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JFK Book Reviews - JFK : The Cuba Files · The Lone Gunman Podcast : JFK Assassination

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  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome in What's Up? Everybody. Welcome to JFK
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  Speaker 1: Book Reviews, a division of the Lone Gum and podcast.
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  Speaker 1: I Am Rob Clark aka Big Bad Bob. Today somewhat
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  Speaker 1: on par topic wise with what we've been discussing on
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  Speaker 1: the show recently, is the book JFK The Cuba Files,
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  Speaker 1: The Untold Story of the Plot to Kill Kennedy by
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  Speaker 1: Fabian Escalante. And this book is part of the Secret
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  Speaker 1: War series. Uh. He has several books in this series
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  Speaker 1: concerning Cuban the assassination, but this one in particular, I'm
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  Speaker 1: particularly fond of. It's not very thick. There's about one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and ninety nine pages in it, with about seventy
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  Speaker 1: pages of appendices, if you will. This book was published
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  Speaker 1: in two thousand and six, and I believe it was
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  Speaker 1: by Ocean Press Publishing. And for those of you all
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  Speaker 1: not familiar with Fabian Escalante, he was He's a he
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  Speaker 1: was a Fidel Castro supporter and and he joined the
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  Speaker 1: Department of State Security aka the G two, which is
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  Speaker 1: like the Cuban equivalent of the CIA, in nineteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: at the age of nineteen now, so he would have
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  Speaker 1: been twenty two when the assassination of John Kennedy happened,
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  Speaker 1: and at that time he was the head of the
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  Speaker 1: counterintelligence unit and was part of a team investigating a
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  Speaker 1: CIA operation and called the Sentinels of Liberty, which was
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  Speaker 1: a program attempt attempting to recruit Cubans willing to work
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  Speaker 1: against Castro aka Orlando Cubella. It was during this time
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  Speaker 1: that one of G two's agents, Juan Canahan, had infiltrated
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  Speaker 1: the anti Castro movement and was very close to Manuel Artemye.
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  Speaker 1: He provided important information to the G two, including the
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  Speaker 1: fact that David Sanchez Morales appeared to be working very
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  Speaker 1: closely with Cubella. In nineteen seventy six, he was appointed
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  Speaker 1: the head of the Department of State Security. Later that year,
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  Speaker 1: members of the US House of Representative Select Committee, the HSCA,
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  Speaker 1: visited Cuba and requested help with investigating the assassination of
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  Speaker 1: John Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Escalante was asked to
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  Speaker 1: oversee this investigation and work with the HSCA. This involved
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  Speaker 1: studying the files of revolutionaries, terrorists, and emmigraves. The final
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  Speaker 1: report was sent to the House Select Committee on Assassinations. However,
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  Speaker 1: it contained information that the HSCA did not want to hear, allegedly,
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  Speaker 1: and it has never been published, which is a problem.
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  Speaker 1: So Tony Seuesta was in a Cuban prison until nineteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy eight, when Jimmy Carter arranged for a group of
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  Speaker 1: exiles to be released. A member of his team, Hermioneo
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  Speaker 1: Diez Garcia, was killed during the raid in nineteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: six that landed him in a Cuban prison for twelve years. Susta,
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  Speaker 1: who always vowed that Castro would never take him alive,
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  Speaker 1: had attempted suicide by cutting off by setting off a
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  Speaker 1: grenade which blinded him and blew off his right hand.
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  Speaker 1: Just before leaving Cuba, Seusta asked to see Fabian Escalante.
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  Speaker 1: Suesta told Escalante that he had been involved in the
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  Speaker 1: assassination of JFK. He also named two other people as
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  Speaker 1: being part of the conspiracy and they are Hermioneo Diez
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  Speaker 1: Garcia and Eladio de Valier. Now, for those of you
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  Speaker 1: are remembering, Davalier was found killed with an axe in
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  Speaker 1: a car the same day David Ferry died in New Orleans,
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  Speaker 1: and David Ferry was friends with the Latio de Valier.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, they allegedly ran a bunch of missions into
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  Speaker 1: Cuba together on David Faerry's plane, so that's interesting. In
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two, Escalante became a senior official in the
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  Speaker 1: Interior Ministry, and by this time Escalante was considered to
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  Speaker 1: be Cuba's leading authority on the history of the CIA
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  Speaker 1: activities against his country. Escalante became head of the Cuban
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  Speaker 1: Security Study Center in nineteen ninety three, and this allowed
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  Speaker 1: him time to re examine the assassination of JFK. He
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  Speaker 1: points out, along with Colonel Arturo Rodriguez Mendozo, I studied
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  Speaker 1: all the available material and publications, consulted with former agents
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  Speaker 1: and operatives, and investigated all the accessible documents. In a
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  Speaker 1: Cuban television documentary broadcast on November twenty six, Escalante named
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  Speaker 1: the gunman who killed JFK as three Chicago mobsters named
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  Speaker 1: Lenny Patrick, Dave Yaris, and Richard Kane, and two Cuban
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  Speaker 1: exiles of course, Harmonio Diez Garcia and Aladio de Valier,
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  Speaker 1: but said that many in the CIA and elsewhere knew
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  Speaker 1: what was going to happen in nineteen ninety five. If
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  Speaker 1: he took part in a conference a JFK conference in
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  Speaker 1: the Nassau Bahamash. Such notables in attendance were Gayton, Phonsie, Dick,
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  Speaker 1: Russell nol Twyman, Anthony Summers, Peter Dale, Scott, John Newman,
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  Speaker 1: Jeremy Gunn, John Judge, Andy Colis, Peter Cornblu Maryon, ray
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  Speaker 1: La Fontaine, Jim Lazar, Russ swickerd Ed Sherry, and Gordon Winslow.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's like the swinging this Dix of the
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  Speaker 1: swinging dicks. That's a lineup. Some other high level Cuban
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  Speaker 1: officials also attended the conference, including Carlos Lachuga, a former
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  Speaker 1: Cuban diplomat, and Arturo Rodriguez, a state security official. It
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  Speaker 1: was there that Escalante revealed the details of Sweta's confession,
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  Speaker 1: and he also informed the group that he had that
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  Speaker 1: they had a spy the anti Castro community in Miami
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  Speaker 1: and knew ahead of time of the plot to kill Kennedy.
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  Speaker 1: Let me read that to you one more time. He
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  Speaker 1: also informed the group that they had a spy in
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  Speaker 1: the anti Castro Cuban exile community in Miami and knew
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  Speaker 1: about the plot to kill Kennedy.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I.
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  Speaker 1: Mean, but back to the book. I mean, and look,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. This guy was in Castro's government for
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  Speaker 1: over thirty years, a very highly trusted member of Castro's
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  Speaker 1: government and their intelligence apparatus. So the question, of course becomes,
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  Speaker 1: can we trust this guy or is he feeding his
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  Speaker 1: Cuban propaganda? I don't know. That's a good question. I
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  Speaker 1: think the answer, of course, lies in this book. And
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  Speaker 1: I think if he was doing some disinformation or propaganda
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  Speaker 1: for on the behalf of Castro and Cuba, then he
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  Speaker 1: probably wouldn't point the finger at so many Cubans. But
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  Speaker 1: then again, maybe he would. I mean, these are all
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  Speaker 1: anti Castro Cuban exiles, but who knows? Who knows? And
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  Speaker 1: what's interesting in the book is in the very last
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  Speaker 1: appendices or appendix he lists the name. He lists one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty eight Cuban exiles that he personally investigated
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  Speaker 1: in relation to the Kennedy assassination, and he names them all.
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  Speaker 1: And the Odios are on there, in fact, the whole
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  Speaker 1: goddamn Odio family, every member. And there's one name that
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  Speaker 1: jumped out to me of a person that I didn't
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  Speaker 1: know was Cuban, And I bet you didn't either. You
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  Speaker 1: ready for this.
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  Speaker 3: One, Julia Postal, Yeah, that's right, the chick that was
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  Speaker 3: selling tickets at the Texas Theater.
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  Speaker 1: When Oswald went there. That is a mind bender, folks. Interesting,
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  Speaker 1: very very interesting. Also in this book he makes some
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  Speaker 1: stunning accusations, one of which is this. So check this out.
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  Speaker 1: So they're talking about Carlos Kiroga, right, Brignia's buddy, right, Well,
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  Speaker 1: for his part, and I quote Carlos Brignier instructed fellow
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  Speaker 1: Cuban exile, Carlos Kiroga to visit Oswald and find out
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  Speaker 1: more about his activities, which we know Kiroga was a
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  Speaker 1: member of the DRE, which we didn't know. We knew
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  Speaker 1: he was a former member of the CRC, the Cuban
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  Speaker 1: Revolutionary Council, But Fabian Escalante is telling us here Caroga
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  Speaker 1: was a member of the DRE, and according to Cuban files,
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  Speaker 1: belonged to that organization's intelligence section. And I mean, I
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  Speaker 1: think you could probably trust Cuban intelligence to know, uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know what organizations that these Cuban exiles were a
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  Speaker 1: part of, especially one that they'd infiltrated in Miami, more
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  Speaker 1: than likely the DRE. And yes, there are some high
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  Speaker 1: up DRE members that were investigated as part of the
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  Speaker 1: number one hundred sixty eight, including Salvat and Rocca and others. So,
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  Speaker 1: and this book, what I like about it is the
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  Speaker 1: chapters are very short. I mean we're talking like two
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  Speaker 1: three four page chapters. So there's not a lot of
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  Speaker 1: fluff and bullshit in this book. Everything gets right to
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  Speaker 1: the point. The problem again with this book is I
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  Speaker 1: don't know how much we can trust it. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I'm assuming that Castro did not approve of him being
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  Speaker 1: at this JFK assassination conference and dropping all of this
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  Speaker 1: information with researchers and writing these books. So my guess
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  Speaker 1: is at some point after he finished his service and
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  Speaker 1: he finished his investigation, he probably somehow got out of
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  Speaker 1: Cuba and made his way stateside. And whether or not
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  Speaker 1: he's still alive, I don't know. He would be in
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  Speaker 1: his late eighties at this point, but probably a really
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  Speaker 1: interesting guy to talk to. Yeah, it's crazy, But back
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  Speaker 1: to the book. I just want to say that I
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  Speaker 1: really enjoyed this book. As I said, there's no fluffing bullshit.
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  Speaker 1: It's whittled down to one hundred and ninety nine readable pages,
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  Speaker 1: the chapters are very short. Everything comes across very matter
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  Speaker 1: of factly. I believe it was. Of course, he is author,
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  Speaker 1: but he also had a translator and writer, like a ghostwriter,
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  Speaker 1: if you will. So it's very interesting, very interesting. And
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  Speaker 1: there's also parts in this book that go back and
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  Speaker 1: take a look at the whole Mexico incident and the
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  Speaker 1: Cuban consulate. And one of his friends was Pavel who
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  Speaker 1: worked in the Russian consulate, who dealt with Oswald. And
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot of interesting takes in this book, I'll
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  Speaker 1: give it that. And he also goes into the audio
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  Speaker 1: incident and who that could have possibly been. Was it
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  Speaker 1: Tony Seesta and Ladio d Valier, I don't know. Was
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  Speaker 1: it Eladio d Valier and Hermioneo Dias Garcia or Hermionio
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  Speaker 1: Garcia Dias I don't know. But it's very interesting because
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  Speaker 1: if you follow the plot synopsis of why this could
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  Speaker 1: have unfolded the way that it did. And I believe
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  Speaker 1: he takes the stance in the book that Oswald was
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  Speaker 1: meant to be a longtime plant, that all of this
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  Speaker 1: seemingly Russian grooming, you know, him learning the Russian language
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  Speaker 1: and the Marines and going to Russia and supposedly, you know,
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  Speaker 1: trying to denounce the citizenship and meeting Marina, marrying her,
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  Speaker 1: I can her up, and then coming back and then
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  Speaker 1: doing the whole Procastro thing was seemingly part of a
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  Speaker 1: long con in order to implicate Cuba in the eventual
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  Speaker 1: assassination of Kennedy, whereas they would be able to implicate
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  Speaker 1: Oswald being a Procastro supporter and then Castro by association.
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  Speaker 1: Because think for a minute, what would have happened had
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  Speaker 1: Oswald been granted his Cuban visa to travel there. He said,
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  Speaker 1: you know in the book that the plan will for
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  Speaker 1: him to be in Cuba two or three weeks and
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  Speaker 1: then proceed to Russia. But we don't know what would
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  Speaker 1: have happened had Oswald actually made it to Cuba. Like
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  Speaker 1: you know, he was really worried about his bona fides.
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  Speaker 1: You know, he brought everything with him to the Cuban
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  Speaker 1: consulate that proved that he was who he said he was,
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  Speaker 1: and that he was involved in what he said he
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  Speaker 1: was involved in, and he was really pro Castro, really
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  Speaker 1: part of the Communist Party of the United States, part
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  Speaker 1: of fireplace for Cuba. Committee, excuse me that he lived
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  Speaker 1: in Russia for three years, had a Russian wife. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: what would have happened if they would have let him
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  Speaker 1: in to Cuba. It's crazy to think about. But again,
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  Speaker 1: at that time, you know, if you're traveling from Cuba
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  Speaker 1: to Russia, you know, the Russians had to approve his
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  Speaker 1: his travel visa. That's something that the Cubans couldn't do
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  Speaker 1: on their own. And of course, you know, I was
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  Speaker 1: always told it's going to take you know, four to
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  Speaker 1: six months possibly to you know, run this up the
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  Speaker 1: flagpole to Moscow and then hear a word back and
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  Speaker 1: then we got to let you know, and then figure
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  Speaker 1: out a when and all of that. But it's crazy.
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  Speaker 1: It's certainly crazy. But so let's see reading this book
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  Speaker 1: for what it is and how it is, but with
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  Speaker 1: the slight reservation that it could all be Castro propaganda
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  Speaker 1: at its finest. I don't know. And there is a
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  Speaker 1: grander underlying theory here that I'm not going to ruin
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  Speaker 1: in the book review. But if you're looking for a
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  Speaker 1: good quick read with a lot of ideas that you've
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  Speaker 1: probably never taken into consideration before, or some of the
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  Speaker 1: players involved that you haven't really taken into consideration before.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, if you think that we can take
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  Speaker 1: this book at face value and hope that Fabian Escalante
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  Speaker 1: is telling the truth about things, because certainly, from his
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  Speaker 1: thirty plus year career in Soviet or I'm sorry, Cuban
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  Speaker 1: intelligence for Castro, that he would have been privy to
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  Speaker 1: a lot of information, a lot, a lot of very
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  Speaker 1: interesting information. So and there is a lot of interesting
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  Speaker 1: information contained in this book, a lot of food for thought,
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  Speaker 1: if you will. So with that being said, folks, I
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  Speaker 1: am going to give this book a solid eight eight
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  Speaker 1: guns up. It's not bad, it's not the greatest. It's
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  Speaker 1: different and interesting, which I like. And the subject matter,
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  Speaker 1: the source, it's all very unique. You know, It's not
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  Speaker 1: some It's not coming from you know, some white guy,
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  Speaker 1: you know, trying to figure this out and lay blame
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  Speaker 1: back at the defeat of Fidel Castro. But for this
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  Speaker 1: to be coming from somebody of this caliber who was
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  Speaker 1: entrenched in the higher up, I mean, this would be like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the equivalent of a you know, Howard Hunt,
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  Speaker 1: e Howard Hunt or David Atley Phillips writing a book,
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  Speaker 1: a non fiction book about the assassination and letting some
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  Speaker 1: secrets out. So again, but you know, if those guys
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  Speaker 1: did that, can we trust them to tell the truth?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. So again, this guy's veracity is up
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  Speaker 1: in the air. But you know, if you land on
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  Speaker 1: the side this guy is credible for whatever reason, then
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  Speaker 1: there is a lot of food for thought in this book.
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  Speaker 1: So eight out of ten guns up for the JFK
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  Speaker 1: The Cuba Files by Fabian Escalante. And if you enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: that book review, that I implore you, in fact, I invite
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  Speaker 1: you to check out our podcast that we do every
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  Speaker 1: Friday night here live on YouTube at seven pm Eastern
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: and Wednesday seven pm Eastern every week here for our
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: channel members. We've been on a roll here lately. We've
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  Speaker 1: done some great shows, gotten some great feedback, and we're
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  Speaker 1: coming up on our four hundredth episode. So we've been
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  Speaker 1: around for a while while we know what we're talking about,
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  Speaker 1: so you should listen. So until next time, we'll see
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  Speaker 1: you on the flip side. Peace.