LIROBBIN-1 AND LIROBBIN-2.
Agency: CIA
Originator: CIA
From: MEXICO STATION, CIA
To: DIRECTOR, CIA
Document date: 12/14/1967
Document type: PAPER-TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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CONTACT REPORT

SUBJECTS:

LIROBBIN-1 and -2

DATE OF MEETING: 14 December 1967

P-11665

1. LIROBBIN-2 called on 13 December and asked to see me. I

conseuently met her and LIROBBIN-1 at their apartment from 1035-1140

on 14 December..

The next meeting will be arranged by telephone.

2. Pearl GONZALEZ. It turned out that the number one topic

Subjects wit wished to discuss was Pearl GONZALEZ, who recently

interviewed New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison and

reported the interview in a front-page article in the I1 December

edition of The NEWS. In the article, which is attached, Pearl

quoted GARRISON as attacking the CIA as the U.S.'s "fascist alter

ego." LIROBBIN-1 said that the article was evidently only a

prelude to a major campaign against CIA and the Warren Commission

involving Pearl, District Attorney GARRISON, and RAMPARTS magazine.

LIROBBIN-1 said that Pearl had only returned to Mexico about a week

ago and she wasn't saying too much about the whole business, but

that from talking with her he had learned the following facts

and fragments:

(a) That Pearl is presently collaborating with RAMPARTS

ragazine on the Joel David KAPLAN case. LIROBBIN- said he was

certain that Pearl's relationship with RAMPARTS began in May of

this year when RAMPARTS reporter John RAMSEY (pen name of John

RAYMOND, was in Mexico to cover the KAPLAN case. LIROBBIN-1

said that Pearl and RAMSEY were quite friendly when RAMSEY waS NEWs

here and recalled that Pearl had done a series of articles on the

p- 13/25(pp.3-6)

P-2270 (ps. 3-6) P-11420 8-2268 1-3)

Tile ces - II3 (Pp. 3-6) - 10797(68 1-3) P-8573 (-1-3)

P: 8.59.3

COPIES MADE

Document Number

1464-1079-3

for FOlA Review on

DEC 1977

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KAPLAN case after RAMSEY's sudden and involuntary departure from

Mexico. In these articles Pearl repeatedly cited the possibility

that the CIA might well be involved in

the KAPLAN case because of

KAPLAN's uncle's connection

"the Agency (i.e., the KAPLAN Fund).

(There was considerable correspondence with Headquarters on RAMSEY's

visit. LIROBBIN-l's previous reporting on RAMSEY, who according

to Pearl has since been fired by RAMPARTS$ is contained in a

Memorandum for the Record dated 3 May 1967.)

(b) That RAMPARTS

arranged Pearl's interview with GARRISON

and paid for her trip to New Orleans. The reason for this is

that RAMPARTS is trying to put together evidence that the KAPLAN

case is directly connected with the assassination of President

Kennedy. Although Pearl was not at all clear about this, one

element in RAMPARTS theory is evidently that KAPLAN was the person

who tipped off Castro on the timing of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Because of this, RAMPARTS' theory runs, Senator Robert Kennedy has

been exerting (presumably &'** either directly or through the

U.S. Government-and ultimately the U.S. Embassy in Mexico pressure

on the Mexican Government to keep KAPLAN imprisoned.

(c) That RAMPARTS has about six staff reporters working on

the story and that one of these reporters sat in on Pearl's

interview of GARRISON,

(d) That GARRISON was so impressed by Pearl that he asked

her to join his staff (which she declined to do).

(e) That Pearl went on to New York from New Orleans and

talked to a famous trial lawyer there about the KAPLAN case•

3. The LIROBBINS' opinion of Pearl is somewhat ambivalent.

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On the one hand, they consider her a friend and enjoy her company.

On the other, however, they recognize that she is a very impression

able, left-leaning, and irresponsible person and are concerned

about the harm she is doing to her own government. While I am

certain they would not want to be responsible for the U.S. Government

taking any

action against Pearl--such

as trying to have

her thrown

out of Mexico--they nevertheless both suggested that the U.S.

Embassy at least protest to Publicaciones Herrerias

about her

provocative stories appearing on the front page of The NEWS.

LIROBBIN-1 added that he understood that: either Romulo O'Farrill

Sr. or Jr. had considered Pearl's GARRISON article to be too

muckrakish to print in NOVEDADES, Yet he permitted it to appear

on the front page of The NEWS.

4: SARATOV and SYCHEV. Subjects said they had seen SARATOV

and SYCHEV together at the Press Club twice in the past two weeks.

SYCHEV was introducing SARATOV around on both occasions and

introduced him to Subjects on the first. Subjects chatted with

SARATOV both times and found him very friendly and outgoing, but

much less aggressive than SYCHEV. Subjects explained that SYCHEV

is "outgoing" to the point that he will zero in on someone he has

just been introduced to and ask the person so many questions as

to literally debrief him on his whole life. SARATOV's English

grammar and American accent, according to subjects, are a little

better than SYCHEV's, although SYCHEV uses more American slang

and colloquialisms than SARATOV. SARATOV asked Subjects to call

him "Ed."

5.

Subjects said they were very impressed by SARATOV's seemingly

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genuine liking for the United States. While he said nothing about

having attended Yale, he spoke enthusiastically of his tour in

washington, of how much he and his wife had liked it there, and of

how they had hated to leave. In fact, his wife, he said, had come

to like. the U.S. so much and become so used to the modern conveniences

of life in the United States, that she was having a hard time

adjusting to Mexico. SARATOV went on to say that he had traveled

all over the United States. When one of Subjects asked him if

he had been in Chicago, he replied that he had and he thought it

was a great city. Had he been in San Francisco, someone asked.

Oh, San Francisco, he answered--he loved San Francisco and waild

love to live there. New Orleans? Yes, he had had the test time

of his life in New Orleans and thought it was a great place.

Shortly thereafter, someone asked a question about Moscow (if it

had changed much in the last ten years or something similar).

In sharp contrast to his enthusiatic comments on the United States,

SARATOV brushed off the question by replying uninterestedly that

he hadn't been back to Moscow for two and a half years and in

the last ten years

really hadn't

seen much of Moscow at all.

Subjects noted that SARATOV made only one other reference to the

USSR in the two times they talked with him (see next paragraph)

and that he avoided political topics completely.

6. SARAPOV mentioned that he had

specialized in languages in

school andhad worked

as a guide in the USSR "for Americans and

Latin Americans," because "those two languages" were his "specialty."

(Since Subjects spoke taBBERTOY

with SARATOV in English, they

have not heard him speak Spanish)

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7. Subjects said that Kathy MANJARREZ. (P-12800) had mentioned

to them that SARATOV had come into the Press Club alone on the

evening of 12 December;

8 PRIKHODKO. Subjects had PRIKHODKO to dinner with a small

crowd of other guests on the evening of Monday, 1l December.

PRIKHODKO didn't arrive until 2130 or 2200 and explained that he

had had to attend a "reception" (no mention of where) beforehand.

Although LIROBBIN-2 specifically asked him to bring his wife, he

as usual, showed up without her. When LIROBBIN-2 asked where his

wife was, he smiled blandly and said, "She's at home. She likes it

there." The only guest PRIKHODKO showed any particular interest in

was a Brit by the name of Denny JACOBSON. JACOBSON, according to

LIROBBIN-2, came to Mexico about 6-8 months ago and works for IBM here.

LIROBBIN-2 said that JACOBSON is a friend of Jose (Pepe) ANGULO, .

and like ANGULO, is a homosexual. Subjects said that PRIKHODKO

spent a good hour and a half or more talking with JACOBSON off

to one side. After PRIKHODKO left (about 0130), JACOBSON told

LIROBBIN-] that PRIKHODKO had asked him to demonstrate some IBM

machines for him. JACOBSON implied to LIROBBIN-1 that he had

agreed to demonstrate the machines. (The 1967-68 Anglo-American

(BR.) • IBM Area del Caribe, Reforma 185, 5ª piso, Zi 5. Tol.

66-15-55. Apdo 30-535. Res. Biarritz 16-2, Col, Juarez, z. 6.

Tel. 25-84-79)

9.

Subjects also saw PRIKHODKO on two other occasions since

I last talked with them:

(a) At Pearl GONZALEZ's home on Thanksgiving evening

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(23 November). As she did last year, Pearl had a big Thanksgiving

dinner to which she invited PRIKHODKO, the LIROBBINS, and a number

of people from the Bress Club. Subjects said the evening was

uneventful®

(b) At Benno LIEBERMANN's Folkloric Association on the

evening of 9 December, This was Russian (or Ukrainian) night at

the Association and PRIKHODKO was there with various members of

the Ukrainian Ice Ballet troupe. Subjects recalled that about a year

ago LIEBERMANN had tried to get Soviet Embassy cooperation for

a Russian night, but had always been put off (see CR report of

9 Jan 1967). Subjects said they didn't know how LIEBERMANN and

the Soviets had finally managed to get together.

10. Although not previously reported, LIROBBIN-1 told me in

November that he and LIROBBIN-2 had attended the celebration of

the October Revolution at the Soviet Embassy on 7 November.

LIROBBIN-1 had told me that nothing of any special interest had

occurred and LIROBBIN-2 onfirmed this on 14 December:

11. I told Subjects to take advantage of any opportunities

Bo to become friendly with SYCHEV and especially SARATOV, since it

looks as though they may be seeing these two Soviets at the

Press

Club from time to time. I specifically suggested that they invite

SYCHEV and SARATOV the next time they invite PRIKHODKO to a party®

I told them that while they obviously could not drop PRIKHODKO,

we were nonetheless more interested in SYCHEV and SARATOV and

would like to have them at least be on good terms with either

or both of these

Soviets when the time came for PRIKHODKO to leave

Mexico (which Mrs. PRIKHODKO has said they will do sometime in

1968).

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