In CASTRO'S SECRETS, highly acclaimed author and intelligence expert Brian Latell offers a strikingly original view of Fidel Castro in his role as Cuba's supreme spymaster. Based on interviews with high level defectors from Cuba's powerful intelligence and security services, long-buried secrets of Fidel's nearly 50-year reign are exposed for the first time. They include numerous assassinations and attempted ones carried out on Castro's orders, some against foreign leaders. More than a dozen ranking Cuban secret agents embraced by the CIA and FBI speak in these pages; some have never told their stories on the record before. Latell also probes dispassionately into the CIA's most deplorable plots against Cuba - including previously obscure schemes to assassinate Castro - and presents shocking new conclusions about what Fidel actually knew of Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Castro's Secrets: The CIA and Cuba's Intelligence Machine
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“Brilliant . . . This unique book not only traces Fidel Castro’s extraordinary intelligence service and its acts against the U.S., but it also analyzes America’s — and especially the overeager Kennedy boys’ — attempts to kill Castro . . . informative (and wonderfully readable) . . . Latell’s book, enhanced by the author’s rich experience, radar-like understanding of the peculiar people involved and mastery of history, is an important contribution to understanding this crucial period that changed us much more than we imagine.”--Georgie Anne Geyer, The Columbus Dispatch
“Castro’s Secrets begins like a slow murder mystery then builds damning fact after damning fact into a conclusive, ground-breaking portrait, based on firsthand sources, of how the Cuban strongman—in all his evil brilliance—frequently ran circles around the CIA . . . The most interesting parts of his narrative revolve around how much Castro knew about the plot to kill Kennedy, and a parallel attempt, on the part of the CIA, to assassinate the Cuban dictator . . . One of the successes of Castro’s Secrets is that it offers readers a view of both sides of the shadow war.”--The Daily Beast
"A fascinating study of Castro’s intelligence network and its early battles with the CIA to secure Castro’s hold on power.”--The Sunday Times
“Britan Latell, for four decades the CIA’s ranking authority on all matters Castro and Cuban, has ripped the shroud off the circumstances behind one of the more flagrant instances of journalistic malpractice ever in the Washington media.”—The Washington Times
“Authoritative exposé …[and] a lively and revealing account of the long intelligence war between the U.S. and Cuba.”--Publishers Weekly
"[Latell] offers considerable information about how the U.S. government tried continually to overthrow the Castro regime, including plans that could have led to the assassination of one or both Castro brothers. In addition to information about assassination plots, Latell explains how a small island nation built an impressive spy agency . . . An insider's account." --Kirkus Reviews
“An insider's look at Castro's Cuba, and its tortured relationship with America, from one of the most knowledgeable Cuba experts around. Brian Latell draws on exclusive interviews with Cuban spies and troves of declassified documents to provide the most authoritative account yet of the decades-long U.S. Cuba intelligence war.”--Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight: JFK, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
“I have been waiting more than 35 years for this book. Since my service as a member of the Senate’s Church committee I have never believed Fidel Castro’s denials of prior knowledge of the Kennedy assassination. Brian Latell has performed a national service by writing a book that lays bare the duplicity of the Cuban government.”--Robert Morgan, former US Senator
"No one knows more about Cuban intelligence than Brian Latell. In this page-turner, he not only tells compelling stories that reveal the strength of Cuban actions in Le Carre's world of spy vs. spy but raises unsettling questions about Lee Harvey Oswald's Cuban connections. By the end, the reader is asking, What did Fidel know and when did he know it?"--Timothy Naftali, Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism
"A remarkable look at Fidel Castro's intelligence machine. This is a must read for anyone curious about the long history of Fidel Castro's intelligence preoccupation with the U.S. "--Frederick P. Hitz, former Inspector General of CIA and author of The Great Game
“Castro’s Secrets is a must read for anyone who cares about how JFK died, how Fidel Castro lied to a congressional investigating committee, and whether the CIA is still covering up crucial knowledge.”--G. Robert Blakey, Former Chief Counsel and Staff Director to the House Select Committee on Assassinations
"In this provocative book, Brian Latell brings to bear all his experience and knowledge as a former intelligence analyst on Cuba for the CIA. This is a book that should be read, regardless of whether one agrees with Latell about Castro’s complicity in JFK’s assassination."-- Max Holland, author of The Kennedy Assassination Tapes
“[CASTRO’S SECRETS is] the first substantial study of Fidel Castro’s intelligence operations. Based on interviews with Cuban spies who defected as well as declassified documents from the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon and other national security organs, it contains a good deal of material likely to stir controversy . . . Latell’s book makes some new revelations and adds detail to older ones in making the argument that Castro played at least an indirect role in the assassination [of JFK].” –The Miami Herald
About the Author
BRIAN LATELL began tracking Cuba for the CIA in the early 1960s. Today, as Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami, he continues as one of the most distinguished and frequently quoted experts. For a quarter century he taught Cuba and Latin America as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. A former National Intelligence Officer for Latin America and Director of the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence, he has written for the Washington Post, Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal, Time, and many other American and international publications. His After Fidel has been published in eight languages.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Book Adding Pieces To The Puzzle That Should Be Required Reading For People Interested In Intelligence Careers
September 20, 2012
By Barrister98
Format:Hardcover
The secrecy that surrounds all controversial events concerning intelligence, at least before ALL pertinent documentation is declassified, inevitably leads observers (even those with experience in intelligence work) to debate accounts of such events. There will always be elements that are unknown, even to authors of such accounts that are more "in the know" than others. For that reason, readers must take great care to judge books discussing intelligence surrounding history's most conspiracy theory-generating events on the basis of (a) what is known about the author's credibility and (b) what the author actually concludes, as opposed to simple facts, circumstances, or speculations mentioned. For that reason, critics claiming that this book proves that Oswald was a CIA/LBJ patsy in a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy or that Castro was behind the assassination are both mistaken.
What Dr. Latell, the U.S. intelligence community's expert on Cuba for over thirty years and someone whom I hope our government continues to consult, has done here is simply add (or confirm) an important piece to the puzzle of the circumstances surrounding the JFK assassination. Yes, the Warren Commission Report was flawed, as the 1978 report of the US House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy and that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the sole gunman. Who else could have ordered or been involved in the assassination - as a planner, financier, advance team, additional assassin etc.? The 1978 report could not rule out any specific scenario. Dr. Latell simply presents extremely convincing evidence that Castro was informed ahead of time that there would be an attempt on President Kennedy's life in Dallas on November 22, 1963. That's all and nothing else. Below are some scenarios (and there may be more) that are plausible as a result.
1. Oswald could have finalized Castro-sanctioned assassination plans during his prior visit to the Cuban embassy in Mexico City. We may not, however, know that for sure, even if Cuban DGI archives were to open up tomorrow.
2. Oswald could indeed have been a frustrated communist who was part of a smaller effort and was simply trying to obtain the support of skeptical Cuban government officials or emigrate to Cuba. Either way, a cable from the embassy to Cuba could have resulted in Castro himself ordering the monitoring of communications from Texas on the day the assassination occurred. In that sense, Castro would have been "testing" Oswald to see if Oswald truly intended to do what he said he would do. If Oswald were to pull it off and escape, he certainly would have showed potential to be a reliable DGI resource in some way (e.g., how to penetrate U.S. government VIP protection procedures). This approach, I think, would be standard intelligence tradecraft - skepticism about walk-ins. After all, when it comes to information about foreign countries that intelligence services really want, those who know don't easily talk, and those who talk don't usually know, as the old Washington saying goes.
3. Oswald was part of, or was being manipulated by, a "vast, right wing conspiracy" to assassinate Kennedy and that sought to create the impression after the fact that Castro was behind the whole thing.
Either way, Castro's foreknowledge shows that any hope to somehow reconcile with him in the wake of the Bay of Pigs prisoners' release was indeed wishful thinking. Helping save the leader of a nation officially designated as an enemy naturally generates the good will that can prevent tensions from flaring up into armed conflicts. That is, for example, why Israel's Mossad is known to have warned Arab heads of state about pending assassination or coup attempts. And that is why Arab states have done the same for Israel with respect to potential terrorist attacks by organizations. Regardless, however, if the DGI head in 1963 had documented Castro's knowledge, then all the more reason for Castro to have him killed years later.
Now here is why I think that Dr. Latell's book is useful for those interested in intelligence and why I hope it is or becomes required reading in the operative training courses for U.S. intelligence services. Castro had the Soviet Union to help him with signals intelligence (e.g., the facility in Lourdes, Cuba). He could consequently focus on human intelligence operations to protect his regime and to spy on the U.S. And what a ruthlessly efficient job he has done in both respects! I personally, as the son of Cuban immigrants, have met more recent Cuban immigrants who claim that the DGI is one of the world's best in this regard (though possible only in a dictatorship). And they continue to be - their current head directed the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes looking for Cuban rafters in international waters in 1994 or 1995, so the necessary ruthlessness is still there. The problem with our intelligence (and sometimes our counterintelligence services) often appears to be that they simply cannot visualize the image of a tropical banana republic being so ruthless and effective. It is difficult, having grown up in a democracy with no loved ones who ever lived in a dictatorship, to truly get beyond the abstract and grasp how effective enemy dictatorships' intelligence services and terrorist organizations can be. Underestimating one's opponent is the worst thing one can do in these situations - they may not have our technology and our studies, but they use their native know-how and the resources they do have to the best of their abilities. That explains events like Hezbollah's reported roll-up of the CIA's entire network of agents in Lebanon last year and their ability to publicly identify U.S. case officers based out of the U.S. embassy. So much of the CIA's work force nowadays is under 40 (as am I). And today our intelligence services place much more importance on language and cultural training today. But yet those U.S. operatives, despite all their training (and whose job I don't think I could do anyway for many other reasons), were still foolish enough to meet their assets at a Beirut McDonald's! Then there is the tragic suicide bombing by an Al-Qaeda double agent at Camp Chapman in Afghanistan in 2009, who was not checked by security and who killed 7 CIA officers and contractors. No, no way could this ragtag band of terrorists be so sophisticated! No, no way could the unsophisticated Taliban infiltrate our bases and kill our troops! And sometimes even - why would they want to do that? We're the US and we mean well. Kind of sounds like - oh, no way pajama-clad Vietnamese guerillas might pull off the most psychologically damaging offensive on U.S. bases, even breaking into the U.S. embassy in Saigon, in Tet or January of 1968.
For all of our intellectual and technological expertise, and, yes, even our occasional willingness to employ very aggressive and what I'll call ethically questionable measures, all these events indicate that we continue to make the same mistakes - we continuously underestimate the potential ruthlessness and efficiency of apparently "unsophisticated" enemies operating on their home turf. Nothing can substitute for these necessary street smarts, which I too will admit I don't have. My greater concern, however, is whether policymakers and people in our intelligence services (not all, I'm sure, but certainly enough to cause problems)even appreciate this problem in the abstract. Unless they do, they cannot plan accordingly and know when to be tough and when to hold back. Kind of like Cuba Gooding in Jerry McGuire - "Yes, Jerry, you say you understand what I'm saying, but do you truly understand what I'm saying?" So I think that this book, even if it was not written with this objective in mind, really was patriotic service in giving us rare insights into how many of our adversaries have truly worked and continue to work today.
What Dr. Latell, the U.S. intelligence community's expert on Cuba for over thirty years and someone whom I hope our government continues to consult, has done here is simply add (or confirm) an important piece to the puzzle of the circumstances surrounding the JFK assassination. Yes, the Warren Commission Report was flawed, as the 1978 report of the US House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy and that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the sole gunman. Who else could have ordered or been involved in the assassination - as a planner, financier, advance team, additional assassin etc.? The 1978 report could not rule out any specific scenario. Dr. Latell simply presents extremely convincing evidence that Castro was informed ahead of time that there would be an attempt on President Kennedy's life in Dallas on November 22, 1963. That's all and nothing else. Below are some scenarios (and there may be more) that are plausible as a result.
1. Oswald could have finalized Castro-sanctioned assassination plans during his prior visit to the Cuban embassy in Mexico City. We may not, however, know that for sure, even if Cuban DGI archives were to open up tomorrow.
2. Oswald could indeed have been a frustrated communist who was part of a smaller effort and was simply trying to obtain the support of skeptical Cuban government officials or emigrate to Cuba. Either way, a cable from the embassy to Cuba could have resulted in Castro himself ordering the monitoring of communications from Texas on the day the assassination occurred. In that sense, Castro would have been "testing" Oswald to see if Oswald truly intended to do what he said he would do. If Oswald were to pull it off and escape, he certainly would have showed potential to be a reliable DGI resource in some way (e.g., how to penetrate U.S. government VIP protection procedures). This approach, I think, would be standard intelligence tradecraft - skepticism about walk-ins. After all, when it comes to information about foreign countries that intelligence services really want, those who know don't easily talk, and those who talk don't usually know, as the old Washington saying goes.
3. Oswald was part of, or was being manipulated by, a "vast, right wing conspiracy" to assassinate Kennedy and that sought to create the impression after the fact that Castro was behind the whole thing.
Either way, Castro's foreknowledge shows that any hope to somehow reconcile with him in the wake of the Bay of Pigs prisoners' release was indeed wishful thinking. Helping save the leader of a nation officially designated as an enemy naturally generates the good will that can prevent tensions from flaring up into armed conflicts. That is, for example, why Israel's Mossad is known to have warned Arab heads of state about pending assassination or coup attempts. And that is why Arab states have done the same for Israel with respect to potential terrorist attacks by organizations. Regardless, however, if the DGI head in 1963 had documented Castro's knowledge, then all the more reason for Castro to have him killed years later.
Now here is why I think that Dr. Latell's book is useful for those interested in intelligence and why I hope it is or becomes required reading in the operative training courses for U.S. intelligence services. Castro had the Soviet Union to help him with signals intelligence (e.g., the facility in Lourdes, Cuba). He could consequently focus on human intelligence operations to protect his regime and to spy on the U.S. And what a ruthlessly efficient job he has done in both respects! I personally, as the son of Cuban immigrants, have met more recent Cuban immigrants who claim that the DGI is one of the world's best in this regard (though possible only in a dictatorship). And they continue to be - their current head directed the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes looking for Cuban rafters in international waters in 1994 or 1995, so the necessary ruthlessness is still there. The problem with our intelligence (and sometimes our counterintelligence services) often appears to be that they simply cannot visualize the image of a tropical banana republic being so ruthless and effective. It is difficult, having grown up in a democracy with no loved ones who ever lived in a dictatorship, to truly get beyond the abstract and grasp how effective enemy dictatorships' intelligence services and terrorist organizations can be. Underestimating one's opponent is the worst thing one can do in these situations - they may not have our technology and our studies, but they use their native know-how and the resources they do have to the best of their abilities. That explains events like Hezbollah's reported roll-up of the CIA's entire network of agents in Lebanon last year and their ability to publicly identify U.S. case officers based out of the U.S. embassy. So much of the CIA's work force nowadays is under 40 (as am I). And today our intelligence services place much more importance on language and cultural training today. But yet those U.S. operatives, despite all their training (and whose job I don't think I could do anyway for many other reasons), were still foolish enough to meet their assets at a Beirut McDonald's! Then there is the tragic suicide bombing by an Al-Qaeda double agent at Camp Chapman in Afghanistan in 2009, who was not checked by security and who killed 7 CIA officers and contractors. No, no way could this ragtag band of terrorists be so sophisticated! No, no way could the unsophisticated Taliban infiltrate our bases and kill our troops! And sometimes even - why would they want to do that? We're the US and we mean well. Kind of sounds like - oh, no way pajama-clad Vietnamese guerillas might pull off the most psychologically damaging offensive on U.S. bases, even breaking into the U.S. embassy in Saigon, in Tet or January of 1968.
For all of our intellectual and technological expertise, and, yes, even our occasional willingness to employ very aggressive and what I'll call ethically questionable measures, all these events indicate that we continue to make the same mistakes - we continuously underestimate the potential ruthlessness and efficiency of apparently "unsophisticated" enemies operating on their home turf. Nothing can substitute for these necessary street smarts, which I too will admit I don't have. My greater concern, however, is whether policymakers and people in our intelligence services (not all, I'm sure, but certainly enough to cause problems)even appreciate this problem in the abstract. Unless they do, they cannot plan accordingly and know when to be tough and when to hold back. Kind of like Cuba Gooding in Jerry McGuire - "Yes, Jerry, you say you understand what I'm saying, but do you truly understand what I'm saying?" So I think that this book, even if it was not written with this objective in mind, really was patriotic service in giving us rare insights into how many of our adversaries have truly worked and continue to work today.
13 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was reviewing this book here at Amazon as I went, but lost patience with it as other priorities emerged, and deleted my review as it was incomplete. I have gone over the book again. In comparison with all that I have read from other non-fiction sources, and what I know personally from service in the Latin American Division including service under Nestor Sanchez, I give this book a three for accuracy, a five for interesting details that are useful to the larger mosaic, and a four over-all.
Right up front I have misgivings:
1) The vaunted prime source for the author gave up stories but no names. This is immediately suspect.
2) The author claims CIA had four dozen agents in Cuba that proved to be doubles. I strongly suspect the actual number is under two dozen.
3) The author exaggerates the value of the Cuban penetrations of the US, particularly the DIA analyst.
4) The author exaggerates the importance of the Cubans being able to defeat the polygraph. The US Government and CIA especially are the last to admit that the polygraph is largely worthless. My personal preference is for the new NoLie technology that is 95% accurate if not slightly better, while the polygraph is at best 64% accurate on naive subjects that have anxiety indicators, and not at all useful against Arabs, Chinese, and others who have mastered blandness.
Beware -- Amazon has a very ugly tendency to offer people the Kindle version by default and NOT show other editions, something I find both unethical and annoying. You have to search for the title and the word "hardcopy". Having said that, I praise the publisher for pricing this book fairly, and Amazon for taking another chuck off the price. At $20 with shipping, this is a BARGAIN.
I was a clandestine case officer and handled one of the Cuban defectors in the 1980's (not named in the book, resettled to the USA, a very very rare thing). I also had two classmates exposed on Cuban national television after all the double-agents led them into video traps.
Right up front I can tell the author is wrong on one thing and perhaps mistaken on the second.
01 Oswald did not kill Kennedy. Oswald was a CIA patsy. Below I list several books on this point, every day the evidence mounts that JFK was killed with LBJ's tacit consent, by a mix of the Texas rich, New Orleans crime, the FBI, and CIA trained and equipped Cuban exiles angry over the Bay of Pigs, not realizing that CIA led JFK into a trap and knew it would fail beforehand.
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters
Someone Would Have Talked: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Conspiracy to Mislead History
A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK's Assassination, and the Case That Should Have Changed History
Mary's Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace
02 On the defectors, I am very skeptical that any of them actually blew Castro's double-agents. Certainly not in time to help my two classmates-extremely competent officers whom I continue to admire. Castro's intelligence has been running rings around the tontos utiles (useful idiots) for decades, generally from after Che Guevarra's demise in Bolivia. Today, working with money from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, they are doing some very interesting things across the continent, most recently shutting the US and Canada out of a new regional organization, CELAC (i.e. OAS without the two annoying northern countries).
I certainly recommend this book. I know for a fact that in the 1980's several Senators and Representatives were on the payroll of countries hostile to the United States. That was when I started to realize just how corrupt our Congress was, never imagining that we would see the say when all but a tiny handful are traitors to the public interest.
The author is unique, the book is unique, but the reality is that the book is a CIA-approved version of reality, and probably, at best, 60% of the picture, if that.
Some false notes:
1) On the one hand, the author stresses how all Cuban defectors have to go deep under cover to avoid Cuban assassination teams, at the same time that he lauds the Cubans for their excellence-best in the world-on the street. Then he accepts at face value to hardly credible stories about how Aspillaga survived two assassination attempts that I consider high theater. Tontos útiles, ¡presten atención!
2) The author claims to be absolutely certain Aspillaga was genuine, and goes on about the varied and deep methods CIA used to ensure this. So what about the "four dozen" double-agents that CIA did NOT detect?
3) The author claims DGI was riddled with corruption. This may well be true, I do not have the breadth of sources that he does, but this does not feel right. The DGI officers I knew overseas were superb professionals, true believers, and I just do not see the ones I knew being corrupt in the manner that the author offers without much in the way of evidence.
4) The claims about the US "neutralizing" the DGI in the aftermath of the Aspillaga defection are in my view laughable. The author also fails to mention some very considerable successes that the Soviets and the Cubans (who *do* work together) had against the US.
5) I greatly enjoy the author's account of where the DGI is very very good, and am then shocked when he presumes to suggest that the Cubans are not good at code-breaking. Really? This from the country with the most advanced high tech health industry in the Western Hemisphere?
6) I lose patience with the author's assertion of page 42 that the DGI exists exclusively to target Americans. This is outright foolishness. The DGI has been steadily chipping away at US influence across Latin America, not by targeting los tontos utilies, who shoot themselves in the head on a regular basis, but rather by targeting indigenous key personnel. In my view CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, i.e. OAS without the Canadians or Americans) is a triumph for the DGI and for Casto's diplomats as well as the Cuban military and Cuban science, technology, and cultural as well as commercial outreach ventures.
Chapter 3. The two so-called "big stories" on Fidel as a diabolical monster are pedestrian. It is also at this point that I note that the book completely avoids mention of the Kennedy-Khruschev back channel striving for peace in spire of their respective generals. I have a note "this is our best shot at slandering Castro?"
Chapter 4. Claims Atlee Phillips and other CIA case officers of the era were pro-Castro. Page 66, fascinating observation that DGI monitored who CIA was developing (toward recruitment) in foreign capitals, then they got there first, made the recruitment, so when CIA finally made the pitch, a) it was a cake walk and b) they were recruiting a double-agent already under DGI control. Author exaggerates the importance of the Russian illegals in US in 2010. Author suggests that Chavez of Venezuela was recruited by DGI and trained in Cuba. I know from serving in Venezuela that the Soviets and Cuba have had the run of the place for some time, and that the US has been complacent and careless in not recognizing that in Venezuela the US was being played, perhaps more so than in other Latin American countries.
Chapter 5. This is a fascinating chapter with a great deal of information that is new to me, including passing references to the closeness of Angleton to Israel, the size of Ted Shakley's JMWAVE operations (largest Navy in the Caribbean, 600 CIA, 1000 contractors, in touch with 15,000 Cubans one way of another....but also including Shackley's admission that such assets as CIA had in Cuba were at the NCO and "food handler" level. The rest of the book is at worst a hit job on the Kennedy brothers, and at best a CIA version of half the story. As with the Kennedy-Khruschev back channel, the author either does not know about, or is unwilling to include, the fact that there was also a back channel between Kennedy-Castro, and if Kennedy had not been assassinated in Dallas, he was planning to not only disengage from Viet-Nam, but also moderate the relationship with Castro. There are a couple of truly astonishing quotes in this chapter, including on page 102 the author's conclusion, based on a CIA record of a meeting, that President Kennedy was "complicit in acts that constituted a deliberate and massive campaign of international terrorism." The author accepts at face value his primary source's claim that Castro knew in advance that JFK would be assassinated in Dallas.
Chapter Seven is a mess. The author has either not ready anything of substance about the JFK assassination and the now conclusively known facts that Oswald was a patsy, tested negative for gunspower residue, and was standing in the door (photo now available) when JFK went by and was assassinated), or the author's book is part of an on-going CIA covert operation to muddy the CIA role in the JFK assassination. On balance I think the author is simply too quick to accept "blessed" interpretations of events, and has forgotten how to be an independent analyst able to capture his own sources outside the CIA. Read more ›
Right up front I have misgivings:
1) The vaunted prime source for the author gave up stories but no names. This is immediately suspect.
2) The author claims CIA had four dozen agents in Cuba that proved to be doubles. I strongly suspect the actual number is under two dozen.
3) The author exaggerates the value of the Cuban penetrations of the US, particularly the DIA analyst.
4) The author exaggerates the importance of the Cubans being able to defeat the polygraph. The US Government and CIA especially are the last to admit that the polygraph is largely worthless. My personal preference is for the new NoLie technology that is 95% accurate if not slightly better, while the polygraph is at best 64% accurate on naive subjects that have anxiety indicators, and not at all useful against Arabs, Chinese, and others who have mastered blandness.
Beware -- Amazon has a very ugly tendency to offer people the Kindle version by default and NOT show other editions, something I find both unethical and annoying. You have to search for the title and the word "hardcopy". Having said that, I praise the publisher for pricing this book fairly, and Amazon for taking another chuck off the price. At $20 with shipping, this is a BARGAIN.
I was a clandestine case officer and handled one of the Cuban defectors in the 1980's (not named in the book, resettled to the USA, a very very rare thing). I also had two classmates exposed on Cuban national television after all the double-agents led them into video traps.
Right up front I can tell the author is wrong on one thing and perhaps mistaken on the second.
01 Oswald did not kill Kennedy. Oswald was a CIA patsy. Below I list several books on this point, every day the evidence mounts that JFK was killed with LBJ's tacit consent, by a mix of the Texas rich, New Orleans crime, the FBI, and CIA trained and equipped Cuban exiles angry over the Bay of Pigs, not realizing that CIA led JFK into a trap and knew it would fail beforehand.
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters
Someone Would Have Talked: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Conspiracy to Mislead History
A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK's Assassination, and the Case That Should Have Changed History
Mary's Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace
02 On the defectors, I am very skeptical that any of them actually blew Castro's double-agents. Certainly not in time to help my two classmates-extremely competent officers whom I continue to admire. Castro's intelligence has been running rings around the tontos utiles (useful idiots) for decades, generally from after Che Guevarra's demise in Bolivia. Today, working with money from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, they are doing some very interesting things across the continent, most recently shutting the US and Canada out of a new regional organization, CELAC (i.e. OAS without the two annoying northern countries).
I certainly recommend this book. I know for a fact that in the 1980's several Senators and Representatives were on the payroll of countries hostile to the United States. That was when I started to realize just how corrupt our Congress was, never imagining that we would see the say when all but a tiny handful are traitors to the public interest.
The author is unique, the book is unique, but the reality is that the book is a CIA-approved version of reality, and probably, at best, 60% of the picture, if that.
Some false notes:
1) On the one hand, the author stresses how all Cuban defectors have to go deep under cover to avoid Cuban assassination teams, at the same time that he lauds the Cubans for their excellence-best in the world-on the street. Then he accepts at face value to hardly credible stories about how Aspillaga survived two assassination attempts that I consider high theater. Tontos útiles, ¡presten atención!
2) The author claims to be absolutely certain Aspillaga was genuine, and goes on about the varied and deep methods CIA used to ensure this. So what about the "four dozen" double-agents that CIA did NOT detect?
3) The author claims DGI was riddled with corruption. This may well be true, I do not have the breadth of sources that he does, but this does not feel right. The DGI officers I knew overseas were superb professionals, true believers, and I just do not see the ones I knew being corrupt in the manner that the author offers without much in the way of evidence.
4) The claims about the US "neutralizing" the DGI in the aftermath of the Aspillaga defection are in my view laughable. The author also fails to mention some very considerable successes that the Soviets and the Cubans (who *do* work together) had against the US.
5) I greatly enjoy the author's account of where the DGI is very very good, and am then shocked when he presumes to suggest that the Cubans are not good at code-breaking. Really? This from the country with the most advanced high tech health industry in the Western Hemisphere?
6) I lose patience with the author's assertion of page 42 that the DGI exists exclusively to target Americans. This is outright foolishness. The DGI has been steadily chipping away at US influence across Latin America, not by targeting los tontos utilies, who shoot themselves in the head on a regular basis, but rather by targeting indigenous key personnel. In my view CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, i.e. OAS without the Canadians or Americans) is a triumph for the DGI and for Casto's diplomats as well as the Cuban military and Cuban science, technology, and cultural as well as commercial outreach ventures.
Chapter 3. The two so-called "big stories" on Fidel as a diabolical monster are pedestrian. It is also at this point that I note that the book completely avoids mention of the Kennedy-Khruschev back channel striving for peace in spire of their respective generals. I have a note "this is our best shot at slandering Castro?"
Chapter 4. Claims Atlee Phillips and other CIA case officers of the era were pro-Castro. Page 66, fascinating observation that DGI monitored who CIA was developing (toward recruitment) in foreign capitals, then they got there first, made the recruitment, so when CIA finally made the pitch, a) it was a cake walk and b) they were recruiting a double-agent already under DGI control. Author exaggerates the importance of the Russian illegals in US in 2010. Author suggests that Chavez of Venezuela was recruited by DGI and trained in Cuba. I know from serving in Venezuela that the Soviets and Cuba have had the run of the place for some time, and that the US has been complacent and careless in not recognizing that in Venezuela the US was being played, perhaps more so than in other Latin American countries.
Chapter 5. This is a fascinating chapter with a great deal of information that is new to me, including passing references to the closeness of Angleton to Israel, the size of Ted Shakley's JMWAVE operations (largest Navy in the Caribbean, 600 CIA, 1000 contractors, in touch with 15,000 Cubans one way of another....but also including Shackley's admission that such assets as CIA had in Cuba were at the NCO and "food handler" level. The rest of the book is at worst a hit job on the Kennedy brothers, and at best a CIA version of half the story. As with the Kennedy-Khruschev back channel, the author either does not know about, or is unwilling to include, the fact that there was also a back channel between Kennedy-Castro, and if Kennedy had not been assassinated in Dallas, he was planning to not only disengage from Viet-Nam, but also moderate the relationship with Castro. There are a couple of truly astonishing quotes in this chapter, including on page 102 the author's conclusion, based on a CIA record of a meeting, that President Kennedy was "complicit in acts that constituted a deliberate and massive campaign of international terrorism." The author accepts at face value his primary source's claim that Castro knew in advance that JFK would be assassinated in Dallas.
Chapter Seven is a mess. The author has either not ready anything of substance about the JFK assassination and the now conclusively known facts that Oswald was a patsy, tested negative for gunspower residue, and was standing in the door (photo now available) when JFK went by and was assassinated), or the author's book is part of an on-going CIA covert operation to muddy the CIA role in the JFK assassination. On balance I think the author is simply too quick to accept "blessed" interpretations of events, and has forgotten how to be an independent analyst able to capture his own sources outside the CIA. Read more ›
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Author Brian Latell, a professor, scholar, and retired CIA officer who had been active in foreign intelligence for 35 years, relies extensively on information provided by half a dozen Cuban defectors and several retired CIA officers. However, the most intriguing and reliable revelations (i.e., pure facts without any embellishment or speculation) come to light from Florentino Aspillaga Lombard ("Tiny"), the most knowledgeable and valuable foreign intelligence officer to ever defect from Cuba's powerful Directorio General de Inteligencia (DGI).
Tiny Aspillaga defected that fateful summer in 1987 in the midst of the turbulent and historic years of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika -- but still four years before the total collapse of the Soviet empire. Aspillaga had served with distinction in the elite ranks of the DGI and had even received a personal commendation from Fidel Castro. After Aspillaga began working with the CIA, he immediately exposed dozens of Cuban double agents, who had infiltrated American intelligence, political and cultural institutions, as well as various anti-Castro groups. Many of these Cuban double agents had been operating for over two decades, inflicting untold damage on the U.S. The most highly placed double agents were handled personally by Fidel Castro, who, for nearly fifty years, acted as "Cuba's supreme spymaster"!
Aspillaga's revelations proved and subsequent investigations corroborated that the CIA had been outclassed and humbled by the Cuban DGI in spycraft. Although "the Americans had been careless, overconfident, deceived in ways that they thought unimaginable," according to Latell, "none had been dishonest or disloyal."
Latell reveals the existence of and discloses the content of Castro's Armageddon letter of October 22, 1962 (the last day of the Cuban Missile Crisis) to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. In that letter, Castro advocates a preemptive nuclear strike against the U.S., using not only the island's strategic and tactical assembled missile force but also the USSR nuclear arsenal. Khrushchev not only turned him down but the emotionally charged, diabolical impetuosity of the Cuban leader frightened and prompted Khrushchev to immediately cave in to JFK's demands.
The author dismantles the myth of impending reconciliation between Castro and Kennedy after the Cuban Missile Crisis that was supposedly cut short only by Kennedy's assassination. Behind the scenes both leaders continued to plot against each other in the worst traditions of the cold war.
The final piece in his jigsaw puzzle is the astounding information provided by Tiny Aspillaga. The super defector revealed that as a young radio operator at Castro's ultra-secret Jaimanitas listening post on the northern coast of Cuba near Havana, he was suddenly and without precedent ordered to redirect his listening antennas from his usual target the CIA and switch the dials to Texas! It was the morning of November 22, 1963, three hours before the JFK assassination that took place at 12:30 p.m. (Dallas time) on that same day. Aspillaga informed Latell: "Castro knew. They knew Kennedy would be killed."
I will not spoil the book for you by revealing how Castro knew and the machinations that probably took place leading to the tragic assassination of JFK. This review is extracted from a much longer and illustrated essay reviewing this book in haciendapublishingdotcom. Suffice to say, I recommend Latell's book for all readers interested in Cuban intelligence during the Cold War, Fidel Castro, the CIA, and the secret aspects of the Kennedy assassination. Despite a couple of quibbles, one of which is the accusation that Comandante Rolando Cubela was a double agent working for Castro. Latell has not convinced me, and I continue to disagree with this important but not essential point for reasons I have already written about in my book Cuba in Revolution - Escape from a Lost Paradise (2002). My second quibble is the paucity of illustrations. There were many photos of American heroes and miscellaneous villains I would have liked included. But this book is good. Get it, and read it!
Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D. is the author of Cuba in Revolution - Escape from a Lost Paradise (2002) and many essays on the cold war and communism, including "Stalin's Mysterious Death" (2011) and "Stalin, Communists and Fatal Statistics (2011)
Tiny Aspillaga defected that fateful summer in 1987 in the midst of the turbulent and historic years of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika -- but still four years before the total collapse of the Soviet empire. Aspillaga had served with distinction in the elite ranks of the DGI and had even received a personal commendation from Fidel Castro. After Aspillaga began working with the CIA, he immediately exposed dozens of Cuban double agents, who had infiltrated American intelligence, political and cultural institutions, as well as various anti-Castro groups. Many of these Cuban double agents had been operating for over two decades, inflicting untold damage on the U.S. The most highly placed double agents were handled personally by Fidel Castro, who, for nearly fifty years, acted as "Cuba's supreme spymaster"!
Aspillaga's revelations proved and subsequent investigations corroborated that the CIA had been outclassed and humbled by the Cuban DGI in spycraft. Although "the Americans had been careless, overconfident, deceived in ways that they thought unimaginable," according to Latell, "none had been dishonest or disloyal."
Latell reveals the existence of and discloses the content of Castro's Armageddon letter of October 22, 1962 (the last day of the Cuban Missile Crisis) to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. In that letter, Castro advocates a preemptive nuclear strike against the U.S., using not only the island's strategic and tactical assembled missile force but also the USSR nuclear arsenal. Khrushchev not only turned him down but the emotionally charged, diabolical impetuosity of the Cuban leader frightened and prompted Khrushchev to immediately cave in to JFK's demands.
The author dismantles the myth of impending reconciliation between Castro and Kennedy after the Cuban Missile Crisis that was supposedly cut short only by Kennedy's assassination. Behind the scenes both leaders continued to plot against each other in the worst traditions of the cold war.
The final piece in his jigsaw puzzle is the astounding information provided by Tiny Aspillaga. The super defector revealed that as a young radio operator at Castro's ultra-secret Jaimanitas listening post on the northern coast of Cuba near Havana, he was suddenly and without precedent ordered to redirect his listening antennas from his usual target the CIA and switch the dials to Texas! It was the morning of November 22, 1963, three hours before the JFK assassination that took place at 12:30 p.m. (Dallas time) on that same day. Aspillaga informed Latell: "Castro knew. They knew Kennedy would be killed."
I will not spoil the book for you by revealing how Castro knew and the machinations that probably took place leading to the tragic assassination of JFK. This review is extracted from a much longer and illustrated essay reviewing this book in haciendapublishingdotcom. Suffice to say, I recommend Latell's book for all readers interested in Cuban intelligence during the Cold War, Fidel Castro, the CIA, and the secret aspects of the Kennedy assassination. Despite a couple of quibbles, one of which is the accusation that Comandante Rolando Cubela was a double agent working for Castro. Latell has not convinced me, and I continue to disagree with this important but not essential point for reasons I have already written about in my book Cuba in Revolution - Escape from a Lost Paradise (2002). My second quibble is the paucity of illustrations. There were many photos of American heroes and miscellaneous villains I would have liked included. But this book is good. Get it, and read it!
Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D. is the author of Cuba in Revolution - Escape from a Lost Paradise (2002) and many essays on the cold war and communism, including "Stalin's Mysterious Death" (2011) and "Stalin, Communists and Fatal Statistics (2011)
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book Review - Castro's Secrets and Cubas Intelligence Machine
As a now 100% service-connected USMCR Colonel who was engaged in Cuban ops with both a US Joint Command and other government agencies, I found this book incredibly full of... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Louis de la Guardia Wein
1.0 out of 5 stars
One-sided and narrow-minded
This book is very narrow-minded and one-sided, lacks coherency, and Latell's negative attitude, if not hatred, towards Fidel is easily detectable between the lines. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kristine Davis
4.0 out of 5 stars
Review -Castros' Secrets
I liked this bood because of all the little known facts about Castro's backgrouind and personal
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demeanor. Read more
Published 3 months ago by John T. Mcintyre
3.0 out of 5 stars
nothing new
historical but nothing new and I wish the print wasn't so small but all in all it is a good book
Published 3 months ago by Angel L. Balestier
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great
As a bit of a history buff and having grown up in south Florida in the 50's and early 60's, this was a great read.
Published 3 months ago by Bob Loftus
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting information but could have been done in fifty pages
The author makes one point, and takes 250 pages to do it. Very slow read, and not worth the effort.
Published 4 months ago by Jim Mitchell
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting.
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Published 5 months ago by Incarnated Soul
2.0 out of 5 stars
Castros secrets
Entertaining.
But to much rumors and undocumented theories.
If I should recommend it to anybody, ..........no I would not do that..
But to much rumors and undocumented theories.
If I should recommend it to anybody, ..........no I would not do that..
Published 5 months ago by Odd Hansen
3.0 out of 5 stars
Anti-Castro Polemic and Lone Gunmen Advocate
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Exceptional
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Published 7 months ago by Srjcolusaf
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