2 May 1975 MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Chief, ‘operations Staff ' SUBJECT © : Review of Agency Holdings regarding Photograph of Unidentified Individual in Mexico City published by the - Warren Commission . REFERENCE » Letter dated 15 April 1975 by of the Commission on CIA Activities: within the United States, .to Mr. E. Henry Knoche (copy attached: to. accompanying report) . 1. This is further to, and in completion. of, my interim memorandum of a few weeks ago. 2. ‘The attachment is a detailed. review in n 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 of on 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. DONE ATT vy SECRET. Mr. David W. Belin, Executive Director — “ tie em = ee ree re errr Ere me te Ra BPE ook oF RIGA, 2 EE. ge
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 haye 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 Iwill 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 qo — 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 ite] " ¢ 5. As noted above, one of the photographs taken in Mexico. City on 4 October 1963 was introduced into the | Warren Commission public 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- ‘ Glusions regarding the irrelevance of the photograph to: _ OSWALD and the assassination. lo. oo 6. In fact, we actually hold twelve. different photo- graphs of the Unidentified Individual. Each of these sgh (5 reproduced in the collected documentation backing ‘up the “Marrative report (see Items 25 - 27). Chief, LA Division, ee en Cr ee oe cn SECRET. SL mR IS PPT PURSE APR DLR Bett LL MAB, INNATE Pw POR OA PLT TORE Ce RuteA ABTS oe NS cL RE 18 ert Do ans saat tel a ehar sae err a Sele eared eae FAP OEE AES Re AR hoi yup sega ary 6 6+
SECRET had indicated in writing to DC/OPS Stafe,. that he. has no. —7—"——ebjection for Mr. Belin to do whatever is desired with these photographs at this time... It should be noted that a 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 me 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 also be made, i.é., whether to crop or otherwise fuzz up‘ 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 jodnthyerunwith Mexitcangliraisom and as a consequence. ‘publication at this time would create. additional. problems: at that level in Mexico. Also, it should be noted. that - the Ambassador, according to Win. Scott's. ‘memorandum to. J.C. King:on 22. November 1963.(see Item. 8 in the: “backup ; documentation), allegedly. played | a direct: role inthe . decision to put the photographs~ ‘Into’ the hands. of ‘the. BI in Dallas laterally 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 aspect | of the: matter.” oo : a a a ee at ot renee - Ha Raymond’ G. Rocca. - Attachments: a as stated