104-t0147-10010 AARUNSRRR: _ P* SUBJECT: (Optional) Pac permenant Co unccassiFieo (1 se ony >* (C) CONFIDENTIAL (] SECRET ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET O26 fy f Dir/FBI Response Re Nosenko Interrogatories EXTENSION KAS ~ 05/1 NO. OLC 79/02 1385 DATE g 1046 oe January 1979 4. OFFICER'S COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from wham (NITIALS to whom. Oraew a line across columa after each comment.) . | RECEIVED | FORWARDED ‘ FROM: R.S. Gabrielson OLC/HSCA 605317 TO: (Officer designation, building) — room number, and NOTE: Russ Holmes OLC The attached received ' from FBI. I bring it to your attention for any thoughts - you might. have on its substance. 281405. = — |DDO/SE 7510 | Please call me with your comments. “Io ca. Oo wl FO onde = a words 3 OQ oOo. at Se ep) ra) ‘Rodger 1046 (R) 1385 (R) |. Att. rom G10 “Sm [] SECRET  [[] CONFIDENTIAL (C] Use ony. (_] UNCLASSIFIED.
office of Legislative | : counsel - FYI: .- i UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE _ FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION . | Gs 28 czas | rs WASHINGTON, D.C. 20335 January 8, 1973 HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (HSCA) — Ce This responds in full to a pecember 18, 1978, letter to the Attorney General signed by G.- Robert - Blakey, Chief Counsel and Director, HSCA, which asked that the FBI declassify, in toto, a Secret, September 14, 1978, response made to 16 interrogatories pertaining te Yuri, Ivanovich Nosenko which were propounded by the Committee in its letter of September 5, 1978. Declassification of the September 14, 1978, seg - yesponse required coordination with the Office of Legis- ; lative Counsel, CIA, which interposed no objection to declassifying certain portions of that response. The Committee's attention is invited to the fact that CIA did suggest, with regard to the response to interrogatory number "8", that the FBI "... may wish to correct the dates on which the FBI did not have direct access to-Mr. Nosenko, to read 3 April 1964 until 8 December 1968." For the convenience of the Committee, the following déclassified, verbatim reiteration of the September 14, 1978, response is provided. ¢ 3 : vg vt aiemeeared . . +, FEUD:
14-00000 House Select Committee on Assassinations U. S. House of Representatives (HSCA) a mel This responds in full to the following enumerated interrogatories submitted for consideration in @ Letter, dated September 5, 1978, to the Attorney General and signed by G. Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel and Director, HSCA.: "4, On what dates and for how long was Nosenko questioned by the FBI about Lee Harvey Oswald~ = - from 1964 to present?" co - The files of the EBI indicate that Yuri Ivanovich ‘Nosenko was interviewed regarding Oswald and/or the assassi- nation of President John F. Kennedy on February 26 and 27; oo . 1964, and on March 3,°4 and 6, 1964. The FBI files do not record the specific duration in whole oF in part as to topical discussions, of those five interviews; however, summary communications indicate the February 27; 4964 inter- ‘view was conducted on the afternoon of that date and the March 4, 1964 discussion of Oswald occurred at the outset of an afternoon interview on that date. ng, When Nosenko was questioned by the FBI about © Lee Harvey Oswald, who did the questioning?" The FBI interviews of Nosenko, during which he was questioned about Oswald and/or, the assassination of President Kennedy, were conducted py Special Agents {SAs) AleXKso . Poptanich, Maurice A. Taylor and Donald H. Walter on February 26 and 27, 1964; by SAs Poptanich and W. Marvin Gheesling on March 3 and 4, 1964; and by SAs Poptanich, Taylor and Walter on March 6,. 1964.
14-00000 se arapsee o ‘House Select Cemmittee on Assassinations U. S. House Of Representatives (HSCA} f . . : 3, What background, if any, did the intezro- _ gator have in interrogations? What knowledge _did the interrogator have with respect to Oswald's ~ background?" ; oo. : ael ; There are no retrievable FBI statistics upon which to base a quantification of the interrogatory experiences of the SA personnel who interviewed Nosenko on the five pertinent occasions. Suffice it to says the techniques of cooperative. and hostile interrogations are integral aspects of the training and almost daily duties of SA personnel. In that regard, it js noted that during the February and March, 1964 interviews SA -Poptanich had almost 13 years of SA experience; SA Taylor had over 31 years of SA experience; SA Walter had completed almost 17 years of SA experience; and SA Gheesling had over 13 years of SA experience. Further , their respective personnel files disclose the following: SA Poptanich was then fluent in the Russian Language (Nosenko's native tongue). The Annual Report of Performance Rating, dated March 31, 1962, noted that SA Poptanich, during the previous twelve months, had participated in the interro- pation of a Soviet defector and his knowledge cf the Russian language and mores of the Russian people proved most helpful relative thereto. . : . SA Taylor, on September il, 1962, received an incen- . tive award in recognition of the superior fashion his responsi- bilities were discharged over an extended period of time. The Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Washington Field Office, in submitting a recommendation for the incentive award, commented that SA Taylor had demonstrated exceptional ability in the interrogation and debriefing of three Soviet defectors, all of whom were intelligence officers. SA Taylor's Perfor- mance Rating for the period April 1, 1963--Harch 31, 1964, noted he was recognized as tne finest interrogator on the Soviet espionage squad in the Washington Field Office, which accounted for his assignments to interview Soviet defectors. e
14-00000 House Select Committee on Assassinations U. S. House of Representatives (HSCA) : a SA Walter was the recipient of a personal letter of commendation, dated October 5, 1963, from the Directer, FBI, for his superior work in the handling of a very sensitive, complicated, fast-moving, and highly publicized espionage cass. Previously (on November 7, 1954), he bad received a meritorius salary increase for his outstanding work on another espionage case, successful interrogation being the key aspect of that investigation. — a 2 ot SA Gheesling, at: the time of the pertinent Nosenko_ interviews, served as a Supervisor at FBI Headquarters and had considerable experience in espionage, jntelligence and counterintelligeace investigations. SA Gheesling supervised the field investigation of Oswald (from the latter's return to the United States on June 13, 1962 until September, 1962, and -€rom November 22, 1963 througr mid-1964). He was assigned exclusively to supervisory responsibilities relative to the assassination of President Kennedy. While the specific knowledge o£ Oswald's background, possessed by these SAs at the time of the Nosenko interviews, can be answered only by the SAs themselves, SA Gheesling's prior assignment to supervision of the Oswald investigation would tend to indicate that he, at least, was quite knowl edge- able of data contained in FBI files concerning Oswald. "4, On the cates that Nosenko was questioned sbout Oswald, does there now exist or did there ever exists a. a tape of the questions asked and Nosenko's ANSWers; : . b. a transcript of the questions asked and rn Nosenko's answers; ° c. asummary of the questions asked and. Nesenko's enswers?" As noted in FBI memorandum dated June 19, 1978, captioned as above, and which was prepared in response to HSCA letter, dated June 15, 1978, to the Attorney General, FBI recores searches have not located any extant tape recoraings
14-00000 “‘uduse Select Committee on Ass «3 ma Nosenko's statements about ry wssinations U. GS. House of. Reorenentatives HSCA) . / . or verbatim transcripts of FBI interviews with Nosenko that concerned Oswald and/or’ the assassination of President Kennedy. A_document has been located which indicates that ‘FBI personnel and record the Februazy 26 and 27, 1954, interviews o£ Nosenko, among others. | ince no recordings or ‘transcripts have been Located, it can be assumed that the recordings were used by the interviewing SAs to check the accuracy of their notes ‘prior to dictating the results: of the interviews. it is ‘further assumed that, upon verifying the accuracy o£ summary reportings of the jnterviews, the recordings were disposed of since they had served the purpose for which they were made, although no record of suck disposition can be found. Summary reportings of the five pertinent interviews are extant, and were delivered to the HSCA: on March 21, 1978. ns, What criteria, if any, was used to determine: a. what subjects to question Nosenko about; . b. how much time to devote to each subject?" FBI files do not contain @ specific enumeration of criteria used to determine the particular subjects Noseak was to be questioned about nor the amount of time to be devoted to each subject in the questioning. . "g, What significance — with respect to possible foreign involvement in the essassination as sell as to the issue of Nesenko's bonafides (sic}—did _ the FBI attach during the years 1964-1968 to Nosenko's . - 7 statements about Oswald?" a The FBI, during the years 1964-1968, considered Oswald te be very significant elements of his initial reportings, the veracity of which had to be assessed in relation to the totality of information £urnished by him. The FBI perceived Nosenko's statements about Oswald, depending upon 4 subsequent , definitive resolution of Nosenko's bona fides, to be the most authoritative information availabie indicative of a lack of Soyiet govermental Snvolvement in the assassination of President Kennedy. cern ATA CIA LIT OS OT TT
14-00000 Ylouse Select Comaittee on Ass U.S. House of Representative foe "7, What significance — with respect to possible - foreign involvement in the essassinstion as Welles ad the FBI attach today to Nosenko's statements about Oswald?" 7 to the issue of Nosenko's bonafides (sic}—does _- The FBI does not perceive any significant evidence of foreign involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy, nor does ths FBI perceive any credible evidence that HNosenko's _ defection was a Soviet ploy to mask Soviet governmental | - involvement in the assassination. Therefore, the FRI is | satisfied that Nosenko yeported the facts about Oswald as he kmew them. "8. If the answer to question 6 is cifferent from - the response to question 7, when did the change oceur and why?" The FBI had no direct access to Nosenko from April 3, 1964 until April 3, 1969, and therefore was not in ‘a position to make an objective assessment of his bona fides nor of the veracity of information furnished by him. Thus, information provided by him, in early 1964, was. accepted at setts face value and qualified in terms of the source and the conditions under which it was received. On October 1, 1968, the FBI advised the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that, based upon a review of material provided by CIA, the FBI | found no substantial basis to conclude that Nosenko was not a bona fide defector; however, the FBI did not reach any overall, definitive conclusions regarding his bona fides because of a lack of access to Nosenko and all collateral information pertinent, to such an assessment. ‘Effective May 11, 1977, the CIA and FBI concurred that Nosenko was 4 bona fide defector, based upon an assessment of the totality of information furnished by hin- R9, What was the FBI's position from 1864 te 1968 on the question of whether Nosenixo is bonafide (sic}?". Fy
14-00000 wale ges Ps Laas, House Select Committee on nssassinations U. S. House of Representatives (SCA) The FBI, from 1964 to 1968, characterized Nosenko as_a Soviet defector wnose bona fides had not been established. "30. What is the FBI's position today on the — OS question of whether Nosenko is bonefide (sic}?" The FBI currently characterizes Nosenko as.a former Soviet Committee for State Security (KGB) officer who has furnished reliable information in the past, and considers Nosenko to be a bona fide Soviet defector. i}. If the answer to question 9 is different from the response to question 10, when did the change. occur and why?" , _ _ Lo: The answer to question 8 is considered responsive to question 11. "12. What was the FBI's position from 1964 to | 1988 on whether Nesenko was telling the truth in the statements he made to the FBI about Oswald” . ‘The FBI did not take a position, from 1964 to 1968, - on whether Nosenko was telling the truth in the statements he made to the FBI about Oswald. The statements were accepted at Face value and qualified in terms of the source and the _ conditions under which they were ‘received. "13, What is the FBI's position today 4s to whether Nosenko was telling the truth in the statements he made to the FBI about Oswald?" The FBI is satisfied that Nosenko truthfully reported the facts about Oswald as he knew them. "14. If the answer to question 12 is different - from the response to question 13, when cid the change occur and why?"
14-00000 Fd - House Select Comaittee on Assassi se .U. S&S. House of Revresentatives r As indicated in the responses to questions 7 and 8, the FBI, as of October 1, 1968, found no substantial basis to ‘conclude Nosenko was not a bona fide defector; as of May 11, 1977, accepted a CIA assessment that Nosenko was a bona fide defector; and has not perceived any significant evidence, from 1964 to date, that Nosenko reported other than the facts _ about Oswald as he knew them. "15. Did either the FBI or the CIA have primary ~ responsibility for investigating Nosenko's state~ ments about Oswald? If neither had primary responsibility, was there any division of responsibility?" , . The FBI had primary responsibility for investigating Nosenko's statements about Oswald that pertained to his . (Oswald's) activities in the United States, including the assassination of President Kennedy. The CIA had primary responsibility for investigating Nosenko's statements about Oswald's activities abroad. “16. What communication, if any, existed between the FBI and CIA with respect to evaluating and/or investigating Nosenko's statements about Oswald?" ‘The FBI forwarded a letter, dated March.6, 1964, from the Director, FBI, to the Director, CIA, enclosing memoranda dated February 28, 1964,-and March 4, 1964, cap- tioned "Lee Harvey Oswald," which summarized the results of FBI interviews of Nosenko regarding Oswald on February 26 and 27, 1964, and March 3 and 4, 1964. The results of a CIA interview of Nosenko on January 23, 1964, regarding Oswald were furnished to the FBI in a letter £rom the CIA dated April 28, 1964. These particular pieces of. correspondence, while not setting forth any specific requests or investiga- tive leads, were furnished for purposes of evaluation. Where information is not provided, it is either “not retrievable from FBI Headquarters files or is not being furnished pursuant to the Memorandua of Understanding.