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.