(404-10239-10023 _ MEMORANDUM FOR: FI/D Staff REFERENCE So WH/C Memorandums #65-86 and #65-87 | bn Sass, 1 March 1965 WH.C 4 65-91 LX ~-2500 meen tame eae WH/2/Salvador ; General: “AMMUG/1 Debriefing - Report. #285 SUBJECT Specific: Agent Commu nications state he pemem te Wot sent WH/2/Salvador) i 1, The LN Department hes no means of direct radio communication with its own agents, Lf it wishes to send a message to an agent, it passes the message to the Diegal Department, and that office sends the message for LN, either ‘to the LN ayent directly if be has radio facilities for receiving it, .or to an Dlegal Department agent (with whom there is direct radio communication) for passage to the LN agent, The LN Department, when in 1663, for example, it wished to send 8 message to YON Sosa, passed the: message to the legal Departme-i, which sert it to an agent with radic communication in Guatemala to relay to him, 2, The Diegal Departmort has its own radio atation for communication with its agenis, The atatien is not in any of the headquarters’ bulldings; its actual location is net known, Even when the Illegal Department and the LN Department were com- bined in the MA Section and shared offices, the members of the section haruilting Wegal agents were very unwilling to talk about communications in any way, 3. In the Zapote Operation, agent commun! caticn broke down because of several factors, As planned, the three agents in the op-ration were to uge the same post office box as a cover address, but each agent was taught a separair w/w aysiem, The Chemicat Laboratory (LQ) nad a recurd of each system againgt ‘the agent's pseudonym, as well as examples of his hardwrittrg, al | under the heading of the Zapote Operation, a
wh 1 meeneetenm me serermnen we mee meee Fee tiated wel boca fb e2e- 4. It was planned that Roque DALTON, “MONTENEGRO, ” the principal agent in the Zapote Operation, was te de the letter writirg. the cther two agents were to pasa thelr information to him, The first letter received at DGI (Cuban Intelligence Service) headquarters was picked up at the accommedation address in Mexico and forwarded to Havana, where through sume corfusion it was misrouted to the Dlegal Department. From there it waa . egentually forwarded to LN, The Salvador Desk officer sent the letter in tts envelope to LQ requesting processing and identifying - the letter as belonging to the Zapote case, from SARAVIA (the “second agent), and ashing notification as to whether the letter contained secret writing. The LQ analysts, examining the letter, equated Zapote and "MONTENEGRO" (although SARAVIA was also part of the Zapote Operation) but checked with the desk officer and with him agreed (o develop the secret writing with the SARAVIA develcper, They beleved that the letter contained ‘ secret.writing because it wag folded with the legal text outside and the blank side inside as if to protect a secret text. When the letter was tested with the SARAVIA developer, however, no secret writing appeared, The techniclians then tried i¢ with the "MONTENEGRO" developer, but by this thine any secret wriling the letter contained had been destroyed by the incorrect process They identified the handwriting as that of SARAYVIA, and the text indicated that there was ans wenclosure. Mearwhile, "MAURICIO" had reported from Mexicc that DALTON had been arrested and deported from El Salvador, &. A second letter from SARAVIA was also received and tested with the SARAVIA develeper, Although there were in- dications that it contained a/w, nothing could be recovered, There was 70 6/w on the envelope, which had net been opened. A third letter from SARAYVIA, folded In the form to contain s/w, was also developed and showed signs of s/w but so faint that tt could not be read, The desk officer thought that perhaps when DALTON was arrested SARAVIA bad taken over his e/w acd was using UM instead of his own, The LQ analysta cmamented that SARAVTA was using for communication with DGI headquarters a System (iat he had been taught for use oaly in internal com- munications tn El Salvador ard that he should be told to use the proper system for beadquarters, The desk cffieer, however, had no means cf communteating with tne agent since the sw messages could not be read, A systent of recogaitior for gcaney qtoatd see
14-00000 a ~ i . . an , | 7 personal meetings with the agenta in El Salvador was included in the operational program for Zapote, but that meant an intermediary or the cage officer going to El Salvader for the contact. Since” "was lost, DALTON was ordered to Mexico and the desk officer ‘ a. . arranged: a trip there to get explanations of what had- happened. asd { , ee reestablish miail communication, When the desk officer went to ay : Lo | - +. Bfexico for. the meeting in March 1964, however, DALTON and , - the other Salvadorans he wanted to aee did not show up. The case , officer also wrote a stiff memorandum to PINEIRO complaining about the quality of the s/w aystems and training. His letter was returned with an endorgament by PINEIRO eaying that the matter wag being looked into and resulta could be expected. Up. to April 1964, however, nothing concrete had been achieved, as far as the desk officer knew; he heard nothing from LQ and was . unable to resolve the matter directly with the agent in Mexico ' because the agent never appeared for the scheduled meeting. { ( : 6. All agent sommunicationa from the field to accom- , modation addresges in Mexico or elsewhere are picked up and forwarded through the field station to headquarters without beiog opened, In the Sonia Operation, for example, when the agent wanted a meeting in Mexico, she sent a letter to hur accom- | modation addreag there; the lette. was picked up and forwarded to headquarterg; when it had been developed at headquarters, | the desk officer informed the case officer in Mexico of the Ume, date, and place set by iha agent for the meeting. In no case I does the field etation opan and read uny agent correspondence. 7. In the Zapote Operation, all agent personal documents ; were picked up during the training period acd ware photographed for the agent's file. When the agent left Cuba to return to his opera- tional area, the personal documents auch ae the cedula de identidad were returned to him. — = tet beso } dene DALTON was out of El Salvador and other ‘miedns’ af ‘com munteariog , atege ome DNettpe @ . aa ag, Seedy “ se meaty 4? : Dee fate mage . eee bE Eo Math ale MMII re atm. a ae