[SECRET + - 10 Feb n curce: ilotes made by A. Goodpesture Yor John Leader, IG Staff Suoject:; Background on Mexico Station Support Assets (Coverage of Soviet and Cuban Enbassies) 1. ‘Unilateral coverage. From the time the Mexico Se ation vas opened in April 1947° Aby Bill Doyle) until arrival of Win Scott as Cos in 1958, Charles Anderson III (stil in LA/HQ) had developed & support apparatus to mies exploit leads ‘from the Soviet Enbassy. This umbrella type project _(LIFEAT) consisted of mul-td Line phone taps, three photo sites, a mobile surveillance team and a mail intercept operation, a. -Fhone taps were placed by! ¢ an ‘employee of the telephone company | Ratang el Us PRGA CA Who ‘va si han dled by ys WILSTED (pseudo). The number of lines - tapped was lined Soy availability of a listening post nearby (since the taps were not made in the main central) and English/ Spanish (Soviet, Polish, Czech, ete) transcribers. Generally these agents (mostly Mexican or Mexican Anerican) were related (which the station at that time felt was £00d security in that if they talked about shop, they would talk to each other.) b. Three photo sites were handled by Anderson with the help of Harry Mahoney (retired, living in Chicago) and TDY TSD people checking the best type of camera, film, and concealment devices, These had sub-cripts under LIFEAT (LIMITED, LILYRIC, and LICALIA). LIMITED wes a fixed site pang opposite across the street from the front gate of the Soviet Embassy which had both a vehicle and foot entrance. The Soviet gate was on the NorthVest corner.of their compound and LIMITED was diagonally across a double barrelled street on the Souths Ss San Fawn sory ae ie, ~ [Seber . é be a er a ee ee ee net anette er pertemnmnnrenrenamne eter IE eG tere Sf seater ce * " pana 7 7 7" " in . . .
. the American School). ‘Ranon, ‘collected the film eetkestimiebiwetdcten from LIMIT aN. ‘public by the Warren Commission. The rhoto operators were moved to another apt p Sf p \ Ramon Alvarez, (Mexican citizen of U.S. mother. ho taught elerentary | level. at “Holt - resigned) could not handle the volume and as the unprocessed film began 2 , 4 r hy earn 2- SEGRE] that block. LIMITED was the first bese ard it onerated strictly on an ex erinental basis in the early stages, I think the iexi Station bought one storey — this property (a/Syanish Colonial stone house) through LIMOUSINE (check to be sure). Later this house tegan to fall apart. This base was closed vhen the Station got word thet the photo of "uniden man" was being released to the nearby. The property was sold (under an operational agreement with LIMOUSIVE for a long tern lease on the top floor of a new apartament blding to be built on this site). "-LILYRIC Was planned 2s an alternate photo base to LIMITED. It was in an upper storey (3rd floor ~check) on the sane side of the street as LIMITED ED but in the middle of the block South. It had a slantéd view of the front gate of the Soviet Embassy, The agents in LECTED and LILYRIC (both Mexican fanilies) as far as we knew, were not acquainted with each other. LILYRIG was a | rented apartaent. LICALLA, the third photo site, was located in one of a‘row of four houses on the South side of the Soviet Enbassy compound _ which the Mexico Station purchased in about 1958 (check date), also using LIMOUSINE as the ; eurchaser (check). This site overlooked the back garden of the Soviet Enbassy compound. The purpose of this operation was ta get good identification photographs of the Soviet personnel (who at thet time were largely unidentified in Mexico Station records). The three photo sites were handled by and LILYRIC three times a week. His sister's husband, } Carlos (Meceican doctor) | developed and printea the film into 8x10 contact print strips. The master plan was for LICALLA film to. ce processed, inside. ISD man from 1957 to 1959: (Harper to accumulate, the inside CO (Mahoney) becane Gisgusted and tsok the film out for: Ramon's' brather-in-law to process (probably early 1959). Thus: Ranon became the handler for all three photo hases. A sensitive staff D monitoring operation [SECRET 6000165 . Ce e e . . . we Se cess gh wot mG oe FED Get era SERA pe ae =
_5- SECRET was run out of another ohe of these houses (crypt for the four houses was LUST, 1, ote). this was ha:dled by Glen WIDDEN (outside TSD officer} and Mahoney using HQ TDY teams for monitoring. This operation was also seperate from LICALLA, The two houses in between were rented to unsustecting tenants. i ec, Hobile surveillance ves developed by Anderson and later placed | . “under Mahoney and Joseph Sancho. This team consisted of 2 half dozen or : sO agents who used three to Pour late model cars end a panel truck (which could be used on stake outs for. photo covera:. -e). The plan v was to activate this group by radio (from LIMITED BASE) when someone | of interest left art gate and stay With then. 7 nti they 1 made their meetings, These agents knew about the LITE BASE ce@ause they had LIMITED chotos for identification purposes. _ this’ worked fairly well until about the niddle of 1958 (check date) ; when one of the surveillance egents bob too close to his target and ' was arrested by the Mexican transit police and turned over to the Mexican Secret Service, ‘By the time the Stetion could arrange through a cleared attorney to bail hin out ¢ (auaa Austin of the Goodrich, 5 or Little and Riquelme | firm), the agent: had identified Sancho (who 1 wes evacuated across the border at Nogales by Bob Shaw) and the inside———--[-" . phone number of Mahoney (who was subsequently replaced oy Louis Puckett), AS a result of this flap, the LIFEAT project was broken up into several others. The agents were not changed but were given Frank — new crypts. /Estancona and (Peggy age ard/ replaced Andersén 3 in handling surveillance team (LIENTRAP) and the photo bases through Remon] de LIBIGHT was the crypt used for a pnilateral (originally), mail intercept handled by Charlie Anderson III, “he acent. (Mexican) hag @ semi official status and arranged to obtain s selected letters froa!’ “Tecrer | | | | i the (anileteral) phone taps. Puckett replaced } sahoney and handled the | | | " C000165. -
am Swe be — ef be POSAAT OE a , a sub-agent in the vostal system (I think at the airport). His case’ officers Alfonso Spera, vere leter/Puckett, Rovert Feldmann, end Alan White wy . _ oe . * + 2. Liaison coverage was unreliable ard insecure as charae erized by the nature f the Mexican services. at that time. “The Mexican DF3 (Direction of Federal Security) with which we dealt was 8 hip pocket srouo. run out of the iinis stry Nae Of Government. This ilinistry snent a major part of its time on control of — 3 . foreigners and political investigations. Their azents were wietotis Ver al ~& 2 . > 2 4 corrupt extortionists. | Robert Helberg establ ished contact with one of then / Ce oy Levine De Leon. (later LIFIRE group) in about 1950 or 51. He gave them some training (a group of about five surveillance types) {in travel “control working» ‘the airport as well as. file ‘searches of names fron. DFS Hgtrs | where) the files vere poorly organized and often inaccurate, Now and then, however, some useful information vas developed but it could not be Gepended upon. ‘Helberg | was “oxi co}, Mahoney, Thomas replaced by Fai Roettinger, “(resigned and ‘remained “in Hazlitt, and Rooert Feldmann. évt qt. Flo Etton ) During 1958, Win Scott met socially some of: the (Ghronies of the) Bex xiean ‘President. elect, “Adolfo Lopez } Mateos During this period, the Ue S. Ambassador Robert C. Hill ‘(reflecting the policy of then See State J. F. Dulles) a? was energetic in organizing groups to UPiont communism" One of these seeds ~ grew into a proposal ‘Miguel | Aleran (ire s son of former vr Mexi- President), acting (for Lopez Mateos, made to Win Scott for a joint éelephone tep operation, This project (LIE WOY) went through about four distressing years of a shakedown, $ The, Mexican in ‘control. “(LIELEGANT) was inexperienced, old, and greedy. His son (camvor-2) Was a masterpiece of deceit and corruption. LIELEGANT also manipulated control over the principal agent of LIBIGHT ‘pail intercepts » The and John (TSD training officer for surveillance and head of the listening» post where thirty telechone lines would connect as well as a transcription room [SEEN negroes men mete Beene +
ERT ep ie Reser eae wheter as tr oom BOM wim he meen sapien m Ree eananetentne ney ointment nLerEPacNAeE ne Ube eaten ee nem ee etat cy$Me.foen arc Jans 7 was : : . staffed cy Me.icen erny officers.) Initially the station tried to net every demand nade by the Mexicans.) Both ‘Smith iend John hed language difficulties and L9 oa rersonal problems associated with being outside the ststion é SO thet the” Mexicans” (were virtually unccntrollavle, spendi ¢ noney as. they pleased, squirrelling away > equipment at enornous costs, and neglecting their part of the bargainiin the > fproduction | of" tra ranscripts s oF plac cing taps which we wanted; pera was replaced 4 by Jack Brady “Wino found himself in the same pincer mover ant of having Scott approve @ request by LIELEGANT that Brady had turned dow by the son, LIES VOY~2.. Finally when the cost became exhorbitant and there was Litt tle to “show for it, the project was revarped. (Smith jana John returned to the U.S. and were replaced by a TSD officer, Charles Flick, who was “put inside the listening post to maintain -Brady was reassigned to other duties pendirg a transfer. the equipment. / Scott toox over the project as case officer meetir ng with LIELEGANT. vl - hal UG! . . He designated Ann Goodpasture to meet. Gas B with Flick for routine supervision of the Listening post, picking up transcripts and tapes. Goodpasture hed no deal ingewith the Mexicans Jexcept when Scott was il] or cut of town, Generally, "all decisions were made by Scott. This was about late 1961. | “3. My menory is a little vague about the origins of the Cuban Enbassy but i think the staff first developed from a pro-Castro group celebrating on New Years eve 1959. As I recall, it was a makeshift arrangenent of volunteers through most of 1960 and 61 with Tom Hazlitt producing voluminous reports on their activities and recruitirg egents right. and left anong Cuban nationals in Mexico City. Le Personnel assignments. Of interest to us now is who was in Mexico during the period prior to Oswald's visit and the subsequent investigation by the warren Commission, To detersaine wro vas there and wnat they were doing I have grouped persons tozether chronologically with areas of their assignment loreal as the covering £ rom,1950 ‘to 1969 so thet i€xnteer nanes pop up, one can tell what Leb wee Feriod they were in Mexico and their assignments: ‘at the vin SECRET, tere 0000168
14-00egoe sere GT . 132 - oO Cbd 3 i 8/56-6/69 COS Winston M. Scott (deceased) pcos. 7/56 — 7/58 iguez (retired) 10/58 - 12/62 (retired) 6/63 ~ 9/65 an White (retired)— 10/65.- 1969 Stanley Watson (retired in Mexico) °° COVERT ACTION ©... (Prior to 1954} Howard Hunt (retired) £12/540— 7/58 Williard Hill (resigned) r 12/56 - 9/6 Stannard Short. (retired) oo Dew & . ' Chief . ‘9/6 - 3/64 David Phillips C/(retired) ~ 8/62 ~ 9/64 4 sst ~ 2/64 - 6/65 James Flannery C/(retired) —. 9/64, - 11/66 Harold Dalghren Asst 10/65 ~ 1967. Stanley Watson C/(retired) - 66 — 68 68 - 71. (Joseph SmithG(retired in Mexico) CUBA OPERATIONS - 56 — 4/62 Thomas Hazlitt Chief 2/60 - 4/62 ;Tack Stevart (retired Conta Rica)} 4/63 ~ 4/65 Bob Shaw Chief — 9/63 - 7/65 Ray Swider = . _ 10/63 - 5/65 Lorna Mackay Cartinrct} 8/€% - 6/65 David Phillips Chief (astired}— 9/65 - 10/68 Joseph Piccolo. 10/65 ~ 12/67 Peggy Maggart i Zo . SOVIET TARGET 6/57 - 10/59 Louise Lyon Gtosd) 6/62 - 1/67 Prentice Marheine’ (ps) 9/59- 8/65 (Herbert Manel'l) Chief - 9/59 - 8/65 /Parbara Manell » 5/64 - 7/66 William Bright /4/65 - 11/67 Cynthia Hausmenn. 6/65 - 7/67 Alice Pittinger 7/65 — 4/69 Paul Dillon Chief SOVIET TPANSCRIBERS 6/56 - 8/58 Morris Gordon (resigned) 6/58 ~ 6/63 George Misko — 6/63 ~ 70 Boris Tarasoff (retired in Mexico) ee qos ne tp “ee sepmarsomncanenemane = (retired ?) Outside CO" Pe MM oS RE A a CUE Foe, ° EE EO MURAD EEO oy 2 eet ee ey aoe womens
7 . . -~ ye & “e . . . > > UPPORT ASSETS ‘Unileteral phono teps , | BL55-—~ £/60 Peggy Vaggard Asst} “David YILSTED ( a Sst s) Lf/56 - 1/62 Frank E stancona Chief | retired in Mexieo- . ° 2/60 — 10/64 Thomas Keenan — 9/6 - 12/67 Hickael Farner 798-2 - 1961 Cherles Anderson III Chief 49-71 F0utside co FORD OOF Ge OR ig go Unilateral; photo Cubans 6/59 ~ 4/64 Robert ‘Qambernardi (resigned Yexico) 7/59 ~ 6/62 (Richard Spathar ‘TSD’ (retired) Gaitatarel’ photo Soviets ad 3/54. - 2/59 Harry cs "Mahoney 56 ~ 68 OQutsida Agent (retired Chicako) | - {Ramon | Alvarea\ (resigned in Mexico) 5/57 - 8/64 A. Goodpasture (alternate CO — oe and internal routing) . 5/58 - 6/63 Louis D. Puckett (retired) | f. fy 3/63 - 10/63 Thomas Keenan =~ ‘Robart HW. Fe ldmann Rite w! 65 - 65 Willian Bright a . bier ve . a SO a Trane = (laison spon 1@ taps 959 - - 1969 Winston Scott (deceased) -959 - 1960 Alfonso Spera (retired) -959 - 1960 (furner Smith (outside, now retired) 959°: - 1960 John’ ~~ (Training reps resigned} .360- 1961 John Brady (retired) 562 —~1968 A, Gcodpasture ~- 961-1971 Charles Flick (outside TSD Staff Agent - retired) — (g2ison)— surveillance Ordor “1954, Robert Helberg (retired) “f54 _ 1199 Harry Mehoney (retired) 5? - 196 Thomas Hazlitt »  -: . ) 2/62 367 Robert Feldmann Cu cid: SD Outside wit ~ /58 - 12/63 Glen Widden (retired) — /59 -4/64, Joseph iM. Resigno (ps) Unit blown and closed dow a eres nan ! 6000470 -
About nid 1962 (check date) Lititvoy ‘ou utsid le Hexi rept asked ) (for the\ telephone nunbers of the Soviet, Cuban, and Satellite Esbassies. With ‘this forevarning, . LIFEAT: ((unileterel coverage) vest ‘disconnected, ane a (as. I recall, “the Hestcans) a ~ 53 2 Polish, ~ ‘ona 1 Yugoslav line. The ——- monitor who rede short summaries of resume which was received each day arourd § a. connected 5 Cuban lines, 5 Soviet lines, _ However, \, 3 Czech, basehouse listening post had a live interesting conversations for a daily ° (passed by Flick to Goodsasture to get to Scott before 9.a.m.) Later (when the reel was completely recorded) full transcripts were typed and passed to the stetion in the same way, however, there was usually 2 time lag of a day or so, Those transcripts which hdd Russien or another lenguege besides Ss panish or English vent out of the listening post the day after the transcript (of other ty ped, ed end typed. conversations on the reel)vas. | ‘These reels vere taken to another location where they were translated In the case of the Russien translations, Boris Tarasoff usually ran about a week behind the date of the conversation because of the volume of --Russian conversetions among the ssenbers of the Soviet Ex er “ Pa and carried to Boris by one of the people from the have been carried to him by Flick but I think I brought the reel it to (Herbert Manell\ to take to Boris. (Herbert Ma hardled all of the assy. During this a “period: (fall of 1963) the reels were probably being brought into the station Soviet Section or they may in and gave wife Berbara ) nell and his processing of Soviet ‘wanseripts, Hy job involved screening the photographs as soon as we learned thet the man calling hinself Oswald was probably an Anericen,. However, here again there was a backlag because the photos were picked up three tines a week but the ones nicked up were usually for dates a few days prefiously because (the doctor )proce:sed the film on night time basis. Photographs were made usually until one roll was used but later we got it chanzed to one day coverage on each roll — in other words the Jee operetors’ cleared the camera each day whether there was anynitinxmeca a full. roll of film exposed. Instructions were to cover office hours, photograrh each C00uL7E oP eastep arERS eed © $a Gon EDT women foaee a grnmin e SPOR MH «: . . ‘ ee get eaten sane my ore meee ob oe
new Soviet and fanily, all forei igners and Soreign lieenee vlates, Euman error did occur. but ge nerally the erents were conscientious, The Cuban enbessy coverage had more sophisticated equ uipsent (a pulse cavera) tub it frequently develox ved mechanical difficulties. Bob Zanbarnardi and (Sp pathar | (I think) } handled this film ~ pick up and delivery. Lorna leckay screened the film inside the station. I an certain that the Osvald call came to our attention from the Soviet line. It Was picked ur end taken to Boris for a translation because 2 the caller was trying to sreak Russian, Any delay 1 Was caused by waitir S to compare the photographs with the typed transcript. There were no copies of serivts every nade in languages other than Spanish or English because Win Scott could read only those two languages erd he rersonally screened the transcripts for operation val leads he wanted pursued, a
14-00000 “ , TUESDAY 1th OCTOBER 1963 “ Govergge: 900 to 1900 “Weather 1/100 Camera Setting 3,5~2.5? Log Film 144 20 Eaxp i i231 2URM platican con KAZ en el jardin gunn n ene n, 68.1683 ; :8in139 ANOV 4 1150 U MM 1205 LEON 1216 UMM orn: {216 wa Mo © Oo NY oO a. nv Fi neon -10 4222 uU A M. 12 Tt on owe on 13 ve RW oo ott 4248 VAZQUEZ © 45 ne ony ae tee oP oe 16 1259 TIPO shanterariarlautpctaeleplectantnelacentecta: THURSDAY 3 Ocdober 171200 UMW | 18 1204 UM W to o>? GF 8) 62 Of FP 88 BD 20 1213 UMM 21 i222 UMM MEMREHRGS ESM EMAM ALU RUR SLES OL 20 20 Bol Raven ol ent eol ant aol 204 WEDNESDAY 2 OCTOBER 1963 , — out UMW a Norte por Tacubaya-Despide DEN~en Chev oe 09 FP fe fp mi a “. - out cm ow ee ‘aon oo 88 6) 99 68 88 ae fa ae oop : . FEU G6 SEEM SOE BES RISER AGEN, Coverage: 900 to 1900 375 1" a” @8 8 BP DP 8D @f fr 8D BP 27 ep n oo 82 08 8% Be ff 69 He OP 89 BR fF OP Op mp ae Gut ay Norte por: » Racabaya en Ford3?7 verde(entr$1141) 71033 DP in 2URM de Oriente por Chicontepec de Falcon | 372 " ee re ven $® 8? Op ge fF? nin Papen in ‘de Sur por Tacubaya de camioneta Chev(salié1218). 52137 DF . ” in de Sur por Tacubaya od | or " op pp Pap " Te ee 2 ” 4, On| . a Norte por Tacubaya 8 ” $F n " te fy 8? @? 6 6) id a3 : . : m - : a to te oo ” to moet . : : . ; naan out a Norte- por Tacubaya 1 1» nn a? " 88 " 0? 88 Ge 88 ge out a Norte por Tacubaya | de Chey (entrs 1218) D 167 HERR SIS EIEETEE TREE RULER ROCA manta nl enfaslentaaty al 1963 Doverage: 900 to 1900 ‘in de Norte por Tacubaya .out a Norte por Tacubaya en Taxi 8882 DP ao ”» oe 8) fF 6OP ff 68P 6Sf ofp bP 8h 6eP ofp oft te ae 2 fF 6) FP oP in de Sur por Tacubaya oué a Sur por Tacubaya a 0000474 a 2ROEY¢F — | eee ee et ve ete oe A me mene ome mene oem Oe Ree nD tm on arEE gO Fen oni se On m emuCNNe Mie 8 mn or . 7 — SEDRE