Customer Reviews

The Zenith Secret: A CIA Insider Exposes the Secret War Against Cuba and the Plot That Killed the Kennedy Brothers

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Like many of us, I've been waiting a long time for the release of Brad Ayer's book. And I'm certainly glad to have it. He tells his life story in a very engaging and likable way. I wish his life had worked out better. And the fact that it did not is just one more indictment of our increasingly dark and dangerous society.

However, as an assassination text, it's pretty useless. (With one major exception for which we should all be grateful. See below.) First off, the initial half of the 280-page book has almost nothing to do with Dallas. It tells a rather too-detailed -- and at times turgid -- story of Ayers's family and professional life. How his first marriage ended. How he smoked pot with a beautiful Cuban dish and then had the best sex of his life. (Pot will do that.) How he hooked up with his beautiful second wife. (Not the Cuban.) On and on. All told in print so tiny as to scare the editors of the Condensed Oxford English Dictionary. (Why? So the publisher wouldn't have to go to press with a 400-page book?)

In the first half of "Zenith Secret", Ayers is clearly an odd-man-out. He does not have any first-hand or documentary evidence about what was going to happen to Jack Kennedy. And then the murder occurs, Brad has his great sex, and his life moves on.

The second part of the book is truly heartbreaking. Bradley Ayers is clearly a very good man. And the people around him treated him like garbage, even refusing to acknowledge his existence at times. But he became a man on a mission -- the mission being to tell the story of his time inside the hive, inside the JM/WAVE station in Miami, and the jolly men he met there. But his mission goes beyond that, into chasing the Holy Grail of Dallas. This leads him toward a very strange direction.

Basically, that the plot to murder John Fitzgerald Kennedy was hatched in the offices of Senator Barry Goldwater. This door is opened by a woman named Pearl, who was the daughter of some Goldwater aide, and this aide passed on info regarding David Morales, Richard Helms, Richard Nixon, Des Fitzgerald and others all making strange visits to Goldwater's office in the months leading up to Dallas. There was even a name to whatever they were working on: The Gila Project. The notorious murder of journalist Don Bolles may have been connected to his investigation of Gila.

Hmmmm. I suppose there's a good rule of thumb in weighing the credibility of anything concerning 11/22/63: if you've never heard of it before, after 43 years of serious research, forget it.

Especially is this rule a good one to follow in regards to that silly tome known as "Ultimate Sacrifice". A genuine piece of disinformation crap that the Ayers book gives the boot to. Nothing -- NOTHING -- in Bradley Ayers' experience at JM/WAVE even suggests there was an imminent invasion of Cuba when Kennedy was murdered by the national security state. And that is what makes this book valuable.

As others have noted, the size of the print is a problem, to the point that for me at least it was difficult, nearly painful, to read. If I weren't so interested in the topic I'd have never purchased the book due to the print size. It would have been better to cut some of the unnecessary verbage and increase the font.

I'm extremely puzzled by the author's identification of Gordon Campbell as the individual (from Veciana's description) drawn as Bishop for the HSCA. To my knowledge only one photo of Campbell exists, and it is the one the author refers to in his book--that appeared on the video that was available on the BBC in November 2006--if in fact that was Campbell. To me if that was Campbell, or if that person looked anything like the real Campbell, he doesn't look anything like the HSCA drawing of Bishop. Which makes me wonder about Ayers' other identifications.

Ultimately, the author really doesn't know any new details about the JFK case (although he may be correct about some of those involved), but his description of his involvement in the anti-Castro activities in the 1960s is worthwhile to those interested in every available tidbit about that, but be prepared to strain your eyes to be able to read about it.

I was looking forward to this book, but it disappoints, mainly due to the lack of any real evidence cited.

First, the good news. Brad Ayers "The Zenith Secret" is the first inside look at the massive US JMWAVE operation against Cuba from Florida based CIA cover Zenith Technical Enterprises. Zenith served as a cover organization for logistics and training of Cuban exiles in Florida. The ultimate aim of the operation was the launching of an invasion force of Cuban exiles capable of securing a beachhead on Cuban soil, allowing the US to recognize and support a Cuban "government-in-exile" and the ability to provide open support to that "government" against the Castro regime. This would be done with the help of US military advisors who would train the exile force in destabilizing and toppling Castro's government. I think it is fair to say the above information has been confirmed by so many sources in and out of the government that there is not much controversy about it thus far.

Enter Brad Ayers, a US Military Special Ops guy with a whole lot of special training who maintains that he served as a key officer in the training of the proposed invasion force. He later wrote a heavily censored book about his experiences called "The War That Never Was", which I found entertainng, describing his activities in general terms, but disguised the identities of the key characters. The Zenith Secret is a total rewrite of TWTNW and includes the identities of such key players as Des Fitzgerald, David Morales, Ted Shackley, Johnny Roselli, etc. It is a terrific read, with Ayers describing not only his experiences in Florida, but a lifetime of mysterious breakins, betrayals, bewilderment and near dispair. It is a jfk assasination book that reads like a McCarry novel, and in keeping with that, there is not table of contents, preventing an old skimmer like me from hoppinhg to my particular interest and skipping chapters. Instead, I read from Chapter 1 and was surprisingly caught up in the story; yes, it is a story, a memoir if you will, of a young man cught up in something bigger than he understands, and his lifetime of trying to make sense of it.

I've only had the book a few days, and have read just five chapters, but I am far more intrigued than I usually am when reading a new jfk book, because I'm not looking for the new bits of information; i'm reading a very good story which is unraveling at a nice pace. It is like Bill Turners Rear View Mirror in many ways, though far more intense and dark. I've waited for this book for about two years, through its numerous setbacks to publication, and I'm glad I did. I recommend it highly to espionage fans, thriller lovers, and those who enjoy being drawn into a personal odyssey. Whatever the truth behind the story, I do believe that Ayers experienced what he says he did, and I respect him both for the man he is and was. Kudos also to Sander Hicks and Vox Pop for actually responding to my emails regarding publication.

Now for the bad news. The typeface on this book is actually the size of most footnotes in other books, because it was printed in China (don't ask). I hope that Vox Pop will be able to doa second edition or sell the rights to a a mainstream publisher and printer before my eyes give out. That said, this book pulls many of the obscure characters mentioned above who were not even known of during the WC and HSCA investigations. This one is not just for the 'buffs'. I hope Brad Ayers finds some solace in seeing his dream come true.

I was one of the people involved (at the very end stages) with this book. I had a short while to look at it (in all its minuscule type-face) for the publisher as it was being prepared for print. I'm truly delighted that it has made its way into the big, wide world and appears to be doing so well. However, I would like to share what little inside information I have about the book and its intentions. I read that some are disapointed with the conspiracy theory element to the book. If I remember correctly, the author wasn't really focusing on providing a conspiracy theory account exactly. This is the story of one man's inadvertent involvement in a much larger and complex set of circumstances. It's a memoir on the surface, which is why he describes the breakdown of his marriage, his girlfriends, etc. If you read between the lines, though, you realize that he was witnessing history and this book is his heartfelt effort to recount what it was he experienced as a CIA insider.

If you're looking for a down-and-out conspiracy theory text, then you may or may not like this book. But if you take this book as you find it, without having too many preconceived notions about what secrets it should be giving away, you will probably really enjoy it!

Captain Ayers is the primary researcher of the life and career of career CIA rambo David Morales. This alone makes The Zenith Secret a must read for anyone interested in understanding how the American republic was put to sleep in the postwar era by its patriots. The evidence re complicity of Senator Barry Goldwater is clearly presented; one may draw one's own conclusions. Googling "newcombat" and "bradley e. ayers" leads to a discussion of the book in the context of the current debate as to whether Morales and another CIA officer whom Ayers knew well -- Gordon Campbell -- were present in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the evening that Robert Kennedy was murdered.

I am 2/3's the way thru Bradley Ayers' excellent book, "The Zenith Secret". Interesting in itself, its 2006 edition by VoxPop (voxpopnet.net) using a mainland Chinese book publishing company (probably cost-effective). A sign of the future for independent book publishing in America?

Bradley happened to be in a unique and pivotal point of the secret history that took place in the USA in the early to late 1960's, and his observations on the assassinations of the Kennedys and MLK was on the mark. His backgound as an Army officer and CIA operative in that period makes his viewpoints all the more believeable.

The book is well-written. He states that US commissioned officers in the Army are prohibited from keeping a diary, but he seems to have organized those events in detail that makes it apparent he has a outstanding memory or he perhaps secretly kept some his notes away from the authorities, for future reference.

This is perhaps explained in the paragraph on page 158:

"...Because I had nothing to work from, to reconstruct my account, it had to come from memory correlated to work with my accumulation of routine records, receipts, flight logs, letters and other personal documents that would helpt pin down times, places, people and events."

In any event, he has done a great service to the people of the US for his history of a dark age in our country. I rank his contributions in the JFK assassination genre right there on the level of what Col. Prouty has done, and I would not be surprised if the dear Colonel could have agreed with me on this assessment.

[...]

Not much new for the JFK assassination buff and not the place to begin for the assassination beginner. Fills in a few details about one player in the story so worth the read for that. Also, since Ayers recently died, it might be interesting to see how the assassination affected his life (and death?).

This book is written in fine print which means that reading the book is like reading only the "legal notices" or disclaimers on a website. So if your eyesight isn't 20/20, forget it.
The info on the secret war against Cuba is good, but the idea of who killed the Kennedy bros. lack any kind of evidence.
I'm quite disappointed with this book.

The Zenith Secret is a great book because it sheds a lot of light on the real powers that be in America. There is a secret US government, people who use our tax money to fund covert criminal operations in our name. From first-hand experience, Ayers reveals a new Senator Goldwater connection to the JFK murder and a new CIA connection to the RFK murder, and he skillfully recaps the political mood of the 60s that led to their assassinations. Why on earth would the CIA want to kill the Kennedys? For starters, lots of reasons--Cuba, Vietnam, organized crime, power.

The Zenith Secret is very well-written and engaging throughout. It is clear that the author poured much of his soul into this important project. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the CIA or the brutal hits on President Kennedy and his soon-to-be president brother. The typeface is unusually small, but I did not have trouble reading the print myself.

The stunning events described in this book took place within the last half-century. We have no evidence that President Eisenhower's warning is any less relevant now than when he gave it in 1961: "...we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence...by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist....We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals..."