sO 22 April 1975 MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Chief, Operations Staff SUBJECT ' : Interim Reply to Questions by . David W. Belin REFERENCE . : Memorandum. by David W. Belin to - Mr. E. Henry Knoche, 15 April 1975. (This memorandum sets out five questions dealing with various aspects of informa- tion possibly heald by the Agency relating te its alleged involvement in planning the assasSination of Fidel CASTRO.) he 1. This is an interim reply based on a comprehensive, but as yet incomplete, review of materials held by CIOPS in the OSWALD 201 (S58 volumes). On the basis of this material we cannot respond for the Agency to Mr. Belin's questions because the OSWALD file does not contain any significant proportion of WAVE or other Agency material dealing with emigre activity. Our holdings on that aspect of the question reflect solely what was relevant to the Kennedy assassination as an act performed by OSWALD. It will be necessary, there- , fore, for LA Division to make a considerable input to the { finalized responses. f 2. At this point our tentative, brief answers to the five questions stipulated by Mr. Belin are as follows (the responses are keyed to the numbering of Mr. Belin's questions). a. Question 1. As far as we can tell from all of the materials at our disposition, no one discussed any alleged pian {to assassinate Fidel CASTRO_with the Warren Commission. As far as our materials show, there were no such plans underway or known to us in CI Staff, as the working-level point of contact with the Warren Commission. There is no evidence that anyone known to our records made a decision not to tell the Warren Commission anything about this topic or anything else._
L Cs Qur records show «at every point a marked intent to make as much available to the Commission as was consistent with the security of ongoing operations. (7 b. Question 2. We have no evidence in our materials . indicating CASTRO's knowledge or the possession of documenta- : tion of alleged assassination plans directed against him. c. Question 3. We are able to be affirmatively responsive to this question. Daniel HARKER filed a report from Havana of an informal interview given to him at a Brazilian Embassy reception’on Saturday, 7 September 1963. This was not a public speech. The HARKER item was variously played by newspapers in the United States as is clear from the attached transcriptions of the gist of items we have ° located in two newspapers, The Washington Star (which played up the GOLDWATER, political aspects) and the Times Picayune of New Orleans (which emphasized the physical threat to U-S. leadership). We have not checked the Dallas newspapers. The New York Times published a UPI item entirely different in emphasis from the AP item, omitting any reference to*™ CASTRO's warning to U.S. leadership. And the Washington Post j did a summary which also omitted any reference to the threat- 7 ening aspects of CASTRO's interview. We have been unabie to secure photographic copies of the Star and Times Picayune coverage, but the partial transcriptions attached are accurate. As far as we know, CASTRO made no other public statement of that kind prior to 22 November 1963. d. vestion 4. Our records contain no direct information that any Foreign government or foreign group was considering possible assassination of an American leader._ Guatemala Station forwarded a duplicate copy of a raw report dated 5 January 1962, dealing with a year-end CPG cell meeting. “However, it should be noted that on. 9 January 1964 | oe oe _ ee vA participant. is hoted as stating: "We need not preoccupy ourselves over i #the politics of President Kennedy because we know, according é to prognostication, that he will die within the present year i [1962}." to I | | It should be noted that this item of raw report- i ing was received after the Kennedy assassination., We have no indication thus far in the file as to whether any action
Of: | (4 ¢ was taken on the item with the Warren Commission. This will have to be gone into with the Division. . . — -_————_— eee . . _@. Question 5. We have no indication in our records that there was any communication to President Johnson regarding the matter dealt with by this question. 3. The gist of these replies was taken up directly with Mr. Belin in a conversation which took place this morning from 10:30 - 12:15. rayfontG Rocca Counter Intelligence Operations _ « - he Attachments: Gist of newspaper items