157-10005-10224
"J
2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992
Date: 10/01/93
Page: 1
JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM
IDENTIFICATION FORM
AGENCY INFORMATION
AGENCY: SSCIA
RECORD NUMBER: 157-10005-10224
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TO :
TITLE :
TRANSCRIPT/REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS WITH EXHIBITS
DATE: 06/02/75
PAGES: 111
SUBJECTS :
HOUSTON, LAWRENCE - EXECUTIVE SESSION COMMITTEE MEETING
HOUSTON WAS FORMER CIA EMPLOYEE FROM 1947-1973
CIA OPERATIONS WITH REGARD TO CASTRO, FIDEL
DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT
CLASSIFICATION : T
RESTRICTIONS : REFERRED
CURRENT STATUS : P
DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 10/01/93
OPENING CRITERIA :
BOX 248-1
COMMENTS :
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WARD & PAUL
amt
Phone (Area 202) 544-6000
TOP SECRET
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1 trouble come see you?
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Mr. Houston. Oh, no, there's a number of times.
For
instance, I think it was back in the '50's, there's a lot of
them, but a couple might illustrate in those days we were
doing a good deal of political action abroad in the sense of
giving guidance to factions in foreign countries that U.S.
policy favored in organizing elections. I don't mean in
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rigging them, but how to get down to the grass roots, the old-
fashioned political advice on how to run a political campaign.
We had
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We didn't have many trained officers on this.
one or two who were excellent and they wanted more,
and they
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which one I have forgotten
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came to me with the proposition that -- this was an election year,
that we put officers in both the
Republican and Democratic campaign parties to get the practical
experience, and I advised
actually, I went over and talked
with Malcolm Wilkie, who was then the legal counsel in the
Department of Justice, and this was most ill-advisable, and I
went back and they dropped the project.
More recently, our communication fellows down in Virginia
found they could easily monitor (long distance telephone,
21 conversations] from Latin American to Canada, and in some cases
to New York, and these frequently carried conversations J
involving (narcotics) in great detail. They had no telephone
discipline at all, security discipline on the telephone].
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25 they would even give the name of the person who's going to
And
410 First Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003
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receive the narcotics and where.
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However, this immediately got us into an internal security
3 and a police function. I told them they had to drop it, and
they did.
And it's too bad, because nobody else has found a way
5 of doing it, and this information is floating over our heads
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00
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right now and we cannot use it.
Mr. Schwarz. Have there been any instances where you or
your office advised the Agency that it should not do something
when nevertheless the Agency went ahead and did it?
Mr. Houston. I should think I would remember an occasion
like that, but I don't.
Senator Mondale. Thank you.
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Mr. Schwarz.
Mr. Houston, with the Senator absent, you
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don't have to go ahead.
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(Senator Mondale left the hearing room.)
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Mr. Houston. Fine, fine.
Mr. Schwarz. I'm going to go on to another subject.
Does anyone else have anything else about the Robert Kennedy
meeting?
Mr. Kirbow. I have only one other question, and perhaps
more about the leadership of the Agency.
Mr. Houston, your reputation over the some twenty-six
twenty-eight years you were General Counsel was one of intense
loyalty to the Director and the Deputy Director of the Agency.
Mr. Houston. That is correct.
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1 chest operator, but so far as I know he always operated in the
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line of command, and something like this I think I should have
3 been consulted, but I can understand the operator's viewpoint.
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They might have felt there were reasons why I should not be
consulted.
But just what went on in the line of command between
Harvey and the Director I just cannot fathom this.
Mr. Schwarz. Harvey worked for Helms at the time, did
he not?
Mr. Houston. That's right.
And what was the nature of their relationship
as you understood it?
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Mr. Schwarz.
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Mr. Houston. They were not too compatible as people, but
I have never known that there was any difficulty in complying
with the chain of command. I wouldn't necessarily have known
if there had been, but I didn't know it.
Mr. Wides. And Harvey had worked for Mr. Helms in Berlin?
Mr. Houston. He had been Chief of Station in Berlin,
he had been Chief of Station in Rome, and I think it was after
the Rome assignment he came back and took over the staff.
Mr. Wides. But in connection with some of the operations
like the Berlin Tunnel and other intelligence operations he
had a pretty close-working relationship with Mr. Helms?
Mr. Houston. They were all in the DDP and certainly
anything of the importance of the Berlin Tunnel, they
would be
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could you think of anything which would be of benefit to this
Committee that we have not inquired into?
Mr. Houston. The only thing I thought you might ask that
I thought you were going to mention it
somewhere, and this is
very vague in my mind, both where I heard it, in what context,
and what the timing of the event was, but I have heard and I am
sure you must have heard of the delivery of a sniper's rifle
to the Embassy in Havanna, which may have been intended for
some sort of assassination attempt.
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Mr. Schwarz.
The Embassy when we still had an Embassy
11 there?
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Mr. Houston.
It was apparently when we still had
the
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Embassy.
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Mr. Kirbow.
Was this a couched delivery, covert
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delivery, much like the later deliveries into the Dominican
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Republic?
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Mr. Houston. I think so.
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I don't know much about it. I just, through a vague
recollection, I don't know any details or any specifics, it's
one of the things you pick up.
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Mr. Kirbow. When would that have been?
I am trying to
date when we no longer had an Embassy there.
Mr. Wides.
Mr. Noll, I think Mr. Noll was the Station
Chief, Jim Noll, and I believe he left in late 1959.
Mr. Kirbow. Was that about the correct time?
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