SPOT REPORT: POSSIBLE ID OF PERSON IN PHOTO RELEASED BY HSCA TO PRESS.
Agency: CIA
Originator: CIA
Document date: 07/31/1978
Document type: PAPER-TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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104-10059-10411

• SECKEL

SPOT REPORT

SUBJECT: Possible Identification of Person

DATE: 31 July 1978

in Photograph Released by the House

Select Committee on Assassinations

REFERENCE: 30 July 1978 Newscast, Channel 5, WTTG

1. On 30 July 1978 the House Select Committee on

Assassinations (HSCA) released several photographs and com-

posite drawings of persons who the committee hoped might

be able to "shed additional light on the assassinations of

President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King JI."

The photographs were shown on a newscast on Channel 5 (WTTG)

on 30 July. CIA Career Associate Petr Sergeyevich Deryabin,

who saw the telecast, reported that the photograph showing

a profile view of a man is that of Nikolay Sergeyevich Leonov;

a "journalist" known to Deryabin as a KGB officer.

2.

The July-August 1976 edition of the Soviet publica-

tion Latinskaya Amerika contained an article entitled "To

Your Health! Fidel" by "journalist N. S. Leonov."

Written

in connection with Castro's 50th birthday, the article

praised Castro highly and implied a personal acquaintance

between Leonov and the Cuban leader.

It also briefly

mentioned that the CIA had planned "a physical liquidation

of F. Castro." Deryabin comments that he knows "journalist"

Leonov to be a KGB officer who has worked in Moscow

headquarters as well as in Mexico and Cuba.

He believes

that Leonov's implied personal acquaintanceship with Castro

in fact stems from his official position as a

KGB officer.

3. Two photographs released by the HSCA were provided

to the Committee by the Agency. They were obtained through

Is Joint,

a Joint operation with the Mexican intelligence service In

The Agency did not authorize release of the photographs

by the HSCA to the press.

SECRET

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