by Lieutenant-Colonel Paredes. Blair took me out to meet him a couple of days ago, and through him I'm continuing to keep a watch near the Cuban Embassy for any signs of the missing chauffeur. With this operation I also took over the secret-writing correspondence with the agents in Cuba, and I've proposed to headquarters that we could save time if a trainer were sent to teach me to write and develop the letters. That way we could cable the messages and save the time required to pouch the SW letters. In a few days Noland will introduce me to Francine Jacome, who writes the cover letters..."

https://archive.org/stream/pdfy-DAzR701tP2dL_DNu/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee_djvu.txt

Inside the Company, CIA Diary (1975) by Philip Agee: Page 209: ..."The telephone tap on Antonio Flores Benitez is producing better information right now than any of our PCE penetration agents. Flores has ten or fifteen persons who call and say very little, only code-phrases for arranging meetings, obviously using code-names. Using the ECJACK surveillance team under Lt. Col. Paredes I've been trying to identify Flores's contacts but the work is very slow, especially because Flores simply cannot be followed — partly it's the size and low proficiency of the team, but, mainly Flores is watching constantly and taking diversionary measures. Even so, I have identified Rafael Echeverria, Principal PCE leader in Quito, as one of the clandestine contacts, along with a non-commissioned officer in the Ministry of Defense Communications Section, the chief of the archives section of the Presidency and the deputy chief of Arosemena's personal bodyguard. Analysis of the transcripts has been most helpful because even though Flores is careful when he speaks by telephone, his wife is very garrulous when he's out of the house. Several important identifications have been made from her carelessness. My impression at this point is that Flores, who is not a PCE member, is in charge of the intelligence collection branch of an organization Echeverria is continuing to form outside the established PCE structure. If he is doing as well in the guerrilla and terrorism branch we will have to act soon to suppress the organization before armed operations begin..."

See Also:
Contributors:
Philip Agee • Gavin McDonald

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