Document date: 00/00/0000
Document type: PAPER-TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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124-10274-10038

In Reply, Please Refer so

File No.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Washington, D. C.

20535

October 15, 1975

SECRET

TUNNES

RE:

UNITED STATES SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON

INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES (SSC)

INTERVIEW OF FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

(FBI) SPECIAL AGENT HOMER W. SCHWEPPE BY

SSC STAFF MEMBER JAMES DICK

On september as, 1915, alter & short orIentatiOn

discussion and after advising him of his rights under the

Constitution and reminding him that his appearance was

voluntary, SSC Staff Member James Dick interviewed FBI

Special Agent Homer W.

Schweppe in the presence of SSC

stenotypist Susan fanback regarding his knowledge of

the following:

The "Hunter Project," "Bureau Informant

200, " "the SAM Survey;" "Z Coverage," and opening of mail

by FBI employees.

At the outset Dick asked Schweppe to document his

FBI service®

Assignments

Schweppe responded by listing the following:

• In San Francisco from late 1946 to mid-1947;

in Los Angeles from mid-1947 to mid-1951; at FBI Headquarters

(FBIEQ) from May, 1951,

to May, 1958, and again from late

1960 to November,

1961; in the

Washington. Field Office (WFO)

of the FBI from May, 1958, on, except for the 1960 to 1961

period just cited.

During the course of the interview Schweppe was

also asked to indicato the nature of his assignments at

FBIEQ,

He indicated he was assigned for the main part to

units within the Domestic Intelligence Division dealing

with soviet military

attache personnel and with members

of Elizabeth Bentley's "espionage ring."

This document contains nether

recommendations nor conclusions of

the FBl. It is the property of

the FBI and is loaned to your agency:

it and its contents are not to be

distibuted outside your agency.

"SECRET

Classified by #7366

Exempt fron GDS, Category 2

Date of Declassification Indefinite

62.116395-1018

ENCLOSURE

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U.S. SSC ON INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES

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JFF(08S

Schweppe. conceded he was. not familiar with the term, wick

ffered as an exhibit for review a copy o1 a redruay?

1958,

Project.

momprandum directed to Director Hoover entitled Hunter

This memorandun outlined arrangerents to be

effected between the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency.

(CIA) legarding the manner in which the fBI would be proyided

the basis of the meno he had & recollection about such

activity by the CIA.) Schweppe recalled that it some point Ju

prior-to his transier from fille In lay; 1958, and he

Indicated' he folt it must have boen earlier than the .

February 8, 1958, date Indicated above, he had piss across

his desk in the normal flow of official mail what he referred

to as the

modern day version of computer printout lists

consisting, to the best of his recollection, of names of

what were presumed to be Soviet residents as well as' addresses

In the Soviet Union, Schieppe indicated that he had seen

several such lists but since they did not seen ipplicable

to the type of cases being supervised by Schweppe

at the

time, he paid them little heed.

Fe. recalled that at least

with

some of the later printouts there were instructions

accompanying theprintouts to the effect that names and/or

addresses of interest should be flagged for what was

presumed to be a "watch list" of some sort.

Dick: asked specifically when Schweppe first

bectme aware of the liats'mentioned above; whether he was

-Laniliar with FBI Form 5-88,

• form prepared for placing

& request on the "watch Iist", whether he had seen any of

the results of the ICIA monitoringil and whether he bed. fif k(a)

seen, any. reproduction of correspondence photosraphed by Jfk CiBi

[clAin connection with the Hunter Project.

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•Schweppe replied that he thought the lists

he mentioned earlier probably were seen by him: before

February, 1958; but he

acknowledged he could not recali

exactly when.

He said he could not now recall ever having

seen FBI Form 5-88. "He replied that, since he. folt he had

never placed a name or

address on. the.

"watch. list," he

would not have any specific results routed to his personal

attention. He added, however, that if the results were

routed to all supervisors concerned with Soviet intelligence

and related matters, he probably did see such results

and routinely initialed the accompanying routing slips.

He said he could recall no specific ClAresults" 11; in

lact, he did see anything specific.

Dick aaled whether Schweppe was aware of who

designated the routing of the lists he had seen; and

Schweppe responded. that he assined it was some individual

In the office of the

division's Assistant Director who

performed such an administrative function. Schweppe said

he did not

recall & Miss Triplett (phonetic), who,

according to Dick, was responsible for routing the "Hunter

Project" material to appropriate supervisors.

Schweppe

said he could have been Included in such routing because

of. his. assignment.

Dick then queried Schweppe on his famillarity

with the term "Bureau Informant 200" (BI 200), when be

first became aware of the term,. and whether be over: saw

any of the material attributed to that informant.

• Im

this connection Dick. exhibited another FBIIQ memo dated

was

unable to recall

exactly when he first becime aware

of the use

and. identity of BI 200, but

he assumed it was

early 1958.

He said he could recall seeing information

attributed to BI 200 both while at FBIHQ and. in WFO but

that he could no longer recall the specific nature. of the

items involved.

He said he 'presuned that all. of then

dealt with Soviet related investigatoty matters. Schweppe

said he did not belleve

he has seen any references. to

BI 200 in the past 15 years or so and that he may have seen:

as many as five references: a year before that..

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Dick also queried Schweppe about his knowledge

of the

"SAM. Survey" (SAM) and "Z Coverage" (2).

• Bo

asked Schweppe whether he knew

when "SAN" and "" were

Initiated, what they consisted

of, when they ceased,

when ho first became aware. of them, and whether he had seen

"Say" woults of those projecte.

Schveppe replied that

and "z" were on a nead-to-know basis within

wro but

that he in time heard about then through office "shop

talk" and then concluded that those designations indicated

projects in which mail

to and/or: fron the Soviet Union and

Soviet bloc countries was monitored

He said he did

not know when those projects were initinted or when they

terminated.

projects in the early 19605.

on fron time to time to translate correspondence in German,

which correspondence had been photographed by some sourco

not identified initially

Schweppe suggested that on later

inquiry. about the

source of the correspondence he was

informed it was oither from "SAM" or

"Z. "

He said he Fas

unable to recall specifically who so advised him.

He felt

it was possible that word was just "passed along"' to that

effect. He could not recall whether each specific individua

Item was identified in a particular, special manner '8o as

to tie 1t In to 1ts source. Schweppe stated that he believes

all such material translated by bim was dirocted to officials

at the Soviet and/or Soviet bloc embassies in Washligton,

and not to any son diplomatic personnel. Such

t. slation requirements vere quite infrequent, and schweppe

was not called on tö translate any such material within

the past eight of ten years, to the best of his recollection.

Schweppe said

it was his impression

that

"SAM""..

in Now

York City was handled in space at oneor the other

of

New York's airports.

He said he was unaware of the

specific arrangements in Washington, D. C. He related that

he was aware that FBI Special Agent John De Bettencourt,

•since deceased, was directly involved in WrO's "7 Coverage.

project but that he did not. know

specifically to whon

De:

Bettençourt was answerable.

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U.S, SSC ON: INTEILIGENCE ACTIVITIES

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Dick asked whether Schweppe was aware of any

mail having been opened by "BI employees in situations other

than the projects referred

to above; Schweppe, after making

the observation that Federal law and FBI regulations

prohibit such activity,: said he himsolf had never opened

anyone's mail in his capacity as an fBI employee, that he

never observed any other FBI employee so engaged, and that

he personally was not aware of any specific instances in

which that might have happened.

At 'this point Schweppe

related that while he was aisigned to the los Angeles

Office, he suspected that a female employee, whose

could not recall, might possibly have been engaged ta the

surreptitious opening of other people's mall because:of

the suspicious nature of her actions at certain times.

Schweppe added that those were suspicions raised by

clicunstantial evidence only

Dick then presented a hypothetical:s1tuation.in

which agents on duty might obtain mail posted by. an

Individual and then proceed to open the same and review

the contents.

He asked :whether. Schweppe has aware of any

the suggested

recall no such nctual situations.

During the course of the interview, Schweppe

indicated that he had been assigned to Soviet-related

Investigatory matters

In WO until early 1959, after

which he was rasigned to the handling of German, Latin

American, Middle Esst; and Chinese Investigatory matters

at different times.

Schweppe concluded by stating that his knowledge

and recollection of the subject matter

constituting the

basis for the inquiry vere weal. Fe reiterated that he

never opened any other person's malt in his capacity is ar

FBI employee,:

that he never witnessed any other FBI employee

opening any such mail, and that he cannot recall ever;

being aware of any situation in which mail was opened by

FBI employees, exciusive of the "SAi" and

projects

mentloned above.

This interview commenced about 10:15 a.m.,

September 23; 1975, and concluded at about 11:15 p.

the same day.

SECRET

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