HW 54756 nw be tin ™! oc D.C. 2002" (202) S54-2345 3 wo HASHTNGTON , os = REPORTERS BUTLDING , in oW, c S ~ 300 7TH STREET, a na oO a DocId: 32263407 Page 45 43 years, or two years, after you had left the Agency, recogniz- ing the tremendous import and significance of that, and I am terribly confused as to why you decided to keep that information to yourself and to your wife. Mr. Wilcott. I was afraid, quite frankly. Mr. Dodd. You may have covered this as well, Mr. Chair- | man, and, if you have, I will drop the question. ~ But you: apparently indicated that you feel there was a direct connec- | tion between the Bay of Pigs operation and the assassination of the president. Did you cover this ground? Did you want to do this or intend.to proceed with that line of questioning? Mr. Goldsmith. » I did not intend to.get into that area. Mr. Dodd. Just one second, then. Mr. Wileott, maybe we can expedite this somewhat by ask- ing you this: Do you have any first-hand knowledge or infor- mation as to a link between the failed Bay of Pigs operation and the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy? Mr. Wilcott. No, sir. Mr. Dodd. I have no further questions. Mr. cornwell. In the conversations which you have described occurring within a period of one, two or three months after the assassination with other CIA employees and officers, did they suggest in those conversations to you that : their employment, the CIA's employment, of Oswald had any relation to the assassination or only that it related to the ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY. INC.
- 44 | | | events you have already described -- namely, the training of 7 @ 2 : him in Atsugi in the Russian ‘Language and the sending of him 3 | to Russia and using of him as a double agent and that sort of | e 4 | thing? 5 7 Mr. Wilcott. I am sorry, sir; I lost the thread of your | ; A ; | 4 4 | question. = “| Mr; Cornwell. In the conversations you had with other & g | CIA employees, the six or seven persons who purported to have : + information about the use of Oswald as an agent, did any | . 10 | of those people say anything to you which suggested that the | : 7 CIA had some role in the assassination of President Kennedy? | $ 2 Mr. Wilcott. Yes, sir. : ® : 13 Mr. Cornwell. What did they say along those Lines? | z “| Mr. Wilcott. Along those lines they said things like, = | 1s well, that Oswald couldn't have pulled the trigger, that only | : i cra could have set up such an elaborate project and there was | 4 \7 || nobody with the kind of knowledge or information that could : : | have done this, and this was more in the speculative realm. | : 7 As far as what they actually said, they said they were S | sete trouble with Oswald and that there was dissatisfaction | cer *) | with Oswald after he came back from the Soviet Union, and they: ASF ; © ae 22 | would say things like "Well, you know this was the way to get 2 rid of him --. to get him involved in this assassination thing | ' and put the blame on Cuba as a pretext for another invasion — t - | or another attack against Cuba. ? I : la Lom ! cs mAs COMP: zat _ HW 54756 DoclId: 32263407 - Page 46 ALDERSON RESORTING CO MPANY, INC
45 exact knowledge they had it is impossible for me to say. I roe) | { That was the kind of things that people said. How much | believe it was more in a speculative realm. 4a Mr. Cornwell. At several points in your testimony you : have stated there were six or seven persons, and on each occa- 3 6 | sion you raised the extent of their knowledge as "knew" or. 2 r)Tbedtevea.” ‘Apart from the one officer who said .to you that é 3 i you had paid monies with respect to Oswald's cryptonym, what ~ J | were the other six or seven persons' purported connection : . with Oswald and the Agency's relation to him. : 7 | Mr. Wilcott. They never revealed that to me, sir, as 3 2 | gar as their relations with Oswald. i ; ; © 13 | Mr. Cornwell. Do you have any knowledge, based upon your tenure in Japan, as to who would have trained Oswald in | 13 | the Saussian language if that occurred? i REPORTERS BUILDING, IS | Mr. Wilcott. No, sir. ~ \ ” | : “ "| ‘Mr. Preyer. Let me interrupt. I am afraid we are going te sy to have to leave to make this vote right now. TI will be back A 1 . .= 1% | in about 10 minutes. - | 7 Cc ay . S38 (Whereupon, a brief recess was taken.) Ser : Mr. Preyer. The committee will resume. Did you have eo a: : © px’ © | further questions? 22 Mr. Cornwell. The eryptonym -~- did you write it down at @ 2¢ | any point? : if : 23 Mr. Wilcott. I may have, sir, and I can't remember ALDERSON RESORTING COMPANY, INC. HW 54756 DoclId: 32263407 Page 47
46 1 | exactly for sure. It seems to me that I recall jotting it on | a little pad that I had at my gate, and I did that with cryp- ta | tonyms from time to time for something -- we would want to 4a I check back into their accounting for something. . | = 5 | _ Mr. Cornwell. Is there any chance that that record still, 5 3 exists? g 7 Mr, Wilcott. I doubt it, sir. & | Mr. Cornwell. Your best memory is, you wrote it on a ¢ é | note paid, is that correct? ; | : io | Mr. Wilcott. That is true, sir. | : 1 Mr. Cornwell. What routinely was done with such note | 2 | . = 2 pads? Mr. Wilcott. Usually I threw them away at the end of the day or once in a while I would put it in -- I had a little folder where I kept personal things and it is possible | 1 4 I could have out it in there, but certainly it would have been S.W. REPORTERS BUTEDTNG, destroyed when I left. x | & : Mr. Cornwell. Do you recall whether or not you used that a . | = ig 4 in the process of looking through the 30-day book you s "| described? | eee | Mr. Wilcott. I can't remember, sir. aS end) i ~ “ ny ie y md Mr. Cornwell. It was not normally part of your duties ca) aw or the scope of the knowledge that you routinely acquired on 24 | your job, as I understand it, for you to know what the 4 e e 25 eryptonyms meant; is that correct? iy : i " if 2 He at if ty 4 i HW 54756 Docld: 32263407 Page 46 SSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC.
_ AW 54756 } | Jon 74 STREET, S.W. REPORTERS BUTLDING, WASHTUGTON, OC. 20024 (202) S5"-2445 DoclId: { Mr. Wilcott. That is correct, sir. w { { . . : Mr. Cornwell. However, I take it from the fact that, as | . 3 | you describe it, it wasn't always applied, that occasionally i be | you did learn something about the identities of the persons ta | | or projects that the cryptonyms referred to; is that correct? Mr. Wilcott. That is true. | | | Mr. Cornwell. When this cryptonym was given to you by 3 | the officer, did any part of it ring any familiar note with 5 | you? Did you. recognize any part of it, the first two letters 1g | OF the last portions of it, as referring to. any geographic al area or any type of activity or anything like that? 2 | Mr. Wilcott. No, sir, not that I can recall. i 2 | Mr. Cornwell. . Had you ever run into any similar ‘ds cryptonym? Is _Mr. Wilcott. Yes, sir. a Mr. Cornwell. In other words, that is, the first two | letters or the last ones would have been the same as this? 3 Mr. Wilcott. Yes, sir; it was a cryptonym that I was | familiar with, that it must have been at least two or three \ . ss | occasions that I had remembered it and it did ring a bell, a yes. Mr. Cornwell. Do you remember anything about it? Mr. Wilcott. Not at this time. I can't remember what 24 1 it was. as 5 Mr. Cornwell. All you can recall is that, when you in u ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC. 32263407 Page 49
: 48 heard it, that was not the first occasion on which you had ; seen it or heard it? | | ' Mr. Wilcott. That is correct, sir. @ 4 : Mr. Cornwell. Why did you leave the CIA? = | Mr. Wilcott. My wife and I both left the CIA because we | - 5 | became convinced that what CIA was doing couldn't be recon- | ‘3. ; | eiled to basic principles of democracy or basic principles of = , | numanism. | | | ¢ | ; : Mr. Cornwell. Is that the only reason? | Dd Mr. Wilcott. The principal reason -- i ! i ; t a { | Mr. Cornwell. Let me rephrase it. Was there any dispute | HTHCTON, } 1 c . 17 | between you and the Agency? | al Mr. Wilcott. No, sir. ie Mr. Cornwell. Did they request that you leave? Is Mr. Wilcott. No, sir, they did not. 7 Mr. Cornwell. Did any event cause any disagreement . 17 || between you and the Agency? Mr. Wilcott. No, sir. Mr. Cornwell. Had you done anything or said anything or! t engaged in any activity which became of concern to them? } . 300 77 STREET, S.W. REPORTERS BUTLDING, VA Mr. Wilcott. No, sir. I had been involved at one point @ pe 22 with a group, civil rights group, and they had investigated : mat and said that there was no wrongdoing on my part as far as @ 24 this association with the civil rights group. | 2: i Mr. Cornwell. What group was it? 4 f My a i ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC. HW 54756 DocId: 32263407 Page 50
HW 54756 20024 (202) SS4-239n5 on S.W. RRPFORTERS BUTLDING, WASHINGTON, 2. 2N0 ITH STREET, DoclId: { : | | | 49 Mr. Wilcott. This was SNIC, the Student Nonviolent bh Coordinating Committee before they became a black power group. | Mr. Cornwell. What, if any, investigation did the Agency |. do with respect to that? “Mr. Wilcott. They called me up to chief of security, the agent security, and they interviewed me on the association: | . a I had had with the group, and then they gave me a poly- | | ~u graph -- in fact, two polygraphs -- concerning my association | uO sO with the group of people that I met with the group. Mr. Cornwell. Did they tell you whether or not you passed the polygraphs? Mr. Wilcott. Yes, they did. They told me that Thad | , passed both of those. 4 | Mr. Cornwell. It is your testimony, as I understand it, | the first time that you spoke about the Oswald agency matter ie outside of the CIA was after you left the CIA; is that correct? ; , | | . . . | Mr. Wilcott. That is true, sir. Mr. Cornwell. On that occasion to whom did you speak? 20 | Mr. Wilcott. When I first started speaking, both my | 21 3 wife and I discussed it and we felt that we should ‘be speak- 22} ing out about not only Oswald but some other things. The way 23' that we did this was’ to contact as many people all at once 241 and we figured this would be our best protection, that the more people that knew about it, the more protection it would i i i j i i 32263407 Page 51 ALDERSOM REPORTING COMPANY, INC.
é2 po de Os ™t 2nO24 (6202) S54-2345 - on b. VASHTLHGTOH , to REPORTERS BUTLDING, S.W. aie! 13 50 be for us. Mr. Cornwell. What type of people were they? Mr. Wilcott. Most of the people were involved in the civil rights movement or in the antiwar movement in 1968. Mr. Cornwell. How many of them were newspaper or maga~ | | zine reporters or involved in at least the news business ? | Mr. Wilcott. None initially. The first contact I had with any reporter or any newspaper people or any media people | vas with Glad Day Press. Mr. Cornwell. What year was that? Mr. Wilcott. That was late '68 or perhaps early 1969. | | Mr. Cornwell. You had signed a secrecy oath while you ‘were employed with the Agency? Mr. Wilcott. Yes, sir. sion to discuss outside of the Agency this matter, did you focus on the secrecy oath problem? Mr. Schaap. Mr. Chairman, I would like to interpose, I the nature of a request, that I have some problems in terms of advising my client with respect to possibly self- incrimination, that I would not advise him to go into ques- tions of his specific knowledge of the oath and the application to what he did other than the fact that he has told you, which is a fact, that he did sign the oath; but to. HW 54756 Docld:32263407 Page 52 ALEERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC. Mr. Cornwell. Did you -- at the time you made the deci- | guess, an objection, although I would like to make it more in | :
20024 (202) S5"-2345 noc, WASHTHCGTON , REPORTERS BUTLBING, a, S AW 54756 Docld: 32263407 Page 53 ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC. J ts wv ta “I ~ oo 51 go into his mental processes as to whether he felt what he was | then doing related to the oath in a particular way, I would request that those questions not be asked on the grounds that they may violate either his First Amendment rights or his Fifth Amendment rights, if that would be all right. If you have something -- Mr. Cornwell. Perhaps I can rephrase the question and | get more pointedly what I need without running into the prob- | lem.that you see. Co . Did you contact any CIA officer or employee with respect | to the secrecy oath and discuss with them whether or not you should be permitted to discuss these matters outside of the Agency? Mr. Wilcott. No, sir, I did not. Mr. Cornwell. To your knowledge, when was the first point in time at which your extra-agency discussions on this subject matter came to the attention of the Agency, if ever? Mr. Wilcott. I have no idea, sir. Mr. Cornwell. At what point in time did your discussions outside of the Agency first become a matter of publication in | a newspaper or magazine or on. television? Mr. Wilcott. In December of 1975, in the little magazine | called The Pelican at the University of California, and an interview was conducted by a reporter from that magazine. Mr. Cornwell. And would that -- at least in part -- :
52 would that interview have contained your resume of the Oswald agency matter, your statements about that matter? Mr. Wilcott. Very briefly it did, yes, in what was & ho t- | finally published. . : WAS = § Mr. Cornwell. -Phat—is; that subject matter, your state- 2 | ment on the Oswald agency matter, (56) printed or otherwise ~ Jo = 7 publicized in a news publication, radio or TV or anything = 3 like that on any other occasion? S | G9 |. Mr. Wilcott. Yes, sir. ¢ - 10 Mr. Cornwell. When was that? = 1y Mr. Wilcott. On two other occasions, I was on KPoO = | : > 43 Radio - in‘ San Francisco and I discussed in detail, in quite a ‘S | ®@ 2 13 | bit of detail, the speculations and also the incident of the ze 1g case officer contacting me at the window. = is Mr. Cornwell. What year was that? ran : yy Zz  té | Mr. Wilcott. That was November of 1977. . { ~ ' . . ~ th na VF Mr. Cornwell. Last November? * i — ii Mr. Wileott. Yes. E is dy Mr. Cornwell. On any other occasion? € 10 | . Mr. Wilcott. Yes, sir; at Oakland Technical High - cae 2! School, at the invitation of -- the social department asked wwae a Y pe 22 | me if I wanted to speak and I said yes, and so I spoke to two | classes at Oakland Technical High School. This was about, I 6 74 | believe -- about October of 1975. Mr. Cornwell. On any other occasions? ALDERSON REPORTING COMPANY, INC. HW 54756 DocId: 32263407 Page 54