104-10065-10086 RETURNTO CIA Background Use Only Do Not Reproduce CIA PERFORMANCE ON THE INQUIRIES p& t 4 i A. ACTS SS
14-00000 "CONFIDENTIAL CIA's Performance on the Inquiries Book V of the SSC Final Report challenges the performance of the intelligence agencies during the Warren Commission inquiry, empha- sizing things that it feels should have been done but which it asserts were not. It is correct to say that CIA has not produced evidence or analysis that addresses every theory that has been advanced over the years. A record of the volume of CIA reporting to the FBI and the Warren Commission is at Tab E. As a practical consideration, every theoretical question that can be conceived cannot be answered con- clusively; there simply may be no evidence at all, or if there is evidence somewhere it may not be accessible. The issue is what the intelligence agencies did -- in the present instance, what was the ‘performance of CIA -- with Book V of the SSC Final Report portraying a patternof neglect or avoidance that is not supported by the record. The SSC Final Report offers a number of separate subjects in support of its case: a. It refers to an allegation by a person identified as "D" (pages 28-30, 41-42 and 102-103) that he overheard and saw Oswald being handed money in Mexico City for the purpose of assassinating President Kennedy ; this was proven false, both by polygraph and by determining that Oswald was in New Orleans instead of Mexico City at the time the incident was supposed to have occurred. This subject is treated in a confusing and in- conclusive manner in the SSC Final Report.
14-0Q000 a * q cic AR REAR Ae A ed ts CCi ceca TAL b. A considerable portion of the Report is given to the AMLASH operation. The operation is described inaccurately. -The Report assigns it characteristics that it did not have during the period preceding the assassination of President Kennedy, in order to support the SSC view that it should have been reported to the Warren Commission. This is treated in some detail at Tab D of this report. c. Space is devoted to two aircraft flights from Mexico City to Havana, on 22 November and 27 November (see pages, 60- 63).. The first of these flights, as described in the SSC Report, is based on an inaccurate report about a delay of the 22 November flight to meet a mysterious private aircraft; the correct story removes the basis for the inferences of the SSC version. The second of these flights had to do with a man whose significance arises from a patently erroneous report; the FBI investigated him thoroughly, as is apparent from the condensed summary in the SSC Final Report. These examples illustrate the problem of commenting on the SSC Final Report, the question becoming that of how to deal with Congressional criticism presented on the basis of inaccurate factual perceptions. To treat the problem it was felt necessary to review the record in-depth and to report the findings, whatever they are. Recognizing the possibility of error or oversight in 1964--both on the part of CIA and the Warren Commission--consideration was given to courses of action CIA might have taken to throw some light on the CONFIDENTIAL
MARE 7 CONFivea 1 athe —_ questions as understood at the time, as well as considering those questions that have developed since then. What would be the areas of inquiry? Oswald was an obvious subject of investigation. Oswald was known to have been out of the country twice subsequent to his return to private life from the Marine Corps in September 1959. These overseas adventures were appropriate for CIA attention. The first of these overseas trips was when he went to the Soviet Union in October 1959 from which he returned in June 1962. The second of these trips was when he went to Mexico City in late September 1963, from which he returned in early October 1963. In addition to. these two areas of obvious specific inquiry for CIA, there is the problem of general foreign intelligence collection that might in some way produce information on the subject. The SSC Final Report adds to these considerations operations being conducted by CIA as part of a general U.S. program against the Castro regime. These four general areas of inquiry are covered below. | I. Travel to and from the USSR 1959-1962 On 26 November 1963 a cable was sent to Paris, Rome, Madrid, tts ple fh Litt Brussels, The Hague, London, and Ottawa giving biographic information on Lee Harvey Oswald. It noted his discharge from the Marine Corps in September 1959 and his travel to the Soviet Union in October 1959, including sketchy details as to his employment and marriage while in the USSR. The cable requested: | "any scrap information which bears on President's assassination...." ~, reese a. g ELS et Be by fF bt ee Rewer te fe ba ga
4 4 CONFIDENTIAL On 27 November the various addressee stations replied, with __|and London providing additional details on the travel of Oswald to the USSR. Additionally, London reported that a British journalist claimed that during his own imprisonment in Cuba in 1959 there was a U.S. gangster there by the name of Santos, who was living in luxury in jail because he could not return to the U.S.; the source stated that Santos was “visited frequently by another American gangster named 'Ruby'." (See pages 24--25, Tab C.) Also on 27 November Ottawa reported the "delight" of the Cuban Embassy staff over the assassination of Presfdent Kennedy although the staff was instructed to "cease looking happy in public,” in conformance with instructions from Cuba to “govern theiy actions by official attitude of Govt to which they accredited." on the same date, reported that the Soviets were shocked, blaming the assassination on extreme right-wing elements. Otherwise, the initial _ responses produced no other information. On 29 November The Hague and Frankfurt were queried about Oswald's travel back from the USSR. This query was followed on 2 December by a similar cable to Berlin, Frankfurt, Bonn and The Hague. Various reporting produced details about the travel of Oswald and his wife from the USSR through Germany and the Netherlands enroute to the United States in June 1962. . The other stations involved in these inquiries had no traces or information on Oswald; liaison services were also queried without