104-10414-10414 mae UNCLASSIFIED / Oo! INTERNAL (] coNFipentiAL =. «=[[] secret “3 pM | “ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET SUBJECT: (Optiens!) , ‘ TO: (Officer designation, room mont ond ron 619 se C] secret ” () CONFIDENTIAL [7] (MIFRNAY =| (7) UNCLASSIFIED Gate , r . 13 Dec-.\4b3 see pe buildi ig) COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom . . to whem. ODBraw ao line across colume after each comment.) ® a
13-00000 . . eraner . cSUHE] We Discover Lee OSWALD in Mexico City CIA did produce one very significant plece of information on Leo OSWALD before he shot President Kennedy. On 1 October 1963, our Mexico City Station intercepted a telephone call Lee OSWALD made fro someplace tn Mexteo City to the Soviet Eubassy there, using his cwm nave. Speaking broken Russian and using his true sane, COWALD was talkinz to the Enbassy (vAr8, CEEEEDY, vio often axmvers the poe. OSWALD gala he haa visited the Bubasay the previous Saturday (28 September 1963) and spoken to a consul whose name he had forgotten, ana who ha@ promised to send a tele- eras for him to Washington. He wanted to know if there vere nanything pew." he suard sald {¢ the consul vas dark it vas (Valeriy Yiaiatvorich) KOSTENOY. The guard checked vith soscone else and eaia that the messaze tad sone out Dut no anever tad been received. te then hung op This piece of information was produced frou a telephone tap (GEHtEE? (which ve operate jointly It TT TE ermeenpncentnennn nme renames 448 1F aM te eM e een et pe mmeninn seen paseo ete ten Aeae yae Ee
13-00000 ] Our joint center produces sreat_7 ene epaneemrmnnnnann ° nal ee fasses of telephone intercepts which are transcribed and reviewed by our small staff in Mexico City. By 9 October, the OSWALD telephone converaa- Vion of 1 October had been transcribed and a sumary of it cabled to Washington. The name Lee OSWALD meant nothing special to our Bexico City Station, but in their report they did judge him to be on American male. | the cabled report was received in Washington on 9 October and checkea in our files, vbere it was immediately noted that the Lee OSWALD phoning ‘the Soviet Enbassy tn Hextco City was probably the Lee OSWALD who haa defected to the soviet Union in 1959 and returned to the USA in 1962. On 10 October 1963, the day after the report from Mexico City, CIA Headquarters sent out a cabled report about Lee CSWALD's phone call to the Soviet Enbassys the report vent to the Far, ‘the Depertnent of state (because OSWALD vas a US citizen), and to the Tavy Departuent (Because he vas a former Marine.) The cabled report to these agencies hishlighted the
13-00000 likliheod that the Lee OSWALD mentioned was probably the former defector. A copy of this same cable was delivered by hand to the Innigration ana Naturalization Service, with which we have no cable Link. The same day a long cable vent out to Mexice City informing our Station of the back= ground of defector Lee OSWALD and asking for more information. Our Station vas instructed to pass its information on the phone call to the Mexico City offices of the FAI, the Embassy, the Kavel Attache, and the Imigra- tion ana heturaltention Service. This was done. In ita ordginal report of G October, Mexico City had said it had a photograph of an apparent American male leaving the Soviet Embassy on 1 Coteber 1963, the day OSWALD phone there. A very sensitive operation in Mexico City provides us with secretly taken photographs of many but not all visitors to the Soviet Embassy there, taken with telephoto lenses. Accordingly, ve cabled the Havy Department on 24 October 1963 asking for ® photograph of Lee OSWALD fros his Marine Corps days so we could compare photos. We had not received this photograph by 22 November 1963, but in any event, it turned. cut that. the man photographed outside the Soviet
13-00000 Exbassy was not OSWALD anyway. Ags chance would have it, none of our several photo obsesation points in Mexico City had ever teken en identi- fiable picture of Lee OSWALD. Our Mexico City Station very often produces information Like this : on US citizens contacting Soviet bloc embassies in Mexico City. Frequently the information ve get 1s extremely incriminating, and on one or two occasions we have even been able to apprehend and return to the USA American military persenne]l who are attempting to defect. In all such cases, our Headquarters desk requests ani obtaing the special permission ef. the Deputy pirector for Plans to pass the derogatory information on a US ‘edtizen to other goverment agencies. Derovatory information on Americans 48 not treated routinelys in each case the DDP or his Assistant personally serutinize the tnfereetioo, make sure it is credible, and decide vhether and / to whom it will be passed. Only in absolute emergencies is the Mexico City _ Station authorized to pass such information directly to the FBI office in the U.S. Embassy. At this writing (13 December 1963) we do not know what action the FBI SE oRET
13-00000 Rae bate Bae! SS ot and other agencies may have taken vased on our report. We surmise that the FBI may have made local checka through Mexican authorities to see if Tee OSKALD vas actually in Mexico City oa 1 October. Indeed, later in- vestisation has confimed all the details of his trip, vere he stayed, end what he did. To avoid orvesing Lines with the FBI, om Mexico Station ualertock no local tuvestigation of its om. AS we now know, OSWALD left Mexico on 3 Octeber and was no loner there when our report was put cut. . ¥ Since this telephone tap operation ig a joint cre | _ - a SE the Mexicans also had the 1 October intercept on Lee OSWALD, >. ” = Eat eaten ew Coote eee PO ee a smeememenamnm mene x ae — ~ i — \but it apparently slumbered in their files untdl the assassination took ) . en) ——* — . - When word of the shooting of President Konsety reached the offices of our operating &ivistons and stafts on the afternoon of Friday 22 Hoven: ber 1963, transistor radios vere turned on everywhere to follow the tragedy. Woen the none of Lee OSKALD vas heard, tho effect wae electric, A phone message from the FAI cane at about the same time, naming OSWALD
13-00000 as the possible assassin and asking for traces. The nessace was passed on at once by the Chief CI, th. Angleton, to Mr. Birch O'Heal of his Special Investigations Unit. Mrd. Betty Egeter of this Unit imediately recognised the name of Lee OSWALD and went for bis file. At the sane? o time, Hrs. pastes of the Nextco Desk, who bad writtea our firat feport on OBHALD on 10 October xecognizad the nave from radio reports and vent after the same Mile. Mr. Reichhardt, Mexico Desk Chief, who vas howe on leave, heard the neve and phoned in a reainder that we had something on CEWALD. While ve vere preparing a cable to Mexico City asking them for more information on OSWALD, Mexice City iteelf heard OSWALD's name on the Yotce of Anerica broadcast and cabled to us a reaindar of the informaticn the Station had sent in on hin. ‘For the next week, a dozen people in the Agency vere continuously envagead in handling incoming meseages on the case, writing reports to be cabled out, tracing the names mentioned, end researching files, within a week, OT cabled reporte had gone out to the White House, the State Depart~ ment, and the FBI. Macy cables of guidance and Anquisy bed been sent to
13-00000 our overseas stations, and many pieces of information on OSWALD and his wife had been received back. ‘The Mexico ctty Station researched its telephone tape very thoroughly and came up with several more conversations probably invelving OSWALD, but rot actually mentioning this name} these. connected him also to the Cuban Consulate in Mexico City. Several Mexicans were arrested and questioned about his activities, giving a zooa picture of what he was really wp to. Meany conferences were hela with the Far from the FBI investigation. Om.the mimis side, a host of fabricators, some anonymous, bombarded overseas enbassies with spurious tips on the case, | most of which we investigated. All of these are soon discredited, but they are still coming in. uring this phase of cur vork, ve served priuartly to agpert of the WEI, which vas entrusted by the Fresident with the major responsibility for the investigation. The FAL was too busy to supply us with much of ite ] it ‘ § ‘ { own inforration, but answers vere given to specific questions we posed to assist our investication. The Department of State did photograph tts entire
13-00000 file on OSWALD and pass them to us, and the FRI gave us a copy of the Soviet Consular file on OSWALD which had been publicly given by the Eoviat Ambassador to the Secretary of State. On Friday 6 December 1963, Deputy Attorney General Xatzenbach invited us to review the FBI's conprekensjve report on the case to sabe sure our sources vere not jeopardized and that our information ves correctly quoted. We found the report hizhly interesting and no threat to our security, as long as it was read only by the authérized investigative bodies. After the first few days, the CIA investigation of the case was bandied at Headquarters by a small staff usually charged with investization  gnd@ anslyais of the most important security cases, and by a few officers “and analysts of our Western Hemisphere Division. Reports From Mecrics _ As soon as cur Mexico City Station realized that Lee OSWALD vas the prime suspect, it began re-sereening all the written telephone transcripts in ‘ts files covering the Soviet Enbassy for the pertinent period. ‘The actual tapes were also reviewed, bat many of them had been erased after the
13-00000 normal two weeks walt. Several calls velieved to involve OSWALD were discovered and their contents cabled to Washington, where they were disseminated to the White House, the Etate Depertzent, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. a OSWALD's name was not actually mentioned in these additional calls, but similarity of speech and varicus plain pointa of content link them to him. ‘These calls are summarized below in chronological order. mes cover the period fron 27 Septenber 1963 to 3 October 1953, the whole span of OSWALD's visit to Mexico City as later learneé from travel records. 27 September - A man phones the Soviet Military Attache and ‘says he needs a visa to go to Odessa. Man answering says ke should call 15-60-55 and ask for the Consul. Caller asks for the address, and it is given to him. (There is no special reason for Linking this call to OSWALD.) 27 Beptenber, 4105 PH ~ The Cuban Consulate phoned the Soviet Consulate. Silvia Duran, Mexican national clerk of the Cuban Consulate " ' my talkea to a Soviet official, saying that a male American citizen wes at the Cuban Consulate asking for a transit viea to pass through Cuba on his way yes we
13-00000 to the Soviet Union. She wants to know to vhom he talus in the Soviet | ‘Consulate and who tola him he would have no problem about it. i a Soviet vies ie assured, the Cuban Consulate can grant him a transit visa and stanly notify Cuban imsigration authorities, The Soviet first asks her to wait, ena then she has to explain the whole thing over agnin to another Sovlet official, vho takes her telephone nuuber and promises to call her back. Silvia DURAN conelndes this cali by telling the Soviet she herself has moved and gives her new address fer the Soviet Eubassy bulletin. ts asks her to phoos (Sergey Semenovich) KUKBARENKO (Second Secretary who puts out the Bulletin) to give him the new address and he asks who the Cuban Cultural Attache is, Silvia DURAN gives the Attache's nae as Teresa “a7 Septenber 1426 PM = A Coriet effictel calls Silvia DIAN beck end tells her that the “Anerican” had been to see the Guviet's end shown them a letter from the Soviet Consulate in Washington in@icating that G ‘ . ry he bad been waiting for visas for himself and his wife to co to the Soviet Union for a Long time, but that no answer had come from Washington, adding rol ry , Somes
13-00000 that the wait was sometimes four or five months. ‘The "American" had anova the Soviets a letter sbeving he was a neaber of an orsantzation in favor of Cuba and had clatned that the Cubans could not give hia a vise without a Russian vise. Stivia DUM rejeins that they have the sane problems the “American” is still at the Consulate; they cannot give him a transit visa unless he 1s assured of « Soviet visa, even though he just | wants te ge to Caba to Wait there for his Soviet visa to be granted. He toes not knew anyon in Cube. they end the conversation on this note. Bitvia DURAY says that che vill note this on his “card,” and the Soviet conelades by saying, “Besides be ie not knewn.” He exeuses hisself for the inconvenience he has caused and Silvis DURAN says it is all right. 28 Septen ber - Silvia DURAN calle the Soviet Msbessy fron the Cutan Consulate, She says that she has the American with ber again, The - Soviet ansvering asks ber to wait.’ When another Soviet takes up the pus, Stivda puts the American on. The Amrican tries to talk Ruslan to the covlet vino onmers in English. he Anerican si hin to speak Rassias. The American says that he had been in the Soviet Exbaasy and spoken with the : “9
13-00000 Yes gem fen BS Consul, and that they haa taken his eddress. The Soviet replies that he knows that. Tae american then says, sonwevhat enimatically: o did net know 1t then. I vent te the Cuban Eubessy to ask them for ny address because they have it." The Soviet invites him to stop ty again and give, - thea the address, and the American agrees to do 50. (Tn this conversation, the American was speaking hardly recognizable Russian. ) As far as our records shov, OSWALD a14 not phone the Soviet or Cuber Robaseies again until Tuesday 1 October 1963. che futerventng days vere a Sunday and a Monday. .The contents of his later calls seem to show. be aid not contact the Soviets on those days. 2 october, 10:32 AM - A wan calls the Soviet Military Attache in | woken Russlan and cays he had been at shotr place the previous Saturday (08 toptenter) acd talked to their Const. they bad sala they would send | e telegram to Washington, and he vanted to know if there were anything nev. The Soviets ask him to call another phone mmber and cives him 15-60-55, say ir b my. ing to ask for a Consul. | ; 1 Cetober 1o:h5 AM = (Tats is te phone call. in which OSWALD w a dad a : - *
13-00000 used hia true name and which wae therefore cabled to Washington on 9 October 1963.) Lee OSWALD callea the Soviet Bubassy end amnomced his own name, saying he bad visited them the previous Seturday and spoken a with a Consul. ‘They had said they vould send a telegran to Washington,’ and he wanted to know Sf there were anything nev. fe aid not remaster the name of the Consol. The Soviet, who was Eubassy guard CBYEDKOY replied: *KOSTIRDOYs he is dark.” OSWALD replied: "Yea, my name 416 OSWALD.” The Soviet excused himself for a sdnute and then sala they hadn't received anything yet. OSWALD asked if they hadn't done anything end the guard replied they had sent a request but that nothing had been " received as yet.” OSWALD started to say: “And what...", but the Soviet 3 October 196] ~ A man speaking broken Spanish at first and then Roglish phoned the Soviet MiLitary Attache and asked about a vise. the Attache" ottice referred hin to the coumilate, ctving the mater 15-60-55. The caller wrote it down. ‘the attache oftictel shingyee off anvther Seetee ° . / Ane
13-00000 question about whether the caller could set @ visa, and the conversation ended. (There is no special reason to tie this in with OSWALD, whe is now known to have re-entered the US at Laredo the came day, ) Ga Herioe city _ ne information on Lee OSWALD also case to the attention of Fresident LOFRZ Mateca after 22 Hovenber. The next day, 23 Hovenber, be called 1t to the attention of our Chief of Station, vho was alresdy working feverishly on the case, Sinilarly, the Mexicana noticed the. involvenent of Cuban Consular employee Silvia DURAN, s Mexican netional. Our Station sugsested that she be arrested and interrogated about OSWALD. The Mexican authorities had the same ddoa and she and her buwhend vere arrested on 23 Hoveaber 1963, tn the mdet of a party at thety bow. ALL the guests were goon relensed but Silvia and her hnaband vere questioned est released on 25 Hoveaber 1963, | | Silvia's husband, Horacio DURAN Navarro, an industrial destucer, naid under police interrogation that when OSWALD was named as the assassin t 14
13-00000 of President Kennedy, his wife had recognized the nawe nnd recalled she had waited on OSHALD vhen he case to apply for a Cuban transit visa; he remenbered she had pala she dealt with the Soviet Consulate as veld to find out whether be iad a Soviet visa. Horacio DURAN recallea hie, wife had sata OSHALD becene anery and she hea to call out the Cuban Consul, Eusebio AZCUE, to quiet him. | Silvia DORAN told the same story. She wes 0 leftist sympathizer with Cuba and had vorkea for the Mecciean-Cuban Institute of Cultural Relations. She recalled OSWALD well, described him accurately, related how he haa wanted a Cuban visa but could not get one witheut the assurance of a Soviet visa, and remembered his tiff with the Consul. She admitted she had phoned the Seviet Enbassy about hin. : : ‘The sum total of the statements of Silvia DURAN an@ ber huskend was. to confirm that OSWALD was in Hexice to set a Cuban visa so he could watt t I t : { in Cuba for his Soviet visa. ‘The Soviet Consular file passed to the State Department in Washington by the Soviet Eubassy confirms a long exchange petween first, Mrs. Marina OSWALD, and later her husband, and the Soviet
13-00000 Consulate in Washington about their resents for permission to return to ; the Soviet Union. OSWALD was still writing to the Soviets in Washington about this as late as 9 November 1963. Silvia DURAN was arrested again on 27 November and held until 29 . Eovenber. She tela essentially the sane story over again. HWell-placed sources within the Cuban Enbassy in Mexico City stated that vhen Silvia DURAN was released frou police arrest the first tins on 25 Hovesber, she vas quite pleased vith herself. She told her colleacues the same story cet out above, adding only that the Mexican police had threatened to extradite her to the United States toe confront Lee Harvey ' GESWALD. The reaction within the Cuban Bubassy to the news of President Kennedy's death vas soubre. te date, there is no credible inforsation in CIA fies vhich vould appear to Link Lee OSWALD with the Cuban goverment - or the Cuban intelligence service, the vole question of vietber Lee OSWALD hed axy secret: conection ‘ i with the Soviets or Cubans in Mexico cannot yet be answered, but certain i" i parts of the evidence inilicate to the contrary. Silvin DURAN and the rd “
13-00000 Soviet Consular officials spoke of him as a man with “no friends in Cuba” en the one hand, and es a man not “known” in the Soviet Eubessy, on the other. ‘The very openness of his visits and the phone calla speak aguinst any secret role. Bs trip to Mexico was not iteelf a secret acts be traveled under his real nase or 9 close variant of it, lived openly in Mexican hotels, and corresponded with the Bovlets through the open uail® about . it wea he got back to the US. His trip to Mexico was apparently made necessary because it was the nearest Cuban diplomatic installation where he conld apply for a visa. A perplexing aspect of OSNALD's trafficking with the Cubans and - Soviets in Mexico City is bis assertion in his call of 25 September that he aid not know his address when he waa at the Soviet Consulate and cane to the Cuban Consulate because they bad ite It is hard to explain just what he meant, but it should be remewbered that be was talking in Russlan, « ~ languaze he could not manage, and that when ke came to Mexico he was in the 1 ' . "y process of moving from Hew Orleans to Texas. He may not have menorized his new eddress in Texas, whatever it was, and may not have been able to ar be = he how : G %
13-00000 lay hands on it wkhea he was in the Soviet consulate that @ay. Perhaps he had earlier given the addresg to Silvia DURAN and wanted to Look it up on her card. A particularly sinister aspect of OSWALD 's dealings vith the Soysets in Kexice City arises from the liklihood that ne net vith Soviet Consul. Valeriy Viadiniravich KOSTIXOY. In his 1 October phone call to the Soviet Embassy, the guard OBYEDADY suggests that the Consul OSWALD haa talked to vee KOBTINOY if be vas dark. OSWALD seess to agree with this, but the identification is very casual. In his 9 Novenbex letter to the Soviet Consulate in Washingten, OSWALD gives the nane of the man he’ dealt with as “KOSTIH,” but there is no person of that exact name in the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. KCSTINOY ie accredited as a Consular Attache and does actually do a lot of consular work, but he is believed to be a Soviet XGB officer, and it is believed thet be works for Departuent 13 of the KGB, the Department charged with sabotage and assassinations. The te , ' or suspicion that KOSTIKOY is a KGB officer arese from his work habits, and his association with other EGB officers. It was bardened when it was *
13-00000 found that he handled a Seviet agent who was trained to do sabotage — work and that he turmea thie agent over to another XCB officer who is definitely known to werk for the 13th Department. It is cenerally true in KGB vork that sabotage agents are haniled only by 13"Department officers. Exbassy guard Ivan Ivanovich OBYEDKOV is himself believed to be a KGB man frem previous assignents as a bodyguard and suretllant. But unless some direct evidence of Soviet complicity is discovered, it is most likely that OSWALD's dealing with KGB men OBYRDKOV and KOSTIKOY was nothing more than a prim coincidence, a coincidence due in part to the Boviet habit of placing intellizence men in the Esbasoles in positions where they receive a large portion of the visitors ana phone calls. All of the five consular officers in the Soviet Enbassy are known or suspected |— intellizence officers. Certainly if CSWALD bad been a Soviet ayent in training for an assassination assigment or even for sabotage vork, the Soviets vould have atopped him from aking open visite and phone calls to the Soviet Eubassy in Mexico after he tried it a couple of tines. Our
13-00000 experience in Mexico, studying the Sovlet intelligence service at close range, indicates that they do make some mistakes and are sosetimes insecure — in their methods, but that they de not persist in such glaring errors. te Sone insight on the Cuban attitude toward the arrest of Silvia DURAN a Bo and the invelvement of the Cuban Consulate in the OSWALD case can be gained froa two intercepted phones calle made between Cuban President Osvalde DORTICOS an@ Caban Ambassador to Mexico Joaquin HERNANDE? Armas on 26 cNovember 1963, the day after Silvia DURAN was released from her first arrest. At 09:10 AM that morning, President DORTICOS phoned the Ambassador frou Havana and asked him ceveral questions about a report which the Apbessador bad eent in on the arrest of Silvia DURA and the Lee OCWALD ease. The whole conversation is consistent with the theory that OSWALD werely vaunted a visa. ‘The Ambassador did mention the altercation which OSWALD had with Censul AZCUB, and he says that Mexican police bruised Silvie DURAR's arms Little shaking her to ispress her with the importance ‘ ut a ] of their questions. They head asked hey if she had been intimate with OSWALD and she bad dented it. President DORTICCS twice asked Ambassador ‘eee penne REET, ‘ od
13-00000 HERNANDEZ whether the Mexican police had asked Silvia DURAN questions about “money,” and the President apparently wanted te know whether the Heetcans thought the Cubans hed paid CSWALD money. HSRSANDEZ insisted the Mexicans had not offered Silvia DURAN money, and DORTICOS gave » up trying to yut across his point. President DORTICCS instructed EEREAMDRE. to keep on questioning Siivia DURAN and te phone hin back. At 7:39 PM that evening Anbassador HERNANDEZ did call President DORTICOS back, saying he had questioned "that person” again and she has nothing ney to naa. President poRTTCes returns to the issue of whether "they had threatened her se that she vould make a statement that the Congulate haa given money to the man2."that American.” But Ambassador ERUAMIEA pereists in misunderstanding DONTIOOS, annven tn the negative, and says: "Absolutely nothing vas given te hex." DORTICOS seens to give i up, and the conversation dies out after a few more general reoarks. We do not know for sure what made President DORTICOS prese for intorun= it t ty tion about Cuban money passed to OSWALD, but rumors vere current in Mexico and even, we understand, in the USA, that OSWALD had returned from Mexico -
13-00000 Po City with about $5,000. Perhaps DORTICOS was trying to learn whether the Hexican police believed that the Cubans had financed OSWALD. In any event, the Cuban Goverment sent the Mexicans a stiff note of pretest over the arrest and detention of Silvie DURAN, but the Mexicans rejecteé the note. Lape . gt tte