JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION FORM AGENCY INFORMATION AGENCY CIA RECORD NUMBER 104-10103-10172 RECORD SERIES JFK AGENCY FILE NUMBER 80T01357A AGENCY ORIGINATOR DOCUMENT INFORMATION FBI : FROM D/FBI KELLY, CLARENCE TO DCI TITLE MEMO: INTERNAL SECURITY - CUBA DATE 06/06/1977 PAGES 4 SUBJECTS VECIANA WITHHELD DOCUMENT TYPE PAPER CLASSIFICATION SECRET RESTRICTIONS 1B 1c CURRENT STATUS RELEASED IN PART PUBLIC - RELEASED WITH DELETIONS DATE OF LAST REVIEW 07/22/93 COMMENTS JFK36 F29 1993 .07.22.09:43:03:680530 {R] - ITEM IS RESTRICTED 104-10103-10172 HW 50529 DBocld: 32357037 Page 1
__, OFEECE OF THE DIRECTOR | ; ao ) _ SECRET oO rs 2 - . . SY so UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE _ FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535 ee BY LIAISON Date: |. ¢ June 6, (1977 To: Director of Central Intelligence i oo vo ote, a gts yoosteerouto, From: Clarence M. Kelley, Director oO, aie ANT Subject: + OCELOT; | ee, re a _. . INTERNAL SECURITY - CUBA 000 ye ‘This is to advise of pertinent developments in : a double “agent operation, assigned the code name "Ocelot, wo PTO 9 ae NC. . we AN a em 3 — be 7g 1 wheal . HW 50529 which involves a meeting between our asset and Cuban Intelligence Officers (CIO's) in Mexico on May 19, . 1977. ~ We learned, after debriefing the asset upon his return ' from Mexico, that the format of the meeting had unex- " pectedly involved a videotaped interview of our asset. by Cuban technicians: concerning his knowledge and partici- . pation in ‘anti-Castro Cuban exile activities. (8). : “The asset developed in this ‘operation first com became of investigative ‘interest to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). in November, 1976, when allegations. were received that he was in contact with known CIO's in) Jamaica during October and November, 1976... Subsequent - investigation, coordinated closely with the Central - Intelligence Agency (CIA) ,.confirmed_ an_active.. relation=_ - ship'with Cuban officials in Jamaica, Panama and Mexico. A successful interview of asset was effected on April 8, 1977, which resulted in establishing a double agent | ‘operation. At that point, the asset furnished details of. seven previous meetings with CIO's in Jamaica, Panama and Mexico. In addition, asset furnished a typewritten _ “note containing instructions for his next meeting in Mexico City, on May 19, 1977, which involved a coded . telephone call to the Cuban Embassy, Mexico City, to a -activate the scheduled meet at a pre-determined time - and place. The. purpose of this meeting, according to — the asset, was for the passage of additional information | concerning the activities of Cuban exile groups in the .. United States and Latin America, as had been done at previous meetings. (S) SS fee Bin SECRET Classified by 5182. .| Exempt from GDS, Categories 2 ‘and 3 Date of Declassification, Indefinite DocId:32357037 Page ‘2
‘HW 50529 Letter | to the Director of Central Intelligence Re elot. Phe asset has advised that he was transp sorted | by automobile from the meet site in Mexico City to a hotel room equipped with videotape equipment and occu-- pied by two Cuban technicians. The assat was then asked questions by CIO’s and his responses were recorded on videotape. They assured the asset that this tape would | be shown to high Cuban officials, including Fidel Castro,: and that it would not be made public. There is, however, obvious propaganda value in this film which could be. : utilized by the Cuban Government. Asset was specifically —. advised by CIO's that Premier Fidel Castro has a forth- — coming television. news interview with an unnamed U. S. - news commentator, and that they wanted Castro to see this ; ’ videotape prior to his interview. (5) ae Aecording to the asset, the interview began with questions regarding his family life in Cuba before the Castro revolution, after which he was asked to comment on the former Batista Regime in Cuba. He was then asked to name the political movements of which he had been a member. He told the interviewer that in 1964 he had worked with Aloha 66, a militant anti-Castro organization head- . quartered in Miami, Florida, in helping approximately twenty-eight Cuban exiles and arms pass through Puerto Rico - to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for use against Cuba and that all but four of these Cuban exiles had returned. to Puerto Rico. The four who did not return are now in Cuban jails. {5) Asset was also asked about his rticivation in’ an assassination attempt of Fidel Castro Chile in 1971. The asset stated that he had participated in the attenot pa in with Antonio Veciana, a Cuban exile now residing in niami. When asked if Veciana had been. employed by the CIA, he replied that he did not know, however, assumed that he was, based on the fact that Veciana had used a car with United States diplomatic license plates to transport the necessary arms and equipment from Bolivia, where Veciana. wa ts O wd by + t bo { Docld: 32357037 Page 3
Letter to the Director of Central Intelligonce Re: Ocelot a - ‘was employed in the United States Embassy, to Chile. This pian was aborted by other Cuban exile participants at the last minute. Asset had previously furnished this infor- mation to cIo's during other meetings. . (8) | Asset was also questioned about a 1951 assassi- nation. attempt directed at Castro in Cuba, in which the asset participated. He acknowledged that he, Veciana, and Bernardo Pradreres had at that time tried to kill . Castro with a bazooka. They waited in an apartment, which was rented in Havana, Cuba, by Veciana's mother-in-law, for Castro to appear at the nearby Cuban capitol. Pradreres had hired two other individuals not known to the assat to ‘do the actual firing, but when Castro finally appeared the bazooka failed to fire Gue to its deteriorated state from having been buried for an extended period of time. The > Cuban authorities later discovered the bazooka, which had been left-in the apartment, and were then able to 9 identify - all of the participants. (Ss). ae During the initial interview of asset on April 8, 1977, he made available a photograph obtained | from Antonio Veciana,- which Veciana clained to depict ‘hee Harvey Oswald in attendance at an Aloha 65 meeting. dn Dallas, Texas, in 1963. . Anothar photograph depicted HW 50529 Veciana as a speaker at this meeting. The asset had .Miade this information available to CIO's at previous meetings. In the last segment of videotaping in Mexico, '. the asset was conironted with enlarged photographs of che alleged Alpha 66 meeting and was asked to point out .the individual similar in description to Oswald, after which the videotaping was concluded. . The whole taping process lasted approximately 90 minutes and consumed almost three reels of videotape. 3) Photographs mada available by the asset were examined by FBI agents familiar with the Oswald investi- gation and it was determined that Lee Harvey Cswald is not depicted in these photographs. It is noted that SECRET - 3~ DoclId: 32357037 Page 4
HW 50529 Letter to the Director of Central Intelligence “Res Ocelot. - | . a, 'Jack Anderson's column in the Washington Post on May 5, 1977, claims that Antonio Veciana has testified before the House Assassinations Committee that he was in con- tact with Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas, in ‘August, 41963. (2) - fhe - above asset has furnished other sensitive intelligence information, including the identities of previously unknown CIO's, and it is anticipated that he will be of future value to our foreign counterintelligencse - effort. Any effort by the Cuban Government to exploit the propaganda value of information obtained from this recently develored asset over the period of seven previous meatings would necessarily cost their intelligenca service the public identification of several CIO's currently in Jamaica and Mexico. You are being made aware of the above | developments since it is recognized that the Cuban. Govern- “ment may elect to publicize this videotape for propaganda purposes and that such an event could impact apon current policy decisions. (S) This ‘information is also being furnished to the Secretary of State, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Attorney General. Docld:32357037 Page 5