Mexico Station Coverage of Soviet and Cuban Embassies (1963 1. Unilateral Covera e: oe From the: time the Mexico Station was opened Vj re | _ the arrival of Mr. Win Scott as Chief of Station \in 1955,\ the Station had developed a support apparatus to exploit leads from the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. This umbrella type project (LIPSTICK) consisted of multiline phone taps, three photographic sites, a mobile surveillance team and a mail intercept operation. Telephone taps (LIFEAT) were placed by an. enblavee of the. Focal ‘Gelephone company who wag, handled by a ‘Station case officer. The number of lines tapped was limited only by the availability of a listening post nearby and the availability of langauge (English, Spanish, Soviet, Polish, Czech, etc.) transcribers. Generally, these were Mexican or Mexican- American recruited agents. Three. photographic sites. were handled by a Station case officer assisted by: technicians on TDY from Headquarters who advised the Station on the best types of cameras, films, and concealment devices. These operations had sub-crypts under project LIPSTICK (namely: ‘LIMITED, LILYRIC and LICALLA). LIMITED was a fixed site directly: opposite the Soviet Em- bassy (across the street) which had both a vehicle and a pedestrian en- trance. The gate to the Soviet Embassy was on the northwest corner of the 4 QEPDET ATS ‘EL ye een eco eens cee aN Ma AibaiBeg Ss:
H i i é Somdinatetee iii tein rare tees te ee vena ee tome tetthe 2 Ta eemeboeate tet, moe" ote olen om em A tae tdale comm dineemeee mee i CyeNVOYS was run by a Mexican officers.’ The listening post had 30 lines connected at one time. The transcription room was staffed by Mexican Arty officers.’, In 1961, \beeause..of mismanagement by the Wextcan prime > (Cipals ,\the Station chief, himself, became the project case officer. A Station officer assisted him in the daily supervision of the listening . post, and in picking up the transcripts and the tapes. There was also an American technician inside the listening post. | | 3. Oswald Coverage: In mid-1962, the Mexican officer in charge of LIENVOY t ‘(the > tetapsoperation) asked ‘tt ‘the American an officer_at the LI LIENVOY listening ing | post for the telephone numbers of the Soviet,.Cuban and Satellite Em- bassies in {anticipation of possible coverage. The Station immediately Gisconneeted alt. all--of the unilateral. telephone taps on these Embassies so is rp te ena that. they would not be discovered when the Mexicans hooked up their | eeney wouret ren en taps. The Mexicans soon thereafter connected five Cuban lines, five Soviet lines, three Czech lines, two Polish lines, and one Yugoslav line. At the listening post,.a live monitor: made short summaries of conversations of interest which were then included in a daily resume for the Chief of Station. Later, when a reel was completely recorded, full transcripts were typed and passed to the Station; however, there was usually a time lag of a day or two. Reels which contained Russian ~
________-»  language-ether-than-Spanish-or English were taken to another location for translation and typing. : Mr. Boris Tarasoff did the Russian transla- tions but because of the volume of Russian conversations, the translations usually ran about. a week behind the date of the conversation. “As soon as the Station learned that an-Anerican identifying him- self as Lee Oswald phoned the Soviet Embassy, Miss Ann Goodpasture of. the . Station started screening aul photographs. However, here again, there was a backlog because the photographs were picked up three times a week but those picked up were tisual ly for dates a few days before since the technician who. was processing the film, did so on a. night- time basis. Further, photographs were not made initially until a complete roll of film was used. Later this was changed and the operator cleared the camera at the end of each day regardless of amount of unused. film remaining. The instructions were to cover the entire work day (office hours) and to photograph all Soviets, their families,. all foreigners, and cars with foreign license plates. ‘Human error did occur’ but generally the agents were conscientious. The Cuban Embassy coverage had more sophisticated equipment using a pulse camera which Frequently devéloped mechanical dif- ficulties. Oswald. came to the attention of the listening post operators from a ‘tap of the Soviet. line. It was picked up and. taken to Mr. Boris: aoa dads
Tarasoff for translation because the caller was ‘trying ‘to: speak in Russian. There was some delay because Station personnel waited to compare the photographs with ‘the typed transcript. - All transcripts were made in either Spanish: or English since the Chief of Station could read only these two languages and because he personal ly screened the transcripts for operational leads. Pry pegs ON TED Te sit ea * ToECESt)| . Te des'ed dtd j talib 3 Awad date Re ea