Jose Mankel AKA QJWIN-1

Jose Marie Andre Mankel
Mankel’s birth occurred amongst the fall of nineteen-seventeen and his youth was spent within the capital of Luxembourg. For years he developed allies within the European underworld by conducting various criminal enterprises which included stealing rare industrial materials. According to foreign biographic records he was married to Simone Houis during nineteen fifty-one and the couple had a single child during their marriage. Mankel eventually became an informant supporting the United States Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, a predecessor to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). He first made contact with the Central Intelligence Agency during nineteen fifty-eight in connection with a narcotics scheme inside the United States. The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs considered his performance assisting official projects excellent and they continued to intermittently contact Mankel for nearly two additional years.

Jose was contacted under the direction of Deputy Director for Plans Richard Bissell and recruited by CIA officer Arnold Silver amid nineteen sixty. The Agency enlisted Mankel under the code name QJWIN-1 to support proposed illegal operations by recruiting sabotage agents. He spent time in Europe developing a cover identity and alias for use in related assignments and recommended two French sabotage candidates to officials. Jose’s travel was officially expedited to the African nation of Congo for the recruitment of potential assassins as the same year drew to a close. Documents also reveal that intelligence leaders desired QJWIN-1 to recruit and blackmail a Yugoslavian military officer to provide access to connected intelligence. Yet some CIA officers intentionally chose not to disclose all the potential dimensions of his operational role while stationed in Leopoldville.

Mankel potentially began to realize his mission was related to assassination planning after fellow CIA utilized spotter David Tzitzichivili aka WIROGUE-1 attempted to recruit him for the latter’s “execution squad”. QJWIN-1 denied this offer and reported the attempt to officials but such interactions were not improbable because the Agency had placed both assets in the same hotel. Government files confirm amid nineteen sixty-one CIA officers Richard Bissell, William Harvey, and Sidney Gottlieb were in communication regarding potential assassination operations targeting Patrice Lumumba. Yet other CIA leaders were unaware its leading Staff D officer William Harvey had also recruited Jose during nineteen sixty-one for Project ZRRIFLE to spot assassin candidates. Amongst the varied proposed operations under that project was the assassination of foreign leaders that included Fidel Castro. His contract was extended following his reassignment from the Congo multiple times and QJWIN-1 was retained on a standby basis abroad for Project ZRRIFLE until the end of nineteen sixty-three.

It was then US intelligence leaders believed Mankel was possibly manipulating them for resources because of minimal operational progress and his failure to obtain additional recruits. Agency officials terminated his contract during the spring of nineteen sixty-four and Mankel’s role and identity would seemingly fade into history until later congressional investigations revealed ZRRIFLE and his code name QJWIN-1. Unfortunately, some authors misidentified QJWIN-1 and his operational history amid the intervening years which further occluded the matter. Officials discussing Jose Mankel within the legal record amidst the nineteen nineties presumed he still lived somewhere within Luxembourg and his death was later reported to have occurred amid two-thousand and one.