Doc ID: 6879087
Doc Ref ID: A4269472
AGENCY: NSA
JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM
IDENTIFICATION FORM
AGENCY INFORMATION
RECORD NUMBER: 144-10001-10212
RECORDS SERIES :
AGENCY FILE NUMBER :
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
ORIGINATOR : NSA
FROM DIRNSA-LOWMAN CONGRESSIONAL REVIEWS
TO DASD (INTEL)
TITLE :
SSC QUERIES CONCERNING WARREN COMMISSION
DATE: 01/26/76
PAGES
SUBJECTS :
INFORMATION IN RESPONSE TO QUANBECK'S LETTER
DOCUMENT TYPE: MEMORANDUM
CLASSIFICATION : +
RESTRICTIONS : 1B
CURRENT STATUS: X
DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 07/01/97
OPENING CRITERIA
ORIGINATING AGENCY'S DETERMINATION REQUIRED
COMMENTS
CONTAINS SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION
[R] ITEM IS RESTRICTED
DATE: 09/11/97
PAGE: 1
Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK, SEN.
RFK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.
Doc ID: 6879087"
APARTME
426947
Cerro A4269
by W
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
CENTRAL SECURITY SERVICE
FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, MARYLAND 20755
Serial:
OCAMER
MERICA
N0078
26 January 1976
D/DIR
TOP SECRET
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY
OF DEFENSE (INTELLIGENCE)
SUBJECT: Senate Select Committee Queries to NSA Concerning
the Warren Commission
Reference your letter dated 14 January 1976 transmitting
a request from Mr. Alton Quanbeck of the Senate Select
Committee Staff. The following information is provided in
response to Mr. Quanbeck's letter, keyed by paragraph to
his letter (inclosed see underlined portions). Most of
the information was made available to the SSC Staff, Mr.
Jim Johnson, during an interview with Dr. Louis Tordella
on 20 January 1976.
Para. 1.
-
-
NSA requested permission to retain
photocopies of those reports on which we had worked merely
as record copies of our efforts on behalf of the Commission.
It was felt that if a question should arise at that time
concerning what analytic efforts had been involved and the
number of manhours expended, a record copy would prove useful.
No operational use was made of these documents except to
hold them on file for a period of time which cannot now be
determined. To the best of our present knowledge, the photo-
copies have now been destroyed. Absolutely no results
relevant to the assassination were obtained through NSA's
analytic look at the exhibits. The Commission, in the person
of Mr. Allan Dulles, had asked Dr. Tordella, informally, to
review the exhibits for any secret writing or codes which
might have been contained in the documents. Dr. Tordella,
after causing a careful review of the documents by NSA crypt-
analysts, reported verbally to Mr. Dulles and other Commission
members that nothing whatsoever had been achieved by the
analytic effort. No written reply was submitted.
Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK,
SEN. RFK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.
Classified by DIRNSA/CHCSS (NSA/CSSM 123-2)
Exempt from GDS, EO 11072, 01
Declassify Upon Notification by the Originator
ComprarA
APPENDED DOCUMENTS CONTAIN
ORKUAL
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Para. 2. NSA is uncertain as to what is precisely
meant by these comments, but we assume that the comments on
names refer to our biographic files which are maintained on
foreign personalities of potential intelligence significance.
As the Committee knows, these biographic files are maintained
(now at CIA incidentally) as analytic support. It is also
possible that the Commission was referring to the fact that
names are frequently seen in traffic collected for foreign
intelligence purposes and therefore NSA might have access
to foreign names not otherwise available to the Intelligence
Community.
-
Para. 3. It may well be that CIA did obtain such
transmissions and pass them to NSA for analysis, but no one
presently working that analytic area recalls such a request.
Discussions with Dr. Tordella also failed to shed any light
on this subject. There are no files or records which we have
been able to locate from that time frame which would sub-
stantiate such a claim. In fact, the only file the responsible
analytic group has been able to locate concerning a request
from the Warren Commission deals with a file compiled from
open sources citing major dates in the last months of Oswald's
life. Presumably the date file was to be compared with NSA
product on/about the key dates in the hope that something
could be deduced. The file does not contain any "hits."
The analysts who performed this effort have since retired.
The informal request from Mr. Dulles is
the known total extent of NSA's role in assisting in the
investigation. The file discussed in Paragraph 3 is the only
file thus far recovered. There is no information which can
now be identified which was developed from Cuban or Soviet
transmissions relating to the assassination.
Para. 4.
-
Para. 5. We have no information on this subject
at all. However, pursuant to the subject raised during the
Tordella interview, we have searched our files manually,
and as Mr. Lowman agreed during the Tordella interview, we
have recovered three product reports (Inclosures 2 through
4) which show that Cuban military forces did go on alert
immediately after the assassination. There is no SIGINT
evidence, however, that the Cuban forces were alerted prior
to the assassination, thereby suggesting that they had prior
knowledge of the event.
Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK,
SEN. RFK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.
2
TOP
HARDLE VIA GAZET
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Para. 6. No hard copy material of any kind was
provided to the Commission (see Para. 1).
Dand forman
DAVID D. LOWMAN
Special Assistant
to the Director
for Congressional Reviews
4 Incls:
a/s
Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK,
SEN. RFK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.
?
3
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(Less Incis)
D/DIR
ESS
ESS/R
ESS, Mr. Lowman
G, Mr. Peksa
NCRDEF
A, Miss Caracristi (Less Incls)
L221
"
Serial: N0078
M/R: Inclosures 2 through 4 are product reports numbered
2/0/CURUJ/R66-63, 2/0/
CUN/R196-63 and 2/0/CUJ/R58-63.
j
Frank Foster/0/ESS/3161s/26 Jan 76/kjb
for
Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK,
SEN. RFK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.