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JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM

IDENTIFICATION FORM

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AGENCY INFORMATION

AGENCY

RECORD NUMBER

RECORDS SERIES :

....

NSA

144-10001-10153

AGENCY FILE NUMBER :

DATE: 03/24/97

PAGE: 1

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

ORIGINATOR

: NSA

FROM

TO

: DAVID MARWELL, ARRB

TITLE

RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS POSED BY.

. JFK ARRB

DATE : 06/01/95

PAGES

SUBJECTS

1960'S INTERCEPTION OF SOVIET/CUBAN/MEXICAN DRUG SMUGGLERS

WHAT

ACTIONS WERE TAKEN BY NSA FOR THE IMMEDIATE

JFK ASSASSI

1960'S COLLECTION/DECIPHERING/ANALYZING COMMS CAPABILITIES

DOCUMENT TYPE

: LETTER

CLASSIFICATION

RESTRICTIONS

1B

CURRENT STATUS

DATE OF LAST REVIEW

06/01/95

OPENING CRITERIA

ORIGINATING AGENCY'S

DETERMINATION REQUIRED

COMMENTS

CONTAINS

-SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION

ER1

original patiosis t

ARRO

-ER] - ITEM IS RESTRICTED

Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JEK,

SEN. REK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.

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NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY

FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, MARYLAND 20755-6000

N5P4-033-95

1 June 1995

=

Mr. David Marwell

Assassination Records Review Board

600 E Street NW, 2nd Floor

Washington, DC 20530

Dear Mr. Marwell:

(FOUO) In response to your letter of March 9, 1995 we tasked appropriate elements of

NSA Operations and Archives as well as the Legislative Affairs Office (LAO) and Office of

General Counsel (OGC) to search for information responsive to your questions. The fellowing

represents the composite response of these elements.

(U) "What technical capabilities did NSA have during the early 1960's for collecting,

deciphering, and analyzing communications?"

(TS-CCO) NSA had an excellent capabiliry to meet the SIGINT challenges of the 1960's. We

had field sites in position to copy the signals of interest in the USSR, boch High Frequency and

Line-of-Sight, in Cuba, and those communications exchanged internationally berween coun

tries. We accomplished this through a mixture of fixed sites manned by armed forces personnel,

airbome and shipbore platforms, exchanges with Second and Third Parties, and clandestine and

special sources. We exploited many enciphered communications of interest, but nor Sovier dip-

lomatic and agent communications and those of a few other countries that employed very sophis-

ticared cryptosystems. Our analytic capabilities were excellent, both in our civilian anc military

workforce.

(U) "What COMINT did NSA actually intercept during the early 1960's from the Sovie:

Union, Cuba, and Mexico, from organized crime or international drug smugglers?"

(TS-CCO) NSA produced COMENT on many facets of the Soviet targer, from leadership com-

munications to military command and control, from scientific and technical research and devel-

opment to international trade and industrial endeavors, exploiting many low-jo-medium grade

cipher systems on these targets. On the Cuban target, we produced many products on all facets

as well, from military command and control to international trade, from domestic industrial and

agricultural endeavars so diplomatic and agent communications. We also produced product on

Mexican targets, mainly diplomatic and military. There were no reflections in any of these proc-

ucts of any activity that might have been related to the assassination, only post-assassination re-

flections of U.S. political and protocol developments and Cuban releases of statements denying

crime or narcotics smuggling at that time. One organization did follow international arms trade

activity and issued product reports, but there was nothing to tie any of their reporting to the as-

sassinadon.

(U) "What actions did NS A take in the immediate wake of President Kennedy's assas-

sination? For example, did any agency task NSA to perform any functions regarding the assas-

sination? Was any task force, group directorate, or other entiry at NSA formed or charged with

any responsibilities for collecting information that in any way pertained to the assassination of

President Kennedy? Was any traffic analysis performed? Were any produci reports produced?

Were there any ISRs?

Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK,

SEN. REK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.

HANDLE A CHIN HONES ONLY CURTI

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(TS-CCO) Collectors, based on their personal recollections, were alerted to put greater empha-

sis on Soviet Bloc and Cuban military targets to look for signs of increased readiness in their

force posture. Analysts at NSA were also looking for signs of diplomatic reactions to and for-

eign intelligence reporting on the assassination. Any voice and cipher traffic were thoroughly

processed from the surrounding timeframe. Analysts on targets that were unexploitable from a

cryptanalytic standpoint reviewed traffic patterns to ensure that no deviations indicating unusual

activity had been overlooked.

(U) "Did NSA ever collect, isolate, or segregate any records relating to the assassina-

tion?"

(FOUO) One file, related to Lee Harvey Oswald, was accessioned into the NSA/CSS Archives

in 1986. The LAO holds five files that topically relate in some way to the Assassination. In

1993 NSA searched for and coliected documents in rasponse is Public Law 102-526. Copies of

the records responsive to the law are held in the Office of Policy.

(U) "What actions has NSA taken, since 1964, with respec: to the assassination? For

example, other than with respect to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), has

INSA had any program to colleci any data with respeci to the assassination?"

(FOUO) Since 1964 NSA has answered queries from various congressional committees. Files

about the information provided are held by the LAO and OGC. NSA's only program to colleci

data related to the assassination was the response to PL. 102-526.

(U) "What files or records has NSA ever had pertaining to congressional investigations

of the assassination or the intelligence community? For exampie, are there (or were there) NSA

flies on the Warren Commission, the HSC.A, the Church Committes, the Pike Committee, etc."

(FOUO) The LAO, OGC and Archives holds files related io this question covering all of the

lopics except the Warren Commission.

(U) "What records retention (and records destruction) policies has NS.A ever proposed

or implemented that might have affecied records pertaining to the assassination? You sited, for

example, that records identifying Americans were destroyed in the wake of the Church Commit-

lee investigation, and you suggested that records identifying Oswald might have been among

those destroyed. What were the destruction orders; who implemented them; how many records

were destroyed; and how were records identified for destruction?"

(FOUO) NS.A has created records disposition schedules for some documents. However,

SIGINT records disposition remained predominantly unscheduled during the period in question,

and consequently their handling is uncertain. Serialized records (reports) are usually retained

intaci and are preserved to this day. The retention or destruction of other types of records were

not handled systematically. The decision to retain or destroy was made by the originating ele-

ments.

(U) "What records from intercepts involving the Soviet Union, the Sovies Bloc, Cuba,

and Mexico from the early 1960's are still extant? For example, does NSA have untranscribed

Cuban tapes from 1963 (but that may subsequently have been broken)? What records does NS.A

have from the Bay of Pigs and from the Cuban Missile Crisis?

IS CCO) There are end-product reports, code books on targes communications and cipher traf-

fic available dating from the early 1960's on these targeis in the iNSA archives. Our records

show no instances of codes being broken in which we did nor go back and decrypt traffic from

Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK,

SEN. REK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.

HANDLE HUA CONINT CHANNELS ONLY

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the period that had been unexploitable at the time. It is our standard practice to do so regardless

of the circumstances. When such events occur it is also the SIGINT modus operandi to ensure

all voice material having any possible connectivity whatsoever to the event is scanned for intelli-

gence purposes. We found no indications of any SIGINT collection that did not get reviewed.

Such records also cover the missile crisis and Bay of Pigs timeframes as well. There has been an

historical perspective written in 1984-85 on the SIGINT effort during the Missile Crisis that also

touches on the Bay of Pigs, and one is planned on the Assassination (no estimated completion

date).

(U) "Does NSA have files on American defectors to Communist countries during the

late 1950's and early 1960's?"

(TS CCO). There was one NSA organization which, as part of their mission, tracked the activi-

ties of such individuals in the 1960's, first manuaily and later by machine. However, almost all

records of such endeavors and files were destroyed in 1974, and any such activiry ceased in the

wake of the Church and Pike Commitees' reporis on such activities and the subsequent Execu-

live Order issued. The two exceptions to this would be files on Martin and Mitchell who were

employees of NSA.

(U) "Did any foreign goverment or intelligence service ever supply NSA with any in-

formation pertaining to the assassination?"

(FOUO) We are unaware of any informaion of this subjec: ever being passed by any foreign

government or intelligence service to NSA.

(FOUO) We have also collected a list of personnel who were working the target at the

-

time or who have contributed to these answers. After you have reviewed these responses, please

do not hesitate to contact us to on (301) 688-5798 with any questions which you have.

Claudia C. Cillins

CLAUDLA C. COLLA'S

Chief

Information Security Policy

Released pursuant to Executive Order 14176, DECLASS. OF RECORDS CONC. THE ASSASSINATIONS OF PRES. JFK,

SEN. RFK, AND THE REV. DR. MLK, JR.

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