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Cryptonym: AMTHUG

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Definition:
Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader who took power in 1959 and whose demise the U.S. began unsuccessfully plotting soon thereafter. 201-97456.
Status:
Documented
Discussion:
Included in this item are a few leads about Fidel Castro and the JFK assassination that remain largely unexplored: The campaign of AMBANG-1 to overthrow him; the suspicious reports that pro-Castro activists were trying to assassinate JFK in late 1962; the attempts by agent DEGRIP to have Castro assassinated in 1963; the controversial tip allegedly from the FBI's source known as SOLO, Jack Childs of the US Communist Party. Also see Evan Thomas' book A Few Good Men, p. 206. For the identification of Fidel Castro as 201-97456, see 104-10309-10007, page 4 of 8; also 104-10165-10293, page 2 of 3, last paragraph.

To review Castro's famous courthouse speech and book on the 1954 Moncada uprising, "History Will Absolve Me": https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=146647&search=ciro_and+valdes#relPageId=83&tab=page
Sources:

104-10533-10012: Dispatch: Cuban Exile Activities (26 of July Movement)

8/6/58 dispatch from Chief Mexico City to Chief, WH: discusses how the 26 July movement in Mexico was led by Gustavos Arcos (friend and ally of LITAMIL-1). This group worked with several allies, including Ricardo Lorie (QDCOVE) also known as Luis Perez..."on 4 August 1958 Luis Perez requested that an encoded message be sent to "Alex" via one of the radios. "Alex" is believed to be Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. (Note: It raises the question about whether Oswald's alias "Alek Hidell" is a hidden reference to "Fidel Alejandro Castro").

NARA Record Number: 104-10267-10157: TICHBORN NOTES ON TRIP (HANDWRITTEN)

Handwritten description of Fidel Castro by Edward Tichborn aka Henry Preston Lopez: "'R'(Jose Ignacio Rasco/AMPALM-5) says FC has always wanted to be champ of everything. (a) baseball pitcher incident (b) ping pong champ (c) 400, 800, and 1500 meters in one afternoon. Incalcuable physical and psychic energy. Three hour on-his-feet talkfest on plane to Caracas. TV performance classic example. Eats voraciously. (Note re following story: 'All this may be apocryphal - but not unlikely) Sex: Perhaps story is made up, but one young girl told me her friend was one of Fidel's amigistas. Comes to apt. No prelude. Like rabbit. Bang bang w/o even a thank-you-ma'am. Pulls on his pants w/o washing - off he goes. 'He smells like last night's fuck.' Wears 2 watches, one facing up and one facing down - because he may too damn busy to turn his wrist. Apparently re-energized by FDR naps. Apparently needs (perhaps desperately) approval of everyone around him...Terribly underestimated by us. Chess-player mentality...despite outward show to contrary, has more intellectual control than we have imagined."

HSCA Report, Volume III Current Section: Testimony of James J. Rowley

12/14/62 report by Secret Service agent Ernest I. Aragon: Investigation of threat letter against JFK sent from Jose Menendez in Cuba to Bernardo Morales in Miami. One of the women at the anti-communist organization that received the letter, Aida Mayo was checked for traces: "...as of 1960 her name appeared on a list of names carried in the personal effects of the Cuban ambassador to the U.N. She was also reported to be a member of the 26th of July movement in New York. She is also reported to be a Cuban agent in the U.S. who resided at 330 Haven Avenue, New York City. Aida Mayo is said to be a close friend of Fidel Castro and, although not an official of the Cuban government, she sometimes acted on behalf of the Cuban government." At p. 446 of 756, Aida Mayo told the Secret Service that she is often mistaken for the Aida Mayo who is friends with Castro. Much of this info was found days earlier by Bill Harvey's aide Richard Tansing, who didn't know which Aida Mayo was which. 104-10506-10002.

FBI 105-82555 Oswald HQ File, Section ?

Also worth reviewing is the 9/9/63 article where Castro says that US leaders will not be safe if they are planning to eliminate Cuban leaders - what he was saying is what goes around comes around. This was immediately used to attack Castro in the wake of the events of 11/22/63.

104-10213-10257:CABLE: CALL FROM WIFE IN HAVANA REGARDING HER MEETING WITH CASTRO

September 1963: Document title refers to the wife of Cuban defector Capt. Jose Ricardo Rabel Nunez in Havana meeting with Castro and the document states "AMLEO-3 received phone call from wife Hava stating she has maneuvered personal meeting with AMTHUG-1 at his Santa Maria beach house some two hours previously." AMLEO-3 returned to Cuba in 1965 after his 1963 defection. CIA believes he may have been a double agent for Fidel.

104-10179-10235: DISPATCH: SUBJECT - OPERATIONAL USE OF AMBANG-1 BY ODYOKE TO OVERTHROW AMTHUG

11/1/63 memo: AMTHRILL-1 learned from Luis Bottifol of AMBUD that "high (US) officials responsible for (US) government foreign policy toward (Cuba) have decided to accept AMBANG-1/Manuel Ray as part of a plan for overthrowing the AMTHUG regime from within, and have assigned AMBANG-1 the role of coordinator of activities of disaffected elements within the AMTHUG regime itself."

104-10528-10336: CABLE: RESTAURANT VISITED REGULARLY BY CASTRO

11/10/63 cable, Mexico City to Director, MEXI 6844: The document title refers to a restaurant visited often by Fidel Castro and states "AMTHUG once again visiting Montecatini restaurant..." The agent known as ()GRIP reported on this as part of an effort to kill Castro. The restaurant owner had been studied for more than a year.

104-10076-10087: CABLE RE ACCUSATION OF USG AGREEMENT WITH FJSTEAL TO REPLACE AMTHUG WITH TITO-TYPE GOVERNMENT

12/6/63 memo from JMWAVE to Director: According to Carlos Prio's secretary, Prio's statement that the US and USSR plan "to replace AMTHUG with Tito-type government" originated with Guillermo Alonso Pujol. Alonso Pujol was considered well-informed by the writer.

Jeff Morley, JFK Facts: http://jfkfacts.org/castro-figure-jfk-case-just-five-days-2/

Morley provides an easy-to-read English version of Castro's 11/27/63 speech about the assassination and a slightly different version that was given to the Warren Commission. Morley states that Castro depicted JFK’s assassination as part of a broader “plan against peace, against Cuba, against the Soviet Union, against humanity, against progressive and even liberal sectors of the United States.” MFF has the original CIA version of the speech at 104-10406-10008.

104-10418-10191 NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS-'SECRET EVIDENCE ON KENNEDY ASSASSINATION' BY DAVID WISE-SATURDAY EVENING POST

On 7/12/68, Peter Kihss of the New York Times reported that Garrison thought there were four shooters in Dealey Plaza; that the top command in the CIA was not involved although individual agents were, and that the federal government united to keep the truth from the public after the fact. The foreign agency Garrison said was aiding his investigation was probably French intelligence, based on what has been learned since that time. Note: Based on the SOLO/Jack Childs source (which is controversial in a number of circles), Castro, in the days after 11/22/63, did his own testing and concluded there were three shooters. See J. Edgar Hoover's June 1964 report, final post below. CD 1359.

124-10369-10019; ADMIN FOLDER-U8: HSCA ADMINISTRATIVE FOLDER, LEE HARVEY OSWALD VOLUME VIII

6/15/64" J. Lee Rankin of the Warren Commission was informed of this information, but told that it was too dangerous to reveal for fear of exposing SOLO. This source was 694-S known as SOLO aka Communist leader Jack Childs. No known documentation that Rankin was told that Oswald allegedly threatened to kill JFK in Mexico City, as stated in CD 1359 (last post below).

Commission Document 1359 - FBI Letter From Director of 17 June 1964 re: Castro Statements

June 17, 1964, J. Edgar Hoover's report (CD 1359) quoted Castro's thoughts on JFK's assassins: "'It took about three people.' The source then advised that Castro's speculation was based on tests which Castro and his men allegedly made under similar conditions with a similar rifle and telescopic sight." See SOLO's statement to the FBI at p. 86: https://vault.fbi.gov/solo/solo-part-60-of/view SOLO quotes Castro as saying he was "sure" - and not speculating - that it would take 2 or 3 people to have killed JFK and that they duplicated all of the conditions of the shooting. Furthermore, SOLO quotes Castro as saying "nobody ever goes that way (the embassy) for a visa". In other words, Castro was saying that Oswald went to the embassy at some point and not to the consulate.

Contributors:
MFF • Bill Simpich • Carmine Savastano

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