157-10005-10224 Date:10/01/93 Page: 1 JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM ae a IDENTIFICATION FCRM : AGENCY INFORMATION => s—<CSst<‘CSC‘S - AGENCY : SSCIA RECORD NUMBER : 157-10005-10224 RECORDS SERIES : AGENCY FILE NUMBER : R174 1 OF 3 DOCUMENT INFORMATION ORIGINATOR : SSCIA FROM : TO: TITLE TRANSCRIPT/REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS WITH EXHIBITS DATE : 06/02/75 PAGES : 111 SUBJECTS : HOUSTON, LAWRENCE - EXECUTIVE SESSION COMMITTEE MEETING cS HOUSTON WAS FORMER CIA EMPLOYEE FROM 1947-1973 . CIA OPERATIONS WITH REGARD TO CASTRO, FIDEL DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION : T ; RESTRICTIONS : REFERRED CURRENT STATUS : P DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 10/01/93 OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : BOX 248-1 me ee we ee vet oe en ee ae oe eo th GS YAN DD AD OO ON mY NAD Ym GT GO cr GD EAD a em Md cm om WD aD SE On mE mS My MOSS SS [R] - ITEM IS RESTRICTED HW 350955 DBocld: 322702414 Page 1
ant | TOP SECRET 46 | 1 |) trouble come see you? 2 Mr. Houston. Oh, no, there's a number of times. For o instance, I think it was back in the 'SO's, there's a lot of Phone {Area 202) 544-6000 4 | them, but a couple might illustrate -- in those days we were 5 || doing a good deal of political action abroad in the sense of 6 giving guidance to factions in foreign countries that U.S. 7 policy favored in organizing elections. I don't mean in 8 rigging them, but how to get down to the grass roots, the old- 9 ‘fashioned political advice on how to run a political campaign. 10 We didn't have many trained officers on this. We had ll || one or two who were excellant and they wanted more, and they 12 || came to me with the proposition that -- this was an election year, 13 | which one I have forgotten -- that we put officers in both the WARD & PAUL 14 | Republican and Democratic campaign parties to get the practical 15 | experience, and I advised -- actually, I want over and talked | 16 | with Malcolm Wilkie, who was then the legal counsel in the 17 | Department of Justice, and this was most ill-advisable, and I 18 || went back and they dropped thea project. a 19 3 r 20 a 8 21 | 3 22 ul z 23 ub ~] e 25 | TOP SECRET | HW 50955 DBocld: 3227027414 Page ?
3 Pnone (Area 202) 544-6000 WARD & PAUL 410 First Street, S.£., Washington, 0.C. 20003 * HW 450955 LO 11 l2 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 el 22 295 24 25 TOP SECRET 47 However, this immediately got us into an internal security and a police function. I told them they had to drop it, and of doing it, and this information is floating over our heads right now and we cannot use it. Mr. Schwarz. Have there been any instances where you or your office advised the Agency that it should not do something when nevertheless the Agency went ahead and did it? Mr. Houston. I should think I would remember an occasion like that, but I don't. Senator Mondale. Thank you. (Senator Mondale left the hearing room.) Mr. Schwarz. Mr. Houston, with the Senator absent, you don't have to go ahead. Mr. Houston. Fine, fine. Mr. Schwarz. I'm going to go on to another subject. Dees anyone else have anything else about the Robert Kennedy meeting? Mr. Kirbow. I have only one other question, and perhaps _ more about the leadership of the Agency. Mr. Houston, your reputation over the some twenty-six twenty-eight years you were General Counsel was one of intense loyalty to the Director and the Deputy Director of the Agency. Mr. Houston. That is correct. TOP SECRET DoclTd: 32202414 Page 3 they did. And it's too bad, because nobody else has found a way |
amt Phone (Area 202) 544-6000 LO Ll le 13 WARD & PAUL 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 el 22 £95 24 410 First Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003 29 TOP SECRET 75 chest operator, but so far as I know he always operated in the line of command, and something like this I think I should have been consulted, but I can understand the operator's viewpoint. They might have felt there were reasons why I should not be consultad. But just what went on in the line of command between Harvey and the Director I just cannot fathom this. — Mr. Schwarz. Harvey worked for Helms at the time, did he not? Mr. Houston. That's right. Mr. Schwarz. And what was the nature of their relationship as you understood it? | Mr. Houston. They were not too compatible as people, but I have never known that there was any difficulty in complying | with the chain of command. I wouldn't necessarily have known if there had been, but [I didn't know it. Mr. Wides. And Harvey had worked for Mr. Helms in Berlin? | Mr. Houston. He had been iGhiefof Station, in Berlin, he had been Ghieigotstation. in Rome, and I-think it was after the Rome assignment he came back and took over the staff. | Mr. Wides. But in connection with some of the operations | like che Bertin Tunnel- and other intelligence operations he had a pretty close-working relationship with Mr. Helms? Mr. Houston. They were all in the DDP and certainly ; as anything of the importance of jtheBerli TOP SECRET Tunnel, they would be i fl i ‘ HW 50955 DBDocld:322027414 Page 4
ct am Pnone (Area 202) 544-6000 10 | il 12 13 @ WARD & PAUL 14 15 16 1? 18 19 20 21 22 295 24 v 410 First Street, S.E., Washington, 0.C. 20003 £5 TOP SECRET 83 could you think of anything which would be of benefit to this | Committee that we have not inquired into? Mr. Houston. The only thing I thought you might ask that -+ I thought you were going to mention it -- somewhere, and this is Very vague in my mind, both where I heard it, in what context, and what the timing of the event was, but I have heard and I am Sure you must have heard of the delivery of a sniper's rifle to the Embassy in Havanna, which may have been intended for some sort of assassination attempt. Mr. Schwarz. The Embassy when we still had an Embassy there? Mr. Houston. It waS apparently when we still had the Embassy. | Mr. Kirbow. Was this a couched delivery, covert 4 delivery, much like the later deliveries into the Dominican Republic? Mr. Houston. I think so. I don't know much about it. I just, through a vague recollection, I don't know any details or any specifics, it's one of the things you pick up. Mr. Kirbow. When would that have bean? I am trying to date when we no longer had an Embassy there. Mr. Hides. [ I think[ J wasi{ ) | and I believe he left in late 1959. Mr. Kirbow. Was that about the correct time? TOP SECRET HW 50955 Docld: 32202414 Page 5