Mr. BRINGUIER. From Cuba [producing document].
Mr. LIEBELER. You have shown me an identification card from the
Department of Immigration and Naturalization, indicating that you were
admitted to the United States as an immigrant on February 8, 1961. Is
that correct?
Mr. BRINGUIER. That is correct.
(Document returned to witness.)
Mr. LIEBELER. I am correct in understanding, am I not, that you have
been involved to one degree or another in Anti-Castro activities here
in New Orleans since your arrival?
Mr. BRINGUIER. Yes, sir; soon after I arrived here to New Orleans,
I founded a Newsletter for the Cubans with the name of Crusada.
That was my first work here in New Orleans. After that I joined,
at the beginning of 1962, the New Orleans Delegation of the Cuban
Revolutionary Council, and I was working as Secretary of Publicity and
Propaganda here in New Orleans for the Cuban Anti-Castro. That was,
I believe, June or July--June 1962. After that, I resigned, and in
July 1962 I was designated New Orleans delegate of the Cuban Student
Directorate, and I am in that position from that time to now.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did there come a time when you met Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mr. BRINGUIER. I beg your pardon?
Mr. LIEBELER. Did there come a time when you met Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mr. BRINGUIER. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Tell us when that was and the circumstances of the event.
Mr. BRINGUIER. Well, the first day that I saw Lee Harvey Oswald was on
August 5, 1963, but before we go deeper in this matter about Oswald, I
think that I would like to explain to you two things that I think will
facilitate the Commission to understand my feeling at that moment.
Mr. LIEBELER. That is perfectly all right. Go ahead.
Mr. BRINGUIER. And you see, in August 24, 1962, my organization,
the Cuban Student Directorate, carry on a shelling of Havana, and
a few days later when person from the FBI contacted me here in New
Orleans--his name was Warren C. de Brueys. Mr. de Brueys was talking
to me in the Thompson Cafeteria. At that moment I was the only one
from the Cuban Student Directorate here in the city, and he was asking
to me about my activities here in the city, and when I told him that
I was the only one, he didn't believe that, and he advised me--and I
quote, "We could infiltrate your organization and find out what you are
doing here." My answer to him was, "Well, you will have to infiltrate
myself, because I am the only one." And I want to put this out, because
after the assassination of Mr. Kennedy, when I was interviewed, I told
something that some part of the press or some persons now are trying to
use to tell that maybe Oswald was a man from the FBI or the CIA. I will
go into that later on.
After that, after my conversation with de Brueys, I always was waiting
that maybe someone will come to infiltrate my organization from the
FBI, because I already was told by one of the FBI agent that they will
try to infiltrate my organization.
Next thing is this: On August 2, 1963, I receive in my store--I have
over there the office of the delegation too, the visit of two Cubans,
who told me that they had already desert from one Anti-Castro training
camp that was across Lake Pontchartrain here in New Orleans. Until that
moment I did not know nothing about that Anti-Castro training camp
here in the city, and they told me that that Anti-Castro training camp
was a branch of the Christian Democratic Movement--that is another
Anti-Castro organization--and they told me that they had the fear
inside the training camp that there was a Castro agent inside that
training camp.
A few days before, too, the police found here in New Orleans about 1
mile from that training camp a big lot of ammunition and weapons and
all those things, and when Oswald came to me on August 5 I had inside
myself the feeling, well, maybe this is from the FBI, or maybe this is
a Communist, because the FBI already had told me that maybe they will
infiltrate my organization, but that feeling--I only had that feeling
on August 5, because 4 days later I was convinced that Oswald was not
an FBI agent and that he was a Pro-Castro agent.
When I told that to the press after the assassination, I saw in some
magazines that I was not sure if he was an FBI or not, and that is not
the truth, because on August 9, 3 months before the assassination, I
was sure that he was a Pro-Castro and not an FBI. I want to have that
clear.
Mr. LIEBELER. To summarize your statement, when Oswald came to see you
on August 5----
Mr. BRINGUIER. That is right.
Mr. LIEBELER. You were suspicious of him on two different counts?
Mr. BRINGUIER. That is right.
Mr. LIEBELER. One, that he might possibly have been an infiltrator
working for the FBI?
Mr. BRINGUIER. That is right.
Mr. LIEBELER. And you were worried about this because of what Agent de
Brueys had said to you----
Mr. BRINGUIER. A year ago.
Mr. LIEBELER. Almost a year prior to that time?
Mr. BRINGUIER. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. You were also concerned about the possibility that Oswald
might have been a Communist or a Castro agent of some sort, who was
trying to infiltrate your organization on behalf of that group?
Mr. BRINGUIER. That is right. Now that day, on August 5, I was talking
in the store with one young American--the name of him is Philip
Geraci--and 5 minutes later Mr. Oswald came inside the store. He
start to look around, several articles, and he show interest in my
conversation with Geraci. I was explaining to Geraci that our fight
is a fight of Cubans and that he was too young, that if he want to
distribute literature against Castro, I would give him the literature
but not admit him to the fight.
At that moment also he start to agree with I, Oswald start to agree
with my point of view and he show real interest in the fight against
Castro. He told me that he was against Castro and that he was against
communism. He told me--he asked me first for some English literature
against Castro, and I gave him some copies of the Cuban report printed
by the Cuban Student Directorate.
After that, Oswald told me that he had been in the Marine Corps and
that he had training in guerrilla warfare and that he was willing to
train Cubans to fight against Castro. Even more, he told me that he was
willing to go himself to fight against Castro. That was on August 5.
I turned down his offer. I told him that I don't have nothing to do
with military activities, that my only duties here in New Orleans are
propaganda and information and not military activities. That was my
answer to him.
He insisted, and he told me that he will bring to me next day one book
as a present, as a gift to me, to train Cubans to fight against Castro.