104-10413-10260 . Mexico Station Coverage of Soviet and Cuban Embassies (1963) _ 1. (Unilateral) Coverage: | From the time the Mexico Station was opened/Gn April 1947) until the arrival of Mr. Win Scott as Chief of Station in 1955, the Station had developed a support apparatus. to exploit leads from the Soviet Embassy “in. Mexico City. This umbrella type project (LIPSTICK) consisted of multiline phone taps, three photographic-sites, a mobile surveillance team and a mail intercept operation. Telephone taps (LIFEAT) were placed by ancemployee of the loca? ctelephone_company who was 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. | Three photographic sites were handled by a Station case officer assisted by technicians on TDY from Headquarters who advised the Station on the best types of cameras, films, and concealment devices. These operations had sub-crypts under project LIPSTICK (namely: LIMITED, LILYRIC and LICALLA). LIMITED was a fixed site directly opposite the Soviet Em- bassy (across 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 \2 08!
13-00000. ee : pom SOE TN RoR Tee ZS yet Peas Tat, Qed a Pu died] Re UR ad Se 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 being released by the Warren Commission. LILYRIC was an alternate photo- graphic base. It was located in an upper story of an apartment building on the same side of the street as the LIMITED site but in the middle of the block south. It had a planted view of the front gate of the Soviet ‘Embassy. LICALLA, the third photographic site, was located in one af a row of four’ houses on the south side of the Soviet Embassy compound. This site overlooked the back garden of the Soviet Embassy compound. The’ purpose of this operation was to get good identification photographs 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 was 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. 2 AAP PR Pye PNT eee
13-00000, vee ea * oh iad ore | OEE Y i i “a ay | ' Peay OLE ih dj SLL Pr 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/unilaterai mail) intercept operation, LIBIGHT, which was handled—by an-American case officer. A recruited} obtained selected letters from a subagent|| | 2, “Liaison toverane: the nature of a . that time. The Mexican Direction ef Federal Security (oF) | pas a hip- pocket group run out of the Mexican Ministry of Government. This Ministry was principally occupied with political investigations and control of foreigners. Their agents were anal Toes and corrupt. (A-Station officer trained-a-number of them in name tracing and travel controt. In A958] {operation came into existence. The operation, which becamé known- as? 3
13-00000 ——_—_-+-a-language-oether: than Spanish or English were taken to another location for translation and typing. Mr. Boris Tarasoff did the Russian transta- 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 fel | technician who was processing the film, did so on a 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. 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 f y pee oy pee oe 7 Ba he Hike a fv dd): aid
13-00000 | a - sort ct we . ss ; 3A NPY TE QOPARET Ie PMG eat wie wdided Js dd dad. Tarasoff for translation because the caller was trying to speak in Russian. There was some delay because Station personnel waited to compare the = ° photographs with the typed transcript. All ‘transcripts were made in either Spanish or English since the Chief of Station could read only these two languages and because he personally screened the transcripts for operational leads. 6 hd ded dh dew dj te wd ted Gad te