7/2686 Noes JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM Date:10/07/93 Page:1 C IDENTIFICATION FORM AGENCY INFORMATION AGENCY : SSCIA RECORD NUMBER : 157-10008-10210 RECORDS SERIES : AGENCY FILE NUMBER : DOCUMENT INFORMATION ORIGINATOR : SSCIA FROM : DWYER. DAN & GREISSING, ED Released under the John F. Kennedy TO: ROCCA. RAYMOND ' hesassination Records Collection ' bet of 1992 (44 USC 2107 Note). . TITLE : rase#:iNW 53244 Date: 06-13-2017 ) MEMO DATE : 03/15/76 PAGES : 6 SUBJECTS : INTERVIEW SUMMARY “ae DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT — CLASSIFICATION : S$ RESTRICTIONS : REFERRED CURRENT STATUS : P DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 10/07/93 OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : BOX 408-78 {R] - ITEM IS RESTRICTED HW 53244 Docld:32203718 Page 1
INTERVIFW SUMMARY Interview With: Raymond Rocca Interviewers: Dan Dwyer and Ed Greissing DATE: 3/15/76 Place: Arlington, VA Ed Greissing and Dan Dwyer of the SSC staff interviewed Raymond Rocca, retired Chief, Counterintelligence/Research and Analysis, CIA, at his home in Arlington, Virginia on March 15, 1976. The vurvose of the interview was to clarify the role of the CIA in the investigation of President Kennedy's assassination. (1) The GPFLOOR Phase. The GPFLOOR phase of the CIA's investigation of the assassination covered the period of November 23, 1963 until January 23, spot Rocca explained that desk chief of the Richard Helms, DDP, delegated Western Hemisphere division, to direct and control the CIA's responses to information that was being reported from CIA stations around the globe. Most of the information the CIA received came from Mexico City where Oswald had contacted the Soviet and Cuban diplomatic establishments in late September and early 4 October. Rocca noted that Thomas Karamessines, Assistant DDP, was probably involved in Helms' decision to have ‘STaele Walccen } direct the GPFLOOR investigation.
(2) Warren Commission Phase. Rocca vlaces the beginning of the Warren Commission vhase around January 23, 1964, when J. Lee Rankin contacted Helms and asked for CIA assistance for the Commission. Helms delegated Rocca to be the "voint of contact" of the CIA with the Warren Commission. Rocca's own Counterintelli- gence staff involved in research matters for the Commission included Tom Dooley, Paul Hartman and Thomas Hall’. Other CIA 4 personnel involved with the Commission were Sffealg Pine ceuny Murohy (Chief of SB), J.C. King, Wigren (Chief SB Research), and Bagley (Deputy Chief SB). Rocca noted that as liaison became more informal, pratt members of the Commission had direct contact Pa ¥, Murvohy, Wirgren and Bagley. Helms maintained direct contact with Rankin. Rocca emphasized that the Warren Commission phase was not interpreted by CTA as an investigation. Rocca said that when the Warren Commission "task force'' was established, all bg cables and materials generated in the GPFLOOR period fron Qe) desk were made available to the task force. Rocca added, however, that the task force made no appraisal of the GPFLOOR phase. When questioned if the Warren Commission "task force'' reviewed Mexico City traffic to check name traces, for example, Rocca replied the material was left alone excevt for the allegations such as Ps the Alvarado mattet which concerned the Commission. Giese Docla:32203716 Page 3
Cuba. Rocca also suggested that J.C. King might have known of some sensitive operations in general but that he would have been left out on svecifics. Rocca added chat CERES ni gnc have known about sensitive overations through osmosis" because ice as desk Chief, Western Hemisphere, would send out traffic to stations including traffic dealing with operations. Rocca noted that the DDP or Director could have by-passed ERIE vy authoring and cabling a message themselves. With regard to Western Hemisphere cable traffic and assass- ination plots, Rocca. noted that in Avril 1975 there was an individual (name unknown) from Western Hemisphere appointed by Dave Phillips to work with the Inspector General. This oe ' individual found the memo that discussed Desmond Fitzgerald's having used Robert Kennedy's name in meeting with AMLASH, in the WH files. (5) Miscellaneous. Rocca saw nothing strange in the FBI report on Oswald's FPCC activities being routed to SAS. He stated that SAS would have received all reports of relevance to Cuba. Rocca could offer no explanation as to why the WAVE cable discussing anti-Castro groups' public statement on the assassination was filed in the "sensitive Ops-Kennedy file" and later placed in the Oswald 201 file. DoclId:32203718 Page 4