MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD: SENATORS CHURCH AND SCHWEIKER NEWS CONFERENCE CONCERNING RELEASE OF SSC WARREN COMMISSION REPORT.
Originator: CIA
Document date: 1976-06-24 00:00:00
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM

IDENTIFICATION FORM

AGENCY INFORMATION

AGENCY : CIA

RECORD NUMBER

: 104-10096-10193

RECORD SERIES

JFK

AGENCY FILE NUMBER

80T01357A

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

CIA

AGENCY ORIGINATOR

FROM

TO

TITLE

DATE

PAGES

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD: SENATORS CHURCH AND

SCHWEIKER NEWS CONFERENCE CONCERNING RELEASE OF SSC

WARREN COMMISSION REPORT.

06/24/1976

6

• SUBJECTS : WARREN COMM.

DOCUMENT TYPE

PAPER

CLASSIFICATION UNCLASSIFIED

RESTRICTIONS

CURRENT STATUS

RELEASED IN PART PUBLIC - RELEASED WITH DELETIONS

DATE OF LAST REVIEW

:

08/12/93

COMMENTS

JFK35 : F7: 1993.08.12.18:36:21:370059

Released under the John F. Kennedy

Assassination Records Collection Act of

1992 (44 USC 2107 Note]. Case#:NW

65924 Date: 10-25-2021

[R]

- ITEM IS RESTRICTED

104-10096-10193

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INSPECTOR GENERAL

760-2408

24

June 1976

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT:

Senators Church

and Schweiker News Conference

Concerning Release of Senate Select Committee

Warren

Commission Report

The following is a summary of the 23 June 1976

news conference sponsored by Senators Church and

Schweiker concerning the release of the Senate

Select Committee report relating to the investigation

of the assassination of President Kennedy:

Senator Church opened the news conference with

a:

brief statement outlining the history of the Senate

Select Committee and

indicated that this report represents

the last of five reports issued by the Committee during

its

tenure.

Senator Church praised Senator Schweiker

and. Senator Hart for their investigation concerning

the Kennedy assassination and said that the report's

central conclusion is that senior officials of both

the CIA and

the FBI failed to turn over relevant

information to the Warren Commission.

Senator Church

indicated that the reasons for the

failure to turn over

this relevant information are unclear and then quoted

fron the report to the effect thatithe possibility exists

that this non-disclosure was intentional.

Senator. Church

concluded his opening statement by recommending that the

matter be

referred to the newly created oversight

committee with the recommendation that the committee

continue this investigation to resolve unanswered questions.

Senator Church then gave the floor to Senator Schweiker.

Attached hereto is a copy of Senator Schweiker's opening.

statement.: Following Senator Schweiker's reading of this

statement the

news conference

was opened to questions

from reporters.

A general description of the questions and responses

thereto follows:

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QUESTION: The report states there is no hard

evidence of a conspiracy. Is there

circumstantial evidence?'

Senator Schweiker answered that the report

leaves unanswered many questions that need

to be resolved and there is sufficient

evidence to warrant additional investigation.

QUESTION: Why isn't Senator Hart here?

Senator Schweiker replied that Senator Hart had

supported him fully throughout the investigation

but that Senator Hart had been detained at

another engagement and had called

Schweiker only minutes before the start of

the press conference to indicate that he

could not be present.

QUESTION:

What are. the

names of the senior

intelligence officers who withheld information

from the Warren Commission?

Senatory Schweiker. replied that Hoover and Helms

failed to provide the Warren Commission with

all relevant information but beyond those

two individuals

the investigation has not

been completed.

QUESTION:

Allen Dulles who was a member.of.the

Warren Commission knew about assassination

plots against Castro. Why didn't he provide

the Warren Commission with this data?

Senator Schweiker replied that there is no

indication any other member besides Allen

Dulles knew of the assassination plots.

QUESTION:

Were there any important facts left

out of the report for security reasons?

Senator Schweiker replied in the negative.

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QUESTION: Was there a conspiracy to cover up?

Senator Schweiker replied that neither Helms.

of the CIA nor Hoover of the FBI told the

Warren Commission, nor

individuals within

their respective agencies responsible for

investigating the assassination of President

Kennedy,

of plots to assassinate Castro.

QUESTION: Have you referred this matter to

the Justice Department?

Senator Schweiker replied that he had taken

no action in this regard and intended to

leave this matter to the judgment of the

oversight committee.

QUESTION:

What is left to be done in the way of

investigation?

232222

Senator Schweiker replied that the question of

how high up and the purpose of the "cover up"

needs to be pursued, as well as several other

leads not identified within the report.

QUESTION: Why has the oversight committee: (Senator

Inouye) stated that they will not decide for

six months whether to take up this matter?

Senator Schweiker replied that he has talked

to Senator Inouye and that Senator Inouye

has promised to bring this matter before the

oversight committee.

QUESTION: Was AMLASH a double agent?

Senator Schweiker replied that the Cuban government

had an excellent intelligence network in the

US and the question of whether AMLASH was a

double agent and whether Castro knew of AMLASHS

activities with CIAiis very important

issue.

QUESTION:

You have indicated that you do not have

faith in the Warren Commission investigation;

therefore, do you then not believe

that Oswald

was the lone assassin?

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Senator Schweiker replied that the Warren

Commission was

missing several ingredients

when they made their investigation and therefore

he (Schweiker) could

make no decision

on the matter.

QUESTION ADDRESSED TO SEN. CHURCH: Do you agree

with Senator Schweiker that there was a

cover up?

Senator Church stated yes, he agreed with the

report and

the decision to publish it, however,

Helms has nöt been fully interrogated on this

matter and there are several important leads

that need to be followed up.

Senator Church

stated that Helms was interrogated but the

committee did not have time to complete the

whole chain of

necessary questions... As an

example one response Helms gave before the

committee as to why he had not informed the

Commission of the plots against Castro

that "no one asked him."

Senator Schweiker commented that more leads are

coming in even now.

Many of those leads are

not in the report and that people are volunteering

information on this eveninow.

QUESTION: Is

there enough evidence to. reopen

full scale investigation of the Kennedy assassina-

tion?

Senator Schweiker replied that if Oswald had been

convicted

would later have been

declared a mistrial solely on the basis of the

FBI's destruction of Oswald's note in the

Dallas office.

He added that yes there is enough

evidence to open a full scale investigation; but

the next step would be for the oversight committee

to pursue the leads.

QUESTION: ADDRESSED TO SENATOR CHURCH: Would you

require further evidence before you feel that a

full scale hearing should be convened?

Senator Church replied

yes, this is incomplete

and there is not enough evidence yet to open

a full scale hearing. However, it

should be

investigated further.

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QUESTION ADDRESSED TO SENATOR CHURCH: Was there a

reason for the cover up?

Senator Church replied he had no judgment on that.

There could be many reasons

"we just don't know."

QUESTION:

How far up did the cover up go?

Senator Schweiker replied that he doesn't know,

his committee ran out of time to pursue

this and this is the next logical lead to

pursue. He added that Mr. McCone has testified

that he did not know of CIA attempts to

assassinate Castro. Senator Church interjected

that

the state of the investigation does not

show whether there was a conscious effort

to cover up.

Senator Church said there: could be several other

reasons such as one frequently pointed out

that since Allen Dulles was on the Warren

Commission there wasino need to tell the

Commission.

QUESTION: " Are any of the participants in the

cover up still employed by the CIA or FBI?

Senator. Schweiker replied it would be unfair

to answer this question and that there could

or could not be current employees involved.

QUESTION: What about the interest of President

Johnson in 1967?

Senator Schweiker replied again this was an

example where they did not fully reopen the

investigation and conducted only a pro/forma

inquiry where several important leads

through the cracks..

QUESTION:

Is there any new information in the

report?

Senator Schweiker replied a couple of leads

such as Cuban intelligence agents moving in

flights in cockpits within Mexico and the

Us and then on to Cuba.

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QUESTION: Do you know that the man riding in the

cockpit of the aircraft was a Cuban intelligence

agent?

Sanator Schweiker replied that there is strong

evidence. that

one of the Cubans mentioned in

one of these two leads in the report was

a

Cuban intelligence agent.

QUESTION: What are other motives in President

Kennedy's ássassination?

Senator Schweiker replied that he hated to

speculate on this matter and that it could

have been Castro retaliation, retaliation by

anti-Castro grops of it could even involve

the Mafia.

QUESTION:

Since you say. Mr. Helms did not fulfill

his

responsibility in this regard, what are

you doing to terminate his ambassadorship?

Senator Schweiker replied he had made no judgment

on this matter and will wait for the oversight

committee. continuance of the investigation.

(This was the last question and the news conference ended.)

2.

The above description of the question and

answer

period during the news conference was compiled

from notes taken by the

undersigned and should not

be treated as averbatim transcript or complete account

of all that was stated.

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