104-10054-10265 fet . aM, . oe a . | _ +r wee Centrat Intz Lug & Acexcy wt oe , j \ ° , Po. Orrice or Tue Drrecroa | wir. David W. Belin ' 49 play . “e fea : © . ‘ . _ 3 itAY 1975 Exscufive Director commission on CIA Activities Within the United States dear Mr. Belin: | a 7 Pe Tam attaching, per your request of 15 April, *. vackground materials relating to certain questions . -elating ts Oswald and the Warren Commission, } Tab Aisa classified Secret memorandum . sesponsive to your request. Tab B is an unclassi- ‘ied version, . which you can use as you see fit n ‘whatever report you are preparing on the subject. i. . Additional details are available in the Office if the Inspector General should you wish to pursue his in greater depth. , Faithfully yours, oa Los | -B.-H. Knoche: . Assistant to the Director Attachment: a/s_ | 3. . cndche:rh: 5/ 13 7% 75 : ao oie mo a ne “roar ; tribution: 7, IS ge g- Mr. Belin what _ oo | Occ -  awwofatt Fst . {IG wo/att Kroche Chrono wo/att " Comm Correspondence wo/ att an Belin Letter Request. 15 Apri — w/att Warren Commission . ca fs | “ - Ge ve Fa ° | 3? oOo?
~ =~, 12 May 1975 SUBJECT : Review of Agency Holdings Regarding Photograph of - Unidentified Individual in the Warren Commission — Report REFERENCE: Memorandum from David W.° Belin to E. Henry Knoche, dated 15 April 1975 Le ee 1. In accordance with reference request, we have exainined | “and summarized the record concerning a cropped photograph that was considered by the Warren Commission in the course of its investi- -gation. The photograph (together with others of the same | individual) originated from an intelligence operation conducted in October 1963 by the CIA fand the Mexican security authorities.) 2. Under the extraordinary press of effort to develop infor- . mation on the assassin and the assassination, copies of the photo- graph were made available by CIA's Mexico Station Chief on the afternoon of 22 Novenber to the local FBI representative. Later -. that day, assertedly on the decision of the Ambassador, copies were conveyed by an FBI representative on a special U. S. Naval Attache flight to the Dallas office of the FBI for possible use “in the. ongoing investigation. One photograph, cropped by the - FBI, was shown to Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD (Lee Harvey OSWALD’ s mother) in Dallas on the evening of 23 November 1963 by an FBI “agent. - . re oe ian we wag + 3. The Warren Commission’ s ‘report describes the sequence of events that ultimately resulted in Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD’s allegation that she had been shown a cropped photo of Jack RUBY the day before he murdered her son. A further complication ciswtiesty, 004645 Eraept Gene Bee teat Ester vases ¢ tees 2? EO, 42732 Ca ed
- she had been shown a copy of the same photograph in her appearance - important,: therefore, to an understanding of the acquisition and the Station ascertained and did with the information it developed. a » é ee =< a a compounding this erroneous conclusion was the fact that, when before the Commission, it had been cropped by the FBI in Washing- ton in a slightly different: manner. a - . 4, Although in no way related to Lee Harvey OSWALD or his _ stay in Mexico City from the morning of a ‘September: 1963 to the morning of 2 October 1963, at ‘least one “set of photographs of f the unidentified man originated during OSWALD's stay there. It is handling of the photographs by the Mexico Station to- review what. about OSWALD in Mexico City, together with Headquarters action on that information. | . 5,° From all credible evidence known to this, time (none, incidentally, added since the exhaustive work of the Warren Com- mission), Lee Harvey OSWALD spent four (4) full days and ‘two: (2) partial days -- about 116 hours in all -- in-Mexico City from about 10:00 a.m. 27 September 1963 to about 8:50 a.m. 2 October 1963. His place of residence was a small commercial traveler hotel, not frequented by "gringos” -- the Hotel Commercio -- where he was. registered under alias. Exhaustive and detailed interviews and interrogation by the Mexican authorities and the FBI after the. assassination established that, in the recollection of all hotel personnel, he left and returned late each day of his stay. 6. Allowing for the fact of late arrival and early departure,. and assuming that he slept one-third of the time of his ‘stay (38 or 39 hours), there remain some 78 hours of activity to be aa Se ened . . * : ; , . . eA eterno += are ereiey 0 eect ma ener = settee men
“eb os This was indicated and deduced from technically acquired infor- Sa at enacted 1 een GERE te A Sw acquire a photo of OSWALD. A careful review of all coverage --- XL aA Cre accounted for. Overall, CIA's information can account only for very brief periods during 28, 29 September and 1 October. AL1 coverage by CIA during the entire period was technical. The Station had no live’ source (living agent) coverage. 7. ‘It should be noted that OSWALD was in no sense "under 7 investigation." None of the facts of his defection and stay in the USSR and return to the U. S., 1959 -- 1962, were known, to the Mexico. Station or in its files before 10 October 1963. On that , date, the bare bones of his biography were forwarded by. Head~ quarters in response to a Station cabled report of 8 Octaber which had forwarded, -on a routine basis, what appeared to be a contact by an American for a visa to Cuba in transit to the USSR. mation on 1 October, which was. the first and only occasion on that visit: in which OSWALD was recorded as identifying himself (partially) by true name. 8. At no time during his stay in Mexico City did the CIA technical as well.as .photographic -- was conducted by the Station on 22 and. 23 November 1963 after the assassination, including materials back to August 1963. This confirmed that there was no CIA photo coverage of OSWALD at any time during his Mexico trip or stay in Mexico City. Moreover, although it had made a cabled request on 15 October; the Mexico Station had no photo of OSWALD in its records, nor did it receive one from Headquarters -- which did not have one either.-- before 22 November 1963. ene pu eee seem erent eae ete eeeni Oe ED ROTEL SORT EEO EOE OTP RET A OE Ce we: FE at vanes metanimtntttentih ri sma T  apnibeleventteet abet anannutensdaten aeneinmieneee an OO =o ae mi» cts gue eeunnenm core cee ft ma -
14-00000 9. It must be stressed that what technical information the Station had was not (and normally is not) processed in “real time." The means of acquisition and the volume of the infor- mation preclude anything. but the spot reporting of items judged to be of more than ordinary interest and, therefore, noted in | era War ee mm ee ee one summary logs. Full texts of selected items require consultation of .the tape and either a full transcription or full translation: or both. “Photo coverage tends to become available in quantity lots which requires scanning and selection on a rapid and accelerated basis in four or five day "peaks." One of the "triggers" that normal ly operates to focus and accelerate more speedy review and reporting of this kind of raw intelligence is the mention “oF aname. This was precisely what occurred in the second of two conversations on 1.October, during which the. speaker said he was "Lee OSWALD." It was this information reported by the Station to Headquarters in its first indication on OSWALD ‘on 8 October 1963. 10. The Mexico Station did one more thing in its 8 October. report.on Lee OSWALD based on the 1 October information: it coupled the data with descriptive information it had acquired - from a sensitive source “- a photograph of a male individual, | apparently an American, who was observed entering an ‘Embassy 7 on 1 October. The Station reported this detail on the 8th as a matter of coincident fact. The Station did not assert or suggest that the data led to any deduction that the photo was in fact OSWALD or, indeed, was in any way related to OSWALD. tae a, AA teem g cit +
“adioag” ro 11. One additional element of background must be stipulated now as “the final precondition to understanding 1 the relevance (or irrelevance) of the photo of the unknown, individual placed in the. chain of evidence on 23 November in| Dallas by the FBI agent: what was the. totality of CIA Mexico" s coverage of OSWALD's activity as of the afternoon of the 23rd when all available coverage had been checked? . 12. The totality of Mexico Station coverage on ‘or -Feasonably inferable to be OSWALD consisted of five. (5) voice intercepts. _ Each of these items, including the text. of the raw intercepts, _ were read by, discussed with, and examined by Warren Commission staffers.in Headquarters and at the Mexico Station during a stay | from 8-13 April 1964. All were made available promptly to the FBI. 13. At about mid-day on 1 October, the camera registered. the entry into an Embassy of a white-shirted individual. In the opinion of the Station, among all the persons photographed that day, he appeared to be the only non-Latin and possibly American who-entered. On the chance that there could be an association between the identification data derived. from the voice inter- cept and the descriptive data derived from the photograph, the — Station reported the two elements as separate facts in its cable to Headquarters on 8 October. 14. The Station's action was not unusual and really amounted. to an analytic "quantum leap," in terms of the primitive status of the OSWALD identification. Many examples of a similar kind of thing can be found in the day-to-day record of Station-Headquarters 2 ERT ACFE So: enenneneteneentten n+ Mmeeeteetetete ee © ~ enPREEEREREO += ate epeeeE = eo 2: - g .
“aires ' pouched dispatch read: Headquarters’ reply of 10 October. The Station requested by: | "45. On 22 November 1963 the Mexico Station cabled Head- quarters at 2229Z time after learning of the arrest of Lee H. OSWALD, age 24, possibly in connection with the assassination, and referenced its earlier messages of 8-9 and 15 October and "priority pouch a photo of OSWALD so that Station can check all recent. coverage for OSWALD. Forward- ing soonest copies of only visitor on 1 October who could be identical with OSWALD." | 16. This obviously was for comparison at the Station which had estimated the age of the unidentified male whose photograph it had. selected as having the "apparent age of 35." 17. The Station meanwhile had begun an exhaustive and accelerated review of all its technical and photographic intel- ligence. A dispatch was prepared in accordance with the indication given in the cable of 22 November. The dispatch © noted that photo coverage of the unidentified individual had turned up on 4 and 15 October. The text of. the 22 November 1963 "1. Attached are copies of .the only photographs — . obtained. . -on 1 October 1963 which appeared to be | an American. This same man visited {an] Embassy on 4 October 1963. "2, Copies—of these photographs were shown to the U. S. Ambassador on 22 November 1963 and a copy of each of the two photographs was given to Chief FBI, | _ Mexico, on that date. ... € . +g eater EERE -cpTeN eke gene nnetan ea
i fo 7 : . ‘ - . ’ , ‘ . * ; . *, 7 ‘ . ot ‘ - : es _ . . at. Op ‘. . a S/ ’ . . 4 "Pp. S. Photographs dated 15 October 1963 were inserted after typing of dispatch. These were taken as [the] person entered [aij] Enbassy." | 18. The "Unidentified Individual" remains to this day unidentified. There is still no credible evidence, as far- as CIA is aware, that the individual in _ the photograph had any connection with Lee Harvey OSWALD or “the assassination of President Kennedy. -