Dennis Lynn Harber taught
English to Cuban exile students. He translated into English the book
150 Questions For A Guerrilla
which was written by General Alberto Bayo. Harber ran a propaganda
broadcast mission funded by Rolando Fasco and helped Paulino Sierra
run guns down from Detroit.
Harber
was a member of Interpen (Intercontinental
Penetration Force)
that was established in
1961 by Gerry
P. Hemming.
Other members included
Loran
Hall,
Roy Hargraves, William
Seymour, Lawrence Howard, Steve
Wilson, Howard K. Davis, Edwin
Collins, James Arthur Lewis, Bill
Dempsey, Dick Whatley, Ramigo Arce, Ronald Augustinovich, Joe Garman,
Edmund Kolby, Ralph Schlafter, Manuel Aguilar and Oscar Del Pinto.
This group of experienced
soldiers were involved in training members of the anti-Castro groups
funded by the Central
Intelligence Agency in
Florida in the early 1960s. When the government began to crack down
on raids from Florida in 1962, Interpen set up a new training camp
in New Orleans. The group carried
out a series of raids on
Cuba in an attempt to undermine the government
of Fidel
Castro.
This involved a plan to create a war by simulating an attack on Guantanamo
Naval Base.
Dennis Lynn Harber died in Merida, Mexico.
Open Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
Photo Archive: Interpen
Forum Debate: Interpen
Namebase: Interpen
(1)
Tom
Dunkin,
letter
to Richard
Billings (June,
1967)
First contact with No
Name Key group was in July or August, 1962, when small group was camping
on south shorts of Lake Okeechobee, near Pahokee-Belle Glade.
Among those present were
Howard K. Davis, identified as "car leader", Gerald Patrick
Hemming, aka "Jerry Patrick", Joe Garman, and Steve Wilson.
Group a bit publicity shy,
but in September, at request of WFLA-TV Tampa friend, Don Starr, tried
for footage on their activities. Met with Davis and Patrick in Miami
on Sat. Sept. 15, finally, around 2 a.m. Sunday Sept. 16, got approval.
Two carloads departed Miami
for No Name Key, including Davis, Patrick, Cuban known only as Pino,
among others. At the camp on No Name Key, Steve Wilson was in charge.
Other Americans there included Ed Collins, Bill Seymour, Canadian
Bill Dempsey, one individual identified as Finnish and in doubtful
status with Immigration, named Edmund Kolbe, also Roy Hargraves.
Number of men transported
by boat from No Name Sunday, Sept 16, for a demonstration which was
filmed on Big Pine Key, near No Name, by WFLA-TV sound crew, by myself
with film going to WTVT Tampa, plus stills which were used in Miami
Herald story on 20 September and in Glades County Democrat 21 September
1962.
Democrat article read by
a friend Larry Newman Jr., managing editor of Dayton (Ohio) Daily
News, resulting in request for a feature with fresh art, dated 15
October.
Returned to Miami on Saturday
20 October, or possibly Friday. At any rate, after beer-drinking session
in bar of Hotel Flagler, at which time Dennis Harber first encountered,
accompanied Roy Hargraves to tourist court on Flagler where he was
living with female know only as "Betty" whom he later reportedly
married.
Arrival at 2 a.m. brought
protest from Betty, who rather profanely instructed Hargraves to "get
the hell out of here and take your queer friend with you." Later
gratifyingly learned she had thought Harber was outside instead of
me.
She protested to Hargraves
that he was wasting his time with a revolution. He advised her he
had too much time invested to quit. We slept in my car outside Patrick's
headquarters, Federico's Guest House, 220 NW 8th Ave.
Howard K. Davis at that
time lived at 3350 NW 18th Terrace. He accompanied both trips to No
Name Key, and was reported leader of group. (Davis, interestingly,
was listed in Associated Press Florida wire story F56MH ( believed
to be March 24, 1960, but could have been 1959) as among 29 persons
whom the Miami News listed as banned from aircraft rental on Border
Patrol orders. Davis, and another American known only as "Art",
later identified as Arthur Gerteit, were check pilots for CBS-Rolando
Masferrer Haitian invasion "air Force" in November, 1966.
Gerteit was later identified in United Press International dispatch
from Tifton, Cal, early 1967 (Apr. 11) where Cuban arrested with bombs
as he rented an airplane, as "an FBI Decoy")
On second trip to No Name
on behalf of Dayton Daily News, Harber accompanied group, which included
Cuban known to me only by last name of Pino, who also had been present
at first filming session. Pino reportedly head of an exile group called
Christian Army of Anti-Communist Liberation (ECLA), and not quotable
by name at that time.
Harber was drunk on departure
from Miami, and took one pint of whisky with him, which he asked be
rationed to him slowly. I performed this task. Pino much amused at
Harber, whom he called "el profesor."
Harber at that time was
night clerk for the Flagler Hotel, 637 West Flagler, and also taught
English (to Cuban exile students) at a language school next door to
the hotel.
Harber was described by
Patrick at that time as having terminal cancer. At present, according
to last report from Patrick, Harber was serving sentenced in Mexico
for murder, undocumented to me.
Harber lived in a small
apartment behind Flagler Hotel, and shared it with various of the
Americans occasionally, including Seymour, Collins, and a Czeck lad
known as Karl Novak, who I don't recall seeing on No Name.
(2) Gerry P. Hemming, International Education Forum (27th August, 2005)
Dennis Harber came into contact with us because he was a cut-out for ex-Colombia dictator Rojas Pinilla, who, despite our refusing cash donations, insisted on providing emergency housing and credit at grocery stores for the Sturgis "Op-40" group which I inherited post BOP. Ex-Venezuela dictator Perez Jimenez (Marita Lorenz's sugar-daddy) agreed to the same conditions through 1963. Harber was a drunk and homo, thereby precluding even playing a patsy role in any serious scheme, and was excluded from Collins' "peacenik" Op, despite having worked on the "Pirate Radio" Op just weeks before his death.
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