104-10054-10060 Mexico Station Coverage of Soviet and Cuban Embassies (1963) 1. Unilateral Coverage: From the time. the Mexico Station was opened in Apri 1947 untit _ . the arrival of Mr. Win Scott as Chief of Station in 1955, “the Station had developed a support. apparatus to exploit leads from k? Bviet Embassy in Mexico City. This umbrella type project i ted of multiline Amoi phone taps, three photographic sik surveillance.team and a mail intercept operatigq Telephon REIFEAT ) were placed | who was 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 6000458 : eng «ERS MAE 7 ; ss ai Oe 0 tet OE, FEEE REGRET ISUMRITRTE 0 aay
14-00000 ' Soviet compound and the LIMITED site was diagonally across a double laned | street on the southeast corner of that block. (See attached diagram). LIMITED was the first photo base and operated strictly on an‘ experimental basis in the early stages. This base, however, was closed when the Sta-_ tion received word that the photograph of the "unidentified man" was being released by the Warren Commission. - LILYRIC was an alternate photo~ ‘ graphic base. It was located in an upper story of an apartment building on the same side of the street as the LIMITED site but in the middle of > the block south. It had a planted view of the front gat > Soviet - Embassy. LICALLA, the third photographic ae one of a_ row of four houses on ‘the south al f This site overlooked the Dae the Soviet Embassy compound. The: ‘embassy compound. | purpose of this operati hs © get good identification photographs of Soviet personnel. The ‘three photographic sites were managed by a re- ; cruited agent: who was a Mexican citizen, the son of an American nother and Mexican father (deceased). This agent collected the film from the LIMITED and LILYRIC sites three times a week. The film was then de- veloped and printed into 8 x 10 contact print strips. “LICALLA film was originally processed in. the Station but in early 1959, due to the resig- nation of a technician, this film like that of LIMITED and LILYRIC was ~ processed on the outside by a recruited agent. 0000459 BS
14-00000 “ i € eal a Pym A a OUGHT SSN ec Mobile surveillance was conducted by two American staff officers. These two officers organized a surveillance team of six. recruited agents which used late model cars and a panel truck for surveillance. The team . could be activated by radio from the LIMITED site whenever someone of interest left the gate of the Soviet Embassy. These agents were aware of the LIMITED site. since they had been issued LIMITED Photographs for . identification purposes. At operation, The Station also conducted a unilateral mail 1 in tS, : LIBIGHT, which was handled by an American =“ b ined selected letters PA Mae SS ee Liaison coverage was unre] fable and insecure as characterized by - the nature of the Mexican services at that time. The Mexican Direction of Federal Security (DFS), with which we conducted liaison, was a hip-- pocket group run out of the Mexican Ministry of Government. This-Ministry _ Was principally occupied with political investigations and control of foreigners. Their agents were 4%
14-00000 -LIENVOY, was run by a Mexican officer. ‘The listening post had 30 lines “connected at one time. The transcription. room was staffed by | ‘In 1961, because of nisnanagenent| j 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 ILIENVOY (the - post for the telephone numbers of the out e Station immediately bassies in anticipation of poss ible | 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 ~ : | | oo a oe 0000464 Jo
14-00000 - oy “ - | or , _ ores eri ‘ Further, photographs were not macs ty a Janguage other 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 3 a week behind the date of the conversation. | As soon as the Station learned that an American identifying him- self as ‘Lee Oswald phoned the Soviet Embassy, Miss Ann Goodpasture of the: Station started screening all photographs. “However, here again, there |. was a backlog because the photographs were picked up three times a week film was used. Later thé: “and the operator cleared the camera | at the end of each day ra urdless 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 developed 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 6000462 (NE mn
14-00000 7 There was some * delay because tag ot ° -( APART IPPMGTTH EC toe & ode Sah] JEPy SENT EEL ES waited to compare the All transcripts | were made in either Spanish or “English s since the Chief of Station could read only - these two languages and because he personally screened the | transcripts ' for operational leads. 0000463 6