Here attached - very delayed, for which apologies - the
"Afterword" I did about the
Veciana/Philliops/"Bishop"/Prewett matter.
I suspect you've taken most of it on board already. What I notice seems to be
missing from what I published, though, is the
way I happened to get to the woman I name on p. 529 only as
"Fabiola".
Several
interviews into my sessions with Veciana, I decided to go for broke
and risk making him angry. I had repeatedly asked him for any detail that might
confirm that the name used by his contact had been "Bishop". Late one
night, I told him flat out that others - including me - would have to conclude
that he was lying (about the pseudonym "Bishop"). When I said
that, Veciana briefly looked angry, then heistated, then said "Come with
me". He led me up to a sort of half-landing with an access door to a area
you might call a loft - boxes and suitcases strewn about. After some effort, he
then found what I recall as an old shoebox, filled with scraps of paper and
business card,. He rifled through the box, then finally located what he
was looking for. It bore the name and phone number of a woman working in Puerto
Rico and told me to follow up if I could.
If I correctly recall, he had never given this woman's name to Gaeton -
and I don't think I then or ever shared it with Gaeton.
I flew as soon as I possibld could from Miami to Puerto Rico - it may have been
the following morning. On arrival at the woman's office there - the Labor
Department I think - I did not announce myself, just talked with the
receptionist, found out when staff left for lunch, and waited about. Prompted
by me, the receptionist pointed out the relevant woman amongst the crowd as
they left the building. I told her at once of the interest. She looked briefly
puzzled, then said with apparently spontenous puzzlement and surprise,
"Oh, Antonio, Antonio....." Then, over coffee, she responded as
reported in the attached material on pp.529 to 530 - which led me to Prewett.
Prewett, as I also reported - just short of libeling her - turned out to
be transparently lying...
What I am here trying to get over is that Veciana's reaction to my suggestion
that he was lying seemed - and in memory still seems - so spontaneous and
genuine. And "Fabiola"'s was too. Though I could of course
be wrong, I really do not think Veciana had phoned to prime her for my visit.
(I had not, by the way, told him I was about to fly to Puerto Rico to
follow up - rather, I made a point of saying I was headed somewhere else re.
something else...)
I hope this is useful for background.
Best,
Tony
In
Chapter 25 (p. 529) of Anthony Summers’ Not In Your Lifetime, and update of his
previously published book Conspiracy, he writes an
Afterword: The Continuing
Search for “Maurice Bishop”
“There
was no systematic interrogations of relevant CIA officers who might have
further confirmed the use of the name ‘Bishop.’ The Committee failed to follow
up on a key lead provided by Veciana – the identity of a prominent Cuban who
may have originally proposed Veciana to ‘Bishop’ as a promising candidate for
CIA recruitment. The Cuban’s name was known to the Committee, and is known to
this author. Other leads received cursory treatment.”
“The
Committee never tried to trace a vital witness whose name was provided by
Veciana months before the Committee wound up its inquiry. Veciana had spoken,
from the start, of a go-between whom he had used during his association with ‘Bishop.’
He explained that, in line with intelligence tradecraft, ‘Bishop’ had always
initiated their clandestine meetings, either by telephoning direct, or through
a third person who always knew how to reach Veciana. Veciana was long reluctant
to identify his third party, but finally did so – providing an odd, invalid
address in Puerto Rico. In 1980 I did follow up on the lead, and tracked down
the Veciana – ‘Bishop’ go-between. This proved to be the first independent
corroboration that Veciana really was in touch with someone called ‘Bishop.’”
“The
person who helped arrange meetings between ‘Bishop’ and Veciana was a women, a
prim grandmother in her fifties, who works as a minor functionary in a U.S.
government administrative department. She has requested anonymity, and will be
identified here only as ‘Fabiola,’ a Cuban exile who left Havana in the autumn
1961. She worked, until that year, as Veciana’s secretary at the Banco
Financiero, and was there at the time Veciana claims he was recruited by ‘Bishop.’
While she says Veciana never mentioned a CIA contact, Fabiola recalls details
which fit his story. She recalls a time when Veciana started going to ‘language
courses’ in the evenings. Veciana, in his earliest interviews, spoke of
attending nightly U.S. intelligence briefings in an office building which
housed, on the first floor, the Berlitz School of Languages. Fabiola says she
did become aware that Veciana was involved in subversive activities. He once
produced the huge sum of a half a million dollars, which he asked her to
safeguard until he retrieved it…”
“He
asked her to act as an answering service for him when he was traveling, and in
the months to come Fabiola became familiar with the name of a caller from the
mainland United States. The name was ‘Bishop.’ When I interviewed Fabiola I
threw out a number of names, including that of ‘Bishop.’ ‘Bishop’ was the only
name to which she responded, and it stirred in her the memory of another name. ‘Bishop’
is firmly linked in Fabiola’s mind with a second person – ‘Prewett.’ For her
the two names are so definitely associated that at first she had difficulty
remembering which was which.
Fabiola says both individuals telephoned Veciana
over the same period, and she understood that they were associated with one
another. She believed both ‘Bishop’ and ‘Prewett’ were connected with an
American news publication, based on the East Coast. Finally, she recalls that ‘Prewett’
was female.”
“A
check of American press directories turned up Virginia Prewett, a Washington
journalist who has specialized in Latin American affairs all her life. She has
written extensively about the struggle between Fidel Castro, whom she
characterizes as a ‘betrayer,’ and the Cuban exiles, whom she describes as ‘patriots.’
In the summer of 1963 Prewett attended a conference on Cuba co-sponsored by
Freedom House and the Citizen’s Committee for a Free Cuba. Her report on the
conference, later inserted in the Congressional Record, began by quoting a call
by Freedom House ‘to remove both Fidel Castro and the Soviet presence from Cuba
without delay.’ For many years, Prewett wrote for the North American Newspaper
Alliance (NANA), a syndication organization founded by Prewett’s friend Ernest
Cuneo, also a member of the Committee for a Free Cuba….”
“In
spring 1963, seven months before the Kennedy assassination, Prewett was
assailing the administration for its opposition to the raids mounted against
Cuba by Antonio Veciana’s Alpha 66 guerrillas. On April 2, in the Washington
Daily News, Prewett lambasted a Kennedy spokesman who had ‘called the daring
and gallant Alpha 66 raids on Cuba irresponsible acts.’ Prewett called this ‘an
all-time low in pronouncement of U.S. foreign policy,’ and mocked the notion
that ‘unless we stop the Alpha 66 raids against Communist Cuba, there’ll be
nuclear conflict.’ Three weeks later, after President Kennedy ordered strong
measures against would-be exile raiders, Prewett rushed to support the exile
leadership and berated the Kennedy White House for assuming it had ‘carte blanche
to create a foreign policy outside the nation’s popular consent.’ These Prewett
articles were read into the Congressional Record.”
“The
Alpha 66 raids, which so embarrassed President Kennedy and which pleased
Virginia Prewett, were the very attacks which – according to Alpha 66 leader
Veciana – were carried out on specific instructions from CIA officer ‘Maurice
Bishop.’ As Veciana tells it, ‘Bishop’s’ intention was to cause further trouble
between Kennedy and Russia – within months of the Missile Crisis which had
brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. His purpose was ‘to put Kennedy against
the wall in order to force him to make decisions that will remove Castro’s
regime.’”
In
the company of a Washington Post reporter, I talked to Virginia Prewett in
1980. She agreed that she had contact with Alpha 66 in the early sixties, and
accepted that Alpha 66 was ‘probably ‘ backed by the CIA – even if its leaders
were not formally told so. Prewett made it clear she was once familiar with the
work of the group’s leader, Veciana, and asked, ‘Where is he now?’”
“Later
in the interview, however, she said she had never met Veciana. Veciana, for his
part, says he did know Prewett, and refers to her as ‘Virginia.’ He assets he
met her at her hotel in Puerto Rico more than once, and ‘probably’ in
Washington.’ When the name ‘Bishop’ was first raised with Prewett, in the
context of the CIA and Cuba, she said, ‘Well, you had to move around people
like that.’”
“When
the name came up again, she said, ‘I didn’t personally know him,’ and later, in
response to a direct question, she said she did not know ‘Bishop.’ Prewett also
said she had never met David Phillips. Phillips – asked about Prewett –
contradicts her. He says he once knew Prewett quite well, specificallyl
recalling meetings in the Dominican Republic.”
“And
there, as this edition goes to press, the matter rests. Few can now doubt that there
was a ‘Maurice Bishop,’ and that he manipulated Veciana for a U.S. intelligence
agency over many years. Veciana’s allegations about ‘Bishop’ in connection with
the Kennedy case remains just that – allegations. They are, however, deeply
troubling.”
“It
is of great importance that ‘Bishop’ be unmasked and investigated – with all
due consideration for the national security and for ‘Bishop’s’ personal safety
as one who was once active in intelligence.”
“It
is getting late, but if the American people are ever to put the Kennedy
assassination behind them, this – like other serious issues in the case – must be
resolved.”
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