[towtorst00g] ¢ & oft — ( on foe CENTRAL INTELL & ASENCY _ H Orrice or Tue Drrecros a ae. ® ° rg ry. David W. Belin 23 oN xecufive Director ENS ° ° ° e368 . oN omimission on CIA Activities - Ge SS \ Within the United States Soy” SS ‘ ¥. . ear Mr. Belin: { am attaching, per your request of isQsa, ackground materials relating to certain questions . slating th Oswald and the Warren Commission. Tab A is a classified Secret memorandum ousive to your request. Tab B is an unclassi- version, . which you can use as you see fit > 2 2 i whatever report you are preparing on the subject. 3p a . Additional details ere available in the Office * the Inspector General should you wish to pursue 2g in greater depth. - . , Faithfully yours, - | Getlbrrbr “EB. H. Knoche Te va Assistant to the Director tlachment: a/s _ a 7 . N ‘erbution: mo, oe QW Se W ;-Mr. Belin wfatt ~ — KS OGC -  swrofatt en tG wofatt vrnoche Chrono wo/att " Comm Correspondence = WO Jatt Belin Letter Request 15 Apri w/att ; 5 78 Warren Commission. ; B08 ny O89 2: ° a oo @ .f oe o> Fe. f . ef ome oa é ° ? ne) f ° . . ° ° ry ‘ ® ° . « : ° e * . e ° 22555
14-00000 sate? CE Sf A ABHay 1975 Unidentified me varren Commission - REFERENCE: Memorandum from D@ ey ie SS to E. Henry Knoche, SUBJECT : Review of Agency Holdinass PS Photograph of dated 15 April hs .% 1. In accordance with reference request, we have examined and summarized the “record concerning a cropped photograph that was considered by the Warren Commission in the course of its investi- -gation. The photograph (together with others of the same individual) originated from an intelligence = operation | conducted 2. Under the extraordinary j press of effort to develop infor- mation on the assassin and the assassination, copies of the photo- graph were made available by CIA's Mexico Station Chief on the afternoon of 22 November to the local FBI representative. Later that day, assertedly on the decision of the Ambassador, copies were conveyed by. an FBI representative on a special U. S. Naval Attache flight to the Dallas office of the FBI for possible use in the. ongoing investigation. One - aph, cropped by the FBI, was shown to Mrs. Marguerite < Lee Harvey OSWALD’s | mother) in Dallas on the. vented oY 3 er 1963 by an FBI agent. | SO. \ Ce . 3. The Warren Comm Os. A\: describes the sequence of events that ultimately. emeiian Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD’s allegation that she had been shown a cropped photo of Jack RUBY the day before he murdered her son. A further complication Ciszatizs ty_OC 004645 __ 4 8 45 0 .  BEGRFT 1 EE eas . . (Ramee oma wee oe a _ . eames 07 wee camer Oe AeA ECG NIE ARE AN SARE 3 + nynanenetmsttntr ttt
14-00000 owe! ( . a ( . XX? compounding this erroneous conctussoh\ Q¥act | that, when - she had been shown a copy of she aa Pan in hex appearance before the Commission, it ren rr y, _ by the FBI in Washing - ton in a slightly different ann 4, Although ‘in no way mee to Lee Harvey OSWALD or his stay in Mexico City from the morning of 2 ‘September: 1963 to the morning of 2 October 1963, at least one “set of photographs of the unidentified man originated during OSWALD's stay there. It is -important, therefore, to an understanding of the acquisition and handling of the photographs by the Mexico Station to ‘review what. ' the Station ascertained and did with the information it developed. about OSWALD in Mexico City, together with Headquarters action on that information. . . 5.° From all credible evidence known to this time (none, incidentally, added since the exhaustive work of the Warren Com-. mission), Lee Harvey OSWALD spent four (4) full days and two: (2) COR Cn -partial-days -- about 116 hours TBs SP" in: Mexico City from about 10:00 a.m. 27 September 1963 ew SW a.m. 2 October 1963. ‘See C8 Ycial traveler hotel, not His place of residence os frequented by “gringos' registered tnder.alias. pxn stive and detailed interviews and ee od Commercio -- where he was. interrogation by the Mexican authorities and the FBI after the ‘assassination established that, in the recollection of all hotel personnel, he left and returned late each day of his stay. 6. Allowing for the fact of late arrival and early departure, and assuming that he slept one-third of the time of his stay CRED FOF + HEE EpomeN © enttteRtER =e + SaRUEEICED- «nme > 7 + ett teeny 9 smn? e (38 or 39 hours), there remain some 78 hours of activity to be 1 oe oo | : . of SERRE —— wanna = PAGE “137 of 313 COPY NO. — z Somermapenaaetae te ee ee ee ee
14-00000 "eit . Oe. be . Qa accounted for. Overall, CIA's infotareron can account only for a very brief periods during 28, Oe 1: October. All & 4 Ent) coverage. i investigation. " ‘None of the facts of his defection and stay in coverage by CIA during the was technical. Th Station had no live’ me 7. It should be note WALD was in no sense "under the USSR and return to the U. S., A959 -- 1962, were known: to the Mexico. Station or in its files before 10 October 1963. On that - date, the bare bones of his. biography were forwarded by. Head- quarters in response toa Station cabled report of 8 October which had forwarded, on a routine basis, what appeared to be. a contact by an American for a Visa to Cuba in transit to the USSR. This was indicated and deduced from technically acquired infor- mation on 1 October, which was the first and only occasion on that visit in which OSWALD was recorded as. identifying himself ; " (partially) by true name. 8. At no time during his sta ore City did the CIA acquire a photo of OSWALD. ew of all coverage --- technical as well.as. sae Dionne by the Station \ yy on 22 and 23 November 196 ssassination, including INMaterials back to augus No WS _ confirmed that there was no CIA photo coverage of ‘OSWALD at any time during his Mexico trip or stay in Mexico City. Moreover, although it had made a cabled request’ on 15 October; the Mexico Station had no photo of OSWALD in its records, nor did it receive one from Headquarters -- which did not have.one either. -- before 22 November 1963, SEERET eB ———" Ws _138 319 cory No. Sean  ectareaconaneeeneae Rtas Ba A OD GENE Sa SR ‘ 2 SEER + GO ENNIO + W mtien RtiOD © Koa EIU O-EGrer
14-00000 ( ae | 9. It must be stressed that eS information the Station had was not (and rd aan in, “real olume of the infor- time." The means of acquisi mation preclude anything YE reporting of items judged “to be of more than ordinary in Qwee and, therefore, noted in summary logs. Full texts ‘of selected items require consultation of the tape and either a full transcription or full translation: “or both. Photo coverage tends to become available in quantity lots which requires scanning and selection on a rapid and accelerated basis in four or five day "peaks." One of the a . "triggers" that normally operates to focus and accelerate more speedy review and reporting of this kind of raw intelligence is the mention of a name. .This was precisely what occurred in the second of two conversations on 1,October, ‘during which the speaker said he was "Lee OSWALD." It was this information reported by the Station to Headquarters in its first indication © on OSWALD on 8 October 1963. 10. The Mexico Station did ae in its 8 October. report on Lee OSWALD based on information: it RS) i ey RAVE be . On ee OnE exrommtm oe hoy a : ° coupled the data with descr on it had acquired - from a sensitive source < W apparently an American, who a on 1 October. The Station reported this detail on the 8th as of a male individual, Served entering an Embassy "| a matter of coincident fact. The Station did not assert or suggest that the data led to any deduction that the photo was in a. + ommmper: 2° ecamemmommeraans ant wane foams ENR vas ean pETy TETAS * , ' fact OSWALD or, indeed, was in any way related to OSWALD. SECRET ov og ae 00 lal ' PAGE 133, 313 COPY NO. secenhe
14-00000 11. One additional element of bac §Qyna must be stipulated now as “the final proconagwv'e to understanding the oY WSS relevance (or irrelevance) of thésphot o. e unknown individual placed in the ager INS Notality of CIA Mexico's Dallas by the FBI agent: AO ww coverage of OSWALD's activity & the afternoon of the 23rd on 23 November in when all available coverage had been checked? 12. The totality of Mexico Station coverage on or reasonably inferable to be OSWALD consisted of five. (5) voice intercepts. “afte gy * _ Each of these items, including the text. of the raw intercepts, were read by, discussed with, and examined by Warren Commission ‘staffers. in Headquarters and at the Mexico Station during a stay From 8-13 April 1964. All were made available promptly to the FBI. | 13. At about mid-day on 1 October, the’ camera registered the entry into an Embassy of a white-shirted individual. In the opinion of the Station, among all the persons photographed that AS and ‘possibly American day, he appeared to be the only non ENS be an association SS. the voice inter- ‘who-entered. On the. chance that aN rom the photograph, the between the identification ae Wi cept and the descriptive g — Station reported the two orang to Headquarters on 83 October. fy 2 GRD * NERA EEE T © 600 ep GELENENE ONS HY S separate facts in its cable 14. The Station’ s action was not unusual and really amounted to an analytic "quantum leap," in terms of the primitive status of the OSWALD identification. Many examples of a similar kind of thing can be found in the day- to-day record of Station-Headquarters . OREN ee oe o GRIN S + ERY EDIE: 6H EET < ERAENOIORRPOREERE BH: MrwrgeeN cee Op acre meee orate eee ne
“45. On 22 November 1963 the Mexico Station cabled Head- uarters at 2229Z time after learning of aQ\arrest of Lee H. q CW SS OSWALD, age 24, possibly in connection the assassination, “< WY", and referenced its: carlier messages o£) X 15 October and Headquarters’ reply of 10 eft ES "priority pouch a Roto Sy D so that Station a lon requested by: can check all recent cov Sy e for OSWALD. Forward- ing soonest copies of only visitor on 1 October who could be identical with OSWALD." | 16. This obviously was for comparison at the Station which had estimated the age of the unidentified male whose photograph it had. selected as having the "apparent age of 35." 17. . The Station meanwhile had begun an exhaustive and accelerated review of all its technical and photographic intel- ligence. A dispatch was prepared in accordance with the . indication given in the cable of 22 November. The dispatch ° noted that photo coverage of the unidentified individual had turned up on 4 and 15 October. The tex of ‘the 22 November 1963 i ik Attached : are > sey visto - | ~ WS), appeared to be ~ | } - pouched ‘dispatch read: obtained. . .on 1 oe % isited{an} Embassy on an American. e Qs 4 October 1963. "2. ' Copies—of these photographs were shown to the U. S. Ambassador on 22 November 1963 and a copy of each of the two photographs was given to Chief FBI, _ Mexico, on that date... .
14-00000 QP “4 "Pp. S. Photographs dated 2228 " 1965 were inserted after typing RAS On. were taken as [the] ee OO “<< Baibassy. OE” Mains to this day 18. The NER ivi unidentified. There is stMI1 dible evidence, as far as CIA is aware, that the individual in the photograph. had any connection with Lee Harvey OSWALD or ‘thé assassination of ee | | id dy. : - ° 142 , 319 S emeeneemmmnrad “PACE “GORY NO.