104-10333-10007 EIN et AO? Ed 90 “ . CLASSIFIED FAX _'TRANSMISSION ~~ 202:724-0088 To: Barry Harrelson Date: March 31, 1997 Fax#: 703-613-3060 Pages: 17, including this Cover sheet. From: Michelle Combs Subject: DS&T and DO Briefing Questions COMMENTS: «Bary, * Attached are the final versions of the DS&T and DO briefing questions. There are no changes in _ the DS&T questions. Questions have been added to the DO list to reflect our conversation March 19 and 20. You, of course, already have our detailed explanations for the earlier DO questions. If you have any questions or if there are any problems, please give me a call. I should be in all day. See you tomorrow. Michelle > : : i oD te
13-00000 few Os poe I bo Gn? Sad 8 1. What kinds of records might the DS&T maintain on the HTLINGUAL project? How could these records be queried? sassinati 1 1. What kinds of records would TSD or other offices of DS&T have maintained on the ‘various Castro assassination plots? How might search query be framed to isolate. these records?
13-00000 SECRET DS&T Briefing - 1 April 1997. for ; y JFK Commission U-2 1. What records still exist of the early U-2 project which have not yet been declassified? At the Agency Records Center, we have approximately 1,407 folders that we can identify as having the terin U-2. . 3 2. In the attached excerpt from the book Skunkworks, the authors Ben Rich and Leo Janos refer to Lockheed's preparation of four sets of falsified U-2 technical manuals at the direction of Richard Bissell of the CIA. Is there any record of what happened to the manuals? If an operation was designed around the false manuals, which office would have run the operation? - What records might exist in the DS&T of what happened to the false manuals? There is no record that I am aware of.that would tell us what happened to the manuals. The Office of Special Projects was the office in the DS&T responsible for the U-2 Program. | Since this office no longer exists, all those records are under my purview and fall organizationally under the O/DS&T front office. To answer the last question under nmumber 2, I will first give you a little background on our recordkeeping practices.in the DS&T. When records serve their useful CL BY: 605: CL REASON: — DECL ON: <1 DRV FROM: Multiple Sources purpose, they are retired to the Agency Records Center as either permanent or temporary records as dictated by our DS&T Records Control Schedule. This control schedule, which has been approved by the National Archives and Records Administration and had its last major update in 1984, identifies record series in the DS&T and determines how long they need to be kept. Component records custodians with the SECRET
13-00000 it when the operation was: over}* of that device for accountability purposes. Other than SECRET e approval. of the Information Management Officer will retire those records under the appropriate schedule item. We currently have a system that identifies all folders contained in a box that is retired to the Records Center. It is an inventory, if you will, of the folders contained in ‘the box. Unfortunately, over the years, we have not done a good job of labeling the folders to properly describe the contents of the folder. We are also restricted to 140. characters for the folder description. For example, if we were to look for specific records pertaining to the U-2 falsified manuals, we in all probability would not be successful in finding a folder that clearly reflected this information. To definitively find out if such manuals existed, we would literally have to request from the Records Center all the folders identified as U-2 and do an “eyeball” search of every record contained in each of the 1,407 folders. oat Surveillance Records 1. We have been working to identify all technical and surveillance operations in and on the Cuban and Soviet consulates and embassies in Mexico City between September 1 and December 1, 1963. How can we-frame a search query to determine if we have a comprehensive and complete list of all operations at that time? The Technical Surveillance Group (TSG) of CITO (Clandestine Information Technology Office), formerly of OTS (Office of Technical Services), has an electronic database of summarized records of operations conducted by TSG officers, but it only dates back to circa 1970. Other than that, TSG keeps a hardcopy file records of operations that are either still active, or that are no longer active.but still have technical equipment.;in: place. For example, if TSG concealed a device in a wall but was unable to retrieve ‘theyswotild retain a record that, TSG would not have any records of operations from that timeframe. If records of this nature exist, according to the above criteria, they would have been sent to the Records Center.. The process to retrieve these records would be the same as I have described under the U-2 topic. 2. How can a search query be framed to document all electronic take produced by the Mexico City Station in the immediate wake of the assassination (the first month) and during the period of Oswald's visit? If additional records or original production still exists, where would it be stored or filed? What searches could be conducted to retrieve any additional records? If such electronic take has been destroyed, do records exist of the destruction? SECRET
13-00000 « SECRET w Electronic take from surveillance operations is an area that TSG does not get involved in. TSG's function is to assist the station with the mounting of a techni operation, maintain the equipment, train station personnel on the use of the equipment, and remove the equipment when the operation is terminated. Once an a operation is in-place, up and running, the..gtation” is responsible for handling the take, including transcription, production or reports, erasing of tapes for re-use, or. destruction of tapes (once they are too older for re-use). 3. How can be verify that what exists in the Sequestered Collection represents all records of the technical production of the Mexico City Station during the period 6f | Oswald's visit that was available at the time of the assassination? am - Again, TSG would have no idea as to the amount of : production from an operation. Due to compartmentation reasons, TSG officers are usually not in the production/intelligence dissemination chain. 4. What records of technical and electronic (including photographic) surveillance activities would have been sent to TSG? Are all technical and surveillance activity logs. referred to TSG? If not, then what organization element would be responsible for storing these logs? TSG maintains its own record of operational activity, as monitored by cable traffic originated by TSG officers in the field. This cable traffic only covers the big picture though: who, what, when, where, how as related to the overall operation. They day-to-day specifics of operational © activity is not something that the TSG officer becomes involved in. Those day-to-day records are kept for the. benefit of the station and the officers producing the intelligence reports. They would have resided with the station. 5. Who other than TSD would have had access to the raw traffic collected from the surveillance targeting the Cuban and Soviet installations in Mexico City in the 1963-1964 time frame? TSG would probably not have had access to the raw traffic collected form one of these operations, unless the station had asked that one of our officers assist in manning the surveillance equipment on a temporary basis, due to the importance of the intelligence being collected. Even so, ‘once the information is collected, either photo or audio tape, the station immediately takes possession of the raw traffic and processes it for intelligence. Those elements that then might have access to the raw traffic, would be SECRET
13-00000 bad * a ry - ee | SECRET we . etation transcribers, case officers, and reports officers, as well as their counterparts at Headquarters. HTLINGUAL 1. What kinds of records might the DS&T maintain on the. HTLINGUAL project? How could those records be queried? If DS&T were to have records on the HTLINGUAL project, they would search the appropriate offices in the DS&T under that term. Castro Assassination Plots 1. What kinds of records would TSD or other offices of DS&T have maintained on the various Castro assassination plots? How might a search query be framed to isolate these records? : s In the case of TSG, they only maintain records on their operational activities, that of audio, visual, and telephone surveillance. The existence of records, as stated in the answer to question 1 under Surveillance Records, would be the same for this response. If the records of this nature exist, according to the previous criteria, then they would also be retired to the Records Center. A search query would be created using terms, such as, “Castro,” or “assassination,” or any other related operational term. This same search criteria would more than likely be used to search in other DS&T offices that would maintain such . records. SECRET