404-10176-10016 26 October 196C, MEMORANLUM 6. B : —_—_— ae, a "Ap Mey a ra an To: Mz. }illiam K. Harvey “As Ke a Chief, F1/Division D. M58 ot From: Anita Potocki Subject; NSA Telephone Request circa 28 September 1960 to Cifice of Security, reiayed to Fl/Livision L, regarding bossible Access to the Recordings Allegcd to Have Seen tiade of the Speech at the Latin American Youth Conazresa on 4 auguet 1960 in ifavana by Bernon Ferguson MITCHELL. Reference; CS-3/450,465, disseminated on 21 September 1960. . i. Referenced renort, based on HZP-3852 dated 29 August i960, was disseminated on 21 September 1966 as Ci-3/456, 465 to various U.S. Agencies, including NSA. Separately clien bc. Hanna of the Panama Station prepared @ Gigpatch forwarded as HZ rA~i10437 under date of 14 September 1560, referencing above report and calling attention to the fact that MITCHZLL had been reported present at the LAYG Biee’ing according to diaseminated raport. HZPA-iC437 was routed to various WH Livision Leaks, none of which broamh¢ the contents to the a@ention of appropriate V.H Livision officials who eaight have been expected to have had sume knowledge of or responsinility for follow-ap of such information, and latter dicpatch, therefore did not reach this office until 7 Vetober 1960, through the good offices of hr|| Clicpes/VH. Mrs as the individual who noted on the cov VK Livision, when c e phone, _ had advised that no attempt had been wade to follow-up this lead or to determine who in the Agency might have responsibility for reporting such information directly to NSA or other U.S. Government agencies, : & Cua or about 28 September 1960, .1r. J. De. Noell of O/5/SRS received & telephone cali from NSA officials, calling his attention to the existence of a report CS-3/450, 465 of 21 Septernber 1960, which indicated that CLA had cither had an observer or had contact with someone who had attend. d tha LAYG, which individual had reported per referance that Jernog i’. MITCHiULL had made a speech in Havana on 4 August 1960 which speech “had been recorded”. Ergo, _ NSA was moet anxious to ootain either the originale or a copy of the ‘tape s™ vot or “record” meotioaed in the report, im order that persons familiar with MITCHELL and his manner of speaking might listen to same to check the identification made in referenced report. bir. Noell relayed this request to the writer immedisie- ly upon receipt, whereupon within the space of two days or so, the writer in tura checked with the Cfifice ef Chiel, WH/ Uperations, Mr. J. .sterline, who in turm weferred the writer to the Panamanian Desk, {ter a succession of referrals, the writer ended up talking with a young lany in ranama Reporte Section, whose name : . ‘ t r { i ening STIPE sy
ofa unfortunately escape me at this time. Notes made at the time of this Conversation have either been mislaid or temporarily lost, and therefore ' &@re not available for referral at this writing. After several minutes of Hacassion back and forth with reference to the report itself, attempts to locate emact passage, ete. the writer finally arrived at a point where the request for access to the “recording" mentioned by NSA officials could be relayed to the Fanama Desk Officer. Reaction received amounted to a re-interpolation of what Para 3,k, of Referenced Report actually said, was intended to say, etc., how the informa tion "was probably obtained, and finally a virtual refutation of the statement that the “speech was recorded" as reported in cissemination, I was thereupon advised gratuitously that "if a recording actually was made, undoubtedly this was ander- taken by the Cuban avthorities themnselvea as tae hosts for the meeting..... and therefore would be in Havana in the hands of the Castro authorities, and not in the posseasion of CIA either in the field or at Headquarters," A few more rounds of oes enn oh ow “sa wn om aoa be an an om om of ana eho wonen 8 Bone Fam b Tow mek wn dt oh Fe create na a ot BES mw we eee eg ie eee ee that above statement was mere assumption on her part, obviously was not oased on any factual information she had first-hand or had ceveloped through research imto other papers available on this conference, wherefore CIA could not relay such a reply to NSA, Additional argument engued, and the Panama Desk officer recollected that "someone else recently mentioned tapes brought up either from Cuba or Panama which someone had been looking for, out in a different connection...*™ She was thereupon requested by the writer to check into such separate ingsiry, aud advise the writer of the results: Another telephone call within about 24 hours resulted in agreemeni by Fanamas Repuris Section either to initiate necessary fieid pouch themaselves, or else to take. up with the appropriate Operations Desk Officer the initiation of a formal inguiry to Panama Station, by pouch, the entire matter of existence of a tape or record-platter of the speech reported in reference, availability of such ‘secording" «tor to the Station or the Agent who had arought in the original report, and request that if available, such recording be forwarded te Headquarters soonest. J] wae under the impression a: the time that the party with whom I had talked had accepted this request as official, and that 1 had received a firm commitment that appropriate correspondence would be initiated to caver this point, allowing for ‘crash priorities" which might develop unexpecgedly, 80 that.a reply could be expected by late October or early November. I reiterated insistance by this office that without regard to any knowledge possessed by Has. Desk Officers of the circumstances of the reported LAYG meeting, at least a pro-forma written query to the field was required on basis of the NSA requeet that they be allowed to listed to the reported “recording", in order that a factual answer could be given their inquiry and the disseminated report be clarified in event the wording used therein had led to erroneous conclusions on part of the recipient. ; 3. At the time of these discussions the writer gained the impression that a relatively lege amount of confusion reigned in the ‘Cuban and ‘anamanian Desks of WH Division, based upon crash-priorities resulting from the U.N, meeting . ia New York, Mr. Caetro's antics in New York, absence of various responsibie 7
14-00000 whe desk officers om other business, wherefore there might be some delay in getting the actual pouch written and out to the eld. Mention also was made of a large 4amoant of material recentiy sent back to Headquarters from the field in comection with the LAYG and from the Panama Station, which would also have to be checaed prior to preparation of the outgoing dispatch, etc. However, the writer was assured that we would be kept advised of the progress made and specifically would be ime@nediately alerted, when field reply on this point was received. 4. Above information was relayed to Air. Noell upon completion uf these arrangements, and he in tarn advised NSA that we were checking with our Geld representatives in an effort to locate the actual recordings, tape or platter ag the case might be, to which they desired access. 5. As of this morning writer was advised by Mr. Noell that MSA had _ again inquired of him last week, and again this week the status of our effarts to locate the requested recording of the MITCHELL speech on 4 Acgast 1966, ae they atill desired to Heten to the voice to verify the identification of the speaker aa actually the former NSA employee, Sermon F. MITCHELL, as reported in reference. The writer thereapon retraced the ertire performance, as related in paraa Z and 3, only to discover anew that no-one had the faintest inkling.of what | was talking about, nor could anyone recollect that any reqcest had been made by this office or the writer with reference to CS-3/450, 465, para. 3,k. After initially calling mr. ESTERLINE's secretary on this problem, the writer was referred by her to Mr. Phillips, «ho apparently is head of the ranama Desk. After a “jolly” chat well into the subject, hir. Phillips, «ho had listened politely for a srief time, asked Whether the writer realized that ne Knew nothing about tie waoie affair, and arily respensible for PP activities. He suggested ] call a Mir. Oo on ext. 2031, who suggested that 1 might have been talking at time or original query with Mise Barbara cdmuni a, Reports Officer, or “the other girl who works in that same office’. However, Mr ot cown to specifics right away. After obtaining the necessary copies of both the disseminated report and the HSPA-10437 dispatch referencing same, he agreed that there was some argency im " getting a definitive report from the field as to whether or not a “recording" had been made of the speech itself, who made it, whe held it, and whether or not the original or a copy thereof could be obtained on a priority basis by Havana Station and forwarded to Headquarters for the purposes requested by NSA. He thereupon -- gaggested that he could send oat a routine cable to the field, text of which he oe virtoally read te me over the phone, and aaked whether in the interests of expediting g same I could coordinate it for FI/D by phone in draft-form, which I did, He was advised that the indicater "ZRGRACE" should be included in the heading, and we shall therefore receive a copy of the cable when at is finally sent oat. ne — will isa, obvicusly be included on the reply or replies fram doth Havena and Panama City, when available. I gained the impression that Mir. s - rersonably impressed by the argency of getting a straight-forward answer after gouch anneceasary delay, and the spot we wee now in vis-a-vis NSA's original request oi over a month ago. | am certain that we shall not get any run-around from eo - ; . t ee
& Mr. Noell was advised by phome this morning of the iatest developments. Mr. Noell advised that since the most recent query on thie matter came crom Jerry Brastow, Lepaty to .i Grooms, he was of the bp!-uon that this wae merely a febbw-up of some loose-ends concerning which son.eone on General Carroll's staff may have made inquiry to Brastow, in connec:ion with the Carroll Investiga- tion of thin case. Gennmral Carroll's staif, apparently, keep digging up such little umiieished pleces of business, and reminding va.ious people at NSA, probably on a "tickler system basis" that such and such a lead has not been checked out in 2 amen nee ae tet, its entirety, and that status of auch requests should be checked. Mir. Noell advised that in light of his original report to Nia that CLA was working om attempts to iccate the “recordings” either in the field or at headquarters, he would make no further ESPTe LU weer masa eee ee gery wo cere Sets *t tibhts 28 sedente dace da veceived ‘from the field. 7. So far the situation seeme to be under control once again. It is most anfertunate that sech unnecessary delay in complying with the original request was caused by a variety of factora vhich in distilled fashion can be termed "lack of cooperation’ by WH/Penama Desk officers with whom the original request was discussed. itis also unfortunate that from the outset, namely reoeipt of HZ -38652, this entire matter has deen given obviousiy reatine treatment by people who either lack the inilisiive to check au whe might have responsibility within CLA for islloweup of this type of case, or who were not sufficiently “ag courant’ with the overt news to recognize the name Bernon F. 3itchell. [ am not certain that you wish to take this matter any further, wuiese there are reasons af which | am unaware. Biy own impression ia that perhaps the best thing would be to let the whole matter drop ior the moment, at least until sach Hime as we can again raise if, aay by next Tuesday or 80, ia event we do not have a reply to mer fable by that date. 2 Me gi rt Criginal & ce: Mr. Harvey for ZRGRACE File ce: 2CL-282337 (Mitchell 261) _ £ee: O/S SRS, Mer. J DO. Noell ene ee ee