HW 55923 ~52- Mr. Tarasoff: On, you mean dealing in official capacity? Mr. Brooten: Yes. Mr. Tarasoff: I don't think we ever attempted anything like that. Mr. Brooten: All right. Mr. Tarasoff: Just socially sometimes. Mrs. Tarasoff: That was rarely. Because they were skeptical, very cagey about having us. being seen with them and vice versa. So, I don't know, it was the chief's idea that we shouldn't be socializing with the inside people since we were on the outside for some reason or other. Mr. Brooten: What, did you have any particular type of cover or anything, how, what did it appear to your friends and associates that you were doing in Mexico City? Mrs.-Tarasoff: Well, most of our friends and associates were CIA people anyway. So if we were sent overseas you didn't have to tell them, they could more or less guess on their own or. put two... Docld: 32277225 Page fi?
~53- Mr. Tarasoff: Besides when we were talking about company, well, I'm giving out a very deep and sinister secret, you always refer to the Company as Pickle Factory Mr. Brooten: Laughter - Pickle Factory. Mr. Tarasoff: We now wrote letters: to each other we'd put down PF, they knew what we were talking about. Mr. Brooten: Did you ever see any, did either of you ever see any transcripts of any tapes from Spanish @ involving Oswald? Mr. Tarasoff: Spanish? Mrs. Tarasoff: Spanish? Mr. Tarasoff: She used read the whole thing and see if it's pertinent. Did you explain your functions? (unintelligble) Mrs. Tarasoff: -No. He started to ask me, but I. didn't finish, because he had to change the tape. ®@ Mr. Brooten: I want to go into some of your functions when you came to Mexico. HW 55923 DBocld: 32277225 Page 73
-54- Mrs. Tarasoff: When I first came to Mexico, the first few months, I was told I could help Boris because there was such a backlog of work that was left on his shoulders when his predecessor left. And so, since I was employed by CIA there was no reason for them not to say yes because they didn't have to worry about a clearance. So I was helping him out with the filing and more or less putting it into category, in order. Mr. Tarasoff: It is very important the part that she played in it. Mrs. Tarasoff: Because I filed according to the date of the reel and the reel itself had a number and then following that each conversation had a number and I that would be the original copy that I would file as it is in whole. Then the carbon copy would be also kept in.its original state and the second one I wauld sort of scan it over and just delete what was not pertinent like it was a conversation with somebody saying, well, tomorrow I'm going downtown, do you want to go with me? I'll pick you up at such-and-such a time. Or I'm having .lunch at, or its a phone call and. they said no one is here .and hangs up. But if it had anything to deal with @ two people and especially if there names were mentioned, this was cut out and it was pasted on a piece of paper. HW 55923 Docld:32277225 Page 79
HW 55923 -55- Mrs. Tarasoff: and it was turned in to our contact. In the morning it was handed to the same person that delivered and it was delivered then to the people at the Embassy. and from there I guess they filed it according to their own system. At first, they wanted everything, and then they found out why a million times somebody's dialing for the time, somebody's calling to see if their husband's come in, and-so they said that this was just a waste of time to try to file all of this, what we!re looking for is people that are carrying conversations with each other, and especially if they're identifying each other. Mr. Tarasoff: Actually, if was left to your discretion. Mrs. Tarasoff: Yes - Mr. Tarasoff: To throw all the unnecessary... Mrs. Tarasoff: all the rubbish. Because they were trying to do this at the Embassy and they found out that it was taking up too much of their time for work that is more. pertinent than just sitting and just cutting little _pieces of paper, so they decided that it would be up to me to use my common sense to see what was pertinent and was not pertinent. And, as I say, I would put it on a piece of paper and they in turn filed it, and if they had comments to make Docld: 32277225 Page 680
-56- Mrs. Tarasoff: on it they would make their own personal comments. Mr. Brooten: But on these tapes you didn't and on these things that you did, you didn't put you own. Mrs. Tarasoff: No. Mr. _Brooten: personal comments on. “Mrs. Tarasoff: There was no comments made on my part. Mr. Brooten: Well, I believe that that is all the ' questions that I have for right now. My colleague has pre- pare some questions relating to some areas that I haven't covered, and so I'm going to shut the tapes off and we'll let him come around to this side of the table. Mr. Blackmer: Mr. Tarasoff, I'm going to ask you a few questions concerning specifics of your function in Mexico City in 1963.between the periods of September and November. I understand from your answers to Mr. Brooten's questions that your responsibility was to translate and transcribe intercepts of telephone conversations coming @ into the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. | HW 55923 Docld:32277225 Page 61
HW 55923 -57- Mr. Tarasoff: And going out of the Soviet Embassy. Mr . Blackmer: Coming in.and going out of the Soviet Embassy. During the course of your employment, did you become familiar with many of the voices of the people at the Embassy: you Mr. Tarasoff: Oh yes,/gradually begin to realize who they are, the way they talk and you associate yourself very closely with them after a while, but it. takes time. Unfortunately. Mr. Blackmer: Is it not a fact that these Russians were cautious when they spoke on the telephone? Mr. Tarasoff: Oh yes, very definitely. Mr. Blackmer: Did they, they didn't usually identify themselves by name? Mr. Tarasoff: No. Mr. Blackmer: So -therefore, it was really necessary for you to become familiar so you could place them. Mr. Tarasoff: Unless, of course, a certain person asked whoever answered the telephone for another Soviet individual, whoever he might be. Docld:32277225 Page 82
Mr. Blackmer: And then the name would come up and you'd be able to identify. them? Mr. Tarasoff: Yes, I don't think it happened very often. Mr. Blackmer: All right sir. Can I ask you a few if there were any particular individuals that you could instantly recognize, their voices? Mr. Tarasoff: Well, Yakinov was one of them. Mr. Blackmer: Yakinov. Mr. Tarasoff: Then they had Eukenrikov. Oh, it's a riot. I tell you. Mr. Blackmer: So you recognized instantly certain voices of individuals and I see that you have a scrap book in front of us and in that it's got, it seems to be photographs of people in the Soviet Delegation here in Mexico City. Is that e Mr. Tarasoff: Soviet Delegation? Mr. Blackmer: Soviet Embassy in Mexico City, you have HW 55923 DBocld: 32277225 Page 63
-59- Mr. Blackmer: various names ppp, there in different sections. So you state on top’ . who these people .: - were and where they were in the Embassy. Mr. Tarasoff: What I could scrounge out, because I asked for the photographs. I said how am going to tell who's who if I don't see what the heck he looks like. And Herb told me, he said try and work without pictures, and give me a report on them, what you think of each of them. And the first one apparently was so successful that he was jumping with joy.. I described, I kind of cheated @ a little bit. I saw the picture of the person I was describing. Mr. Blackmer: All right sir, so they kept you in the dark, and you made clippings from newspapers, and you got various photographs. Mr. Tarasoff: Later they relented and let me see the pictures. Mr. Blackmer: All right, let me move into one specific area. Are you familiar with one Pavel Antonovich - Yatskov? Mr. Tarasoff: Yatskov. ‘A HW 55923 Docld: 32277225 Page 64
-60- Mr. Blackmer: Do you know this individual? Mr. Tarasoff: Well, yes and we have his pictures. Mr. Blackmer: You have his picture, and do you recall having transcribed telephone conversations in which Mr. Yatskov was one of the people on the telephone, so you would recognize his voice? Mr. Tarasoff: I imagine I would, but as I said before, I'm not sure about anything right now. Mr. Blackmer: Well, back then constantly doing these transcripts you.. Mr. Tarasoff: Oh yes, then you pick it up, to know exactly who it is. Mr. Blackmer: So this man is not unfamiliar to you? Yatskov. Mr. Tarasoff: No. Mr. Blackmer: He made many phone calls. Mr. Tarasoff: Yes. HW 55923 . Docld: 32277225 Page 65
@. HW 55923 -85- Mrs. Tarasoff: No this was sometime after. Mr. Blackmer: Was it sometime after the assassination? Mrs. Tarasoff: Yes, definitely. Mr. Tarasoff: Yes, definitely. Mr. Blackmer: So there were no voice identity tapes that they could match voices with during the time of these calls? Mr. Tarasoff: Unless that particular tape was kept for some reason. Mr. Blackmer: Later on. But at the time the tape was transcribed, there was no identity tape and no one as proficient in Russian and knowing the voices than yourself? Mr. Tarasoff: No. I don't think so. Mr. Blackmer: Very good. Thank you very much, we. can conclude the interview now. Docld: 32277225 Page 110