Qualla: JMWAVE https://qualla.com/jmwave en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/w/c/jmwave-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: JMWAVE https://qualla.com/jmwave JMWAVE: Introduction https://qualla.com/jmwave/ Photo credit NkosiRob, CC BY-SA 4.0. The sign on the door said "Zenith Technical Enterprises, Inc." The building was a squat, unremarkable structure inside a former Navy blimp base twelve miles south of the University of Miami. Nothing about it suggested that behind those walls operated the largest CIA station in the world outside of Langley, Virginia. From 1961 to 1968, JMWAVE -- also written JM/WAVE -- ran a covert empire across South Florida: 300 to 400 CIA operatives, an estimated 15,000 anti-Castro Cuban exiles on the payroll, a fleet of boats and aircraft that constituted the third-largest naval force in the Caribbean, and an annual budget of roughly $50 million. The station's activities were so pervasive that they became an open secret among local government and law enforcement. Miami's Cold War was not cold at all.

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/w/c/jmwave-wp/dhwc-jmwave-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full JMWAVE: The Blimp Base That Became a Spy Hub https://qualla.com/jmwave/ Photo credit NkosiRob, CC BY-SA 4.0. JMWAVE made its home in Building 25 at the former Naval Air Station Richmond, a World War II airship base that had once housed blimps patrolling the Florida Straits for German U-boats. By the early 1960s, the base had been declared surplus and transferred to the University of Mia...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/w/c/jmwave-wp/dhwc-jmwave-the-blimp-base-that-became-a-spy-hub.mp3 0:06 2 full JMWAVE: Operation Mongoose and the Castro Obsession https://qualla.com/jmwave/ Photo credit NkosiRob, CC BY-SA 4.0. JMWAVE existed to solve one problem: Fidel Castro. The station served as the operations center for Task Force W, the CIA unit running Operation Mongoose, the Kennedy administration's multi-pronged campaign to overthrow Cuba's Communist government. The station had been active in s...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/w/c/jmwave-wp/dhwc-jmwave-operation-mongoose-and-the-castro-obsession.mp3 0:06 3 full JMWAVE: A Navy Without a Country https://qualla.com/jmwave/ Photo credit NkosiRob, CC BY-SA 4.0. The fleet JMWAVE assembled was extraordinary. Fast boats slipped out of South Florida marinas under cover of darkness, carrying Cuban exile raiders toward targets on the island's coast. Aircraft flew covert reconnaissance and supply missions over the Straits of Florida. The combi...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/w/c/jmwave-wp/dhwc-jmwave-a-navy-without-a-country.mp3 0:06 4 full JMWAVE: The Open Secret https://qualla.com/jmwave/ Photo credit NkosiRob, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the mid-1960s, JMWAVE's cover was wearing thin. The station's activities had become common knowledge among Florida's law enforcement agencies and local officials. The University of Miami grew increasingly uneasy about hosting what was effectively a paramilitary headquarters on...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/w/c/jmwave-wp/dhwc-jmwave-the-open-secret.mp3 0:06 5 full