Cryptonym: TILT
104-10312-10179: CONTACT STRIPS/OPERATION TILT
6/21/63: Many fascinating photos of Operation TILT. A better version can be seen at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tqaw0m1SMZAUuXd9hc58C2oV8is0uK3e/view Pages 2, 3, 6 and 8 have several photos marked with an "X" - page 8 also has an arrow. May indicate some person or object in the photo that should not be circulated to a broader audience. The Xs appear to portray David Morales/Stanley Zamka and William (Rip) Robertson/Irving Cadick. Look at the furthest right hand side on page 2 onwards - some of the photos are almost certainly of David Morales, and they are all just behind his back. One cannot see his face, but in terms of known build, hair color (black), and skin color (half Mexican/half Native American), The one that is almost certainly Robertson is in the second row to the right hand side on page 2. Robertson is in the water with his hands on the side of a boat, marked with a X. As for Morales, there are at least four photos of him (he is wearing a white shirt, and probably shorts): two are on a boat, both are taken behind him, and both have two dingy type vessels in front of him. The first one on page 2, Morales is holding rope in his hands, the second photo is much closer to his back. Two photos are virtually identical. On page 3, Morales is on shore but the photo is taken again just behind his back; he is wearing shorts, and it looks like there is something black colored in one of his pockets.
104-10312-10178: CABLE: WHEN CRC MADE ITS INVASION ANNOUNCEMENT 20 JUNE WAVE
6/28/63 memo from COS Andrew Reuteman/Ted Shackley: Shackley now believes the entire Operation TILT was a con game designed to get several thousand dollars worth of weapons from the CIA.
2/26/64 dispatch from Chief of Station, JMWAVE to Chief, SAS: "...Operation TILT was essentially an operation designed to see if it would be possible to exfiltrate from Cuba four Soviet military officers who had allegedly defected from a Soviet missile site in Banes, Cuba. Operation TILT was not (CIA)-controlled, but it did utilize REDACTED as (CIA's) window into the operation. Operation TILT involved a strange cast of characters and this resulted in the operation following patterns of implementation which are not typical in (CIA)-controlled operations..."
104-10312-10175 DISPATCH:JOHN MARTINO
3/6/64 dispatch re communication from JMWAVE to FBI: "Although we believed that the likelihood of such an operation being a success was very small...in light of the importance of the Soviet target in (Cuba), (CIA) contributed to the operation to the extent of providing some technical and logistical support. It later developed that Martino had generated the operation with the industrialist. (CIA) advised the industrialist of Martino's reputation. The industrialist decided to proceed anyway. (CIA) had no connection or contact with Martino. The operation, which was a failure, demonstrated the fact that Martino was making up the story out of whole cloth."
1993.08.04.16:25:36:340007: FOLDER REVIEWED BY HSCA RE THE 'BAYO-PAWLEY' AFFAIR, CONTAINING OPS CA
"This file describes an operation designed to exfiltrate four Soviet military officers who had allegedly defected and were in hiding in an Oriente swamp. The tale was initated by an unsavory Cuban character in Miami...When the plot finally played itself out, it was apparent that everybody had been the victim of a confidence game using the old, old ploy of 'Russian defector' as bait.
August-October 1963: At p. 8 of 11: "(Juan Francisco Quintana Maya) advised that he and his friend Raul Castro Baile had joined the Cuban exile organization known as Second Front of the Escambray and Operation Alpha 66 (SNFE), about a month after a Dallas unit of this organization was formed...His title is Secretary for Membership. He attends regularly the meetings of the SNFE which are held approximately every other Saturday. The majority of the meetings are held at the home of an SNFE officer, Jorge Salazar, on Hollandale Street (typo - Harlandale Street). Voluntary dues are paid...collections are forwarded to the national headquarters of SNFE in Miami, Florida. Eden Gutierrez is the treasurer ...Approximately $150 to $200 a month is sent to the national headquarters...Quintana said that several members of the Dallas SNFE had marched in protest...when Adlai Stevenson made a speech (in Dallas) in October, 1963... Quintana attended a meeting at a place he believes is the Highland Park, Texas, City Hall, in about August or September 1963, sponsored by the John Birch Society in Texas. The principal speaker at this meeting was John Martino, author of the book 'I Was Castro's Prisoner'...Quintana says he recalls...several bumper stickers on this table which bore the legend 'Ban the Kennedy Klan'. He picked up one of these stickers and later placed it on the bumper of the Rambler owned by his friend Castro..." At p. 11 of 11: "Mr. Joaquin Insua, Director, Catholic Cuban Refugee Committee Office, 6324 Gaston Avenue, Dallas, Texas, advised as follows: Some months ago at Dallas, the anti-Castro lecturer, John Martino, author of the book 'I Was Castro's Prisoner' lectured concerning his experiences in Cuba. This lecture was given in Highland Park, a suburb of Dallas, and was sponsored by the John Birch Society. Father Walter Machann of the Catholic Cuban Refugee Committee at Dallas requested Insua introduce Martino at this meeting, which he did."