(404-10151-10037 . gf aan fuy. . SECRET _. , > N 2 May 1975 MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy CS ‘Operations Staf£ SUBJECT :. Review of Agency Holdings regarding Photograph of Unidentified Individual in Mexico City published by the Warren Commission REFERENCE : Letter dated 15 April 1975 by Mr. David W. Belin, Executive Director of the Commission on CIA Activities within the United States,. to Mr. E. Henry “Knoche (copy attached to accompanying report) 1. This is further to, and in completion of, my inter’m memorandum of a few weeks ago. 2. The attachment is a detaile Lew. in narrative, chronological order - together wit opriate comment- ary ~ of our extensive motor oe OSWALD case that have a bearing on the Cy Go, on ogra@phs taken by Mexico City Station on (B, (4) ae G5; Og: 1963 of an tion of analytical erro %Yand under the stress of an urgent de ute to the develop- ment of the investigati sassination, a cropped version of one oO ug Unidentified Individual was aks oduced into the chain of evidence in the OSWALD case on 23 November 1963 by an FBI representative in Dallas. The successive vicissi- tudes which have now made this event a cause celebre right down to the present moment are detailed in the narrative. Unidentified Individual. ae & qu e of a combina- e SECRET. EAP GET Ue syle LESHT cguze is: PAGE 87 COPY No.
14-00000 — e - SECRET |, _ we EO Mreenaea te bé an a hay 3. The attached report i answer to the Fensterwald/O$ attaches to his memorandum y by~paragraph refutation,.and. which I believe is re Wocring » 4 icle which Mr. Belin 33 epared a paragraph- aN that article, eo, we y handled by a sepa~ Agr -. Aw will prepare this as No a WE comet Ae jut . oe dew” GE, rate memorandum to elin a memorandum if thaQlis d we Pence ane NY f ey? § x. 4. The point of tne QWerenced memorandum is that: “ & “Sun consideration should be given now to "whether or not the I entire matter can be fully disclosed at this time." This. glte|t submission is designed to make it possible for you, the IG and others whom you may desire to consult to make this decision. The narrative-interpretive summary has been “put together in such a way that it discloses no cyptonyms, pseudonyms or other CIA jargon. However. its contents qo well beyond what has been released to the public thus far in the Warren Commission documentation. This point must be borne’ in mind in making a decision on Mr. Belin's question. To remove any question in anybody's mind about our good faith in this matter, the narrative is backed up by copies of actual documentation from our files. It seems to me necessary, in reply to Mr. Belin, that he or . his representative review the documentation that backs up : the narrative. The documentation has not been keyed into the narrative presentation, but it follows the chronologi- cal order of presentation from 9 October into the latest yY developments in the matter, and there is an overall index , Le. to facilitate reference to individual items. [NB: There pe fet of this collecti “this is it. ] pee 5. As noted above, one o hotographs taken in ‘A Mexico City on 4 October 19 Ya duced into the } Warren Commission public EES Nor, it was intro- fe Ae] duced into that record int : ersions. ‘The we” Warren Commission and 4 Wary made fully aware in #*" f | the course of their xn: ddiquarters and in ' we ae Mexico City of the Git ehSe photograph, the fact that we had additions? 2 Aphs of the same individual | Dr. taken at different times aa exico City and on the basis of full knowledge of these ‘facts reached their own con- clusions regarding the irrelevance of the photograph to OSWALD and the assasdination. i 6. In fact, we actually hold twelve different photo~ graphs of the Unidentified Individual. Each of these are*— reproduced in the collected documentation backing up the narrative report (see Items 25 - 27). Chief, LA Division, 2 SECRET ¢ race _S8of Y een CORY He. 2
14-00000 _ publication at this time would ARE L with the State the DE GR SECRETS — SS \S had indicated in writing to Chée OPS, that he has no objection for Mr. Belin to dqnastev, is. desired with these photographs at this ime I ld be noted that Mr. Fensterwald in 1971 -t% Mr. Houston during a VISPENKO twelve photographs, thay th in the Warren Commiss% xr (It is these two that he has published in TE Review of Books article which Mr. Belin attaches ts(itis memoxandum. ) ally shown, by ney, two of the one already published SN 7. %iIt seems: to me that whoever makes a decision on whether the entire matter can be fully disclosed at this _time should bear in mind that a subsidiary decision must also be made, i.e., whether to crop or otherwise fuzz up the background of the photographs or, alternatively, to publish the entire run of the photographs for the first time without taking out the background. Obviously, none of these questions apply to the passage of this material ‘to Mr. Belin and the Rockefeller Commission itself. If think they should see the entire documentation as it stands. Perhaps after that, the question of what could be discussed and the question of “how?" and "how much?" could be taken up with Mr. Belin himself. My personal recommendation is that the more we can say about this matter in a fully open and final manner, the better off we will be as an Agency. But it is my understanding ‘that there are still sensitive aspects deriving from the ‘fact that the operation which produced the photographs was jointly rim with Mexican lia} Mand as a consequence SyRe additional problems at that level in Mexico. Al should be noted that the Ambassador, according ssi Sc 's memorandum to J.C. King on 22 November 1@6; Se 8 in the backup documentation), allegedly played< ect role in the decision to put the pkhetesyap Ni the hands of. the FBI in Dallas laterally ENR . As far as I know, there has not been shed about this aspect at any time in the p e we had any discussions ut that aspect of the matter. Raymond G. Rocca Attachments: as stated SECRET _ PAGE. 83 2 cOPY NO.
crn fom, SECRET N 2 May 1975 SO \ . SUBJECT : The Photo of. an wien Gara in the Warren ANE Commission Report: ‘AS Fagtuals ological Survey REFERENCE: Memorandum by Da Nic ie Mr. E. Harry Knoche, 15 April 197KqREty hye > | 1. Reference memorandum suggests it would be appropriate to reconsider full disclosure at this time of the circumstances and factual data relative to the Subject. The purpose of this survey is to permit a realistic evaluation of the suggestion. Background 2. This examination and summary of the record concerns a cropped photograph considered by the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (hereinafter cited as €Qyrren Commission) and introduced into evidence as Odum Exhib} GS The photograph (together. with others of the ve DENG inated fron a highly: CS 1 See Hearings Before the Presid Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (hereinafter cMed as Hearings), Vol. XX, p. 691. . SECRET - £4550 PAGE _ SO of? 3 COPY NO.
14-00000 SECRET SN SS é Ss sensitive intelligence operation bein RN n October 1963 by the CIA ‘and. Mexican sécurity or and Cuban NS) ew) Embassies in Mexico City.. SY 3. Under the 8 aS f effort to develop information . on the assassin and the assassination, copies of the photograph were made available by CIA's Mexico Station Chief on the afternoon of 22 November to the local FBI representative, and later that day, ‘assertedly on the decision of the Ambassador, copies were conveyed by an FBI representative by a special flight carried out by the U.S. Naval Attache to the Dallas office of the FBI for possible use in the ongoing investigation. One photograph, cropped by the FBI, was shown to Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD (Lee Harvey OSWALD's mother) in Dallas on the evening of 23 November 1963 by FBI Agent Bardwell D. ODUM. 4. The Warren Commission's report describes the sequence of events at pp. 364- 365 and 667 (Attachment B) ww resulted in Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD’s allegation th is ad been shown a cropped photo of Jack RUBY the day etore SE irene son. (A further complication compounding eniscelals co on was the fact that SSp Q when she had been shown QS, t, L a before the Conmission, it had bée ped by the FBI in Washington in a slightly different manner.) - 5. No detail in the Warren Commission report illustrates more vividly than this one the difficulties that beset simple truth in the SECRET © WU LS bo ae?) COPY NO. .
14-00000 SECRET EWN ¢ SSS politicized, rigidly deterministic inva Climate that has been nurtured by the media over the pask. gos, abo aS he Kennedy Assassina- tion. The photograph, muggers e RUBY, has continued to preoccupy "specialists" ees We centerpiece of another _ hypothesis that holds OSWALD to S "framed" by the use of a double in his activity ‘in Mexico City. 2 Lee Harvey OSWALD - Reporting on Mexico City Stay 6. Although in no way related to Lee Harvey OSWALD or his stay. in Mexico City from the morning of 27 September 1963 to the morning of 2 October 1963, at least one set of photographs of the unidentified man originated during OSWALD's stay there. It is important, therefore, to an understanding of the acquisition and handling of the photographs by the Mexico Station to review what the Station ascertained and did with the information it developed about OSWALD a City, together with Headquarters action on that MK 7. From all credible ~ -O- (none, incidentally, added since. the exhaustive Qe SX Warren Commission), Lee Harvey OSWALD spent fo Wri « pays and two (2) partial days-- about 116 hours in sin tex SS from about 10:00 a.m. 27 September 2 This is the thrust of the article "The CIA and the Man Who Was Not Oswald" by Bernard Fensterwald and George O'Toole in the New York Review of Books, a copy of which is attached to reference (Attachnent A). 3 SECRET mH ry m™ wu e er omer PACE 32 of 3. COPY NO. -_
14-00000 “ms SECRET NS AN 1963 to about 8:30 a.m. 2 October vee 4 Si ace of residence was a et AY ss, small commercial traveler hotel, not oS eS gringos"--the Hotel Commercio~-where he was 2, d wad ‘tas. Exhaustive and detailed interviews and intes oe Mexican authorities and the FBI, after the mane oe d all hotel personnel he left ear] hed that in the recollection of returned late each day of his stay. 8. Assuming, and allowing for the fact of late arrival and early departure, that he slept one-third of the time of his stay (38 or 39 hours), there remain some 78 hours of activity to be accounted for. Overall, CIA's information can account solely for very brief periods during 27, 28 September and 1 October. All coverage by CIA during the entire period was technical. The Station had no live source (living agent) coverage @ither_unilateral or from Mexican liaison.) 9. It should be noted that OSWALD was in no sense “under investi- gation." None of the facts of his defection and stay in the USSR and return to the U.S., 1959 - 1962, were know Kexico Station files before 10 October 1963, when the bare his biography were forwarded by Headquarters in respaees & cabled report of 8 October which had ax: SY re NW is, what appeared to be a contact by an American ¥0 AO: A transit to the USSR. This was indicated and deduced rom t oe acquired information on 1 October, which was the first and only occasion in which OSWALD. identified himself (partially) by true. name. 5 SECRET we ee ERY gquZes= PAGE 33 of
14-00000 SECRET & , Ls _ 10. At no time during his stay in ete did the CIA acquire a photo of OSWALD. A careful waict FLD voice “intercept, as well as photographic, of both se GEO an Embassies was conducted by the Station on ae Sy I tion, going back tovmaterials Aram SS 963. It is, therefore, firm 1963 after the as sass ina- that there was no CIA photo coverage of OSWALD at any time during his Mexico trip or stay in Mexico City. Moreover, although it had made a cabled request on 15 October, the Mexico Station had no photo of OSWALD — in its records, nor did it receive one from Headquarters~-which did not © have one either~-before 22 November 1963. TW. Liette This intensive review of voice intercept transcripts | by the monitor and other personnel on the basis of the 7 October inter- | cept--which had been reported to Headquarters and disseminated to the interested members of the intelligence community (as an ex-Marine OSWALD was a Navy and FBI case under the Primes Agreement, and potential Ty of interest to the Department of me : WS up matches based on eptember 1963. These BX could be recalled by the vember 1963. Analysis based on voice comparison matches were reported to Head aa ae aot monitor--and this was not atv ins < element because of the memorably poor Russian spoke by Ae could not be made because the tapes, in accordance with the normal practice, had been erased and re-used. SECRET a9 yO id 9 4 PAGE TS ot COPY Yr.
14-00000 oe, SECRET Ce \S EN 12 It must be stressed that eGR Merce and photographic coverage was not (and normally owe means of acquisition and the | co) KC } but the spot reporting «oor \s monitor to be of more than ordinary interest and, shoes GN in summary logs. Full texts of in "real time.” The ormation precludes any thing selected items require consultation of the tape and either a full tran- scription or full translation or both. Photo coverage tends to becone available in quantity lots which requires scanning and selection on a rapid and accelerated basis in four or five day "peaks." One of the "triggers" that normally operates to focus and accelerate more speedy review and reporting of this kind of raw intelligence is the mention of aname. This was precisely what occurred in the second of two conversa- tions on 1 October with the Soviet Embassy, during which the speaker said he was "Lee OSWALD." It was this information reported by the Station to Headquarters in its first indication on OSWALD on 8 October 1963. 13. The Mexico Station did one a in its 8 October report on Lee OSWALD based on its 1 October tercepts: it coupled the data with descriptive somes P a & fron a sensitive collateral source--a PnereeeRN ay WS American, who was sare erin ra Viet Embassy on 1 October. eS {dual, apparently an eS The Station reported this dai QO e 8th as a matter of coincident fact. The Station did not assert or suggest that the data deduced fron the photo was in fact OSWALD, or indeed, was in any way related to OSWALD. SECRET £3 maar CGuese~ 95 el ee OPY NO.
14-00000 SECRET SS Lee Harvey OSWALD -. CIA Coverage of né x City Sta INS S 14. One additional element: cee batkge ae. be stipulated now as gions VSN the final precondition to ze od jn relevance (or irrelevance) of the photo of the | unknown: ge in the chain of evidence Age on 23 November in Dallas by FBI Bardwell ODUM: what was the totality of CIA Mexico! S$ coverage of OSWALD's activity. as of the after- noon of the 23rd when all available coverage had been checked? 15. The totality of Mexico Station coverage on, or reasonably inferable to be OSWALD. consisted of five (5) voice intercepts as follows: a. 2/7 September 1963 (Friday), 1605 hours Mexico City time. Silvia DURAN, a Mexican national, a local employee of the Cuban Embassy, Consular section, a receptionist, speaks with an unknown male at the Soviet Embassy. Silvia DURAN tells the man that the American citizen was there, the one a a visa for Cuba on his way to the Soviet Union, & e § to know with whom he was talking there because she ERR URA sent him to the Soviet A) . : Embassy saying that TF BR ae OR and gave him a visa, then the Cubans (Embassy) ia him a visa without further paper work, only advising SBS tion in Cuba. The American, she says, wants to know with whom he had talked there because he says he was told there would be no problem. The man in the Soviet Embassy says to wait a moment. A different Soviet speaks, and SECRET we CUS eqpieou’ Gib « PAGE _ 936 oP _ COPY MO. 0 oe
14-00000 SECRET Silvia DURAN explains the same thing cS This man, says to leave a name and telephone nies RW call back. Silvia DURAN gives the telegeeeey YS 28-6 <a, Consulate). She also takes yank fe co Nor and states she has moved and wants to advSen i a bassy of her change of — address so that she can receive’the Soviet Embassy’s Bulletin. The man says to cal] KOUKHARENKO to give her new address, then he asks the name of the Consul or Cultural Attache. Silvia DURAN says the name is Teresa PROENZA and the telephone number is 14-13-26. The man says thanks. b. 27 September 1963 (Friday), 1626 hours Mexico City time. C An unidentified male, a Soviet, calls the Cuban Consulate, asks Silvia DURAN if the American had been there. Silvia DURAN says he is there now. The Soviet says the American showed papers from the Consulate in Washington, that he wants a to the Soviet Union and be there for a long time with >» Who is Russian, but the answer has not come tron. S) a spect to this problem, and according to this BEN Ny or five months, but without having nto oe Union they should ask, or better said, they cannot iQ visa there without asking Washing~ ton. However, according to this man, he showed a letter indicating © he was a member of an organization in favor of Cuba and that the Cubans said that they cannot issue a visa without his having a visa 87 ap 3
14-00000 SECRET for the Soviet Union, and now he (the iN. ev does not, know what to do with him (the American), pecauset ave \" wait for an answer from Washington. “ae NSS) that the problem with A Oh \S is that.he does not know Silvia DURAN agr ae spo exists with the Cubans , _ anyone in Cuba and there yre wm that is true it will be difficult for him to get a visa for Cuba, because he was thinking of proces- sing his visa (for the Soviet Union), because he knew it would require waiting a long time for his visa to the Soviet Union whi le in Cuba, and fron there go to the Soviet Union. The Soviet said the thing is that if his wife right now were in Washington she would receive her visa right now, or permission, fron the Soviet Union, to return to her country, she is going to receive her visa in Washington but having this visa, she could communi cate to any place this permission, _ for example here or ace she could receive it & not have them. (visa or permission), but right & Silvia DURAN says certain Gee ee a letter either b because they do not Bs e approved. The Soviet says he cannot give Ae er ie either because he does not know him (the Amertan) and asks to be excused for bothering her. Silvia DURAN says that is al] right and many thanks. c. 28 September 1963 (Saturday), 1151 hours Mexico City time. Silvia DURAN calls the USSR Embassy and talks to an unidentified SECRET ef PAGE 38 of _ COPY NO.
14-00000 : SECR ET) Soviet. She says that in the Cuban ES there is a,North American who was at the Soviet AS il Says wait a we) minute. Silvia DURAN speaks Englisi wi @one--and comments in Spanish that they gave Rae v 14-12-99 and to take the o Stfien <3 a ene f Sy to talk with you, i.e., the Soviet. The American first speaks number down--Silvia DU he Anerican citizen is going Russian and the Soviet speaks English. They continue in English. The American talks broken Russian and says I was in your Embassy and spoke to your Consul. Just a minute. A Soviet takes the phone and asks the American in English what does he want? The American says please speak Russian. The Soviet says what else do you want? The: ‘e American says I was just now at your Embassy and they took my / address. The Soviet says I know that. The Anerican, in hardly recognizable Russian, says I did not know it then. I went to the Cuban Embassy to ask them for my address, because they have it. The Soviet says why don't you come eS. 0 your address with us, it is not far from the “te I']1 be there right away. G5 SND) rs Mexico City time. The American says d. 1 October 1963 (7 An unknown male (Aner +aRy Attaché's number, 15-69-87, aN ys to an unidentified Soviet 1 Viet Embassy, the Military respondent: I was at your place last Saturday and talked to your Consul. They said that they would send a telegram to Washington, 10 ! SECRET y ae 4 et 7 CUUEEE pacs  99o¢ 315 COPY NO. ues
SECRET. | ww and I wanted to ask you if there Roe new? The* Soviet Says I would like to ask you to Palen SNynber? Please write it down: 15-60-55, and as wre ae you. e. 1 October 1963 \ nours Mexico City time. The same person who phoned a daPor so ago and spoke in broken Russian speaks to OBYEDKOV (a Soviet Embassy guard). He says: This is Lee OSWALD speaking. I was at your place last: Saturday and spoke to a consul, and they said that they would send a telegram to Washington, so I wanted to find out if you have anything new? But I don't remember the name of that consul. OBYEDKOV Says: KOSTIKOV. He is dark (hair or skin - ?). OSWALD says yes. My name is OSWALD. OBYEDKOV says, just a minute, I'll find out. They say that they have not received anything yet. OSWALD says: Have they done anything? OBYEDKOV says: Yes, they Ni a request has been sent out, but nothing has been recedyedsas yet. OSWALD says, and what . . . ? OBYEDKOV hangs << \ RS | N 16. Each of these ‘tenses Wee were read by, discussed nm WS ed by Warren Commission staffers in Headquarters and at the Mexico QS jon during a stay from 8 - 13 April xts of the raw intercepts, 1964, 3 All were made available promptly to the FBI. 3 The Warren Commission group that visited the Mexico Station consisted of Mr. Coleman, Mr. Slawson, and Mr. Willens. They examined not only the 7 SECRET
14-00000 y . SECRET 17. Summing up, we can state, or bd SSeerpretation reasonably infer from the intercept evidence, we could have made the following contacts with the qusandda < official establishments in Mexico City. — & a. 27 september 1963 VES After arrival and check-in to his hotel, OSWALD went first to the Cuban Embassy where he talked Y with Mrs. Silvia DURAN. The time of his first Cuban Embassy visit is unknown. The time of his second Cuban Embassy visit was about 1600 hours (i.e., just before closing). Sometime between the two Cuban Embassy visits, at Mrs. DURAN's indication, he must have | visited the Soviet Embassy. We have no indication who he talked ( . with at the Soviet Embassy. intercepts a - e above, but others for the 2% that seemed to have relevance. These have ROK een included in this summary because they appear, on review, ie cludable fron the OSWALD matter on logical or substantive groun AS bearing in mind that the Soviet Embassy received many AUN ainin visa matters. Caen a call fron On the 27th at 1037 hours th ES soe he wanted visas to go to Me an unknown individual meen oe cal] back at 1130. Odessa. He was told the nga OSWALD is known to have AS < Roja bus terminal on bus #516 at circa 1000 hours SS was, therefore, possible for him to have made this call. at A g this, it is unreasonable to believe the calls were OSWALD's at S e Following reasons: a. The caller wanted visas, and specifically for Odessa. OSWALD was seeking a visa and never in any context did he specify the Black Sea port of Odessa as a destination. 12 SECRET set pe ee PACK So COPY HO.
14-00000 - | 7 SECRET There was no photographic A Ss osuat’ Ss entries ¢ into either the Cuban or Soviet mene, Ke he orth. The lack of ex the camera, based on the recollection GEG a service in Head- | quarters, was down on IES or mechanical malfunction, which was in course of correctiSe coverage on the Cuban instal latiGn’s Why OSWALD was missed in his probable entry to the Soviet installation on. the 27th is not yet explained, but no technical operation of that kind is infallible. b. 28 September 1963 (Saturday). [Note: Both the Cuban and Soviet Embassies were closed to the public on Saturdays. Photo- graphic coverage was normally suspended Saturdays and Sundays.] b. The call was directed to the correct Soviet consular number: 15-60-55. On 1 October, OSWALD-first called the wrong number, 15-69-87 (the MA's number), nd had to redirect his call to the correct number, 15-60-55. It nlikely he would have made what would have been his initial AG ray the 27th, to the correct number, and called the 4 ; ct, AC ron 1 October. c. There is every | rea me ca Ws the context of the intercepts, para 15, a- D's first destination after arrival and ches Cis » was a visit to the Cuban Embassy. i vs d. The use of the WY . would exclude OSWALD unless he made use of an intermediary, which seems unlikely from what jis ~ known of his modus operandi. On 3 October at 1539 hours an individual speaking broken Spanish, then English, called the Soviet Embassy and asked for a visa. The Soviet respondent says: Call on the other phone. The requestor says: I'm 13 SECRET PeTTaRya Teele aLWucwe 102 — PAGE &. COPY NO.
14-00000 SECRET OSWALD , notwithstanding the holiday sta vn on Saturday — morning to the Soviet Embassy (his Ow where: he spoke to a Consul. He apparently could BUN w Texas address. ro AN SS At circa 1157 hours he went te a third entry-- 1 : KY where he had registered RNGNpShis previously. He secured ts " Mrs. DURAN and she called the Soviet Consulate presumably to permit him to give them the ication the day - address over the phone. Instead, the Soviet with whom OSWALD spoke over Mrs. DURAN's telephone invited OSWALD to come back in person, and he said he would immediately. Presumably, thereupon OSWALD went back to the Soviet installation (his third entry). looking for a visa to go to Russia. The Soviet says: Please call on the telephone of the Consul, 15-60-55. The requestor says: One moment . please, I'll have to get a pencil to write theXnumber down. They issue the visa there? The Soviet: That depends. 6nX gur conversation. I don't know about this business. The “eetls ke SYPor the number again. The Soviet gives him the number and tells ask~for the Consul of the Soviet Embassy in Mexico. KS The relevance of this meee ee excludable on three Russian or English. etance in Spanish to handle a conversation of this ies grounds: \\ a. The use of Sore PN SWALD throughout used broken b. The substance of the request indicates a visa request in the first stages of initiation. OSWALD had developed his matter with the Cubans and the Soviets the previous Saturday to a point well beyond the stage indicated by the substance of this call. 14 SECRET 2 gore pace 0 3 ot. 31S
14-00000 SECRET Cc. 29 September 1963 (Sunday). No activity registered. d. 30 September 1963 (Monda yQSeeivity registered. (It is known that OSWALD reseryed ice ate on a Mexico City- Loredo bus, departing 2 EEE hours.) e. 1 October NOC ALD made at Teast two calls, at 1031 and 1045 hours, to the\SoViet Embassy. He identified himself twice during the second call when he talked with OBYEDKOV--a guard-- | and referred to his talk on Saturday, probably with KOSTIKOV. There was no photographic coverage of OSWALD on 1 October; if the follow- ing reasoning is correct, that was as it should be. From the context C of the two calls, there would have been no reason for him to go to the Embassy. His case had clearly been placed at the sufferance of the USSR Embassy in Washington. His two calls on 1 October were concerned with whether any reply had been réceived from Washington. Under those circumstances, it jis unreasonable to believe OSWALD X, would have gone to the Soviet aoee oat date. 18. The camera at about > he entry into the . ¢ Soviet Embassy of a white-shi <n vi 0, in the opinion of the ovie y as aN p c. OSWALD had left Mexico City, based on all the credible evidence, the early morning of the previous day, 2 October, and could not have made this local call. 15 i SECRET rye Gy CUULerc. pace 94 op od: COPY NO.
14-00000 . . . SECRET Station, among all the persons acarHteRRS ay, appeared to be the j ong e. : only person--a non-Latin, and possibly @RGS ri Sy" entered the Soviet — ND) < installation. On the chance ther 60018 be ciation between the . LOO S identification data derived franvine voip rmmercent and the descriptive — GV Vice data derived from the photograph, ion reported the two elements as separate facts in its cable to Heatquarters on 8 October. 19. The Station's action was not unusual and really amounted to an analytic "quantum leap," justified by the primitive and initiatory status of the OSWALD identification. Many examples of a similar kind of thing can be found in the day-to-day record of Station-Headquarters corres pon- dence and reporting. Deve lopments from 8 October - 22 November 1963 20. Mexico Station reported to Head eu eR on 8 October (received in We a Headquarters 9 October) the following j SW) nformati on on OSWALD.4 (1) On 1 October PRS who spoke ms ssn SO broken Russian and? is ow stated he was at QovEmb~4XRkO September when he spoke 4 Cablese has been rendered here, and throughout, into readable English, without substantive changes or omissions. Cryptonyms and pseudonyms have been onitted or put into clear text. 16 ; SECRET cguzes4 : PAGE 105 of 3 COPY No.
SECRET with a consul whan he believed to ae : Viadimirovich KOSTIKOV. es th Soviet guard [Ivan] OBYEDKOV, who 260) wo was anything new regarding mn sali OBYEDKOV upon ean nest \\S been received yet, but the kx been sent. (2) Mexico Station said it had photos of a mate who appeared to be an American entering the Soviet Embassy at 1216 hours, leaving 1222 on 1 October. Apparent age 35, athletic build, circa 6 feet, receding hairline, balding top. Wore khakis and sport shirt. (3) No local dissemination was being made by the ' Station. 21. On 10 October 1963 at 2012Z time the @ oirision responsible for action disseminated this report to the ro of State, the FBI, and the Navy Department by routine cree S By! ton, adding some collateral details drawn fron a se DY & & (1) On 1 October 1983 \\S sensitive ' source in Mexico reported NX an American male, who identified himself as Lee OSWALD, contacted the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City inquiring W7 SECRET CuU2 nah rags 106 of ots - COPY NO.
14-00000 22. SECRET. S&S whether the Embassy had alle news con- cerning a telegram which nadise 2G Washington. The Ameri: £Gehy es d as approximately 35 3 SY Id GS n athletic OWN. . build, about 6 feet ° ali ee “receding” hairline. (2) It is believed that OSWALD may be identical to Lee Henry [sic] OSWALD, born on 18 October 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana, a former U.S. Marine who defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959 and later made arrangements through the United States Embassy in Moscow to return to the United ' States with his Russian-born wife, Marina Nikolaevna PUSAKOVA [sic] and their child. (3) The information in paragraph (Ue sis being disseminated to your ae » Mexico City. Any further information reas Sgt will be furnished you. T a s being made available to xe SS GOES Naturalization ‘Service. | & WS . NS Although the reaction of x Headquarters desk was “by the book" and in good time, there were a number of errors in this advisory to the departments which, on the record, were concerned with the OSWALD 2 SECRET CUULGES PAGE COPY NO. severe eee LOT os
14-00000 SECR E T SX | Ce | a. OSWALD's middle rane 1 WN &. "Henry" for Harvey. The reason for this mistatgs OS . The ‘Sheet opening the file on OSWALD on ene t AS been erroneous ly inscribed “OSWALD, Lee Henry." changed except for the notation of the error--is still the Fire sheet in the OSWALD file. b. His wife's maiden name was misspelled: “PUSAKOVA" for PRUSAKOVA. Neither of these errors are significant (though they persist in the Headquarters communications throughout the month). More important was: c. Paragraph (2) of the Mexico Station's report, which dealt with a concurrent, but separate, phenomenon, the description of an individual observed going into and out of the Soviet Embassy, had been locked on to Lee OSWALD as an alleged descriptive fact. The Station's qualification, "appeared to be an American," was transformed in the flat designation of the unidentified individual as "The American." There can be no question that this misreadi the Mexico Station report was an analyst's error which escaped de POY 7 in the coordination before release: the descriptive details “ t D were so far off the. mark as to be immediately recogni as US the recipients in Head- quarters , among whom both t and d photos of OSWALD. (In partial KN Ce that as of that moment CIA | had no photograph of OSWALD in Headquarters or in Mexico City to refer to.) explanation, if not exculpati 23. Confirmation of this judgment is provided by the contents of the cable composed by the same analyst and sent as of 22092 time (two hours later) to Mexico Station, referencing its 8 October cable: 19 SECRET
14-00000 pe eiee PALMERS THE Ee RS aterm ee eee eines SECRET (1) Lee OSWALD who called SovEmb (& Que iy probably identical Lee Henry els io born 18 October 1939, New OrieafS NS Oy sé omer ak Sy SS radar operator in Pa S$ who defected to USSR i@> er, OSWALD is RNS) Ss five feet, ten inches, one ixty five “pounds, light brown wavy hair, blue eyes. (2) On 31 October 1959 he attempted to renounce _ his United States citizenship to the United States Embassy in Moscow, indicating he had applied for Soviet citizenship. On 13 February the US Embassy Moscow received an undated letter from OSWALD postmarked Minsk on 5 February 1961 in which sub~ ject indicated he desired return of his US passport as he wished to return to USA if "we could come to some agreement concerning the sone of any legal proceedings against me." ( n his own initiative he appeared A ar th his wife to see about his 0 ES Subject stated that ER a Yr applied for Soviet citizensh Sa retro . at that time had n= to mo) bn AS USSR and for a temporary extension of his tourist visa pending outcome of his request. This application, according to OSWALD , contained no reference to Soviet 20 SECRET 109 PAGE. of | COPY NO.
SECRET citizenship. OSWALD stated that h been employed since 13 January 1960< ese radio and tv factory in ng) re ee as a metal worker in e S &S NALD was married on 30 nora to Wri ko laevna PUSAKOVA [sic], a dénta & jcian born 17 July 1941, USSR. No Headquarters traces. He- attempted to arrange for his wife to join him in Moscow so she could appear at Embassy for visa interview. His American passport was returned to him. US Embassy Moscow stated twenty months of realities of life in Soviet Union had clearly had a maturing effect on OSWALD. (3) Latest Headquarters information was an FBI report dated May 1962 saying the FBI fad deter- mined OSWALD is still a US citiz _ he and his Soviet wife have ae CD Department of State had aS oN r BS ver Wo travel with men ew (4) The Station shoud pa <S information of reference [its 8 October cable] and paragraph (1) above to the Embassy, the FBI, the Navy, and I&NS locally. The information given above as 21 SECRET yeaa eggZeus 110 PAGE COPY NO.
14-00000 wos, SECRET paragraphs (2) and (3) origing eT the FBI. eS | (5) Reference and onion OY being dissemi nated t ar 3} FBI, State, 9 eet eS Navy, and I&NS. OY <n advised on any further co ts or positive identification of OSWALD. (24. Headquarters feedback to Mexico City of OSWALD’s correct description should have been sufficient, in view of the incongruities with the details deduced from the photo of the unidentified male, to keep these two matters apart as investigative facts. But things did not work out that way. 25. Mexico Station on 15 October 1963 asked Headquarters to “please pouch a photo of OSWALD.” Headquare@glettrical ly delivered to the e Department of the Navy the foll ves sage on 24 October 1963. "Lee Henry [sic] ona S & . L” "It is worn OO Se this office b as soon as possi ee of the most recent photograph you have of x“ We will forward them to our representative in Mexico, who will attempt to determine if the Lee OSWALD in Mexico City and subject are the same individual." 22 SECRET lili, 3 PACE of LY. COPY WO.
14-00000 : . SECRET ( | 7 = S No photo had been received by CIA by 22 ny 1963. 26. Within its limitations yx Aa exico Station had done all it could to comply wi Geese CON actions: a. Headquarters had b 4 CS and in turn those agencies with an investigative or policy interest in OSWALD as an American” in the United States had been alerted, both in Washington and in the field. | | b. Mexico Station had no further contacts by OSWALD to report because-~as it was ultimately ascertained--he had left Mexico City on 2 October. c. OSWALD was not an Agency investigative responsibility, in any case. Even with a photograph, it would have taken very special efforts, triggered by the other interesteQU.S. agencies, to have made a positive identification in OSWALD's hotel registra~ tion under alias. — O &S S There the matter rested “age eo mer 7 1963. The Insertion of the Photo S the NS cies Individual ‘into the Chain of Evidence 27. On 22 November 1963 the Mexico Station cabled Headquarters at 2229Z time after learning of the arrest of Lee H. OSWALD, age 24, 23 SECRET ° CORY NO.
14-00000 SECRET possibly in connection with the essassinay®® in referenced its earlier messages of 8-9 and 15 gage reply of 10 October. The Station a, Rw GS “priority pouch ovr SN so that Station can check all recent cove Ns for OSWALD. Forward- ing soonest copies of only visitor to Soviet Embassy on 1 October who could be identical with OSWALD." 28. It is clear that Mexico Station had forgotten that according to its own conmunication the unidentified male in the photo was of “apparent age 35" and that the accurate description of OSWALD forwarded ( by Headquarters on 10 October precluded the identity with OSWALD of the . person whom they regarded as the "only visitor to the Soviet Embassy on 1 October who could be identical." & 29. The Station meanwhile had b SPexhaus tive and accelerated review of all its technical and HS aN ligence. A dispatch was prepared in accordance es 22 November, cited in para QV Tne dispatch noted that photo coverage of the uniden y, 6S idual had” turned up on 4 and given in the cable of 15 October at the Soviet and Cuban Embassies , respectively. The text of the 22 November 1963 pouched dispatch read: "|. Attached are copies of the only photographs obtained . . . on 1 October 1963 which appeared 24 SECRET . “ty 113, ° PAGE COPY NO.
sy on SECRET & in which I requested per sh Oro, GK yne Legal | Attache copies of ree ee 72 person SO who is known to EX "Attached,are copies of \ of the photographs we have with the dates of the visits stamped on _ the back. "At.6 p.m. Mexico time on 22 November, The Ambas- Sador decided that this was important enough to | have a member of the Legal Attache's office take copies of these pictures to Dallas, Texas. The Naval Attache is making a special flight from _ Mexico City for this purpose. The Legal Attache's officer who is going to Dallas A mised to. mail this material to you RK "Copies of these nena x sent by pouch which wil] ee on the night of 22 presets “Best wishes. "Win [SCOTT] According to a sidelined comment on this letter, the Legal Attache's. officer was Eldon RUDD. 27 SE C RET ™ cn Co Pa Yr o | ted aod PAGE 116 oe 3t COPY NO.
14-00000 SECRET CS EY 34. The decision to remit the fee yy to the FBI in Dallas had been made by the Ambassador, 20 cng rS of Station, who aN simultaneously with the FBI 2G Yeported to Headquarters 1S "FBI agent left here 200 Socal time with two copies op Ge by cable (02442 time, 23 OC ): each of six photos of a person suspected to be OSWALD, on a special flight for Dallas. He is carrying envelope with one copy each photo for airmail] special from Dailas to Jd. C. KING at home as per telephone conversation with SCOTT. One copy of each of these photos plus a copy of ( ; each of the photos showing the same person exiting the Cuban Embassy forwarded by memorandum leaving by regular pouch tonight. sone above does Hqs still want a sad wi NG photo(s)?" 35. Headquarters nat \N 04227 time, 23 November 1963, cancellin ry a "Tl. No need BON SV; photos. | We have © asked Navy for photos again, but Mexico can see OSWALD's picture soonest on the press wire. "2. Have just re-emphasized to FBI Headquarters the sensitivity of photos you are sending and also 28 SECRET ok GU bowtie te pace LAT of | oy py NS
14-00000 SECRET «> relaying names of travelers ry ar names . Note radio says OSWALD Vived “undbr oo O. H. LEE." Gey’ SS . 36. On. ‘the 23rd at ask tin com advised Mexico City: "The FBI says that the photos of the man -entering the Soviet Embassy which Mexico Station sent to Dallas were not of Lee OSWALD. Presume Mexico Station has double-checked dates of these photos and is also checking all pertinent photos for possible shots of OSWALD." ( . 37. And at. this point, 2048Z time, 23 November, Mexico Station SS "Saw photos of Lee OSWALD ress sion night of finally agreed: 22 November and it sre e o Dallas were not identical wax ener in Dallas. ~) wey) Dates are as oiven GR pHoE ~\ "Mexico Station a all available photos of persons entering Soviet and Cuban Embassies." 38. Two hours later (2254Z time, 23 November 1963) the Station had reported the results of its effort to review all available coverage: 29 SECRET COUZ SUG CoP" wo.
ae SECRET “Complete recheck of photos of al Wh itors to Cuban Embassy from August me Or lf of November against good ree OS & evidence of OSWALD vis EPA \ against all Soviet Embassy eh pies SS Note, only visit we know hx to Cuban Embassy 28 September, Saturday, on which Embassy closed and we had not had coverage... . 39. With this conmunication the matter of the "unidentified individual" reaches the end of Phase I, the key element of which is the conviction, at first latent, then expressed, that the photographed individual might be identical with OSWALD. This applies especially to the Station, though at a certain point even Headquarters moved no rebuttal despite the hard fact that the deg, tion of OSWALD and the | unidentified individual were quite CoN | 40. This review has attonpseye) ea Se. andedly with all items in the case record that have sorng SS venpenet The operational zeal, innovativeness, and ROKER S ent of all involved, especially in Mexico City, speaks f Nett. Equally apparent-- because of the 20/20 advantage of hindsight--is the evidence of non-performance. It was a critical failure, for example, that no photo of OSWALD was made available--though it was expressly requested both at Headquarters and by the field--or that it was not more aggressively 30 SECRET PAGE " sete ce at me nme se ot ten te ants | a ase oon Petes henge snahee etm ante wane ween sane eormawennensreriinedesee nannies im ebnEeriete Ce eee eee ceed 26 orem tones snes pena + eng AEE LL ween ee crete a 119 ., COPY NO. __ Lewy
14-00000 Pt SECRET sought by CIA, before 22 November. A Sno nSS of OSWALD would have obviated--in a way the mere possession Ryn description evidently could not--the whole cuceSsiye 2 ac FORT] VS Mexico City as an Impress oni gQSE Teg? the photograph on 1 October 1963 intaa cause © tion of what began in 40. It should be clear from this factual survey that never had there been a cause celebre with less intrinsic merit. It is equally — ‘clear from the facts themselves that there was nothing contrived or conspired in what happened, unless we have now descended to that point in human values achieved under STALIN in the USSR and under HITLER in Germany, where just a plain mistake is per se evidence of conspiracy. The Genesis and Development of Odum a 1 and Commission Exhibit 237 & 41. Special Agent of the Oe on 23 November. S Qs 1963 showed one of the six SRS ) Mexico City the previous day to OSWALD's mother, Narapr’ te -. ODUM himself had trimmed off . the background by straight cuts. Sep Ss. OSWALD had no recognition of the image in the photograph. ODUM's own detailed account may be found in Hearings, op cit, Vol. XX, p. 268. 42. The photograph shows the unidentified individual in a black | shirt. It was one of the five photos taken of him in front of the Soviet 3] SECRET 31 PAGE 1e0 of COPY NO. A ne RTA eceemeemp rte tne ose Se CLR cage tenon tp meEn coveprmmnensanceatn® HEN Thin mo LEDER me ater ey pemenmnin o tsenne gem sees soe eeu mes EO EN meses nt at cet = nN IR ET ia RE EI ee oe ue scape pmmngume ome copememevielee manele wtemmetnee a:
SECRET Embassy in Mexico City on 4 October 1963, =o OSWALD had left the city. NS gS . oe S SY 43. At this point, for thefetorw, al available photo coverage of the cae (12) photographs: a. Five (5) taken on 1 October 1963, entering and exiting the Soviet Embassy. He is garbed in a white shirt and light-colored (khaki-2) trousers. b. Five (5) taken on 4 October 1963 in front of the Soviet Embassy. He is garbed in a dark, open, button-down shirt with a high- neckline undershirt showing and dark trousers. c. Two (2) taken on 15 October 1963 in front of the Cuban. Embassy. He is wearing a dark, collar less T-shirt or light sweater. The negatives of all of these are “a are now held in Headquarters as integral parts of the OSWALD ay KS holdings. 44. The result of iGo Vs photograph-~to repeat, a . cropped version of one SF \sos nder paragraph 43b, above--was Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD's alee n that she had been shown a picture of her son's killer, Jack RUBY, a ‘day before he perpetuated the deed? Again the Warren Commission Report (pp. 364-365, 367) exhaustively disposes of this erroneous charge and requires no repetition here. A complica- ting fact developed along the way was Mrs. OSWALD’s (correct) observation, 32 SECRET fareth parse ‘GUN eS 121 ,,° PAGE © COPY HO.
on SECRET when she finally admitted before the Commission that the ODUM photograph was not RUBY, was that the photo had been A differently from the one she had been shown in Dallas. In (Vier s cropped version of the ODUM photograph became Coan FRR Wa (see Hearings, an SS. , Vol. XVI, p. 638). eS | &S KS 45. The net effect 1 Sing ments in the hearings of the Commission was to require the admission of the cropped photograph into evidence in a chain of depositions beginning with ODUM, including the FBI Inspector, James R. MALLEY (who had trimmed the photograph used by the Commission jin Washington), and Richard HELMS, who deposed for the originator. These documents speak for themselves and will be found in the Hearings, Vol. XI, pp. 468-470. 46. Mexico Station and other senior Agency officers strongly advised against the publication of the graph in any form on the grounds that the Soviets would be j alerted to the existence of a useful and continuing U.S. eration, and the opera- tion would go down the sata WSreated cables exchanged on WS ' this point between Headquté REE 5) aK \Y Station during the summer QWY of 1964, in particular fron 23 ber to 15 October 1964 when the Station had plans underway to abandon the operation. 47. In acceding to the Commission's request for a deposition, Mr. HELMS, then the Deputy Director for Plans, replied affirmatively to SECRET pace L22 . COPY WO. core ect ott ane epee
14-00000 SECRET Mr. RANKIN: by memorandum of 23 June 1964 “> SX included the Fotoving additional observation: "The Central Intellige \ Qa ee that i SS ce n the Commis- ae ze a most i confidential and es operation. In addition, it could be embarrassing to the indivi- dual involved who as far as the Agency is aware had no connection with Lee Harvey OSWALD or the assassination of President KENNEDY." C 48. In this instance the needs of the Commission prevailed over | the DCI's statutory obligation to protect sources and methods . The “Unidentified Individual" remains to this day unidentified and there is no credible evidence up to this time to rebut the assertion made by | Mr. HELMS in the concluding sentence of his memorandum to Mr. RANKIN on 23 June 1964, And the operation did, as precited, go down the drain. Within a week of the public *Ppearane S me Exhibit No. 1 and Commission Exhibit 237, members of cS 2 aes began systematic efforts to survey the surraurgseaR Ww \ Ou bly for rental space. but clearly their a ~~: écted to spotting possible camera sites. The operati BS was Wri in any case. Within a year it had become almost totally unproductive in coverage on Americans in contact with the Embassy--a clear sign that this category of visitor was being warned away by the Soviets themselves. orn 34 SECRET COgzei1 pacs 123 o¢ 3 COPY NO. Ce Tee Ce ea
14-00000 SEO ET EEO SECRET Phase III: The "Unidentified Man" mi . 1964 - 1975 49. As could be foreseen, the \S ersistent pressure by critics of the Warren Commi ssi 9g a . Odum Exhibit No. 1 and Commission Exhibit No. HY GOO \nterpretive purposes. A considerable vorestonie SWS Sted si nce the end of 1964 in which the Agency has attempted to ‘be responsive to these requests and, simultaneously, has tried to satisfy what has been its sole interest From the inception of the matter: to protect the method of acquisition of the photograph and the foreign Tiaison relationship, which made the acquisition possible. 50. Following are highlights from the correspondence during the current phase. a. On 16 May 1967, over the signature of the General Counsel of the Agency, Lawrence R. HOUSTON, C WV untarily submitted a statement about the photograph < BAGERT of the Criminal District Court for the aC ean te of Louisiana. eo wi RRR contents of the subpoena States Marshall in the District of Columbia, despite the a the subpoena could not be The response dealt affir that had been delive - executed because of the Jack of jurisdiction. Mr. HOUSTON proferred on Agency behalf categoric assur- ances to the court regarding the inaccuracy of statements and af 35 SECRET 124 31: PAGE eerie of oT COPY NO. “7
of the unidentified i SECRET NN . inferences made by Mr. GA & ig Wig QS Mr. HOUSTON's menor NOW & “Because of the publicity which has surrounded the Orleans Parish Grand Jury proceedings, we have recently carried out an exhaustive search of the files of the Central Intelligence Agency for any picture of Lee Harvey OSWALD taken in Mexico. As a result of this search, I can state categorically that the files of this Agency do not contain, and never have contained, any such picture of Lee Harvey OSWALD taken in Mexico and that we have no information whatsoever that any such photograph ever existed. To the best of our knowledge and information, therefore, there i Such photograph. Furthermore, the photograp WW printed in the Warren Commission ~. bi XVI, never contajs SS tha figure in the p N37 in Volume igure, and the s an individual who, WWGog rap a to our knowledge, has hgt’been identified. The circumstances of the filing of this photograph with the Warren Commission are set forth in affidavits on pages 468 and 469 of Volume XI, Hearings Before the President's Commission on the Assassination of 2 ® 36 SECRET ™, Lp s ae: “ r s about the photograph lowing is extracted from page 129 ge 3° COPY NOs ee