ary ~ of our extensive holdings on the OSWALD case that 2 May 1975 | MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Chief, “operations Stat “Review of Agency Holdings : regarding: ~~ SUBJECT a : _ Photograph of Unidentified. Individual | in Mexico City published PY the. . : Warren. Commission REFERENCE | : Letter dated 15 April 1975 pg ee Mr. David W. Belin, Executive Director 'of the Commission on CIA Activities. within the United States, to’ - Mr. E. Henry Knoche (copy attached ‘to. “accompanying report) . l. “This is further to, ‘and in completion. of, my interim memorandum of a few weeks Ago. . 2. The attachment: isa detailea review. in: narrative, chronological order.- together with appropriate comment- . have a bearing on the matter of photographs taken by ~.. -' Mexico City Station on 1, 4 and 15 October 1963-of an ...’.- '.Unidentified Individual. As a consequence of a ‘combina- |. tion of analytical error, misjudgement and under the wi stress of an urgent desire to contribute to the. develop- .» ment of the investigation of the assassination, a... cropped version of one of the photographs of the © Unidentified Individual was introduced into the chain of evidence in the OSWALD case on 23 November.1963-by an =. FBI representative in Dallas. The successive vicissi-.: tudes. which have now made this event a cause celebre: right down to the present moment are detailed in the” narrative. bd, Sot a: : SECR on | I | | Oo BR IMPDET er pY_SZDI aA .on) aN oS Se BI 56 ‘i BN ei ore ae oe? hae s as SRA PRE eh Pes mh oaks * tia BOD at pe Baton el 8 en a: & eet if $) aed eats) Bete oo ag en Gy Pr Beet eS ? a2) SP ¢ Cj
13-00000. . ., - answer to the Fensterwald/o' Toole article. which Mr. ° ‘Belin. -entire matter can be fully disclosed at this time." This . “dis only one copy of this collection; this is it.].- 3. “the attached report is “not. intended to be an” attaches to his memorandum. . (I haye prepared a paragraph~ by~paragraph refutation and comment. on that article, which I believe is more appropriately handled by a sepa~ rate memorandum to Mr. Belin, and T will prepare this: as: a memorandum if that is desired. d: ae Ae The point of ‘the ‘referenced memorandum is that © consideration should be given now to “whether or not the: submission is designed to make it possible for you, the wo IG and others whom you may desire to consult to make. this - decision. The narrative-interpretive summary has been | put together in such a way that : it. discloses no: Syptanms, pseudonyms or other CIA jargon. « However, its contents qo) well beyond what has been ‘released to. the public thus far. in the Warren Commission documentation. ‘This point must: be borne in mind in making a decision on Mr. Belin's . question. To remove any question in anybody's mind about © our good faith in this matter, the narrative is backed. as by copies of actual documentation from our files. -It : seems to me necessary, in reply to Mr. Belin, that he or his representative review the documentation that backs up the narrative. The documentation has not been keyed into 7 oy the narrative presentation, but it follows the chronologi-... 2°.” cal order of presentation from 9 October into the latest ©"... ° developments in the matter, and there is an overall index 8 0 © to facilitate reference to individual items. . [NB: There oe 5. -As noted above, | one of ‘the photographs taken. in : .Mexico City on 4 October 1963 was introduced into the =<. 0°... “Warren Commission public record. . However, it.was intro- (0: ‘duced into that record in two cropped versions.. .The . . Warren Commission and its staff were made fully aware in. oe _,,.¥eproduced in the collected documentation backing up the =... _“ ‘narrative report (see Items 25 - 27). Chief, LA Division,” the course of their inquiry at Headquarters and in ... .. Mexico City of the origins of the photograph, the fact that we had additional photographs of the same individual . 7 taken at different times in Mexico City. and on the basis 8". Of full knowledge of these facts reached their own con-. > +. | clusions regarding the irrelevance of the photograph toe ae _ OSWALD. and the assassination... Lea Ls ops 6. In fact, we actually hold twelve different “photo- graphs of the Unidentified Individual. Each of these Bete IF SECRET PB Pe, FTV RIEL ERIN Pyle ri, =o IS PALE a Pe FO oO Ser Ce UNIDAD Aen iy Seer anette
13-00000 .... nn had indicatea ‘in , writing ‘to pcjors ‘state, that. he has “no objection for Mr. Belin to do whatever is desired with: °*. these photographs at. this. time.: It should be noted that’: Mr. Fensterwald in 1971 - 1972 was actually shown, by.” Mr. Houston during a visit to the Agency, two of the <= )5 00: |. _twelve photographs, other than the one already published. 00°) in the Warren Commission report. (It is these two. that ©... he has published in The New York Review of Books article ~ which Mr. Belin attaches to his memorandum. y Coe os a 7. It seems: to me that whoever makes” a ‘decision on whether the entire matter can be fully disclosed at this =: ‘time should bear in mind that a subsidiary decision must _ also be made, i.é., whether to crop or otherwise fuzz up: the background of the photographs or, alternatively, to . publish the entire run of the photographs for the first 0. time without taking out the background. ‘Obviously ,~ none’... of these questions apply to the passage of this material". . to Mr. Belin and the Rockefeller Commission. ‘itself... Teo think they should see the entire documentation as it. . stands. . Perhaps after that, the question of what could» be discussed and the question of "how?" and “how much?" - could be taken up with Mr. Belin himself. My personal © recommendation is that the more we can say about this matter in a fully open and final manner, the better off | we will be as an Agency. But it is my understanding °- : that there are still sensitive aspects deriving from: ‘the . fact that the operation which produced the photographs | ‘was jointlyrrun-with Mexican liaison: and as a consequence — publication at this time would create additional problems . at that level in Mexico. Also,;.it should be noted that . the Ambassador, according to Win Scott's memorandum. to . J.C. King on 22 November 1963 (see Item 8 in the backup. documentation), allegedly played a. direct role in the =... '. decision to put the photographs into the hands of the. “FBI in Dallas laterally from the Field....As far as I know, there has not been anything published about. this aspect - at any time in the past nor have we had any discussions 00%: | with the State ‘Department about that aspect. of, the Matters € a we Raymond G.. Rocca ; . Attachments: lv as stated |