Curiously, the evidence that Oswald collaborated with Customs is stronger than with any other agency. Cuban exile Orestes Pena testified that he saw
Oswald chatting on a regular basis with FBI Cuban specialist Warren de Brueys,
David Smith at Customs, and Wendell Roache at INS. Pena told the Church
Committee that Oswald was employed by Customs. Informant
Joseph Oster went farther, saying that Oswald's handler was David Smith at Customs. Church Committee
staff members knew that David Smith "was involved in CIA
operations". Orestes Pena's handler Warren
DeBrueys admitted he knew David Smith. Oswald was also frequently seen with Juan Valdes, who described himself as a
"customs house broker". [30]
1959 passport description of Oswald as "shipping export agent" by House Select Committee on Assassinations
During January 1961, two FDC members named Joseph Moore and a man named "Oswald" went to a Ford outlet and requested the purchase of ten trucks to send to
the Cuban exiles. Lee Oswald could not
have been involved, as it was well-known that he had defected to the USSR. The use of
Oswald's name was probably a convenient device that was considered useful if there was a need to "dirty" him up in the future.
Banister was preparing the Oswald legend for bigger operations in the future
While Miami had the most important CRC
office in the USA, New Orleans was number 2 in the hierarchy. CRC members frequented Banister's building
at Lafayette and Camp, even though their lease had run out and the US government had cut off
their funding. Known as the Newman Building, it has also been described as the Cuban Grand Central Station.
Oswald met some of the anti-Castro CRC members in New Orleans that summer. He introduced himself to CRC public relations man Arnesto Rodriguez (FBI informant NO 1213-S) about the beginning of August 1963, and asked him if he would teach him Spanish. Oswald got into an argument at the courthouse with CRC delegate/FBI informant Frank Bartes. By September 1963, Arnesto denied meeting Oswald even though his mother later told the FBI that he had taped a conversation with Oswald during August. Bartes took the same approach as Arnesto during that month, denying any knowledge of Oswald. Oswald also met CRC activist Carlos Quiroga (FBI informant NO T-5) - as we will see, Quiroga visited Oswald at his home trying to size up just who he was.
Banister was polishing Oswald's legend as an FPCC activist to prepare him to take the public stage and go on to perform missions at larger venues. Some have speculated that Banister was playing a game to insert Oswald inside an assassination team. Although it is tempting to think of the ultra-right wing ex-FBI agent Bannister as an assassination mastermind, what mastermind would use an assassin with a media trail that would lead right back to one's own doorstep?I suggest that Banister was like a Triple A baseball manager training his player for the big leagues. Oswald was about to become an ostensible player in a FBI-CIA operation in Mexico City to smear the FPCC.
Banister
was good
at this kind of thing -- he had people such as his associate Don Campbell
and staffer Tommy Baumler working to infiltrate left-wing college
groups. [31] Someone had to spy on the New Orleans Council for Peaceful Alternatives, who invited troublemakers like Father Phil Berrigan to speak on the immorality of nuclear weapons.
In May, Oswald started off by leaving FPCC fliers at the Tulane Library, a good way to flush out pro-Castro types that might try to infiltrate anti-communist groups. [32] In June, he was leafleting sailors at the USS Wasp. Using the waterfront was second nature for an ex-Marine like Oswald. No surprise that FPCC agitation at the harbor resulted in the circulation of the Oswald legend throughout military intelligence.
The DRE had been thoroughly penetrated by Carlos Bringuier's relative Jorge, and was considered totally insecure by the CIA
The DRE took the CIA's money but were difficult to work with. This
group was young, motivated, and very dangerous.
In August 1962, they shelled government buildings in Havana and then bragged about
it, while Castro was infuriated at this latest act of terrorism and attempted assassination. They attracted the attention of the Cuban's government's DGI. The role of the DGI in Cuba was to penetrate
counter-revolutionary organizations. Counterintelligence analyst Ray
Rocca made it very clear years later that he agreed that the DRE was heavily infiltrated by Cuban government DGI agents by 1962.
Several CIA officers had also concluded that the DRE was totally insecure. Officer Calvin Thomas was concerned that the DRE
might have
even played a role in killing Kennedy.
Jorge Bringuier was the brother-in-law of New Orleans
DRE leader Carlos Bringuier. (While DRE official Juan Salvat describes him as nephew, Carlos says brother-in-law.) Jorge Bringuier disgraced the family by
becoming a Castro agent and betraying the Cuban wing of the DRE. After he became national coordinator in Cuba in 1962, just about all of the Cuban DRE members were arrested. There's a contemporaneous memo about this betrayal in early 1963. Jorge was pitched to defect on 12/6/63, and he sent a telegram to his mother on 12/13 saying that he was "out" and with the Americans. Jorge was a CIA agent by 1968.
In late July, ten Cuban exiles traveled from Miami to New Orleans and joined an anti-Castro training camp north of New Orleans. This training camp was on the land of Michael McLaney, a friend of "gamblers in Cuba", and the new arrivals at the camp had obtained some dynamite and were planning to bomb Cuban oil refineries. The leader of the dynamite procurement was Victor Espinosa Hernandez. Espinosa's group asked New Orleans DRE leader Carlos Bringuier to assist them. Bringuier had worked for some time in the same building as Banister, serving as the press and propaganda secretary of the aforementioned CRC.
On July 31, the FBI swooped
into a home in the New Orleans area and seized a ton of dynamite, bomb casings,
napalm material and other devices. Eleven
people were arrested.
Bringuier escaped arrest. Why? It looks like US intelligence
forces wanted a more subtle approach to test Bringuier's loyalties.
Oswald Came to Center Stage After the Arms Seizure As An Asset
This arms seizure by the FBI triggered Oswald to go public, who had been working with Banister doing some quiet leafleting on behalf of the FPCC. At a minimum, Oswald was being used as an asset, defined by the House Select Committe on Assassinations as "anyone used in an operation or project, whether or not that (person) is aware that he is being used". The CIA referred to a person who did not know that he had done anything to help the CIA as an "unwilling co-optee". Whether he knew it or not, Oswald was being used as a counter-intelligence asset.
