13-00000 The cabled report was received in Washington on 9 October and checked in our files, where it was immediately noted that the Lee OSWALD phoning the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City was probably the Lee OSRAID who had defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and returned to the USA in 1962. On 10 October 1963, the day after the report from Mexico city, CIA Headquarters wont out a cabled report about Lee OSWALD's phone call to the soviet Embassy; the report went to the FBI, the Department of State (because OSWALD was a U.S. eitizen), and to the Navy Department (because he was a former Marine). The cabled report to these agencies highlighted the liklihood that the Lee OSWALD mentioned was probably the _ former defector. A copy of this same cable was delivered by hand to the. Immigration and Naturalization Service » with which we have no cable link. The same day a long cable went out to Mexico City informing our Station of the ‘background of defector Lee OSWALD and asking for more information. Our Station was instructed to pass its information on the phone call to the Mexico City offices of the FBI, the Embassy, the Naval Attache, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This was done.
13-00000 | . i Our Mexico City Station very often produces information on U.S. citizens contacting Soviet bloc embassies in Mexico City. Frequently the information we get is extremely incriminating, and on one or two occasions we heve kK even been able to apprehend and return to the USA American military personnel who are attempting to defect. In all such cases, our Headquarters desk requests and obtains the special permission of the Deputy Director for Plans to pass the derogatory information on a U.S. citizen to other government agencies. We were not informed of what action the FBI and other agencies may have taken at that time based on our report. Later investigation has confirmed all the details of his trip, where he stayed, and whet he did. % avold crossing Mines with the FBI, our Mexico Station undertook no local investigation of its own. As we now know, OSWALD left Mexico on 3 October and was no a there when our report was put out. Since this telephone tap operation is a joint one the Mexicans also had the 1 October intercept on Lee OSWALD, but it apparently slumbered in their files until the assassination took place.
1 000 . a Hi . ee * . . ‘ a ~ poe . : r i . . . i ‘ . 22 November 1963 As soon as the name of Lee OSWALD was mentioned in connection with the assassination of President Kennedy on 22 November, CIA file checks were begun and the Mexican station was asked by cable for nore information on OSWALD. | Within a week, twenty-seven cabled reports had been sent to the White House, the State Department, and the Fel. CIA field stations provided many lists of information during the week af after the assassination. ‘The Mexico Clty Station researched its telephone taps very thoroughly and came up with several more conversations probably involving OSWALD, but not actually mentioning this name; these connected him also to the Cuban Consulate in Mexico City. Several Mexicans were arrested and questioned about his activities, giving a good picture of what he was really up to. A host of fabricators, some anonymous, bombarded overseas embassies with spurious tips on the case, most of which we investigated. All of these were oe soon discredited, but they are still coming in. During this phase of our work, we served primarily in support of the FBI ; which was entrusted by the President with the major responsibility for the 1. investigation. The Department of State’; 1 :tographed its entire file on Sd
13-0000 . CSWALD and passed them to us, and the FBI gave us a copy of the Soviet consular file on OSWALD which had been publicly given by the Soviet Ambassador — to the Secretary of State. .On Friday 6 December 1963, | Deputy Attorney General Katzenbach invited us to review the FBI's comprehensive report on the case to make sure our sources were not jeopardized and that our information was correctly quoted. We found the report highly interesting and no threat to our security, as long as it was read only by the authorized investigative bodies. After the first few days, the CIA investigation of the case was handled at Headquarters by a steff usually charged wk with investigation and analysis of the most important security cases, and by officers and analysts of our Western Hemi sphere Division. Reports from Mexico As soon as our Mexico City Station realized that Lee OSWALD was the prime suspect, it began re-screening all the written telephone transcripts in its 8 files m covering the Soviet Embassy for the pertinent period. The actual tapes were also reviewed, but many of them had been erased after the normal two weeks wait. Several calls believed to involve OSWALD were discovered mk and their
1 3-00090 contents cabled to Washington, where they were disseminated to the White House, the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. OSWALD's name was not actually mentioned in these additional calls, but | similarity of speech and various plain points of content link them to hin. these calls are summarized below in chronological order. They cover the period fron 27 September 1963 to 3 October 1963, the whole span of OSWALD's visit to Mexico City as later learned from travel records. 27 September - A man phones the Soviet Military Attache and says he needs a visa to go to Odessa. Man answering says he should call 15-60-55 and ask for the Consul. Caller asks for the address, and it is given to him. (There is no special reason for linking this call to OSWALD.) 27 September, 4:05 PM ~ The Cuban Consulate phoned the Soviet Consulate. Silvia Duren, Mexican national clerk of the Cuban Consulate talked to a Soviet official, saying that a male American citizen was at the Cuban Consulate asking for a transit visa to pass through Cuba on his way to the Soviet Union. She wants to know to whom he talked in the Soviet Consulate and who told him he would have no problem about it. If 4 Soviet ry is assured, the Cuban Consulate
13-00000 & ean grant him a transit visa and simply notify Cuban immigration authorities. fhe Soviet first asks her to wait, and then she has to explain the whole thing over again to another Soviet official, who takes her telephone number and promises to call her back. Silvia DURAN concludes this call by telling the Soviet she herself has moved and gives her new address for the Soviet Embassy bulletin. He asks her to phone (Sergey Semenovich) KUKHARENKO (Second Secretary who puts out the Bulletin) to give him the new address and he asks who the Cuban Cultural Attache is. Silvia DURAN gives the Attache's name as Teresa PROENZA and adds her telephone number. 27 September, 4:26 PM - A Soviet offictal calls Silvia DURAN pack end. tells her that the "American" had been to see the Soviet's and shown them a letter from the Soviet Consulate in Washington indiceting thet he had been waiting for visas for himself and his wife to go to the Soviet Union for a long time, but that no answer had come from Washington, adding that the wait was sometimes four or five months. The "American" haa shown the Soviets a letter showing he was a member of an organization in pavor of Cuba and had claimed that the Cubans could not give him a visa without a Russian visa. Silvia DURAN
13-00000 rejoins that they have the same problem; the "American" is still at the Consulate; they cannot give him a transit visa unless he is assured of a Soviet visa, even though he just wants to go to Cuba to wait there for his Soviet visa to be granted. He does not know anyone in Cuba. They end the conversation on this note. Silvia DURAN says that she will note this on his "card," and the Soviet concludes by saying, "Besides he is not known." He excuses himself for the inconvenience he has caused and Silvia DURAN says it is all right. 28 September - Silvie DURAN calls the Soviet Embassy from the Cuban Consulate. She says that she has the American with her again. The Soviet answering asks her to wait. When another Soviet takes up the phone, Silvia puts the American on. The American tries to talk Russian to the Soviet who answers in English. The American asks him to speak Russian. The American says that he had been in the Soviet Embassy and spoken with the Consul, and that they had taken his address. The Soviet replies that he knows that. The American then says, somewhat enigmatically: "I did not know it then. I went to the Cuban Embassy to ask them for my address because they have it." The Soviet invites him to stop by again and give them the address , 6nd the American agrees to do so. aN
13-00000 (In this conversation, the American was speaking hardly recognizable Russian. ) As far as our records show, OSWALD did not phone the Soviet or Cuban Embassies again until Tuesday, 1 October 1963. ‘The intervening days were a Sunday and a Monday. The contents of his later calls seem to show he did not contact the Soviets on Emm those days. 1 October, 10:31 AM - A man calls the soviet Military Attache in broken Russian and says he had been at their place the previous Saturday (28 September) and talked to their Consul. They had said they would send a telegram to Washington, and he wanted to know if there were anything new. The Soviets ask him to cail another phone number and gives him 15-60-55, saying to ask for a Consul. a 1 October, 10:45 AM - (This is the phone call in which OSWALD used his true name and vhich wac therefore cabled to Washington on 9 October 1963.) Lee OSWALD called the Soviet Embassy and announced. his own name, saying he had visited them the previous Saturday and spoken with a Consul. They had said they s would send a telegram to Washington, and he wanted to know if there were anything new. He did not remember the name of the Consul. The Soviet, who was Embassy guard OBYEDKOV replied: "KOSTIKOV; he is dark." OSWALD replied: "Yes » my
13-00000 -~ 10 = name is OSWALD." The Soviet excused himself for a minute and then said they hedn't received anything yet. OSWALD asked if they hadn't done anything and — the guard replied they had sent a request but that nothing had been received as yet." OSWALD started to say: “And what...", but the Soviet hung up. 3 October 1963 - A man speaking broken Spanish at first and then English phoned the Soviet Military Attache end asked about a visa. The Attache's office referred him to the consulate, giving the number 15-60-55. The caller wrote it down. The attache official shrugged off another question about whether the caller could get &@ visa, and the conversation ended. (There is no special reason to tie this in with OSWALD, who is now know to have re-entered the U.S. at Laredo the same day.) Since the operation through which we tap the Soviet Embassy phones in Mexico City is managed | , the information on Lee OSWALD also came to the attention of President LOPEZ Mateos after 22 November. The next day, 23 November, he called it to the attention of our Chief of Station, who was already working feverishly on the case. Similarly, the Mexicans noticed the involvement of Cuban Consular employee Silvia DURAN, a
13-00000 -l1l- Mexican national. Our Station suggested that she be arrested and interrogated about OSWALD. The Mexican authorities had the same idea and she and her husband were arrested on 23 November 1963, in the midst of a party at their home. All the guests were soon released but Silvia and her husband were questioned and released on 25 November 1963. Silvia's husband, Horacio DURAN Navarro, an industrial designer, said under police interrogation that when OSWALD was named as the assassin of President Kennedy, his wife had recognized the name and recalled she had waited on OSWALD when he came to apply for a Cuban transit visa; he remembered she had said ke she dealt with the Soviet Consulate as well to find out whether he had a Soviet visa. Horacio DURAN recalled his wife had saia OSWALD became angry and she had to call out the Cuban Consul, Euseblo AZCUE, to quiet him. Silvia DURAN told the same story. She was a leftist sympathizer with Cuba and had worked for the Mexican-Cuban Institute of Cultural Relations . She recalled OSWALD well, described him accurately, related how he had wanted a Cul&én visa but could not get one without the assurance of a soviet visa, and vemenbered his tiff with the Consul. Ghe admitted she had phoned the Soviet Embassy about him.
13-00000 . - 12 - The sum total of the statements of Silvia DURAN and her husband. was to wie? confirm that OSWALD was in Mexico to get a Cuban visa so he could wait in Cuba for his Soviet visa. The Soviet Consular file passed = to the State Department in Washington by the Soviet Embassy confirms a long exchange between first, Mrs. Marina OSWALD, and later her husband, and the Soviet Consulate in Washington about their requests for permission to return to the Soviet Union. OSWALD was still writing to the Sovlets in Washington about this as late as 9 Nov 1963.
13-00000 ca z € the Soviet Union. OSWALD wes still writing to the Soviets in Haskington about thie as late es 9 Bovenber 1963. Hovenber. &he told essentially the suns stary over aguin. ‘Welleplaced sources within the Cuban Eubassy in Mexice City stated that vken Sfivia DURAN was relessed fren polices arrest the firet time en 25 Hovesber, ehe wae quite pleased with hervelf. She tolé her colleagues the came story eet out above, offing enky that the Mexionn police had Kemmedy's death was sobre. tm date, there io veil credible inforsation in CEA files vhich would aypenr to link Lee OSWALD with the Cuban goverment er the Cuban intelligence service. The vhele queatfien of whether Lee OSWALD bad any secret comnection * with the Soviete er Cubans in Mexico cannot yet be answered, but certain parte of the evidence inéfeate to the contrary. Silvia DURAN ané the
13-00000 en the one bond, end ae a man not “keown” fn the Soviet Eebasay, on tho secret role. His trip te Mexice was not itveLf @ secret acts ke traveled ander hie rel name ae m clove variant af 1t, Lived epmely ia Sontees necessary Weemuee 1¢ was the nagrest Cuban diplomatic installation whare be oonld epply for a viea. Soviets in Mextee City ia bis asserticn in his call ef 29 Septeuher that he 614 cot tev bis e@éress when ke wee at the Seviet Consulate and ease te the Cuban Consulate becouse they hed it. It ia herd to explain Just whet his uew edfress in Temas, whatever it was, and may not heve been eble to
13-00000 Co.) SRL lay hands on it when he was in the Soviet Consulate that day. Perhaps he had earlier given the address to Silvia DURAN and wanted to look it up on her card. A particularly sinister aspect of OSWALD's dealings with the Soviets in Mexico City arises from the liklihood that he met with Soviet Consul Valeriy Vladimirovich KOSTIKOV. In his 1 October phone call to the Soviet Eubassy,,the guard OBYEDKOV suggests that the Consul OSWALD had talked to was KOSTIKOV if he was dark. OSWALD seems to agree with this, but the identification is very casual. In his 9 November letter to the Soviet Consulate in Washington, OSWALD gives the neme of the man he dealt with as "KOSTIN," but there is no person of that exact name in the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. KOSTIKOV is accredited as a Consular Attache and does actually do a lot ot consular work, but he is known, on the basis of his position, associates, work habits and operational intelligence activity, to be a Soviet KGB officer, and there is reason to believe, on the basis of FBI information, that he works for Department 13 of the KGB, the Department charged with sabotage and assassinations. .
13-00000, Embassy guard Ivan Ivanovich OBYEDKOV is himself believed to be a KGB man from previous assignments as a bodyguard and surveillant. But unless some direct evidence of Soviet complicity is discovered, it is most likely that OSWALD's dealing with KGB men OBYEDKOV and KOSTIKOV was nothing more than a grim coincidence, a coincidence due in part to the Soviet habit of placing intelligence men in the Embassies in positions where they receive a large portion of the visitors and phone calls. All of the five consular officers in the Soviet Embassy are known or suspected intelligence officers. Although it is not usual for a KGB agent on a sensitive mission to have such overt contact with a Soviet Embassy, top secret Soviet intelligence documents which set forth Military Intelligence doctrine state that very important agents can be met in offictal. installations using as cover for their presence there some sort of open business. hus ; while it is unlikely that OSWALD's contacts with the Soviet Embassy had a more sinister purpose, it cannot be excluded.
13-00000 Some insight on ( Cuban sttitude toward the ary* of Silvia DURAN and “ ——_ ; 7 & a § the involvement of the Cuban Coysulate in the OSWALD case can be gained from two intercepted phone calls made between Cuban President Osvaldo DORTICOS and Cuban Ambassador to Mexico Joaquin HERNANDEZ Armas on 26 Nov 1963, the day after Silvia DURAN was released from her first arrest. At 09:40 AM that morning, President DORTICOS phoned the Anbassedor from Havana and asked him several questions about a report which the Ambassador had sent in on the arrest of Silvia DURAN and the Lee OSWALD case. The whole conversation is consistent with the theory that OSWALD had with Consul AZCUE, and he says that Mexican police bruised Silvia DURAN's arms a little shaking her to impress her with the importance of their questions. They hal asked her if she had been intimate with OSWALD and she had denied it. President DORTICOS twice asked Ambassador
13-00000_ DEL whether the Mexican police kad eaked Silvie DURAN questions about “aoney,” and the President apparently vanted to kno whether the the Mexicans had net offered Silvia DURAN money, and DORT MAMANDEZ to keep on questioning Silvin DURAN end te phone kim back. DORTICOS back, eaying he bad questioned "that person” egein and che bas nothing pew to off. President DORTICNS weturns te the iccue of whether jE Bice wig as a Se eeRE BOE rar see ig Consulate had given money to the manti"that American.” But Aubsssador ng DORTICONS, enous in the negative, | and saye: “Absolutely nothing was civen to her.” DORTICOS seems to give wp, and the canversation dies out after « few more general remarks. ties about Cuban weney passed te OSWALD, but rumors were current in Mexico and even, we understand, in the USA, that OSWALD had returned fron Mexico