180-10147-10163 Sth edt et, wos armament Reese ioe teandes Me 2 tata dvermen oe Wes meen, Se” EAST eles + hE P RAT es ecm Feed Povey cae ness | CIA HAS NO OBJECTION TO > <Glassification: ———BECLASSIFICATION AND/OR RELEASE OF THIS DOCUMENT Tf, . SANE TIZED (This form is to be used for material extracted from ClA—<ontrolled documents.) Boxe In 1964, the CIA advised the Warren Commission: that lar | ~ , . “pets the Agency never had a relationship of any kind with Lee Harvey Oswald. Testifying before the Commission, John A. McCone, who was then Director of Central Intelligence, - indicated that Oswald "was not an agent, employee, or informant of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Agency never contacted hin, interviewed him, talked with him, or solicited any reports or information from him, or communicated with him directly or in any other manner...Oswald was never associated or connected directly or indirectly in any way whatsoever with the Agency." ys. McCone's testimony was corroborated by Richard M. Helms, then the Agency's Deputy Director for Plans and therefore the person directly responsible for clandestine operations. _/ Once these assurances had been received, _/ the record reflects no Classification: iO1Y7- Mes Classified by derivation:
Classification: (This form is to be used for material extracted from ClA—controlled documents.) interviews, depositions, and executive session hearings were wee conducted with both Agency and non-Agency witnesses. The Nea tat thes son contacts with present and former CIA personnel covered a Ni Bivens act. broad range of individuals, including staff and division | ee chiefs, clandestine case officers, area desk officers, ; research analysts, secretaries, and clerical asSistants. In total, more than 125 persons, including at least 50 present and former CIA employees, were questioned ee eee regarding this issue. Sete ote a ttn thee The results of this investigation confirmed the Warren Commission testimony given by Messrs. McCone and ‘Helms. There was no indication in Oswald's CIA file 7 suggestive in any way that he had ever had any contact with the Agency. Moreover, the Agency employees who would have been in a position to know if Oswald had been associated Lee with the CIA unj ormy denied that he had been an agent | tel Classification: _ ae ' Classified by derivation:
ae het nce vo Classification: (This form is to be used for material extracted . from CiA—<ontrolled documents.) or connected with the CIA in any. other capacity. Finally, taken“in their entirety, the items of circumstantial evidence that the Committee had selected for investigation as possibly indicative of an intelligence association did not support the allegation that Oswald had an intelligence agency relationship of some:kind. This finding, however, must be qualified because the same institutional characteristics, in terms of' the Agency's extreme compartmentalization and the complexity of its enormous filing system, that are cesigned to preclude -penetration by foreign powers have the simultaneous effect of making Congressional inquiry very difficult For example, CIA personnel testified to the Committee that a review of Agency files will not always indicate whether an individual > was affiliated with the Agency in any respect. Nor was there always an independent. means of verifying | that. all mee ae Classification: | | Classified by derivation:
Nanette 7 4 4 A an idewamndtea * data tatenn Classification: (This form is to be used for material extracted from ClA—controlled documents.) materials requested from the Agency were, in fact, provided. Accordingly, any finding which.is essentially négative in nature, such as that Lee Harvey Oswald was neither associated with the CIA in any way nor ever even in contact with that ~ institution, cannot be rendered in absolute terms. To the extent possible, however, the Committee's investigation was designed to overcome the Agency's: institutional obstacles that potentially impede effective. external scrutiny of the CIA. The vast majority of CIA. files made available to the Committee were reviewed ir unsanitized form. These files were evaluated both for their | substantive content and for any potential procedural ' irregularities suggestive of possible tampering. After review, the files were used as the basis for examination and cross-examination of present and former Agency Classification: Classified by derivation:
Classification: (This form is to be used for material extracted from CiA—controlled documents.) employees. Because of the number of Agency personnel who 7 were queried, it is highly probable that. any significant. ' inconsistencies between the files and the witnesses". : responses would have been established, Classification: i Classified by derivation:
Selassie “Rtsinnnans Reade ded ih abe Classification: (This form is to be used for material extracted from ClA—controlled documents.) SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE l. CIA personnel in the Soviet Russia Division In addition to obtaining testimony from former directors John H. MeCone and Richard M. Helms, the Committee interviewed individuals who were chiefs of the CIA's Soviet Russia division during 1959-1963.* These individuals categorically denied that Oswald had. ever been associated in any capacity with the CIA. To investigate this matter further, the persons who had been chiefs and/or deputy chiefs during 1959-62 of the ‘three units within the Soviet Russia division which were responsible respectively for clandestine activities, *The chief(s) of the Soviet Russia. division from August 1962 to September 1963 was not interviewed by the Committee. Classification: Classified by derivation:
a ta Lance etd eras eae. Classification: (This form is to be used for material extracted from ClA—controlled documents.) , American legal travelers, and research in support of clandestine activities.» “The heads of the clandestine activity section stated during this period the CIA had very few operatives in the Soviet Union and chat Oswald was not one of them. Moreover, they stated that because of his obvious instability, Oswald would never have met the Agency's standards for use in the field.** The heads of the *For the unit that was responsible for American legal travelers, only the years 1959-61 were covered. However, since every American legal traveler who was involved in this -program was recruited before his trip to the Soviet Union, the relevant year for Lee Harvey Oswald was 1959 because that is when he departed from the United States. **One officer acknowledges the remote possibility that an individual could be run by someone as part of a. "vest pocket" operation without other Agency officials knowing about it, but even this possibility, as it applies to Oswald, was negated by the statement of the deputy chief of the Soviet Russia clandestine activities section who commented that in 1963 he wz involved in a review of every clandestine operation ever run in the Soviet Union, and that Oswald was not involved in any of these cases. ;