ARRB - DST BRIEFING
Originator: CIA
From: MICHELLE COMBS
To: BARRY HARRELSON
Document date: 04/01/1997
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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AnnAn

1104-10333-10007

2023 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

SECRET.

CLASSIFIED FAX

TRANSMISSION

ARRB

202-724-0088

To:

Fax #:

From:

Subject:

Barry Harrelson

703-613-3060

Michelle Combs

DS&T and DO Briefing Questions

Date:

Pages:

March 31, 1997

17. including this cover, sheet.

COMMENTS:

Barry,

Attached are the final versions of the DS&T and DO briefing questions. There are no changes in

the DS&t questions. Questions have been added to the DO list to reflect our conversation

March 19 and 20. You, of course, already have our detailed explanations for the earlier DO

questions. If you have any questions or if there are any problems, please give me a call. I should

be in all day. See you tomorrow.

Michelle

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HILINGUAL

1. What kinds of records might the DS&T maintain on the HTLINGUAL project? How

could these records be queried?

Castro Aggassination Plots

1. What kinds of records would TSD or other offices of DS&T have maintained on the

various Castro assassination plots? How might a search query be framed to isolate.

these records?

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DS&T Briefing - 1 April 1997

for

JFK Commission

U-2

1. What records still exist of the early U-2 project which

have not

yet been declassified?

At the Agency Recorde Center, we have approximately

1,407 folders that we can identify as having the terin U-?.

2. In the attached excerpt from the book Skunkworks, the

authors Ben Rich and Leo Janos refer to Lockheed's

preparation of four sets of falsified U-2 technical manuals

at the direction of Richard Bissell of the CIA. Is there

any record of what happened to the manuals? If an operation

was designed around the false manuals, which office would

have run the operation? • What records might exist in the

DS&T of what happened to the false manuals?

There

is no record that I am aware of that would tell

us what happened to the manuals.

The Office of Special Projects was the office in the

DS&T responsible for the U-2 Program... Since this office no

longer exists,

all those records are under my purview and

fall organizationally under the O/DS&T front office.

To answer the last question under number 2, I will

first give you a little background on our recordkeeping

practices in the DS&T.

When records serve their useful

CL BY: 05245073

CL REASON: 1.5(c)

DECL ON: X1

DRV FROM: Multiple Sources

purpose, they are retired to the Agency Records Center as

either permanent or temporary records as dictated by our

DS&T Records Control Schedule.

This control schedule, which

has been approved by the National Archives and Records

Administration and had its last major update in 1984,

identifies record series in the DS&T and determines how long

they need to be kept.

Component records custodians with the

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approval of the Information Management Officer will retire

those records under the appropriate schedule item.

We

currently have a system that identifies all folders

contained in a box that is retired to the Records Center.

It is an inventory, if you will, of the folders contained in

the box.

Unfortunately, over the years, we have not done a

good job of labeling the folders to properly describe the

contents of the folder. We are also restricted to 140

characters for the folder description.

For example, if we

were to look for specific records pertaining to the U-2

falsified manuals, we in all probability would not be

successful in finding a folder that clearly reflected this

information.

To definitively find out if such manuals

existed, we would literally have to request from the Records

Center all the folders identified as U-2 and do an "eyeball"

search of every record contained in each of the 1, 40.

folders.

Surveillance Records

1.

We have been working to identify all technical and

surveillance operations in and on the Cuban and Soviet

consulates and embassies in Mexico City between September 1

and December 1, 1963. How can we frame a search query to

determine if we have a comprehensive and complete list of

all operations at that time?

The Technical Surveillance Group (TSG) of CITO

(Clandestine Information Technology Office), formerly of OTS

(Office of Technical Services), has an electronic database

of summarized records of operations conducted by TSG

officers, but it only dates back to circa 1970. Other than

that, ISG keeps a hardcopy file records of operations that

are either still active, or that are no longer active but

still have technical equipment in place. For example, if

T'SG concealed a device in a wall but was unable to retrieve

it when the operation was over, they would retain a record

of that device for accountability purposes. Other than

that, TSG would not have any records of operations from that

timeframe.

If records of this nature exist, according to

the above criteria, they would have been sent to the Records

Center.. The process to retrieve these records would be the

a, they retrievene t-2 cople.

same as I have described under the U-2 topic.

2.

How can a search query be framed to document all

electronic take produced by the Mexico City Station in the

(the first month) and

during the period of Oswald's visit? If additional records

or original production still exists, where would it be

stored or filed?

What searches could be conducted to

retrieve any additional records?

If such electronic take

has been destroyed, do records exist of the destruction?

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that TSG does not get involved in.

TSG'& function is to

operation, maintain the equipment, train station(and liaison

personnel on the use of the equipment, and remove the

equipment when the operation is terminated. Once an

operation is in-place, up and running, the stationis

responsible for handling the take, including transcription,

production or reports, erasing of tapes for re-use,. or

destruction of tapes (once they are too older for re-use).

3.

How can be verify that what exists in the Sequestered

Collection represents all records of the technical

production of the Mexico City Station during the period óf

Oswald's visit that was available at the time of the

assassination?

Again, ISG would have no idea as to the amount of

production from an operation. Due to compartmentation

reasons, TSG officers

are usually not in the

production/intelligence dissemination chain.

4. What records of technical and electronic (including

photographic) surveillance activities would have been sent

to TSG?

Are all technical and surveillance activity logs.

referred to TSG?

If not, then what organization element

would be responsible for storing these logs?

ISG maintains its own record of operational activity,

as monitored by cable traffic originated by TSG officers in

the field.

This cable traffic only covers the big picture

though: who, what, when, where, how as related to the

overall operation.

They day-to-day specifics of operational

activity is not something that the ISG officer becomes

involved in.

Those day-to-day records are kept for the

benefit of the station and the officers producing the

intelligence reports. They would have resided with the

station.

Who other than TSD would have had access to the raw

trattic collected from the surveillance targeting the Cuban

and Soviet

installations in Mexico City in the 1963-1964

TSG would probably not have had access to the raw

traffic collected form one of these operations, unless the

station had asked that one of our officers assist in manning

the surveillance equipment on a temporary basis, due to the

importance of the intelligence being collected. Even so,

once the information is collected, either photo or audio

tape.

the station immediately takes possession of the raw

traffic and processes it for intelligence.

Those elements

that then might have access to the raw traffic, would be

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station transcribers, case officers, and reports officers,

as well as their counterparts

• at Headquarters.

HTLINGUAL

1. What kinds of records might the DS&T maintain on the,

HTLINGUAL project?

How could those records be queried?

If DS&T were to have records on the HTLINGUAL project,

they would search the appropriate offices in the DS&T under

that term.

Castro Assassination Plots

1. What kinds of records would TSD or other offices of DS&T

have maintained on the various Castro assassination plots?

How might a search query be framed to isolate these records?

In the case of TSG, they only maintain records on their

operational activities, that of audio, visual, and telephone

surveillance.

The existence of records, as stated in the

answer to question 1 under Surveillance

Records, would be

the same for this response.

If the records of this nature

exist, according to the previous criteria, then they would

also be retired to the Records Center. A

he created using terms, such as, "Castro," search query would

"assassination,'

or any other related operational term.

This

same search criteria would more than likely be used to

search in other DS&T offices that would maintain such

records.

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