JFK Assassination Forum
JFK Assassination Discussion & Debate => JFK Assassination Discussion & Debate => Topic started by: Jon Banks on October 29, 2021, 04:59:39 PM
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Miami Herald:
Cuban exile told sons he trained Oswald, JFK’s accused assassin, at a secret CIA camp
Almost 40 years after his death following a bar brawl in Key Biscayne, Ricardo Morales, known as “Monkey” — contract CIA worker, anti-Castro militant, counter-intelligence chief for Venezuela, FBI informant and drug dealer — returned to the spotlight Thursday morning when one of his sons made a startling claim on Spanish-language radio: Morales, a sniper instructor in the early 1960s in secret camps where Cuban exiles and others trained to invade Cuba, realized in the hours after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963 that the accused killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, had been one of his sniper trainees. Morales also told his two sons that two days before the assassination, his CIA handler told him and his “clean-up” team to go to Dallas for a mission. But after the tragic events, they were ordered to go back to Miami without learning what the mission was about.
“My brother asked ‘Who killed John F. Kennedy?’ and his answer was, ‘I didn’t do it but I was in Dallas two days before waiting for orders. We were the cleaning crew just in case something bad had to be done.’ After the assassination, they did not have to do anything and returned to Miami,” his son said on the radio show. Morales Jr. said his father told them he did not know of the plans to assassinate Kennedy. “He knew Kennedy was coming to Dallas, so he imagines something is going to happen, but he doesn’t know the plan,” he said. “In these kinds of conspiracies and these big things, nobody knows what the other is doing.” Morales also knew Oswald, his son claims. “When my old man was training in a CIA camp — he did not tell me where — he was helping to train snipers: other Cubans, Latin Americans, and there were a few Americans,” he said. “When he saw the photo of Lee Harvey Oswald [after the assassination] he realized that this was the same character he had seen on the CIA training field. He saw him, he saw the name tag, but he did not know him because he was not famous yet, but later when my father sees him he realizes that he is the same person.”
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article255356661.html#storylink=cpy
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Birds of a feather? ---->
https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/David_Morales_-_We_Took_Care_of_That_SOB.html (https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/David_Morales_-_We_Took_Care_of_That_SOB.html)
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Miami Herald:
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article255356661.html#storylink=cpy
So, do we know when and where this allegedly took place?
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So, do we know when and where this allegedly took place?
His son says he doesn’t know where the camp was.
We don’t know if Oswald ever visited the Miami area but Louisiana had some anti-Castro related training camps too.
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His son says he doesn’t know where the camp was.
We don’t know if Oswald ever visited the Miami area but Louisiana had some anti-Castro related training camps too.
I didn’t expect that there was anything except ambiguous allegations allegedly made by someone who is no longer alive. Yawn…
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I didn’t expect that there was anything except ambiguous allegations allegedly made by someone who is no longer alive. Yawn…
A common problem with most of these reports of people who claim to have knowledge of a conspiracy to kill JFK.
It sounds plausible given that the CIA is still cagey about what they were doing in New Orleans in 1963 and how much they knew about Oswald before the assassination but at this point there's no way to verify the claim.
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Redacted JFK Files Show Ricardo ‘Monkey’ Morales Was a Trusted CIA Operative and FBI Informant
Ricardo Morales, the Miami man who told his son he met accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in a CIA training camp, was considered a credible source by the Agency and FBI. His heavily-redacted 130-page CIA personnel file, among the JFK assassination records whose release was postponed by the White House on October 22.
While the details of the story told by his son Ricardo Jr. on a Miami radio station this week have not been corroborated, the declassified portions of CIA files show that Morales, nicknamed Mono, Spanish for monkey) provided reams of information about the personnel and operations of the Cuban intelligence services. Approved for sabotage missions in March 1964 under the code name AMDESK-1, Morales was paid $200 a month. He reported on an infiltration operation run by a group called the Movimiento Democratic Cristiano (MDC) in June 1964 but was never used on any mission by the CIA station in Miami. He was terminated as a CIA agent in September 1964 for a “security violation.”
Morales and Angleton
Morales, however, was immediately re-recruited for another secret mission in Congo run by the Agency’s Special Operations Division (SOD). Within three weeks he was approved for CIA counterintelligence activities, indicating he was known to James Angleton, the Agency’s top counterspy.
The CIA memos about the operation, code named WIPEGASUS, are among the redacted files whose release the White House postponed on October 22. The purpose of the PEGASUS operation is not known. The redacted memos can be found on the web site of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, which houses the largest online collection of JFK assassination records.
Morales and Oswald
In his appearance on Miami’s Actualidad Radio 1040 AM, Ricardo Morales, Jr. recounted his father telling him two stories.
Morales said he was ordered on a CIA mission in Dallas shortly before November 22, 1963, whose purpose was unknown. Morales Sr. did not identify the case officer who allegedly sent him on this mission. The available record shows Morales had a CIA handler, code named “Alexander Ratwick,” but not until 1964.
Morales also told his son that he met Oswald in a CIA training camp. He didn’t tell his son when or where. There was a training camp near New Orleans where Oswald lived in 1963, that was run by an anti-Castro group called the Movimiento Democratico Cristiano (MDC). Morales is known to have informed the CIA about MDC activities in 1964.
When Morales’s anti-Castro compatriots bombed a Polish ship and other communist targets in 1968, his fingerprints were found at one of the bombing scenes. The FBI received testimony that the explosives came from the CIA. Morales then became a witness for U.S. prosecutors. He wore a wire for the FBI while meeting with other Cuban suspects in the case. In a 1972 memo, the chief of the Agency’s Western Hemisphere division said the FBI considered Morales “honest and objective” as an informant.
Morales’s career as terrorist and informant grew ever more complex, as detailed in a mind-bending (and paywalled) Harper’s magazine cover story in January 1982. Morales was shot to death in a MIami bar in December 1982.
https://jfkfacts.org/redacted-jfk-files-show-ricardo-monkey-morales-was-a-trusted-cia-operative-and-fbi-informant/
Interesting stuff
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From the article linked to in the original post:
The “Monkey,” a former intelligence agent for the Castro government in the early days of the revolution, later worked for or collaborated with the CIA, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Israel’s Mossad and Venezuela’s DISIP intelligence agency during the 1960s and ‘70s. According to CIA documents declassified in 2017, Morales was terminated as a CIA contract worker in 1964 after a mission in the Congo because he was “’too wise’ and not too clever for own good.”
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article255356661.html#storylink=cpy
This guy worked for Castro? Now it does start to get interesting…
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From the article linked to in the original post:
The “Monkey,” a former intelligence agent for the Castro government in the early days of the revolution, later worked for or collaborated with the CIA, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Israel’s Mossad and Venezuela’s DISIP intelligence agency during the 1960s and ‘70s. According to CIA documents declassified in 2017, Morales was terminated as a CIA contract worker in 1964 after a mission in the Congo because he was “’too wise’ and not too clever for own good.”
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article255356661.html#storylink=cpy
This guy worked for Castro? Now it does start to get interesting…
Not sure about the Castro stuff.
Morales worked for the CIA and FBI through the 1970s. Some files on him are still classified.
https://jfkfacts.org/redacted-jfk-files-show-ricardo-monkey-morales-was-a-trusted-cia-operative-and-fbi-informant/
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Not sure about the Castro stuff.
Morales worked for the CIA and FBI through the 1970s. Some files on him are still classified.
https://jfkfacts.org/redacted-jfk-files-show-ricardo-monkey-morales-was-a-trusted-cia-operative-and-fbi-informant/
Not sure about the Castro stuff.
Castro’s intelligence agency had reportedly infiltrated the CIA at that point in time with double agent(s). (Of course they were assisted by the Soviets.) I searched four books on Castro that I have in the Kindle format, but found no reference to the name Morales. Of course names are often changed for espionage purposes.
Apparently Morales made a lot of claims about his activities. It’s hard to believe that he was involved with all of them. The Oswald “connection” might just be one of the claims that will never be confirmed. And it is possible that his son just made it up for the purposes of attention getting and the money from the TV production that he is supposedly pursuing.
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Not sure about the Castro stuff.
Castro’s intelligence agency had reportedly infiltrated the CIA at that point in time with double agent(s). (Of course they were assisted by the Soviets.) I searched four books on Castro that I have in the Kindle format, but found no reference to the name Morales. Of course names are often changed for espionage purposes.
Many Cuban exiles supported Castro before he went full communist. He wouldn't be the first to switch from supporting Castro to opposing him.
Morales has been implicated in anti-Cuba terror attacks and he confessed to involvement in many attacks on Cuba. Hard to believe he would be connected to violent attacks on Cuba if he were a double-agent.
When Morales’s anti-Castro compatriots bombed a Polish ship and other communist targets in 1968, his fingerprints were found at one of the bombing scenes. The FBI received testimony that the explosives came from the CIA. Morales then became a witness for U.S. prosecutors. He wore a wire for the FBI while meeting with other Cuban suspects in the case. In a 1972 memo, the chief of the Agency’s Western Hemisphere division said the FBI considered Morales “honest and objective” as an informant.
So he was violent and likely a contract killer but also a US intelligence asset.
Apparently Morales made a lot of claims about his activities. It’s hard to believe that he was involved with all of them. The Oswald “connection” might just be one of the claims that will never be confirmed. And it is possible that his son just made it up for the purposes of attention getting and the money from the TV production that he is supposedly pursuing.
Morales' son seems pretty credible and his relationships with the FBI and CIA have been confirmed.
That doesn't mean Morales told his son the truth of course but it's at least plausible that he had some knowledge of the JFK assassination plot.
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Many Cuban exiles supported Castro before he went full communist. He wouldn't be the first to switch from supporting Castro to opposing him.
Morales has been implicated in anti-Cuba terror attacks and he confessed to involvement in many attacks on Cuba. Hard to believe he would be connected to violent attacks on Cuba if he were a double-agent.
When Morales’s anti-Castro compatriots bombed a Polish ship and other communist targets in 1968, his fingerprints were found at one of the bombing scenes. The FBI received testimony that the explosives came from the CIA. Morales then became a witness for U.S. prosecutors. He wore a wire for the FBI while meeting with other Cuban suspects in the case. In a 1972 memo, the chief of the Agency’s Western Hemisphere division said the FBI considered Morales “honest and objective” as an informant.
So he was violent and likely a contract killer but also a US intelligence asset.
Morales' son seems pretty credible and his relationships with the FBI and CIA have been confirmed.
That doesn't mean Morales told his son the truth of course but it's at least plausible that he had some knowledge of the JFK assassination plot.
Hard to believe he would be connected to violent attacks on Cuba if he were a double-agent.
Not really that hard to believe, considering how many reported assassination attempts on Castro failed and how many of the attackers ended up getting caught and imprisoned in Cuba. And the lack of success that the attacks had on the ultimate goal of displacing the regime. Morales may or may not have been one. But there apparently were some double agents who warned the Cuban intelligence folks ahead of time about some of the attacks.
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Hard to believe he would be connected to violent attacks on Cuba if he were a double-agent.
Not really that hard to believe, considering how many reported assassination attempts on Castro failed and how many of the attackers ended up getting caught and imprisoned in Cuba. And the lack of success that the attacks had on the ultimate goal of displacing the regime. Morales may or may not have been one. But there apparently were some double agents who warned the Cuban intelligence folks ahead of time about some of the attacks.
There absolutely were Cuban spies infiltrating the Cuban Exile community in the US. Even as recently as the 1990s.
I just don’t find it convincing that a guy who participated in one of the worst terror attacks ever against Cuba, could be viewed as having loyalties with Cuba.
From the Herald article:
Morales claimed to have been involved in almost every major plot to overthrow Fidel Castro, and he confessed to having a hand in more than 15 bombings. After his death, he was even linked to a plot to kill Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1976, the Herald reported in 1991.
In a pretrial deposition related to a drug investigation case in which he was an informant, Morales confessed to being one of the people behind the mid-air bombing of a Cubana Airlines jetliner in Barbados in 1976, killing all 73 aboard.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article255356661.html
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There absolutely were Cuban spies infiltrating the Cuban Exile community in the US. Even as recently as the 1990s.
I just don’t find it convincing that a guy who participated in one of the worst terror attacks ever against Cuba, could be viewed as having loyalties with Cuba.
From the Herald article:
Morales claimed to have been involved in almost every major plot to overthrow Fidel Castro, and he confessed to having a hand in more than 15 bombings. After his death, he was even linked to a plot to kill Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1976, the Herald reported in 1991.
In a pretrial deposition related to a drug investigation case in which he was an informant, Morales confessed to being one of the people behind the mid-air bombing of a Cubana Airlines jetliner in Barbados in 1976, killing all 73 aboard.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article255356661.html
So, why do you think a “loyal” CIA affiliate would (allegedly) be involved in a plot to kill Kissinger? :-X
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So, why do you think a “loyal” CIA affiliate would (allegedly) be involved in a plot to kill Kissinger? :-X
The same reason he might've been involved in a plot to kill JFK. Aside from his role as a government informant, he was a contract killer, terrorist, and drug trafficker.
It's not implausible that someone within the US national security state wanted to kill Kissinger or other US government officials. Or maybe the Cuban Exile community had beef with Kissinger over US-Cuba policy. They are the same domestic extremists who attempted to bomb the UN in New York City.
The Day Anti-Castro Forces Tried to Bomb the U.N.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/12/the-day-anti-castro-forces-tried-to-bomb-the-u-n/
Given that Morales informed the CIA on the Cuban Exile group, Movimiento Democratic Cristiano, a group that was active in New Orleans in the early-60s, it sounds like his son's story is at the very least, plausible:
Morales also told his son that he met Oswald in a CIA training camp. He didn’t tell his son when or where. There was a training camp near New Orleans where Oswald lived in 1963, that was run by an anti-Castro group called the Movimiento Democratico Cristiano (MDC). Morales is known to have reported on MDC activities in 1964.
https://jfkfacts.org/redacted-jfk-files-show-ricardo-monkey-morales-was-a-trusted-cia-operative-and-fbi-informant/
FWIW, parts of Morales' CIA files are still classified and we don't know exactly when his relationships with exile groups in New Orleans began. We can't say for certain that his relationship with the MDC overlapped with Oswald's time in New Orleans.
His heavily-redacted 130-page CIA personnel file, is found among the JFK assassination records whose release was postponed by the White House on October 22.
https://jfkfacts.org/redacted-jfk-files-show-ricardo-monkey-morales-was-a-trusted-cia-operative-and-fbi-informant/
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The same reason he might've been involved in a plot to kill JFK. Aside from his role as a government informant, he was a contract killer, terrorist, and drug trafficker.
It's not implausible that someone within the US national security state wanted to kill Kissinger or other US government officials. Or maybe the Cuban Exile community had beef with Kissinger over US-Cuba policy. They are the same domestic extremists who attempted to bomb the UN in New York City.
The Day Anti-Castro Forces Tried to Bomb the U.N.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/12/the-day-anti-castro-forces-tried-to-bomb-the-u-n/
Given that Morales informed the CIA on the Cuban Exile group, Movimiento Democratic Cristiano, a group that was active in New Orleans in the early-60s, it sounds like his son's story is at the very least, plausible:
Morales also told his son that he met Oswald in a CIA training camp. He didn’t tell his son when or where. There was a training camp near New Orleans where Oswald lived in 1963, that was run by an anti-Castro group called the Movimiento Democratico Cristiano (MDC). Morales is known to have reported on MDC activities in 1964.
https://jfkfacts.org/redacted-jfk-files-show-ricardo-monkey-morales-was-a-trusted-cia-operative-and-fbi-informant/
FWIW, parts of Morales' CIA files are still classified and we don't know exactly when his relationships with exile groups in New Orleans began. We can't say for certain that his relationship with the MDC overlapped with Oswald's time in New Orleans.
His heavily-redacted 130-page CIA personnel file, is found among the JFK assassination records whose release was postponed by the White House on October 22.
https://jfkfacts.org/redacted-jfk-files-show-ricardo-monkey-morales-was-a-trusted-cia-operative-and-fbi-informant/
It's not implausible that someone within the US national security state wanted to kill Kissinger or other US government officials. Or maybe the Cuban Exile community had beef with Kissinger over US-Cuba policy. They are the same domestic extremists who attempted to bomb the UN in New York City.
US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger drew up plans to "smash Cuba" with air strikes nearly 40 years ago, government papers obtained by researchers show.
He was angered by Cuba's 1976 military intervention in Angola and was considering retaliation if Cuban forces were deployed elsewhere in Africa.
The information comes from documents declassified at the request of the National Security Archive.
They show that Mr Kissinger was eager for the US to stand up to Cuba.
The documents from the Gerald R Ford Presidential Library show that US officials devised plans to attack ports and military installations in Cuba in addition to measures ordered by Mr Kissinger to deploy Marine battalions based at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay to "clobber" the Cubans.
https://www.bbc.com/news/29441281 (https://www.bbc.com/news/29441281)
So, you think that the anti-Castro Cubans might have had a beef with Kissinger? Really!!!?
Please explain the logic of this idea that you have…
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It's not implausible that someone within the US national security state wanted to kill Kissinger or other US government officials. Or maybe the Cuban Exile community had beef with Kissinger over US-Cuba policy. They are the same domestic extremists who attempted to bomb the UN in New York City.
US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger drew up plans to "smash Cuba" with air strikes nearly 40 years ago, government papers obtained by researchers show.
He was angered by Cuba's 1976 military intervention in Angola and was considering retaliation if Cuban forces were deployed elsewhere in Africa.
The information comes from documents declassified at the request of the National Security Archive.
They show that Mr Kissinger was eager for the US to stand up to Cuba.
The documents from the Gerald R Ford Presidential Library show that US officials devised plans to attack ports and military installations in Cuba in addition to measures ordered by Mr Kissinger to deploy Marine battalions based at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay to "clobber" the Cubans.
https://www.bbc.com/news/29441281 (https://www.bbc.com/news/29441281)
So, you think that the anti-Castro Cubans might have had a beef with Kissinger? Really!!!?
Please explain the logic of this idea that you have…
I’m just speculating on the Kissinger thing. I have no idea about plots to kill Kissinger or who would want him killed.
Only noting that the radical Cuban Exile movement in the US had a history of political violence and terrorism.
You seem to be implying that he was spreading disinfo for Castro. Maybe, but it seems unlikely that a spy loyal to Cuba would participate in terror attacks against Cubans.
For example, the Miami Cuban Spy ring broken up in the 1990s was formed in response to Cuban Exile terrorism and helped Cuba foil some attacks.
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-real-story-of-netflixs-wasp-network-who-were-the-cuban-five/
The known facts about Morales are enough to conclude that his son’s story has legs. Further investigation and declassification of his files is needed before we can rule out that he ever met Oswald…
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I’m just speculating on the Kissinger thing. I have no idea about plots to kill Kissinger or who would want him killed.
Only noting that the radical Cuban Exile movement in the US had a history of political violence and terrorism.
You seem to be implying that he was spreading disinfo for Castro. Maybe, but it seems unlikely that a spy loyal to Cuba would participate in terror attacks against Cubans.
For example, the Miami Cuban Spy ring broken up in the 1990s was formed in response to Cuban Exile terrorism and helped Cuba foil some attacks.
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-real-story-of-netflixs-wasp-network-who-were-the-cuban-five/
The known facts about Morales are enough to conclude that his son’s story has legs. Further investigation and declassification of his files is needed before we can rule out that he ever met Oswald…
Maybe, but it seems unlikely that a spy loyal to Cuba would participate in terror attacks against Cubans.
Hypothetically, a spy loyal to Castro who has gained some trust from the CIA might need to participate in the attacks to keep the CIA from becoming suspicious that he could be faking his loyalty to the CIA. Being a part of the attack might allow him to covertly alert the Cuban intelligence agency of the attack ahead of time. Which could give them a little time to make preparations for a “warm welcome” for the attackers…
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Apparently this guy was involved with RIP Robertson in Africa, the Congo crisis.
RIP and the boys (Cuban Exiles) invaded Congo to release some hostages, or something like that.
So Morales is probably in this pic below of RIP with his umbrella (photographed on the 24th November 1964) Yes almost exactly a year after some dude with an umbrella acted strangely in dealey plaza.
(https://i.postimg.cc/7P1khwrP/Rip-Robertson-Umbrella-Pic.jpg)
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For what it’s worth:
At one time or another — and in some cases perhaps, at the same times — Morales had been an intelligence agent for the Castro government, an anti-communist operative who went on armed raids on his homeland, a mercenary in the Belgian Congo, a demolition expert for Miami-based gamblers, an informant for the FBI, CIA and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the chief of counter-espionage for the Venezuelan secret police.
https://medium.com/@AlfredSpellman/ricardo-monkey-morales-the-most-interesting-man-in-miami-was-gunned-down-35-years-ago-today-9f5270e4b6ba (https://medium.com/@AlfredSpellman/ricardo-monkey-morales-the-most-interesting-man-in-miami-was-gunned-down-35-years-ago-today-9f5270e4b6ba)
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Apparently this guy was involved with RIP Robertson in Africa, the Congo crisis.
RIP and the boys (Cuban Exiles) invaded Congo to release some hostages, or something like that.
So Morales is probably in this pic below of RIP with his umbrella (photographed on the 24th November 1964) Yes almost exactly a year after some dude with an umbrella acted strangely in dealey plaza.
(https://i.postimg.cc/7P1khwrP/Rip-Robertson-Umbrella-Pic.jpg)
Yeah, the guy was a CIA operative for most of his life.
Did covert ops in Africa and Venezuela while also trafficking narcotics…
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JFK's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was trained at a secret CIA camp preparing for invasion of Cuba - and sniper who taught him insisted after that there was NO WAY Oswald had the marksmanship to kill the president
Ricardo Morales Jr. claimed his father, Ricardo Morales Sr., had trained JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald at a secret CIA camp
Morales Sr., known as Monkey, was a sniper instructor who had worked for the FBI, CIA, DEA, Israel's Mossad and Venezuela's intelligence agency
He allegedly left home with a 'clean-up' team to Dallas two days before the assassination, but later returned saying the mission was cancelled
When the family learned that Oswald was the killer, Morales Sr. told his son that he recognized the man as one of his former trainees
He noted that he did not believe Oswald could actually be the killer because his aim was not good enough during training
The story comes as the White House delayed releasing the latest trove of classified documents relating to the infamous presidential assassination.
JFK's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald trained at a secret CIA camp preparing for an invasion of Cuba, the son of his alleged sniper teacher said.
But Ricardo Morales Jr said that trainer - his dad Ricardo Sr - insisted after the November 1963 assassination that there was no way Oswald had the marksmanship to pull off the murder, further bolstering conspiracy theories over the doomed president's death.
Morales Jr., 58, of Michigan, told Miami's Actualidad Radio that his father was a contract CIA worker, anti-Castro militant, counter-intelligence chief for Venezuela, FBI informant and drug dealer. Morales Sr went by the nickname 'Monkey', and was among the FBI's most infamous informants.
(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/10/29/18/49806293-10145399-image-a-13_1635529421119.jpg)
Ricardo Morales Sr., known as Monkey, was a sniper instructor who had worked for the FBI, CIA, DEA, Israel's Mossad and Venezuela's intelligence agency
Morales Jr. also recalled the moment when his family, who lived in Miami, learned of President John F. Kennedy's November 1963 assassination, and his father's shock when he allegedly recognized Oswald as one of his sniper trainees.
'When he saw the photo of Lee Harvey Oswald [after the assassination] he realized that this was the same character he had seen on the CIA training field,' Morales Jr. said.
'He saw him, he saw the name tag, but he did not know him because he was not famous yet, but later when my father sees him he realizes that he is the same person.'
(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/10/29/21/49806385-10145399-Ricardo_Morales_Sr_allegedly_trained_JFK_assassin_Lee_Harvey_Osw-a-8_1635537744655.jpg)
Ricardo Morales Sr. allegedly trained JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, center
(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/05/17/16/43091325-9588135-image-a-2_1621266808767.jpg)
John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline are pictured in Dallas moments before he was assassinated
(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/10/29/21/45989605-10145399-Pictured_The_car_carrying_President_John_F_Kennedy_rushes_to_the-a-14_1635537870855.jpg)
Pictured: The car carrying President John F. Kennedy rushes to the nearest hospital after he was shot in Dallas in 1963, amid new claims stoking conspiracy theories that Lee Harvey Oswald didn't kill the former president
He added that his father did not believe that Oswald, a former marine, could actually be the killer, 'because he has witnessed him shooting at a training camp and he said there is no way that guy could shoot that well,' Morales Jr. told the Miami Herald.
Further muddying the waters, Morales Jr. noted that his father had left for Dallas two days before the assassination for a mission with a 'clean-up' team. Morales Sr later returned without ever knowing what the planned mission was, since it was cancelled due to the assassination, it is claimed.
The informant hinted at part of a wider plot when questioned by his sons about who killed Kennedy, telling them: 'I didn’t do it but I was in Dallas two days before waiting for orders. We were the cleaning crew just in case something bad had to be done.’ After the assassination, they did not have to do anything and returned to Miami.'
Oswald was famously shot and killed by Texas businessman Jack Ruby two days after Kennedy's assassination, fueling speculation that he wasn't the real killer, and that the president had been eliminated by a powerful and shadowy cabal with government help.
(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/10/29/18/49806321-10145399-image-a-19_1635529544470.jpg)
Hundreds of conspiracy theories are centered over the death of President John F. Kennedy
He said he had not shared his father's story before because his family had been afraid of dealing with the repercussions of Morales Sr.'s alleged actions and that no one would believe him after so much time has passed.
The claims would add a new saga in the complicated story of Morales Sr., a man used to playing both sides as he completed classified missions for the US government as an anti-Castro agent while also trafficking drugs across the world.
Morales Sr., dubbed Monkey Morales, had served as an intelligence officer for Fidel Castro's during the 1953 Cuban revolution, but was later exiled and went to work for the CIA and FBI.
He would also go on to work for the Drug Enforcement Administration, Israel's Mossad and Venezuela's intelligence agency in the 1960s and 70s.
According to declassified CIA documents, Morales Sr. was terminated from the CIA as a contract worker in 1964 after a mission in the Congo because he was 'too wise.'
He has been linked to drug trafficking's in Latin America, mid-air bombing in Barbados that killed 73, and even to a plot to assassination Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1976.
Morales Sr. died in 1982, in a bar brawl in Key Biscayne, Florida.
(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/10/29/18/49806315-10145399-Others_however_claim_that_Kennedy_was_killed_by_anti_Castro_mili-a-7_1635530066701.jpg)
Others, however, claim that Kennedy was killed by anti-Castro militants over his lack of support during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, pictured
Monkey's alleged involvement in the JFK assassination meshes well with popular conspiracy theories of the presidential killing, Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi, who has extensively researched the case, told the Herald.
While Oswald was charged for Kenney's murder, some believe the president was killed by the CIA or by Cuban militants who felt betrayed by Kennedy after he pulled US support from the botched Bay of Pigs invasion to usurp Castro.
As the theory goes, anti-Castro Cuban exiles met with Oswald in Dallas to plan the killing as a means to push America to invade Cuba and reject Kennedy's treaty with the Soviet Union to keep US troops out of the island nation following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Another theory claims that Kennedy was actually killed by the Cuban government, who retaliated against the US following previous CIA attempts to assassinate Castro.
Castro himself had denied the theory, saying Cuba would have suffered severe retaliation by the US.
Yet another conspiracy theory alleges that the assassination was orchestrated by the CIA and Chicago mafia boss Sam Giancana to frame Castro as revenge after the communist leader's ousted organized crime from Cuba.
Some conspiracy theorists even believe President Lyndon B. Johnson to be behind the killing in order for him to rise from vice president to president.
The theories were given prominence when a 10-month investigation led by then-Supreme Court chief justice Earl Warren concluded that Oswald acted alone when he fired on Kennedy's motorcade, but was later criticized by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, who believed there was a high probability of a second gunman.
Morales Jr. story will most likely reawaken more conspiracy theories, which have recently flourished following the White House's delay in releasing classified documents relating to the assassination.
(https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/10/23/19/49544747-10122889-President_Joe_Biden_pictured_wrote_in_a_statement_that_an_interi-a-14_1635014306707.jpg)
President Joe Biden, pictured, wrote in a statement that 'an interim release' of the remaining classified files 'shall be withheld from full public disclosure' until 'later this year'
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Pictured: a memo from the White House to the Public Interest Declassification Board, where the president makes the case for the delay of the remaining JFK assassination files
President Joe Biden wrote in a statement last week that 'an interim release' of the remaining classified files 'shall be withheld from full public disclosure' until 'later this year.'
A second batch of records will be released to the public in a 'more comprehensive release' in a little over a year on December 15, 2022, the memo announced.
Peter Kornbluh, a Cuba analyst at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., told the Herald that Biden needed to release the documents and help put an end to 'the speculation, conjecture and conspiracy theories that have flourished because of the secrecy surrounding these documents.'
'If we have learned anything from the Kennedy assassination,' he noted, 'it is that conspiracy theories like this one spread like mold in the darkness of secrecy. Almost 60 years later, it is time for historical transparency so that the Kennedy assassination can be laid to rest.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10145399/JFKs-assassin-Lee-Harvey-Oswald-trained-secret-CIA-camp-says-family-FBI-informant.html