104-10428-10173 CENTRAL InTELLg eB AcENCY Orrice or THe Drrecros Mr. David W. Belin Executive Director Commission on CIA Activities . Within the United States _ Dear Mr. Belin: Iam attaching, per your request of 15 April, 4 3 HAY 1975 background materials relating to certain questions relating ts Oswald and the Warren Commission. : Tab Ais a classified Secret memorandum rasponsive to your request. Tab B is an unclassi- aied version, . which you can use as you see [fit in whatever report you are preparing on the subject. Additional details are available in the Office of the Inspector General should you wish to pursue . this in greater depth. ' , Faithfully yours, fettlrects— ‘Ee. H. Knoche Assistant to the Director Attachment: a/s a, 'HXnoche:rrh:5/13/75 MNstribution: —. rig - Mr. Belin: w/att -oac wofatt — ~ _-IG wo/att _ - Knoche Chrorio. wo/att. - 1 - ™ Comm Correspondence wo/att L- Belin Letter Request 15 April i - Warren Commission fe. eo 8 watt ~ be Wel Pa
13-00000 “erage 2 ' ve 4 x - 8 Pk. 12 May 1975 SUBJECT : Review of Agency Holdings Regarding Photograph of Unidentified Individual in the Warren Commission - Report ae REFERENCE: Memorandum from David W.° Belin to E. Henry Knoche, | dated 15 April 1975 1. In accordance with reference request, we have examined and summarized the record concerning a cropped photograph that was considered by the Warren Commission in the course of its investi- gation. The photograph (together with others of the same individual) originated from an intelligence operation conducted in October 1963 by the CIA and the Mexican security authorities; 2. Under the extraordinary press of effort to develop infor- é mation on the assassin and the assassination, copies of the photo- graph were made available by CIA's Mexico Station Chief on the afternoon of 22 November to the local FBI representative. Later that day, assertedly on the decision of the Ambassador, copies were conveyed by an FBI representative on a special U. S. Naval Attache flight to the Dallas office of the FBI for possible use ‘in the ongoing investigation. One photograph, cropped by the cd FBI, was shown to Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD (Lee Harvey OSWALD's mother) in Dallas on the evening: of 23 November 1963 by an FBI agent. ; | | 3. The Warren Commission's report: describes the sequence of events that ultimately resulted in Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD! s. allegation that she had been shown a cropped photo of Jack RUBY the day before he murdered her son. A further complication fo ee Ereinat ieeiy bor org Gisssitina ty, 004645 ’ cl @esinnsite vies soocube. af EG, 33782 |
13-00000 Poy compounding this erroneous conclusion was the fact that, when ' she had been shown a copy of the same photograph in her appearance before the Commission, it had been cropped by the FBI in Washing- ‘ton in a slightly different manner. - 4, Although 3 in no way related to Lee Harvey OSWALD or his stay in Mexico City from the morning of 27 September 1963 to the morning of 2 October 1963, at least one set of photographs of the unidentified man originated during OSWALD's. stay there. It is important, therefore, to an understanding of the acquisition and handling of the photographs by the Mexico Station to review what. the Station ascertained and did with the information it developed about OSWALD in Mexico City, together with Headquarters action on that information. 5. From all credible evidence known to this time (none, incidentally, added since the exhaustive work of the Warren Com- mission), Lee Harvey OSWALD spent four (4) full days and two (2) partial days -- about 116 hours in all -- in Mexico City from about 10:00 a.m. 27 September 1963 to about 8:30 a.m. 2 October 1963. His place of residence was a small commercial traveler hotel, not frequented by "gringos" -- the Hotel Commercio -- where he was. registered under alias. Exhaustive and detailed interviews and interrogation by the Mexican authorities. and the FBI after the assassination established that, in the recollection of all hotel personnel, he left and returned late each day of his stay. 6. Allowing for the fact of late arrival and early departure, and assuming that he slept one-third of the time of his stay (38 or 39 hours), there remain some 78 hours of activity to be
13-00000 “rae accounted for. Overall, CIA's information can account only for very brief periods during 28, 29 September and 1] October. All . coverage by CIA during the entire period was technical. The Station had no live source (living agent) coverage. 7. It should be noted that OSWALD was in no sense "under investigation." None of the facts of his defection and stay in the USSR and return to the U. S., 1959 -- 1962, were known to the Mexico. Station or in its files before 10 October 1963. On that date, the bare bones of his biography were forwarded by Head- quarters in response to a Station cabled report of 8 October which had forwarded, on a routine basis, what appeared to be a contact by an American for a visa to Cuba in transit to the USSR. This was indicated and deduced from technically acquired infor- mation on 1 October, which was the first and only occasion on that visit in which OSWALD was recorded as identifying himself — (partially) by true name. 8. At no time during his stay in Mexico City did the CIA acquire a photo of OSWALD, A careful review of all coverage -- - technical as well.as .photographic -- was conducted by the Station on 22 and 23 November 1963 after the assassination, including materials back to August 1963. This confirmed that there was no CIA photo coverage of OSWALD at any time during his Mexico trip or stay in Mexico City. Moreover, although it had made a cabled request on 15 October, the Mexico Station had no photo of OSWALD in its records, nor did it receive one from Headquarters -- which did not have one either.-- before 22 November 1963.
13-00000 wea 9, It must be stressed that what technical information. the Station had was not (and normally is not) processed in "real time.". The means of acquisition and the volume of the infor- mation preclude anything but the. spot reporting of items judged to be of more than ordinary interest and, therefore, noted in summary logs. Full texts of selected items require consultation of the tape and either a full transcription or full translation or both. Photo coverage tends to become available in quantity lots which requires scanning and selection on a rapid and accelerated basis in four or five day "peaks." One of the "triggers" that normally operates to focus and accelerate more speedy review and reporting of this kind of raw intelligence is the mention of a name. This was precisely what occurred in the second of two conversations on 1 October, during which the speaker said he was "Lee OSWALD." it was this information. reported by the Station to Headquarters in its first indication on OSWALD on 8 October 1963. 10. The Mexico Station did one more thing in its 8 October report on Lee OSWALD based on the 1 October information: it coupled the data with descriptive information it had acquired from a sensitive source -- a photograph of a male individual, apparently an American, who was observed entering an Embassy on 1 October. The Station reported this detail on the 8th as a matter of coincident fact. The Station did not assert or suggest that the data led to any deduction that the photo was in fact OSWALD or, indeed, was in any way related to OSWALD.
13-00000 FSET ll. One additional element of background must be stipulated now as the final precondition to understanding the relevance (or irrelevance) of the photo of the unknown individual placed in the chain of evidence on 23 November in Dallas by the FBI agent: what was the totality of CIA Mexico's coverage of OSWALD's activity as of the afternoon of the 23rd when all available coverage had been checked? 12. The totality of Mexico Station coverage on or reasonably inferable to be OSWALD consisted of five (5) voice intercepts. Each of these items, including the text.of the raw intercepts, _were read by, discussed with, and examined by Warren Commission staffers. in Headquarters and at the Mexico Station during a stay from 8-13 April 1964. All-were made available promptly to the FBI. | 13. At about mid-day on 1 October, the camera registered the entry into an Embassy of a white-shirted individual. In the opinion of the Station, among all the persons photographed that day, he appeared to be the only non-Latin and possibly American who entered. On the chance that there could be an association between the identification data derived-from the voice inter- cept and the descriptive data derived from the photograph, the Station reported the two elements as separate facts in its cable to Headquarters on 8 October. | ) | 14. The Station's action was not unusual and really amounted to an analytic "quantum leap," in terms of the primitive status of the OSWALD identification. Many examples of a similar kind of thing can be found in the day-to-day record of Station-Headquarters.
13-00000 ( Or "45. On 22 November 1963 the Mexico Station cabled Head- “quarters at 22292 time after learning of the arrest of Lee H. OSWALD, age 24, possibly in connection with the assassination, and referenced its earlier messages of 8-9 and 15 October and. Headquarters’ reply of 10 October. The Station requested by: _ “priority pouch a photo of OSWALD so that Station ‘can check all recent coverage for OSWALD. Forward- ing: soonest copies of only visitor on 1 October who po _ could be identical with OSWALD." | 16. This obviously was for comparison at the Station which had estimated the age of the unidentified male whose photograph it had selected as having the "apparent age of 35." 17. . The Station meanwhile had begun an exhaustive and accelerated review of all its technical and photographic intel- ligence. A dispatch was prepared in accordance with the indication given in the cable of 22 November. The dispatch noted that photo coverage of the unidentified individual had turned up on 4 and 15 October. The text of the 22 November 1963 pouched dispatch read: | . "1. Attached are copies of the only photographs obtained. . .on 1 October 1963 which appeared to be an American. This same man visited {an] Embassy on 4 October 1963. "2, Copies of these photographs were shown, to the U. S. “Ambassador on 22 November 1965 and a copy of each of the two photographs was given to Chief FBI, _ Mexico, on that date... .
13-00000 oo "Pp, S. Photographs dated 15 October 1963 were inserted after typing of dispatch. These were taken as [the] person entered fan] Embassy." 18. The "Unidentified Individual” remains to this day unidentified. There is still no credible evidence, as far as CIA is aware, that the individual in the photograph had any connection with Lee Harvey OSWALD or the assassination of President Kennedy.
13-00000 am SUBJECT : Review of Agency Holdings Regarding Photograph of , Unidentified Individual in the Warren Commission Report REFERENCE: Memorandum from David W. Belin to E. Henry Knoche, dated 15 April 1975 1. In accordance with reference request, we have examined ‘and summarized the record concerning a cropped photograph that was considered by the Warren Commission in the course of its investi- gation. The photograph (together with others of the same ~ individual) originated from an intelligence operation conducted “in October 1963. The photograph is of an individual who to this -day remains unidentified. Intelligence did not provide a photo- ‘graph of Lee Harvey Oswald during his brief stay in Mexico City. that month. 2.. Under the extraordinary press of effort to develop infor- -mation on the assassin and the assassination, copies of the photo- . graph were made available by CIA's Mexico representative on the afternoon of. 22 November. to the local FBI representative. Later that day, assertedly on the decision of the Ambassador, copies were conveyed by an FBI representative on a special U. S:- Naval “Attache flight to the Dallas office of the FBI for possible use in the ongoing investigation. - One photograph, cropped by the - FBI, was. shown to Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD (Lee Harvey OSWALD's mother). in Dallas on the evening of 23 November 1963 by an FBI agent. 3. The Warren Commission's report describes the sequence of events that ultimately resulted in Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD's
13-00000 allegation that she had been shown a cropped photo of Jack RUBY | the day before he murdered her son. A further complication compounding this erroneous conclusion was the fact that, when she had been shown a copy of the same photograph in her appearance before the Commission, it had been cropped by the FBI in Washing- ton in a slightly different manner. 4, Although in no way ‘related to. Lee Harvey OSWALD or his “stay in Mexicd City from the morning of 27 September 1963 to the 3. ‘morning of 2 October 1963, at least one set of photographs of the unidentified man originated: during OSWALD's stay there. It is important, therefore, to an understanding of. the acquisition and handling of the photographs by the CIA's Mexico representative , to review what he ascertained and did with the information “developed | about OSWALD in Mexico City, together with CIA Head- quarters ‘action on that. information. 5. From all credible evidence known to this time (none, incidentally, added since the exhaustive work of the Warren Con- mission), Lee Harvey OSWALD spent four (4) full days and two (2) partial days -- about 116 hours in all -- in Mexicd City from - about 10:00 a.m. 27 September 1963 to about 8:30 a.m. 2 October 1963. His place of residence was a small commercial traveler hotel, not frequented by "gringos" -- the Hotel Commercio -- where he: was registered under alias. Exhaustive and detailed interviews and interrogation by the Mexican authorities and the FBI after the assassination established that, in the recollection of all hotel personnel, he left and returned late each day of his stay.
13-00000 6. Allowing: for the fact of late arrival and early departure, and assuming that he slept one-third of the time of his stay (38 or 39 hours), there remain some 78 hours of activity to be accounted for. Overall, CIA's information can account only for very brief periods during 28, 29 September and 1 October. 7. ‘It. should be noted that OSWALD was in no sense "under investigation.” None of the facts of his defection and stay in the USSR and return to the U. S., 1959-1962, were known to CIA's Mexico representative before’ 10 October 1963. On that date, the bare bones of Oswald's biography were forwarded by Headquarters in “response to. a cabled report of 8 October which had forwarded, on a routine basis, what appeared. to be a contact by an American for a visa to Cuba in transit to the USSR. ‘This was indicated and deduced from information acquired on 1 October; which was the first and only occasion on that visit in which OSWALD was recorded as -identifying himself (partially) by true name. 8. At no time during his stay in Mexico City did the CIA acquire a photo of OSWALD. A careful review af all coverage was conducted on 22 and 23 November 1963 after the assassination, including materials back to August 1963. This confirmed that there was no CIA photo coverage of OSWALD at any time during his Mexico trip or stay in Mexico City. Moreover, although it had inade a cabled. request on 15 October, the CIA's Mexico representative had no photo. ‘of OSWALD in his records, nor did he receive one from Headquarters ~- which did not have one either -- before 22 November 1963.
13-00000 te ( ar | | ( 9, It must-be stressed that what information there was had not been (and normally is not) processed in "real time." The means of acquisition and the volume of the information- preclude anything but the spot reporting of items judged to be of more than ordinary interest and, therefore, noted in ‘summary logs. Photo coverage tended to become available in quantity lots which requires scanning and selection on a rapid and accelerated basis in four or five day "peaks."' One of the "triggers" that normally operates to focus and accelerate more speedy review and reporting of this kind of raw intelligence is the identification of a person's name. This was precisely what occurred on 1 October. It was this information reported to Head- quarters’ in its first reference on OSWALD on 8 October 1963. 102. The CIA's Mexico. representative did one more thing in his 8 October report on Lee OSWALD based on the 1 October infor- ‘mation: he coupled the data with descriptive information acquired ‘from a sensitive source -- a photograph of a male individual, apparently an American, who was observed entering an Embassy on 1 October. This detail was reported on the 8th as a matter of . Coincident fact. CIA's Mexico representative did not assert or suggest that the data led to any deduction that the photo was in fact OSWALD or, indeed, was in any way related to OSWALD... (Il. One additional element of background must be stipulated now as the final precondition to understanding the relevance (or irrelevance) of the photo of the unknown individual placed in the chain of evidence on 23 November in Dallas by the FBI agent: what was the totality of CIA Mexico's coverage of OSWALD's activity 4
13-00000 ees ( as of the afternoon of the 23rd when all available coverage had been checked? 12. The totality of this coverage on or reasonably inferable to be OSWALD was read by, discussed with, and examined by Warren Commission staffers in Headquarters and in Mexico City during a stay from 8-13 April 1964. All were made . available promptly to the FBI. 13. At about mid-day on 1 October, the camera registered the entry into an Embassy of a white-shirted individual. In the Opinion of CIA's Mexico representative, among all the persons photographed that day, he appeared to be the only non-Latin and possibly American who entered. On the chance that there could be -an association between the identification data derived from coverage and the descriptive data derived From the photograph, the two elements were reported as separate facts in the cable to Headquarters on 8 October. | | 14. This action was not unusual and really amounted to an analytic "quantum leap," in terms of the primitive status of the OSWALD identification. Many examples of a similar kind of thing can be found in the day-to-day record of Mexico City Headquarters correspondence and reporting. 15. On 22 November 1963 CIA's Mexico representative cabled Headquarters at 2229Z time after learning of the arrest of Lee H. OSWALD, age 24, possibly in connection with the assassination, and referenced its earlier messages of 8-9 and 15 October and Headquarters’ reply of 10 October. This cable requested by. 5
13-00000 priority pouch a photo of OSWALD so that a check could be made of "all recent coverage for OSWALD. Forwarding soonest copies of only visitor on 1 October who could be identical with OSWALD." 16. This obviously was for comparison at the CIA Mexico” City office which had estimated the age of the unidentified male whose photograph it had selected as having the "apparent age of 35." 17. <A dispatch was. prepared in accordance with the indication given in the cable of 22 November. ' The dispatch noted that photo coverage. of the unidentified individual had turned up on 4 and _ 15 October. The text of the 22 November 1963 pouched dispatch read: | "1, Attached are copies of the only photographs obtained. . .on 1 October 1963 which appeared to be an American. This same man visited {an] Embassy on 4 October 1963. — "2, Copies of these photographs were shown to the U.S. Ambassador on 22. November 1963 and a copy of each of the two photographs was given to Chief FBI, -. Mexico, on that date. . . "Pp. S. Photographs dated 15 October 1963 were inserted after typing of dispatch. These were taken ' as [the] person ‘entered [an] Embassy. " 18. The "Unidentified Individual" remains to this day unidentified. There is still no credible evidence, as far as
13-00000 CIA is aware, that thé individual in the photograph had any connection.with Lee Harvey OSWALD or the assassination of’ President Kennedy.