t0d-10414-10356 Mexico Station Coverage of Soviet and Cuban Embassies (1963) ]. Unilateral Coverage: the arrival of Mr. Win Scott as Chief of Station in f1'9554 the Station had ' developed a support apparatus to exploit leads from the Soviet Embassy in TIPSTECK) consisted of multiline Mexico City. This [unibi phone taps, three photographic sites, a mobile surveillance team and a eee tc mail intercept operation. re phonemes tengeon magne: frelephone-taps: (LIEEAT)/ were placed by | handled by a Station case officer. The number of lines tapped was limited only by the availability of a listening post nearby and. the availability of langauge (English, Spanish, Soviet, Polish, Czech, etc.) transcribers. Generally, these were Mexican or Mexican- American recruited agents. usktbes/ were handled by a Station case officer let ae tote ECAEGAY. QLIMITEB ywaS a. fixed st AN AN A Om ‘pbassyeeCacross the street) which had both a vehicle and a pedestrian en- trance. The gate to the Soviet Embassy was on the northwest corner of the E2, IMPDET AR! FARATOPPTS CL BY 004645
“& Soviet compound and the LIMITED site was diagonally across a double laned street on the southeast corner of that block. (See attached diagram). LIMITED was the first photo base and operated strictly on an experimental basis in the early stages. This base, however, was closed when the Sta- tion received word that the photograph of the "unidentified man” was as an alternate photo- “SE being released by the Warren Commission. PEILYRIG graphic base. It was located in an upper” “Story c of an apartment building FATA RG Ye NET EPEC NESEY aN TaD. OREN EST on the same side of the streét a “as. _the LIMITED site but in the middle of RESTOR ee RI SCREEN 228 Nm dateena, frthe, Soviet the third photographic site, was located in one of a OTE NBO AS BSLV ET TTL LIEN ELENS PIII IY tan a= on the south side of the Soviet Embassy compound. purpose of this operation was to get good identification shotographs of Soviet personnel. The three photographic sites were managed by a re- cruited agent who was a Mexican citizen, the son of an American mother and Mexican father (deceased). This agent collected the film from the LIMITED and LILYRIC sites three times a week. The film was then de- veloped and printed into 8 x 10 contact print strips. LICALLA film wa originally processed in the Station but in early 1959, due to the resig- nation of a technician, this film like that of LIMITED and LILYRIC was processed on the outside by a recruited agent.
Mobile surveillance was conducted by two American staff officers,———— These two officers organized a surveillance team of six recruited agents which used late model cars and a panel truck for surveillance. The team could be activated by radio from the LIMITED site whenever someone of interest left the gate of the Soviet Embassy. These agents were aware of the LIMITED site since they had been issued LIMITED photographs for identification purposes. The Station also conducted a unilateral mail intercept operation, LIBIGHT, which was handled by an American case officer. A recruited Mexican agent, lobtained selected letters from a subagent | 2. Liaison Coverage: Liaison coverage was unreliable and insecure as characterized by the nature of the Mexican services at that time. The Mexican Direction of Federal Security (DFS), with which we conducted liaison, was a hip- pocket group run out of the Mexican Ministry of Government. This Ministry was principally occupied with political investigations and control of (2 be ade foreigners. Their agents were 28 » and corrupt. A Station officer trained a number of them in name tracing and travel control. In 1958, operation came into existence. The operation, which became known as ty PLAPE Tis} = hada): omg
13-00000 “ptenvoy! was run by a Mexican officer. The listening post had 30 lines connected at one time. The transcription room was staffed by Mexican _Army officers. In 1961, because of mismanagement by the Mexican prin cipals, the Station chief, himself, became the project case officer. A Station officer assisted him in the daily supervision of the listening ‘post, and in picking up the transcripts and the tapes. There was also an American technician inside the listening post. | 3. Oswald Coverage: | In mid-1962, the Mexican officer in charge of LIENVOY (the : joint tap operation) asked the American officer at the LIENVOY listening post for the telephone numbers of the Soviet, Cuban and Satellite Em- ‘ ‘bassies in anticipation of possible coverage. The Station immediately. disconnected all of the unilateral telephone taps on these Embassies sO that they would not be discovered when the Mexicans hooked up their taps. The Mexicans soon thereafter connected five Cuban lines, five. Soviet lines, three Czech lines, two Polish lines, and one YugosTav line. At the listening post, a live monitor made short summaries ‘of conversations of interest which were then included in'a daily resume for the Chief of Station. Later, when a reel was completely recorded, full transcripts were typed and passed to the Station; however, there was usually a time lag of a day or two. Reels which contained Russian ~
13-00000 ; ) Tet rs eRe “erenrT eryers | SLUG. jStHOHNIE ‘Ya language other than Spanish or English were taken to another location for translation and typing. Mr, Boris Tarasoff did the Russian transla- tions but because of the volume of Russian conversations, the translations usually ran about a week behind the date of the conversation. As soon as the Station learned that an American identifying him- - self as Lee Oswald phoned the Soviet Embassy, Miss Ann Goodpasture of the Station started screening all photographs. However, here again, there was a backlog because the photographs were picked up three times a week but those picked up were usually for dates a few days before since the technician who was processing the film, did soona night-time basis. +: Further, photographs were not made initially until a complete roll of film was used. Later this was changed and the operator cleared the camera at the end of each day regardless of amount of unused. film remaining. The instructions were to cover the entire work day (office hours) and to. photograph all Soviets, their families, all foreigners, and cars with. foreign license plates. Human error did occur but generally the agents were conscientious. The Cuban Embassy coverage had more sophisticated equipment using a pulse camera which frequently developed mechanical dif- ficulties. | | a Oswald came to the attention of the listening post: operators from a tap of the Soviet line. It was picked up and taken to Mr. Boris