Page 210 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 210 of 237

The CIA set up shop in lizard-proof Quonset huts half a mile from the Weather Bureau compound. They installed
their radio equipment in big trailers slung with awnings to protect the delicate electronic gear from the broiling
Caribbean sun. The Cayman Islanders, imported as a labor force, lived nearby with their families in a compound
called Gliddenville.

In September, 1960, Walter S. Lemmon, the president of the World Wide Broadcasting System, announced that
his station, WRUL, would co-operate with Radio Swan in broadcasts to Cuba. World Wide, besides its Manhattan
office, had a short-wave station at Scituate, Massachusetts. Since April, WRUL had been broadcasting to Cuba.
The programs featured Miss Pepita Riera, a Cuban exile billed as "Havana Rose." Lemmon said Radio Swan
would tape and rebroadcast WRUL's programs.

At the same time, Representative Roman C. Pucinski, Chicago Democrat and sponsor of an organization called
Radio Free Cuba, announced that his group would also cooperate with World Wide and Radio Swan. Pucinski
described Radio Free Cuba as a privately owned group that had six radio stations in Florida, including the Florida
Keys, and Louisiana.

During this period, Radio Swan's programs were for the most part recorded in the New York office of the
Gibraltar Steamship Corporation. Some prominent Cuban exiles taped programs for the CIA station, including
Luis Conte Aguero, a former Havana radio and television commentator.

Havana Radio kept up its counter-barrage. On October 24 Castro's radio attacked the "miserable curs who speak
over Radio Swan." In January, 1961, it said: "Radio Swan is not a radio station but a cage of hysterical parrots."

During the invasion, the CIA station was on the air twenty-four hours a day, transmitting romantic- sounding
messages in code. At 10:57 P.M. on April 18, for example, the CIA broadcast this cryptic message in Spanish
over Radio Swan: "Attention, Stanislaus, the moon is red 19 April."

Even after the invasion had collapsed, Radio Swan continued to broadcast mysterious orders to nonexistent
battalions. On April 22 three days after the end of the invasion, Radio Swan ordered various detachments not to
surrender -- help was on the way. Orders went out over the air to "Battalion Three" to advance. "Battalion Four
and Seven" were told to "proceed to Point Z."

"Mission Alborada," which means reveille in Spanish, was ordered to commence, and Squadrons Four and Five
were told to protect it. At the same time, "Air Group Pluto Norte" was told to cover position "Nino Three N/S."

In the swamps and forests around the Bahia de Cochinos, some of the weary brigade survivors who heard the
broadcasts as they tried to evade capture by the militia were bitter at what they felt was false encouragement by
Radio Swan.

By this time, Radio Swan's cover as a private station owned by the Gibraltar Steamship Corporation had worn
perilously thin. A private station that had broadcast messages in code and instructions to troops during a
clandestine invasion -- well, it seemed to be time to get out of town.

And that is just what Gibraltar did. It kept an office in Manhattan, but moved the entire operation to Miami in
September, 1961. The "steamship" executives moved into rooms 910, 911 and 912 of the Langford Building in
downtown Miami. Fred Fazakerley, a spokesman for the Gibraltar line, told a newsman that Horton Heath would
be moving to Miami to take over the office. Several pieces of luggage being moved into the suite were marked
with the name "George Wass," who was identified as an official of Radio Swan. Gibraltar took this listing in the
Miami telephone book: *