◆ SpookStack

TOP SEXRET who had been killed in the D-2 air strike; and in the course of his funeral oration, Castro damned the United States Government and the Central Intelligence Agency up one side and down the other for their unprovoked Pearl Harbor-type attack on Cuba. He also challenged the United States to provide the name of a single "de- fector" who had participated in the D-2 raid. 59/ In an attempt to divert the upcoming UN accusa- tions which would be filed on Monday, 17 April, the day on which the invasion was scheduled, Dave Phillips, Chief, WH/4/Propaganda, spotted an opportunity to pro- tect the cover story and suggest a means by which Castro's call for the identity of any FAR defectors could be countered. Phillips, who was fluent in Spanish, heard a live broadcast from Cuba reporting that early on the morning of 15 April a FAR jet piloted by Orestes Acosta had been lost at sea; and Phillips also was aware that a live broadcast from Havana on 15 April had stated that one of the planes attacking the airfields had been shot down at sea. Having heard both of these broadcasts, the WH/4 propaganda chief then advised a US journalist that the Cubans had claimed that a jet “which was among the attacking - 221 - P SECRET