Date: 03/08/05 JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION FORM AGENCY INFORMATION Released under the John Kennedy WSsassination Records Ollection Act of 1992 AGENCY : CIA RECORD NUMBER : 104-10322-10279 RECORD SERIES : JFK AGENCY FILE NUMBER : CIA-EXEC REG FILES (44 USC 2107 Note). ~ oan e eee ee ee ee ee ased#:NWU 539217 Date: DOCUMENT INFORMATION He-22—-2017 AGENCY ORIGINATOR : CIA , FROM : KNOCHE. ASST. TO THE DIRECTOR TO : BELIN, DAVID. COMM ON CIA ACTIVITIE TITLE : LETTER:I AM ATTACHING, PER YOUR REQUEST OF 15 APRIL BACKGROUND , MATERIALS DATE : 05/13/1975 PAGES : 6 SUBJECTS : WARREN COMM. , BELIN, DAVID ‘ DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER CLASSIFICATION : SECRET RESTRICTIONS ; 1B CURRENT STATUS : RELEASED IN PART PUBLIC - RELEASED WITH DELETIONS DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 03/29/99 COMMENTS : JFK-M-13 : F10 : 1999.03.29.09:47:49:390120 : INCLUDES 2 COPIES OF LETTER, TAB A ATTACHMENT AND COVER MEMO FORM. FOLDER TITLE:WARREN COMMISSION/NEW ASSASSINATION RECORD (OSWALD) . [R] - ITEM IS RESTRICTED 104-10322-10279 HW 53217 DBocld: 32403633 Page 1
MEMORANDUM FOR: Inspector General Don : lam returning this to you for at least ._ temporary safe-keeping.. Please see.a copy \ of my letter of this date to David Belin in which I invite him to check with us if.he wants further details. I have. this. book in mind. . ; “ Attachments:. a/s . 13 May 1975 (DATE) FORM. NO.. REPLACES FORM 10-101 101. (47) 1 auG 54 1M 4" wich may BE USED. . 4. fa oat HW 53217 DBocld:324036833 Page 2?
HW 53217 CentraL inteLuic “Ee AG ENCY OrriceE oF THE DIRECTOR Mr. David W. Belin Executive Director Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States Dear Mr. Belin: 1 3 may 1975 Lam attaching, per your request of 15 April, background materials relating to certain questions relating to Oswald and the Warren Commission. Tab A is a classified Secret memorandum responsive to ) your request. fied version,. Tab B is an unclassi- . which you can use as you see fit -- in whatever report you are preparing on the subject. _ Additional details are available in the Office of the Inspector General should you wish to pursue this in greater depth. Attachment: a/s EHKnoche: rrh:5/13 /75- Orig:- Mr. Belin wlatt Distribution: (s 1 = OGC 1 -I1G pt \ -wo/att wo/att - Knoche Chrono wo/att - ' Comm ‘Correspondence - Belin Letter Request 15 A Warren Commission DoclId: 327403833 Page 3 , Faithfully yours, E. H. Knoche Assistant to the Director wo/att pril watt ® x ae
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY as . 4 pom OFFICE oF THE DIRECTOR 7 ped {s [2 Mr. David W. Belin Executive Director Commission on CIA Activities Within the United.States Dear Mr. Belin: lam attaching, per your request of 15 April, background materials relating to certain questions relating to Oswald and the Warren Commission. Tad A is a classified Secret memorandum responsive to your request. Tab B is an unclassi- fied version, . which you can use as you see fit in whatever report you are prepaying on the subject. Additional details are available in the Office of the Inspector General should you wish to pursue this in greater depth. Faithfully yours, . E. H. Knoche Assistant to the Director “Attachment: a/s HW 53217 DBocld:32403833 Page 4
2 May 1975 MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy chief, ‘Operations: Staff SUBJECT 8. Review of Agency Holdings: regarding. a : Photograph of Unidentified Individual ‘“im Mexico City published by the ‘Warren Commission ‘REFERENCE ‘3s Letter dated.15 April 1975 hy ” 5° Mr. David W. .Belin, Executive Director ° of the Commission on CIA Activities > within the United States, to *“ Mr. EL Henry Knoche -(copy attached to accompany ing report) le. This is further to,. and in completion of, my interim memorandum of a few weeks: ago. ~ 2. The. attachment isa detailed review in narrative, _ chronological: ‘order=.-together- with’. appropriate comment-— ary -— of. our extensive holdings on the OSWALD case that have a bearing on the matter of photographs taken by Mexico. City: Station on 1, 4 and 15. October 1963 of an Unidentified. Individual. As: a consequence of a combina- tion: of.analytical error, misjudgement and under the stress of an urgent desire to.contribute to the develop- ment of the investigation of the assassination, a cropped version of one of the photographs of the Unidentified Individual was introduced into the chain of evidence in. the OSWALD case on 23 November 1963 by an FBI representative in, Dallas. The successive vicissi- tudes which have now made this event a cause celebre right down to the present moment are detailed in the -narrative..: SECRET PANO et BY SEES HW 53217 DBocld:32403833 Page 5
3. The attached report is not intended to be an "answer. to the Fensterwald/O'Toole article which Mr. Belin attaches to his memorandum. (I have prepared a paragraph- by-paragraph refutation and comment on that article, which I believe is more appropriately handled by a sepa- rate memorandum to Mr. Belin, and I will prepare this as a memorandum if that is desired.) . 4. The point of the referenced memorandum is that consideration should be given now to "whether or, not the entire matter can be fully disclosed at this time." This submission is designed to make it possible for you, the IG and others whom you may desire to consult to make this decision. The narrative-interpretive summary has been put together in such.a way that it. discloses no cyptonyms, pseudonyms or other CIA jargon. However, its contents. go well beyond what has been released to the public thus far in the Warren Commission documentation. This point must be borne :in mind in making a decision on Mr. Belin's question. To remove any question in anybody's mind about our good faith in this matter, the narrative is backed up by copies of actual documentation from our files. [It seems to me necessary,-in reply to Mr. Belin, that he or his representative review the documentation that backs up the narrative. The documentation has not been keyed into the narrative presentation, but it follows the chronologi- cal order of presentation from 9 October into the latest developments in the matter, and there is an overall index to facilitate reference to individual items. (NB: There is only one copy of this collection; this is it. oT 5. . As noted above, one of the photographs taken in Mexico City. on 4 October 1963 was. introduced into the Warren Commission ‘pubtic record.: : However; it was..intro- duced -into»that. record in two cropped versions. The Warren Commission and its staff were made fully aware in _ the course of their inquiry at Headquarters and in Mexico City of the origins of the photograph, the fact © that we had additional photographs of the same individual taken at different times in Mexico City and on the basis of full knowledge of these facts reached their own con- clusions regarding the irrelevance of the photograph to OSWALD and the assassination.. 6. In fact, we actually hold twelve different photo- . graphs of the Unidentified Individual. Each of these age /S ' reproduced in the collected documentation backing up the narrative report (see Items 25 - 27). Chief, LA Division, 2 HW 53217 DBocld:32403633 Page 6
had indicated in writing to DC/OPS Staff, that he has no objection for Mr. Belin to do whatever is desired with these photographs at. this time. It should be noted that Mr. Fensterwald in 1971 - 1972 was actually shown, by Mr. Houston during a visit to the Agency, two. of the twelve photographs, other than the one already published in the Warren Commission report. (It is these two that: he has published in The New York Review of Books article — which Mr. Belin attaches to his memorandum.) ; 7. It seems. to ‘te that whoever makes a decision on . whether the entire matter can be fully disclosed at this time. should. bear. in.mind that. a subsidiary decision must lso be made,.i.e., whether to crop: or. otherwise fuzz up i the: background:of the photographs or, alternatively, to publish. the entire run of the photographs. for the first. ... time: without taking out the background... Obviously, none of these questions. apply to the passage: of this material | to Mr. Belin and the Rockefeller..Commission itself. I think they should see the entire documentation as it stands. Perhaps after that, the question of what could be discussed and the question of “how?" and “how much?" could be taken up . with Mr. Belin. himself. My personal. recommendation .is that the more we can say about this. matter in.a.fully.open and final. manner, the better off we will be.as an Agency. But it is my understanding | . that there are still sensitive.aspects. deriving from the fact that the Operation which produced the photographs was jointly. run with Mexican liaison and as.a consequence publication at this. time would’ create additional. problems at that: level. ‘in Mexico. Also, it. should be notéd that > _ the Ambassador, . ‘according. to: Win Scott's. ‘memorandum to. J.C. King*on'22 November 1963. (see: Ftem 8 in the backup documentation) ; ' ‘allegedly played a direct: role in the - decision .to’ put the photographs into*the hands of the. FBI ‘in Dallas‘la terally from the Field. As far as I know, there -has ‘not'-been. anything published: about this aspect at any time..in’the past nor’ have we had any discussions with the State Department about that asyect of the matter. Raymond G. Rocca. Attachments: as stated HW 53217 DBocld:32403633 Page fT