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Pseudonym: Gneiting, Charles

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Definition:
PM case officer Thomas Hewitt. His alias was 'Otto'.
Category:
pseudonym
Status:
Documented
Discussion:
Joan Mellen writes in her book The Great Game in Cuba that Hewitt/Gneiting was the chief of the CIA's maritime base in the Keys - JMBAR.
Sources:

104-10262-10058: DISPATCH: CONTACT REPORTS-EVELIO DUQUE'MIYAR, DR. BOSCH AND DR. LAGE

End of 1960-mid-1961: "Major Duque said that at the end of 1960 he had effective control of a large part of the Escambray...Dr. Bosch said he had tried in Miami to arrange for arms drops to Major Duque's men. He said he had been in touch with three individuals known as Roderick/Glen Farnsworth, Goudie/AMTIKI-1, and Smith/Fravel Brown; allegedly these people had told Bosch they had their own plans and made no commitments about drops...In July 1961, Duque was sent to the United States as the representative of all groups now in the mountains...On the 6th of July in Miami he met Mr. Otto/Thomas Hewitt and Mr. Carl/Cal Hicks...They offered assistance in the way of arms, but Major Duque did not think he could trust them, particularly in view of the events of April, and he stalled them off. Duque says he has some 400 men under five captains now in the Escambray...I told Major Duque and his friends that I could promise nothing." 9/18/61 memo by Thomas Parrott, assistant to General Maxwell Taylor.

Sean D. Naylor, 1/25/19, "Operation Cobra":https://fortunascorner.com/2019/01/25/operation-cobra-the-untold-story-of-how-a-cia-officer-trained-a-network-of-agents-who-found-the-soviet-missiles-in-cuba/

“In January 1961, Mr. Hewitt joined the Miami Station as a Paramilitary Officer in the Cuban program. Shortly thereafter he developed and ran one of the most successful operations in the history of the organization. Mr. Hewitt spotted, developed, recruited, and provided intensive paramilitary training to a team that was infiltrated into Cuba. It was this team that reported on the presence of nuclear equipment in the Pinar Del Rio Province of Cuba. Based upon the reporting from Mr. Hewitt’s team, U-2 aircraft were dispatched to the region. Their photographs confirmed the presence of nuclear capable missile equipment. The rest is history, known today as the ‘Cuban Missile Crisis.’ Public credit for the discovery of the missiles in Cuba was given to the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft in order to preserve the security of the team that Mr. Hewitt created, trained, managed, and motivated through one of the darkest periods of the Cold War." Above is the statement given by the CIA when Tom Hewitt was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal in 2005. This story chronicles how Hewitt (known as Otto) trained AMBANTY-1 and AMBANTY-2.

104-10169-10179: CONTACT REPORT

6/30/60 contact report by Thomas Hewitt: "(Marcelino) Garcia (true name Evilio Duque) called 'OTTO' (Gneiting). Massengill (note: Cal Hicks) took the call and Garcia gave this info: Garcia will be waiting for pickup by Gneiting at NW 6th St. and 12th Ave. at Carnes (Little Bar there)..."

104-10169-10190: DUQUE CHARACTER

6/15/61 memo on the "Duque character" from "Masengill and Gneiting", and signed by Thomas M. Hewitt (who used Charles Gneiting as one of his pseudonyms): His comments on Duque included: "Most reluctant to show his organization - only five. Says he isolated in Escambray fighting Castro and these staff members must get out to him. They can give us a complete picture of actual strength of LCAC...No formal military training. Knows little about modern weapons beyond M-1, M-3, 30 Cal LMG, nothing about explosives, artillery, or more complex military equipment..."

104-10262-10232: CONTACT REPORT:DUQUE,GNEITING,MASENGILL,GARCIA

7/3/61 contact report, participants Duque, Masengill, Gneiting, (Marcelino) Garcia: "Escambray of 3 July 1961: Interesting report but give me names, numbers, details of organization, etc...if they want our support they are going to have to give us full details of their organization or we can't go on to help them..." See https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=110498&search=goudie#relPageId=2&tab=page -this memo refers to a meeting with Mr. Otto and Mr. Carl on 7/6/61 - this is a reference to Gneiting and Masengill, also known as Thomas Hewitt and Cal Hicks.

104-10068-10169: CABLE FROM JMWAVE: AGENT MESSAGE

8/7/63 cable from JMWAVE to Director: A message to Tito from Otto (Charles Gneiting), asking him to retrieve a tin can "send us data on Mongo who works with El Mayor" - "WAVE comment: Mongo is war name of new reception leader at Libertad Reception site...(want to see if) this system can be used to advise AMBANTY reception committees whether options are go or no go for particular date." "Mongo" may be a reference to AMCOG-1. Ted Shackley wrote in Spymaster that the home of AMCOG-1 and 2 "had become a magnet for disaffected Cubans, and Mongo himself had become involved with one of our other nets." https://books.google.com/books?id=hgf-1AGqIa4C&pg=PT89&lpg=PT89&dq=%22leopoldina+grau%22+alsina&source=bl&ots=twn5ip8yzu&sig=-3T0xEeXpDFtsBAKDfHOseipxLM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi41P3QntfaAhXrg1QKHSgRB3cQ6AEIaDAQ#v=onepage&q=%22leopoldina%20grau%22%20alsina&f=false See Notes for 11/15/63, WAVE 7523, next page: "Friend Otto: The compulsory military service law causes us to reduce intelligence information. I will have to decide between insurrection and leaving Cuba. I have decided in favor of the insurrection. I hope that you will help me with the arms which I need. Your reply is urgently needed. Colonel Abad."

104-10308-10011: CABLE: FOLLOWING RECEIVED AT 08/1532Z

11/12/63 cable from JMWAVE to Director: "Otto. The president of Oriente's Court of Justice (DIOS), David Diaz Arroche, took asylum in the Brazilian Embassy. Agent ADA informs us on 8 October. The sewage chief of Havana was executed. He was having given the sewage plans to the Central Intelligence Agency in order to install the bombs that exploded during Fidel's speech to the defense committees. Ada obtained this information from the former chief of sewage. Irene reported on 2 Nov. Aquiles."

104-10308-10236: CABLE: FOLL WILL BE PASSED. BEGIN ABENT MSG

Otto's response is at 11/17/63, at 104-10308-10236: "Placido only: Must repeat we unable to support insurrection now. Your knowledge tactics and supplies plus experience in conspiratorial activities must make is self evident that without outside assistance any insurrection will fail. We cannot give this assistance at this time as insurrection in Pinar would be premature. Island wide plan for liberation (of) Cuba not finished. Additional time needed for completion (of) this plan. You cannot jeopardize plan by precipitous action. Cuba and her children deserve liberty. This cannot be risked by attacking too soon. We have respect for your judgment. Need your analysis (of the) compulsory military service law. Has law affected your men? How? From here it appears law may enable you (to infiltrate) armed forces. Infiltration in this manner would facilitate sabotage and intel mission. Do not despair. Victory will be ours but it requires patience and ability (to) exploit enemies' weakness at right time. That time is not now. Otto."

104-10076-10207: JMWAVE CABLE RE AGENT MESSAGE

A memo from Otto on 12/9/63:  "El Liberal, El Grande and Chan send felicitations to Don Quijote on his saints day.  Otto."WAVE adds a note saying Don Quijote is their "father".  Their names are blacked out in one version, but here they are revealed as AMBANTY-4, 5, and 7. The blacked-out version of this document can be seen at the HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, Box 17, 1993.08.04.16:41:08:870028, p. 10. Don Quijote was an alias for the ONI officer Harold Feeney. See http://bayofpigs2506.com/The%20night%20of%20the%20white%20horse.pdf

See Also:
Contributors:
Bill Simpich • Joan Mellen

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