MEMO: REVIEW OF AGENCY HOLDINGS REGARDING PHOTOGRAPH OF UNIDENTIFIED INDIVIDUAL IN MEXICO CITY PUBLISHED BY THE WARREN COMMISSION.
Agency: CIA
Originator: CIA
From: ROCCA, RAYMOND G.
To: DC/OPS
Document date: 5/2/75
Document type: PAPER-TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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1975

MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy

Chi

Operations Staff

SUBJECT

:.

Review of Agency Holdings regarding

Photograph of Unidentified Indiviâual

in Mexico City published by the

Warren Commission

REFERENCE

Letter dated 15 April 1975 by

Mr. David w. Belin, Executive Director

of the Commission

on CIA Activities

within the United States,..to

Mr. E. Henry Knoche (copy attached to

accompanying report)

This is further

to, and

in completion of, my

interim memorandum of a few weeks ago.

The attachment is a detailed

view in narrative,

chronological order - together with

ropriate comment-

ary - of our extensive holdings

OSWALD case that

have a bearing on the matter of

photographs taken by

Mexico City Station on J, 4j and

Unidentified Individual.

tion of analytical error.

stress of an urgent desi

sjudge

vence of a combina-

bute to the develop-

ment of the investigationof

sassination, a

versior of one of

rotographs of the

Unidentified Individual was

Introduced into the chain of

evidence in the OSWALD case on 23 November 1963 by an

FBI representative in Dallas.

The successive vicissi

which have now made this event a cause celebre

right down to the present moment are detailed in the

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The attached report i

answer to the Fensterwald/O**

attaches to his memorandume

by-paragraph refutation-and commen

which I believe is more

appropriat

rate memorandum to MI,

a memorandum if thaD is dest

intended to be an

article which Mr.

prepared a paragraph-

that article,

ly handled by a sepa-

will prepare this as

The point of the

referenced memorandum is that

consideration should be given now to "whether or not the

entire matter can be fully disclosed at this time."

submission is designed to make it possible for you, the

IG and others whom you may desire to consult to make this

decision.

The narrative-interpretive summary has been

put together in such a way that it discloses no cyptonyms,

pseudonyms or other CIA jargon.

its contents ao

well beyond what has been released to the public thus far

in the Warren Commission documentation.

This point must

be borne in mind in making a decision on Mr. Belin's

question.

To remove any question in anybody's mina

our good

faith in this matter;

the narrative is backed up

by copies of actual documentation from our files.

in reply to Mr. Belin, that he or

his representative review the documentation that backs up

The documentation has not been keyed into

the narrative presentation, but it follows the chronologi-

cal order of presentation from 9 October into the latest

developments in the matter, and there is an overall index

to facilitate reference to

individual items.

[NB: There

is only one copy of this collection this is it.]

5. As noted above, one o

photographs taken in

Mexico City on 4 October 1963

oduced into the

Warren Commission public zéco

ver, it was intro-

duced into that record

versions.

Warren Commission and

made fully aware in

the course of their

adquarters and in

Mexico City of the

he photograph,

the fact

that we had

additional

aphs of the same individual

at different times

Mexico City and on the basis

of full knowledge of these

facts reached their own con-

clusions regarding the irrelevance of the photograph to

OSWALD and the assassination.

In fact, we actually hold twelve different photo-

graphs of the Unidentified Individual.

Each of these are

reproduced in the collected documentation backing up the

narrative report (see Items

25 - 27).

Chier, LA Division,

Not is:

R3S-5

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T

had indicated in writing to

ch

objection

for Mr. Belin

to

do

these photographs at this

time

Mx. Fensterwald in 1971

7972

Mr. Houston during a vis

it to

twelve photographs,

tha

in the Warren Commis

rep

he has published in The

Ne

which Mr. Belin attaches

CIOPS, that he has no

kateve

is desired with

shauld be noted that

was

actually shown, by

Agency, two of

the

one already published

(It is these two that

k Review of Books article

It seems to me that whoever makes a decision on

whether the entire matter can be fully disclosed at this

time should bear in mind that a subsidiary decision must

also be made,

i.e., whether to crop or otherwise fuzz up

the background of

the photographs or,

alternatively, to

publish the entire run of the photographs for the

time without taking out the background.

Obviously,

of these questions

apply to the passage of this

to Mr. Belin and the Rockefeller Commission itself.

think they should see the entire documentation as it

Perhaps after that, the question of what could

be discussed and the question of "how?" and "how much?"

could be taken up with Mr. Belin himself.

My personal

recommendation is that the more we can

say about this

matter in a fully open

the better off

we will be as an Agency.

But it is my understanding

that there are still sensitive aspects deriving from the

was Goney en wren mexican Proacan ana conseque

and as a conseguence

• publication at this time would

additional problems

at that level in Mexico Also

should be noted that

Ambassador,

J.C. King on

according

's memorandum to

22 November

the backup

documentation), allegedly played

Itect role in

decision to put the photograph

the hands of the FBI

in Dallas laterally

As far as I know,

there has not been

Anything

walished about this aspect

at any time in the past

have we had any discussions

with the State Department

about that aspect of the matter.

Raymond G. Rocca

Attachments:

as

stated

3

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