STRANGE CONNECTIONS
Jfk-geoage bush-george demorenschildt
curtjester1
wrote:
> Name one true defector who stayed. Name one person that wasn't on
> assignment. Name anybody who stayed.
MARSH REPLIED;
Charles Jenkins of
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904EEDD1139F935A25752C0A960958260
James Dresnok.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/29/news/deserter.php
Read the HSCA defector study.
THE DEFECTOR STUDY
The HSCA conducted a defector study to ascertain if OSWALD'S defection
was suspicious. The Committee: "To determine which individuals the
Committee would study, a letter was sent to the CIA requesting the names
of persons who defected to the
CIA "provided a list of the names and variations of the names of 380
Americans who were in the
Persons Who Have or May Have Defected to the USSR Between 1958 and
1963." This list included the names of Communist Party members who made
frequent trips to the
business, like Henry Winston. Winston could not be termed a defector.
The names of emigrants were included in this list. Some had been in the
persons, including some non-U.S. citizens, who owed some measure of
allegiance to the
interest in defecting." [HSCA V12 p404] The HSCA requested the CIA
provide more information so that it could select, for a detailed
analysis, those defectors who were most similar to OSWALD. The CIA
provided a second list which was "a computer listing of the name, 201
file number, date and place of birth, and a compilation of information
derived from the 201 file, as well as citations for various other
Government agency reports." No HSCA investigators visited CIA
headquarters and went through defector files there. Instead, the CIA
gave the HSCA some of the files the Committee requested, "the vast
majority of which" were in undeleted form. The HSCA conceded there was
not always "an independent means of verifying that all materials
requested from the Agency had, in fact, been provided. Accordingly, any
finding that is essentially negative in nature - such as that LEE HARVEY
OSWALD was neither associated with the CIA in any way, nor ever in
contact with that institution - should explicitly acknowledge the
possibility of oversight." [HSCA R 197] From the second defector list,
the HSCA eliminated those who had :
(A) Been born outside the
(B) Gone to the
© Remained outside the
The HSCA focused on the files of 23 defectors from the original list of
380. The Committee then examined the request dated October 25, 1960,
from the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research on 13
individuals whom it considered defectors. That list included the following:
(A) OSWALD.
(B) Seven individuals whose files the committee had decided to examine
under the previous criteria: Mollie Block; Morris Block; Bruce Frederick
Davis; William H. Martin; Bernon F. Mitchell; Libero Ricciardelli;
Robert Edward Webster.
© Two individuals whose names appeared on the computer listing but had
been excluded since they were not born within the United States [Joseph
Dutkanicz and Vladimir Sloboda]
(D) Three individuals who had not previously been known to the committee
as defectors: David DuBois; (FNU) Sergeant Jones; Sergeant Ernie Fletcher.
When the CIA responded to the October 25, 1960 request of the Bureau of
Intelligence and Research of the Department of State, two additional
names were added to the original list of twelve defectors - Maurice
Halperin and Virginia Coe. The HSCA had already selected Maurice
Halperin from the computer list of 380 names, but had no knowledge of
Virginia Coe.
MAURICE HALPERIN
Maurice Halperin (born March 3, 1936) was a specialist in Latin American
affairs employed by the
Maurice Halperin assisted Soviet agents Martha Dodd Stern and her
husband Alfred Kaufman Stern to secretly travel from
departure of the Sterns from
Government as a Latin American specialist and has "periodically renewed
his American passport." This information on Maurice Halperin was
compiled by JAMES ANGLETON. [CIA CSCI-316/01206-67]
The Committee requested all CIA 201 files on the 23 individuals from the
computer list. It requested files on Joseph Dutkanicz, Vladimir Sloboda,
Jones, David DuBois and Ernie Fletcher, since their names appeared on
the State Department defector list. Finally, it asked for the file on
Virginia Coe.
Out of the 29 individuals whose files were the subject of this request,
five were immediately dropped. The CIA could not identify Jones (an Air
Force Intelligence document existed about his defection); David DuBois
and Virginia Coe had defected to
Martin & Mitchell file was too sensitive and could not be presented to
the HSCA. Now the list was down to 24, on whom the Committee asked other
Government Agencies to provide selected information. After this
analysis, thirteen more defectors were eliminated: 5 for lack of
substantive information; 5 for being Communist Party members who made
frequent trips to the Soviet Union, or for residing outside the United
States for an extended period of time before entering the Soviet Union;
and three for remaining in the Soviet Union for over 20 years. The HSCA:
"Thus, the defector study was reduced to 11 individuals, two of whom
were married." Actually, three of the defectors were married. These
three couples could logically have been eliminated from the study
because OSWALD was single when he defected.
THE THEORY
Anyone who defected to the
and wasn't a hard core Communist ideologue, had to be a little crazy.
Many of the defectors were just that.
THE BLOCKS
Morris Block (born March 30, 1920) attended the 1957 Sixth World Youth
Festival in the
Communist China, prompting the State Department to impound his passport
for misuse. He tried to defect to the
passport in 1958. In 1959 Morris Block, his wife Mollie, (born November
6, 1912) and his child defected to
Blocks accept Soviet asylum in September 1959, and later issued them
Soviet internal passports for foreigners. They were sent to
There, Morris Block had an affair with his Russian-language teacher, and
his family left him and moved to
hospitalized for a nervous disorder. After the Blocks were reunited,
they decided to re-defect; however, their applications for Soviet exit
visas were refused. Morris Block disconnected a loudspeaker broadcasting
propaganda at his place of work. Molly Block granted an anti-Soviet
interview to The New York Times. Finally, the Blocks were expelled from
the
LIBERO RICCIARDELLI
Libero Ricciardelli decided that exposing his three children to a
Communist system of government could straighten out his domestic
problems. In February 1959 he defected, contracted influenza, and was
granted Soviet citizenship after he denounced the
1963, the Ricciardelli family returned to the
HAROLD CITRYNELL
Harold Citrynell (born March 10, 1923) entered the
wife and child on February 27, 1958. He was granted Soviet citizenship
and remained in the
was born in the
1945. He graduated from the College of the City of
degree in mechanical engineering and held many jobs in that field
between 1950 and 1958. In February 1958 he took his wife and infant
daughter to
returned to the
after holding several jobs in the
to
strike and refused to work. He had numerous difficulties in that country
and eventually returned to the
emotionally disturbed and suffers from a persecution complex." [From
Legat London (163-2201) Director (165-70603) 8.12.67] That brought the
number of relevant defectors down to eight. Two of these should have
been excluded because they fit the not native-born American criterion,
although their names appeared on the State Department list.
Vladimir Sloboda, a native of the
forced laborer during World War II. He enlisted in the
Army in
After basic training in the
August 1958 to an Army Intelligence Group in
Germany
201 file reflected that the "fact of Army countermeasures caused by the
arrest of 154 MID [East German Military Intelligence] agents recently"
was responsible for his defection. JAMES ANGLETON agreed: "The Sloboda
defection was participated by increased Army security measures,
according to (deleted) in January 1962. Our conclusion that Sloboda was
in prior connection with the KGB turned on the facts that:
(1) Sloboda's prior KGB involvement was confirmed by (deleted) in
January 1962. (It is our assumption that he made the same statements to
the Army debriefers who spoke with him in early 1962.
(2) He was a KGB resettlement case.
(3) he later told an American Embassy official in
been blackmailed and framed in going to the
Staff member Newton S. Miler (CI/OG/SOV) prepared a report on Vladimir
Sloboda on October 12, 1960.
SLOBODA'S ATTEMPT AT RECRUITMENT
On April 25, 1969, the CIA reported:
"The Office of Security file of (deleted) reflects that on November 20,
1960, (deleted), an employee of the Joint Overt Interrogation Center
Berlin received a telephone call from an English speaking male
identifying himself as 'your friend Vladimir.' The caller asked
(deleted) if he had been to his mailbox yet, and when (deleted) answered
in the negative, the caller said there was a letter in the box and he
suggested that (deleted) pick it up. The caller added that (deleted)
should not worry about the letter since it had been placed in the box by
a secure means. (Deleted) retrieved the letter, which was postmark
November 20, 1960, read it and immediately called his chief."
The text of the recruitment letter read:
"Dear Mr. Deleted. Don't be surprised at his way of contacting you and
don't take rash action before considering the contents. After watching
and studying your life and activities for some time in the
States
concluded we might be of service to each other. From different sources
we have come to know many details of your official and private life and
we are aware that your present position gives you small chance for
promotion, and we are aware of the financial hardships you must face.
These difficulties could be much greater if we did not think of sending
you this letter. Being aware of your slips and blunders in work we have
not made any moves which could undermine your reputation with Col. Ross
(
right conclusion from out attitude. It is enough to mention that we were
able to learn much from the documents in March 1959 in Frankfurt Am Main
when you were driving a hired car. Through your slips in handling your
sources Wolfgang and Dieter, in whose path we put no obstacles, many
things became known to us. The same is to be said about the sources you
ran in
to an agreement with you at a suitable time on mutually profitable
terms. We could continue to relate information regarding your activities
and work of your office known to us because of your mistakes, but this
would be pointless. We offer you a business-like cooperation on terms
profitable to both sides. There is no need to describe what we are. It
must be clear to you. Since you are a man of reason and sound logic you
must understand that cooperation will give you a chance to overcome
financial difficulties and make savings for the future. Also, we could
create conditions which would aid the growth of your prestige at your
office and in turn help you get a better job on your return to the
with a substantial sum to settle your affairs and guarantee you monthly
pay in the future, higher than your salary, as long as you stay in
contact. If you agree to our proposal, come to the democratic sector of
arrive at the U-Bahn Station in Warchauerbruecks. A representative of
our organization, Vladimir, will meet you at the flower shop at the
entrance to the station...It goes without saying that if during talks we
can't reach mutual agreement, that we will still guarantee you absolute
security and safety. You face no danger during the talks. If we do not
hear from you by December 1, 1960 we shall consider ourselves free to
act. To assure you this letter is not a trap laid by your security
service, we shall broadcast on Soviet Forces Volga Network an old waltz
tune on November 20, 1960, at 1310. If this is not convincing, write us
in advance what other piece of Russian music you would like to hear and
when you would like to hear it. Write to Herr Gruneat,
Lichtenberg 1, Postschliessfach 34. When writing we recommend you do not
sign the letter, using any fictitious return address you like...We would
like to warn you that it would be a mistake on your part to show this
letter to your chiefs, because in the long run this will only harm you.
We know there is an instruction from
cases and that is kept at the Security Section of Lt. Col. McCord's
office. We do not like to resort to threats, and in principle blackmail
runs counter to our working methods, but you must realize we may be
forced to resort to certain measures, not to compromise you, but to stop
your activities against us. So you have ample chance to get everything
you are striving for. For this you must have courage and resourcefulness."
(Deleted) was of the opinion "that the Russian Intelligence Service was
attempting to suggest that Vladimir Sloboda (MIG defector in August
1960) was being used in this approach." [CIA AC/FIOB/SRS Jerry G. Brown
4.25.69] Vladimir Sloboda had engaged in discussion with (deleted)
regarding "Wolfgang and Dieter" who were assets. Vladimir Sloboda was
clearly a spy seeking asylum, not an American defecting. The Russians
quoted Vladimir Sloboda as saying that he defected because of his
revulsion to the U-2 flights. He never returned to the
March 23, 1962 ANGLETON'S Deputy, James Hunt, Deputy Chief,
Counter-Intelligence, was consulted about questioning Mrs. Lilian
Sloboda by (deleted) SR/CI/RED. [
3.28.62]
In 1965 the CIA prepared a report on Vladimir Sloboda, much of which was
withheld. This report dealt with Vladimir Sloboda's knowledge of CIA
personnel and a possible recruitment attempt by him. The document
concluded: "It is not known whether Sloboda is affiliated with the
Soviet Intelligence Services at this time. According to a December 19,
1962, Foreign Service Dispatch from the American Embassy,
(deleted)." [CIA Memo J.F. Meredith to Chief/FIOB 9.30.65]
JOSEPH DUTKANICZ
Foreign-born Joseph Dutkanicz visited the Soviet Embassy, Washington, in
1952, made pro-Soviet statements, and listened to Radio Moscow. In 1954
the U.S. Army court-martialed Joseph Dutkanicz on charges of subversive
activity. He was acquitted and allowed to continue his normal
activities. In 1958, while he was stationed in
Army, he was approached and recruited by the KGB. A Western-bloc
security investigation caused him to seek asylum in the
Joseph Dutkanicz defected to the
ANGLETON commented: "Security investigations was immediate cause of
defection. USAREUR Case Summary 2-62-2 indicated that DUTKANICZ told
American Embassy,
security reasons. He defected soon after, in accord with a KGB
suggestion that he do so...A more significant indication of his KGB
involvement before his defection is the fact that the special decree
granting him Soviet citizenship was enacted three months before his
arrival in the
recounted that after their arrival, Russian agents contacted her husband
on a daily basis for a period of six months or more. After one year, her
husband told her he wished to return to the
should tell the officials at the U.S. Embassy he had been blackmailed
into collaborating with the Soviets. Joseph Dutkanicz's wife was allowed
to leave the
hospital in
"Enclosure 105-189"]
Colonel Burke, an Army Counter-Intelligence officer informed Jane Roman
that he suspected Joseph Dutkanicz had KGB connections only after his
defection: "Dutkanicz had not been attached to the 513 MID but to a
signal outfit in which his job was climbing telephone poles. The
statement that both these men had prior KGB connections is not true.
Army just suspected this to be the case after their defection. The
statement that both men fled as the result of Army Security checks is
not true. Both men were not under security check although the Army was
taking an "informal look into" the activities of one of them."
ANGLETON
prepared a report on Joseph Dutkanicz's pre-defection KGB connections
for the Department of the Army in connection with the Warren Commission
report: "USAREUR Case summary 2-62-2 indicated that Dutkanicz himself
told American Embassy officials in Moscow that he had been approached by
KGB representatives in a bar near Darmstadt in 1958 and accepted
recruitment as a result of their threats and inducements. He claimed to
have given them a minimum for cooperation from then until his defection,
although the Army considered it probable that the had done more than he
admitted." [CSCI-316/01779-64 dated 11.7.64
Lee H. Wigren, Chief, Soviet Research, Counter-Intelligence Research,
noted Joseph Dutkanicz's wife indicated her husband had connections with
the Counter-Intelligence Corps: "She indicated that their trip behind
the Iron Curtain 'had been made possible because her husband worked for
the CIC and was allowed to do things the ordinary 'GI' could not do.
There are also penciled notations in the 201 file suggesting that his
Army assignment may have included intelligence functions of some kind."
[
The file made a convincing argument for both defectors having prior
contact wit the KGB. This brought the number of relevant defectors down
to six.
SHIRLEY DUBINSKY
In October 1961 Shirley Dubinsky (born March 11, 1925) wrote several
letters to Premier Khrushchev asking for citizenship, then traveled to
the Soviet Union, where her bizarre behavior caused her to be placed in
a mental hospital. She returned to
NICHOLAS PETRULLI
Nicholas Petrulli (born February 13, 1921; died in April 1982) was
another mentally ill defector. Nicholas Petrulli visited the
Union
He went to the U.S. Embassy,
Richard Snyder administered the oath of renunciation. About two months
later, Nicholas Petrulli realized he had made a mistake. The State
Department declared him legally incompetent and he was allowed to return
to the
during World War II based on a mental breakdown, and had received
disability payments as a schizophrenic. [FBI Los Angeles JFK case
#-11.24.63] Richard E. Snyder recalled, "The Soviets decided that they
didn't want him. They looked him over for quite a while, the same as
they did OSWALD. And they said, 'No, go home boy.' He was no longer an
American citizen, which made for a bureaucratic tangle. The out that
arose in his case was that he had been discharged from the Air Force on
a mental discharge." After Petrulli returned to the
FBI interviewed his brother, Dominick Petrulli who said Nicholas
"returned from
the attempted to commit suicide, was committed to a mental hospital on
Long Island and later moved to
as being extremely nervous, highly sensitive and one who become
emotional after he realized the gravity of a situation." [FBI
Angeles
On October 31, 1960, the Staff of the Office of Security of the CIA
drafted a memorandum which was sent to the Chief, Security Research
Staff, that listed defectors of interest to the CIA: "Robert Edward
Webster, and Nicholas Petrulli were subject of OO/C [Domestic Contacts
Division] requests on May 29, 1959, and June 15, 1959, respectively,
with a view to their being debriefed upon their return from visits to
Russia. Neither was interviewed by CIA, either before or after their
visits. With reference to Nicholas Petrulli it is noted that his cousin,
Michael Thomas Schiralli, [SSD 84, 253] is a former CIA covert employee
who was assigned to the Robalo site in
and also took part in PB SUCCESS. [The overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in
return to private employment." [CIA Memo from M.D. Stevens 10.31.60
Subject: American Defectors]
MARTIN GREENLINGER
Martin Greenlinger, had fallen in love with a Russian woman while he was
attending the 1957 World Youth Festival in
returned to the
visa for her and her child from a previous marriage. In July 1958 Martin
Greenlinger returned to the
Soviet authorities issued Mrs. Greenlinger the exit visa. The
Embassy, however, refused to issue an entrance visa due to her Communist
Party affiliation. The CIA file on Martin Greenlinger stated: "This
apparently involved Komsomol membership although the wives of Parker and
OSWALD - q.v. - had many more drawbacks and were let in." In September
1960 Martin Greenlinger was awarded a National Science Foundation
fellowship for one year. Still unable to obtain a
his wife, he applied for visas at the British Embassy, and was told his
wife would be issued a visa if he got a job in
National Science Foundation approved his plans to study mathematics in
known." If no further information was known, then this defector did not
fit the criterion of having re-defected before 1964.
BRUCE FREDERICK DAVIS/LEE HARVEY OSWALD
This left three defectors to correlate. One of them was Bruce Frederick
Davis (born
1. Bruce Frederick Davis was born in
son of Dorothy Talbert of
the Second World War. His stepfather was an officer in the U.S. Army and
his family moved frequently around the
strict. [CIA Memo 6.29.62] Bruce Frederick Davis had a difficult
childhood since he spent 12 years of schooling in ten different schools.
OSWALD'S mother moved frequently during his childhood and OSWALD
attended ten different public schools. [WR pp. 672-681]
2. In June 1954, following his high school graduation, Bruce Frederick
Davis enlisted in the Marines and served three years. Bruce Frederick
Davis attended the U.S. Marine Aviation Electronics School. OSWALD
enlisted in the Marines around this time, and attended a similar school.
After discharge from the Marines, Bruce Frederick Davis attended college
and supported himself through various part-time jobs. He enlisted in the
Army in November 1958, and was sent to
advanced training, and then to
clearance. While in
incident with "a Negro soldier, name unrecalled. During the fight half
of Bruce Frederick Davis' right ear was bitten off...Subject's injury
was called 'service connected.'" OSWALD was involved in an attack on a
Mexican-American soldier while he was in the Marines.
3. Bruce Frederick Davis defected to
raced his car past the
abandoned it at the barricade of the border itself. "He walked past the
barricade and was apprehended about 300 yards inside the Soviet Zone of
Germany by two border policemen who searched for weapons and turned him
over to another two man police border patrol." Bruce Frederick Davis was
questioned by Soviet Zone authorities. He claimed he answered all their
questions innocuously, and did not reveal he had a Secret clearance
while assigned for a short period to Division Headquarters in
interview, and Bruce Frederick Davis was sent to
was kept in a series of safehouses, then blindfolded and sent to a
barred building. Bruce Frederick Davis asked if he could attend
Instead, on October 3, 1960, he was sent to the
In October 1960 two articles appeared in Izvestya and Pravda, with
statements by Bruce Frederick Davis attributing his defection to
disillusionment with
August 19, 1960, I deserted the U.S. Army. I am 24 years old. I was born
and raised in the
political party and didn't have any other reasons to be discontented
with my life in the West. All my hopes as a simple American who wants
peace were destroyed by the spy flights of the U-2 and RB-47 planes, and
the breakdown of the Paris conference for heads of states...I hope to
receive this political asylum in the USSR, to continue my education and
to live and work among the Soviet people." On July 1, 1960, the Soviets
had shot down an Air Force RB-47 reconnaissance plane which was on a
ferret flight along the Soviet border, a mission designed to activate
and pinpoint Soviet radar. [Ross & Wise The Espionage Establishment
p251] OSWALD denied that he was a communist prior to his defection,
which allegedly was based on similar objections to capitalism.
4. Although Bruce Frederick Davis physically defected, he did not
officially denounce his American citizenship, and the documents provided
to him by the Soviets categorized him as a stateless person. OSWALD was
issued a stateless-person passport. Bruce Frederick Davis settled in
was provided a free dormitory room and a subsidy of 900 old rubles per
month. OSWALD received a government subsidy of 700 old rubles per month.
UNAUTHORIZED TRAVEL
Bruce Frederick Davis made many unauthorized trips while he was studying
in the
Davis told U.S. authorities that he made a total of seven unauthorized
trips from Kiev during the 1961 to 1963 period...Davis was apprehended
on two of his seven trips, and was returned to Kiev each time under
escort. On both occasions he was merely reprimanded by the Deputy Chief
of the Institute at which he was studying." On May 1, 1961, he flew to
former salesman for an electronics firm in
years old, who stated that he had been in
his wife, by whom he had two children, because of a love affair with a
girl in
sent it off to
that correspondence between them might be dangerous to those in the
unclear. In July 1961 Bruce Frederick Davis made an unauthorized trip to
Johnkoi,
departing from an unseen military airfield. Bruce Frederick Davis was
apprehended for traveling without a permit, and sent back to
September 1962 he appeared at the American Embassy,
an American passport. He was apprehended on the second day and sent back
to
completing the application, as he had been arrested for participation in
a brawl in
issued a passport and an entry visa into
Davis allowed the passport and visa to expire, allegedly due to a new
Soviet girlfriend he met.
Bruce Frederick Davis visited the Embassy on another unauthorized trip
in January 1963. He delivered papers to the Embassy from another unhappy
defector and from Soviet citizen Vitalya Kalinochenko. These papers
contained Kalinochenko's autobiography, the reasons he was dissatisfied
with the Communists, and a request to be contacted regarding his
experiences with the Soviet Navy and the rockets used by the Soviet
Navy. On July 19, 1963, Bruce Frederick Davis went to the U.S. Embassy,
re-defection plans were completed. Fain was listed in Who's Who in the
CIA: "Fain, Thomas Alexander. Born: March 22, 1922; Language: Russian.
1943 to 1945 First Lieutenant in G-2 of U.S. Army; from 1949 in
Department of State, work for CIA (Economic espionage); 1962
Intelligence School in Oberammergau; OpA: Belgrade, Oberammergau, Moscow
(2nd Secretary), Washington." The decision that Bruce Frederick Davis
had not expatriated himself was made by Counsel Samuel G. Wise: "Samuel
Wise may well be Samuel Griffin Wise Jr. #74574, SD & SSD, who
apparently was once (deleted). The State Department reviewed Wise's file
on June 2, 1954; and as of September 1962 a Samuel G. Wise was Second
Secretary of the American Embassy in
in a cable to the State Department that it appeared that Bruce Fredrick
Davis, #352267 who defected from the United States Army in
August 18, 1960, had not expatriated himself.
similar to that of OSWALD, and he, like OSWALD, lived in the Soviet
Union for two years after his defection and prior to making application
for return to the
employment in early 1953 and was security approved Subject to polygraph
on August 11, 1953. He did not enter on duty and in September 1953 the
office which had been interested in him was 'no longer interested.' On
November 13, 1953, Wise was (deleted)." [CIA Office of Security
Marguerite D. Stevens 1.29.64]
BRUCE FREDRICK DAVIS' POLYGRAPH TEST
Bruce Frederick Davis was returned to military control in July 1963 and
was debriefed by Army Intelligence. He told Army Intelligence that he
believed in "the theory of Marxism and Leninism. He feels that the
system would work in a highly industrialized nation, such as the
States
not work properly. Bruce Frederick Davis does not believe in the present
method of application of the system in the
refused to admit he was a communist, but he did admit that he was
sympathetic towards communism. During the interview, he, at every
opportunity, defended the Soviet way of life, praised their economic
struggle, and voiced admiration for the Soviet communist personality."
Bruce Frederick Davis was polygraphed by Army Intelligence with such
questions as, "Were you required to sign a statement of obligation to
work for Eastern intelligence upon your return to the
Frederick Davis answered, "No," and the polygraph showed no sign of
deception. Bruce Frederick Davis was then asked a similar question,
which was withheld by Army Intelligence. His answer to this question was
also withheld, but we are told he displayed reactions indicative of
deception. The debriefing report continued: "A reaction indicative of
deception was recorded in his answer to Question 2, Test III," which
was, "Isn't it true you were forced to leave
Davis answered, "No." When confronted with his reaction, "He
denied
being forced in any way to leave
to leave. He denied that he left for any reason except of his own desire
and he left by the method he had previously revealed, that of contacting
the U.S. Embassy,
"Bruce Frederick Davis failed to answer Question 7, Test III." This
question was: "Do you believe in communist theory?" "No
answer." He was
asked why he did not answer the question. "He replied that he refused to
answer under the provisions afforded him in Article 31, UCMJ, because
his answer might tend to incriminate him."
The FBI: "Following his return to
on October 1, 1963 to a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay
and allowances, hard labor for one year, and reduced to the enlisted
grade of Private E-1. He is currently serving this sentence at the
Federal Penitentiary,
Brennan to Sullivan 12.7.63] In the early 1960's, the CIA and the State
Department conducted an interagency exchange of information on
defectors. The CIA reported to the State Department that there were five
defectors who were ascertained KGB agents: Dutkanicz, Martin, Mitchell,
Sloboda and Bruce Frederick Davis. [CIA 1634-1088 p11] This researcher
has no further information on Bruce Frederick Davis other than a highly
deleted FBI report from
105-92510-35 pgs. B, 1-4, 6-8; FBI 105-92510 NR Serial dated 7.28.69]
ANALYSIS
When Bruce Frederick Davis was not on the polygraph, he expressed his
belief in communist doctrine. When he was connected to the polygraph,
however, he refused to discuss his beliefs. Would the polygraph have
indicated deception? Bruce Frederick Davis fit OSWALD'S profile. He was
possibly an Army "dangle." A recently released CIA document described
him as "a source."
ROBERT EDWARD WEBSTER
Robert Edward Webster, (born October 23, 1928, Tiffin, Ohio), was a
plastics technician for the Rand Development Corporation who made
several trips to the Soviet Union to prepare for the 1959 U.S.
Exhibition in Moscow. He defected to the
THE RAND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
The Rand Development Corporation was a CIA proprietary. On October 9,
1959, the CIA surmised that "As was pointed out last June and earlier,
it might well have been of value to have obtained from ATIC, or the
coordinator for the fair, a list of persons who Rand was sending to the
USSR in order to avoid inadvertent contacts with such people as Robert
Edward Webster and Ted Korycki as Guide 223 or Lincoln Leads
respectively. This might be something to note for any future operation.
Of the others mentioned [in a newspaper article about Webster's
defection] H.J. Rand was (deleted)." In 1975 the CIA reported: "A
check
of Agency records has not revealed that Webster has ever been used in
any capacity by this Agency or ever been given any type of clearance.
Consideration was being given in late May 1959 and early June 1959 for a
debriefing of Webster in regard to his proposed travel to the
However, Webster was not contacted prior to his departure for the
On his return to the
Agency Officers to obtain Soviet Realities data." [
1993.08.14.09:37:45:870028]
DOCTOR H. J. RAND
The President of the Rand Development Corporation was Doctor H. J. Rand.
H.J. Rand's father was Vice-Chairman of Sperry-Rand. [63-Civ-2753-USDC
SDNY; Fortune 11.63 p135] The telephone number for the Rand Development
Corporation in
Martin-Marietta. Martin-Marietta was a major stockholder in Sperry-Rand.
H.J. Rand undertook private negotiations with the
of technical devices and information, on behalf of the CIA's Office of
Scientific Intelligence. During the late 1950's, CIA Agent Christopher
Bird was the representative of the Rand Development Corporation in
Development of the Rand Development Corporation, George Bookbinder, was
a former
[NYT 6.15.59; Smith
Bookbinder DOB 7.7.14 died 11.79] In 1967 the Chairman of
Development was J. Elroy McCaw. In 1990 Forbes Magazine named him one of
the richest 400 men in
falling out. Bookbinder sued Rand Development. [USDC SDNY 71 Civil 5631]
On October 23, 1964, Birch O'Neal suggested that Yuri Nosenko (AEDONER,
"Sammy") be questioned about George Bookbinder, H.J. Rand and
Brigadier
General W. Randolf Lovelace's connection to Galina Ivanovna Rednikina, a
Russian language secretary.
Sammy Misc Ex 355
October 23, 1964
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, SR/CI/K (Deleted). Attention Miss (Deleted).
SUBJECT: Requirement for AEDONER
1. It is requested that AEDONER be shown the attached items which refer
to the following individuals and be requested to provide all information
he may have concerning the persons and events referred to in all the items:
Galina Ivanova Rednikina, an interpreter at the Sovietskaya Hotel in
Moscow who has acted as a Russian language secretary for,
George H. Bookbinder, an official of the Rand Development Corporation of
Cleveland, Ohio, and
Henry James Rand, head of the Rand Development Corporation, and
Brigadier General W. Randolph Lovelace, Flight Surgeon and head of
aero-space medical program of NASA, who visited the USSR in 1958 with
Bookbinder and Rand.
2. For your information, only Rand, Bookbinder and Lovelace have had
frequent contact with Soviet officials both in the
Health, who was identified by AEDONER as an agent of the KGB.
3. You will also note that Rand was the employer of Robert E. Webster,
who defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and renounced his
4. This matter will also be of interest to Mrs. (Deleted) of SR/CI.
Birch O'Neal Chief, CI/SIG
Attachments: Bio Sheet and Photo of Redivkina (Photo to be returned to
CI/SIG); Original clipping and copy from New York Times dated November
15, 1959, with photo of Bookbinder (Original photo of Bookbinder to be
returned to CI/SIG); Copies of clipping referring to Rand and Webster;
Copy of clipping referring to Lovelace.
Distribution: SR, OS/SRS, CI/SIG
THE RAND CORPORATION
The Rand Development Corporation was often confused with CIA-linked
think tank known as the Rand Corporation - the Rand Development
Corporation was called the Rand Corporation in at least one State
Department document. The Rand Corporation was organized in 1946 by
General Henry "Hap" Arnold to perpetuate the partnership of military
men
and university scientists that had been established during the war.
was initially administered by the Douglas Aircraft Corporation. The
Sperry-Rand Corporation provided part of the initial funding for the
Rand Corporation although
In 1968 the CIA ties of the Rand Development Corporation were exposed
because of an Department of Interior expense inquiry into an
antipollution contract between the Rand Development Corporation and that
Agency. Donald L. Hambric of the Federal Water Pollution Control
Administration mentioned the contract to Department of the Interior
officials. He wrote: "Rand also has a small classified contract with the
CIA and any auditor working at
clearance." [NYT 4.25.55, 4.16.67, 3.7.68, Sel. Repat. Cases Inv.
Def. to
1.31.75; NYT 3.7.68]
TONY ULASEWICZ AND RAND DEVELOPMENT
Tony Ulasewicz, a member of NIXON's White House/Special Operations Group
wrote: "When I first met Chotiner, the first thing he did was to hand me
a file on the Rand Development Corporation and its officers...Chotiner's
file on the Rand Development Corporation disclosed that during the 1968
presidential campaign Rand was named as a defendant in a lawsuit started
by some angry Minnesota businessmen. The charge was that the Small
Business Administration and the Government Services Administration were
guilty of fraud and conspiracy in the way a government contract for some
postal vehicles was awarded to a wholly-owned the Rand Development
Corporation subsidiary, the Universal Fiberglass Corporation. The
Universal Fiberglass Corporation, the lawsuit charged, was born for the
sole purpose [of obtaining this contract]. "Despite apparent lack of
qualifications, a crony of Senator Hubert Humphrey awarded the contact
to the Universal Fiberglass Corporation. The Universal Fiberglass
Corporation defaulted and disappeared under Rand Development's
umbrella." Murray Chotiner was trying to bring this situation to the
attention of the media. [Ulasewicz, Pres. Priv. Eye, 1990]
ROBERT EDWARD WEBSTER'S DEFECTION
While in
Webster dated Vera Ivchenko, the hostess employed at the tourist
restaurant of the Hotel Ukraine. In this capacity, Vera Ivchenko
contacted many foreign correspondents, including those who accompanied
Vice President NIXON to the
the HSCA by the CIA, Vera Ivchenko was suspected of being a KGB agent.
When the HSCA wrote about Robert Edward Webster, it never mentioned Vera
Ivchenko's name: it referred to her as Robert Edward Webster's
girlfriend. Robert Edward Webster conveyed to Ivchenko that he wished to
divorce his wife in the
marry her. Robert Edward Webster first revealed his desire to defect on
July 11, 1959. He approached two Soviet officials in charge of
arrangements for the U.S. Exhibition, and requested information
concerning the procedures for a
Robert Edward Webster was given a telephone number to call, and a
meeting was set up in the private room of a restaurant. Robert Edward
Webster was instructed to write a letter to the Supreme Soviet
requesting to remain as a citizen. He was given a form to fill out which
he would submit to Mr. Popof. With Popof, Robert Edward Webster filled
out a questionnaire furnishing his background and expressing his wish to
remain in
Popof would not accept this, Robert Edward Webster said: "I want to stay
in the Soviet Union because all the businesses in
government-controlled." He refused to publicly denounce the
States
private restaurant room at the Metropole Hotel. Robert Edward Webster
told two Soviet chemists he could help them make the
which he demonstrated at the U.S. Exhibition. Robert Edward Webster also
attempted to design a fiberglass resin depositor, but due to the lack of
parts and equipment, the machine did not work.
Robert Edward Webster told the FBI that he was never questioned by the
KGB: "The only time I was questioned concerning American defense matters
occurred when some
handled in the Rand Development Corporation. I denied any knowledge of
this, because I had none." Robert Edward Webster informed the HSCA that
the KGB never contacted him, that there was no reason for them to do so
as the government officials who aided him in his defection had his
entire story. He said he had never been questioned relative to
intelligence matters. On September 9, 1959, he was told that he had been
accepted as a Soviet citizen. He disappeared the next day. Although he
asked to work in
Edward Webster at the Bucharest Hotel, and instructed him not to leave.
He was given 1000 old rubles, and asked to write a note to a Rand
Development employee requesting that money be left for him at the hotel,
since he was going on a tour of
Robert Edward Webster on September 11, 1959. He was then flown to
him. He applied for work at the Leningrad Scientific Institute of
Polymerized Plastics, and lived in a hotel with Ivchenko. On October 17,
1959, Robert Edward Webster was in
OVIR Central Office with the original Soviet representative with whom he
had contact; an unknown Soviet; Doctor H.J. Rand; George H. Bookbinder;
and Richard E. Snyder. At this meeting, Robert Edward Webster said he
was free to speak; he told Richard E. Snyder that when he applied for
Soviet citizenship, he was granted a Soviet passport on September 21,
1959. He never exhibited the passport to Richard E. Snyder, because it
had not yet been issued to him. When Robert Edward Webster later decided
to re-defect, he told Richard E. Snyder he had no Soviet documentation
at the OVIR meeting but was still in possession of the American passport
which he never sent to Richard E. Snyder as requested. He did, however,
fill out a State Department form, "Affidavit for Expatriated Person,"
in
which he renounced his American citizenship. Vera Ivchenko joined him
the following day for a month-long vacation. [also see DOS ltr. Snyder
to Boster 10.28.59; Davis to Snyder 12.10.59] On return to
the couple began work at the plastics institute, where Vera Ivchenko was
employed as an assistant and translator. They resided in a new apartment
building.
On October 8, 1959, an Memorandum for the Record was generated by
(deleted) "Regarding: Attempts to Locate Webster; receipt of (above)
Emb. Cable. - AIIC
clandestine task for CIA which hadn't been coordinated with them. Was
assured that this was not case & to best of our knowledge Webster had
not been briefed by & was unknown to either DDP or OO Offices. Check
made with (deleted); had encountered Webster on a few social occasions;
he will consult with Messrs. (deleted) to produce a more complete
picture of Webster."
On October 20, 1959, this Memorandum for the Record was generated by
Bruce L. Solie, Office of Security / Security Research Staff regarding
Robert Edward Webster: "(Deleted) advised (deleted) called Roman
regarding Agency interest in Webster. - Office of Security files - no
clearance; was an OO/C interest in Webster in late May 1959, but Webster
wasn't contacted by OO/C prior to trips to
On October 21, 1959, this document was sent by (deleted) to Chief,
Domestic Contacts Division, attention Support Branch "Regarding: Webster
case at recent Machine Searching Conference on October 20, 1959. Our
organization has no interest in matter."
On October 22, 1959, an Office Memo (Deleted) to Chief, Contact
Division, Attention Support (Deleted) re: Webster was generated
"Questions asked by Major Robert Lochera (?) of OSI: a) Is this office
doing anything re: Webster's defection? b) If not, do they contemplate
doing anything? c) What would this office have done if Webster left
normally? (Deleted) called next day w/response they knew only what was
in newspapers regarding Webster; (not very cooperative)."
"A CIA Office Memorandum dated October 23, 1959, was sent to Chief
Contact Bureau (Deleted)concerned: "information on Vera Ivchenko,
Webster's girlfriend."
"October 26, 1959. Memo (Deleted) to Director, FBI, regarding Agency
interest in Webster. Webster never used by Agency; was considered for
debriefing May 1959 to June 1959, however, he wasn't contacted prior to
departure for
Development]. In view of Webster's employment with Rand Development
Corporation, please forward any information obtained in the
investigation of Webster."
On October 28, 1959 a report on Robert Edward Webster stated: "Webster
was given security clearance on June 5, 1959, but never had access to
military information."
"October 30, 1959. Office Memo (Deleted) regarding
conversation with H.J. Rand regarding Webster."
These document came from a handwritten summary of all the CIA documents
in Webster's file prepared by the HSCA on March 15, 1978. Several pages
of entries marked Volume III (Cont.) & Vol. IV have been deleted.
ANALYSIS
Some people in the CIA thought Robert Edward Webster was an operation
due to his connection with the Rand Development Company. This researcher
thought Robert Edward Webster was an operation until documents
declassified in 1995 revealed that before coming to Rand Development,
Robert Edward Webster had worked for six corporations that had nothing
to do with the intelligence community. Just before Robert Edward Webster
left for the Soviet Union The New York Times took a family photograph.
It on October 20, 1959, and showed Robert Edward Webster, a Quaker, with
wife Martha, his seven-year-old son Michael, and daughter six-year-old
Anne reading a magazine entitled
his wife of eight years and his two children in
warning except for a call to the Russian secretary in the Rand
Development Company's
his family he was not returning. If Robert Edward Webster was an agent,
his method of establishing a cover was extraordinary. The KGB would have
found it difficult to believe that a CIA spy would leave his wife and
children in the
Robert Edward Webster was destroying his family. Was someone carrying
out the dictates of the Doolittle Report and "hitherto acceptable norms
of human conduct no longer applied" or was Robert Edward Webster crazy?
Logic dictated that the KGB would have been interested in the Rand
Development Corporation, simply because its name evoked the Rand
Corporation. Webster was probably questioned by the KGB.
WEBSTER LOOSES HIS CITIZENSHIP
Robert Edward Webster was granted a Soviet internal passport after
writing a summary of his life, listing his relatives and where they
worked, submitting photographs of himself, and undergoing a medical
examination. In December or January 1960, he turned over his American
passport and obtained a Soviet passport at the OVIR office in
Robert Edward Webster had lawfully renounced his citizenship; the State
Department issued a Certificate of Loss of Citizenship.
MARINA OSWALD AND ROBERT WEBSTER?
This entry was found in a CIA Name List With Traces on Marina Oswald's
address book: "Prizentsev, Lev Kondrat'yevskiy Prosepepekt 7,
Kondrat'yevskiy Prosepepekt 63 Apt 7,
FBI interview, Marina Oswald said she met Lev Prizentsev at a rest home
near
Irina Volkova [q.v.] who, unfortunately was already married.' Traces: 1.
No traces on Prizentsev. 2. Robert E. Webster claimed to have resided in
a three-room apartment at Kondrat'yevskiy Prosepepekt 63 Apt. 18,
Webster told the FBI he had no contact with LEE OSWALD, although he had
heard of him. [David Slawson WC Notes #340] In 1993 Lev Prizentsev said
he did not know that Robert Edward Webster lived in his building.
[Interview with W.S. Malone 5.12.93] ANGLETON sent a memorandum to J.
Edgar Hoover about this on May 11, 1964. Marina Oswald told this
researcher in 1994: "There may have been a connection or there was none
at all. I tell you what it is. When I was going to pharmacy school I was
there with Ellie Sobreta whose address is in my book. It just happened
to be in a good neighborhood, and if Robert Edward Webster was living
there, neither of us knew. She doesn't know it up to this day. So people
started making connections where is none. I did not know Webster. She
simply was my friend and I visit her and he lived in her building."
WEBSTER REDEFECTS
After six months had passed, Robert Edward Webster began to take the
steps necessary to re-defect. In early December 1959 he wrote to the
U.S. Embassy; he claimed he had received no reply to this letter. In
January 1960 he received a letter from his father informing him that his
mother had a nervous breakdown and he was needed in the
daughter, Svetlana Robertovna Webster, was born to the couple in August
1960. In late April 1961 Popof arranged for him and Ivchenko to visit
the American Embassy unchallenged. He informed Consul John McVickar that
he wished to return to the
notarized statements from Robert Edward Webster's father saying he would
be responsible for his son after Robert Edward Webster's return, and
told him to apply for a Soviet exit visa. When he returned to
Ivchenko helped him prepare the application for the exit visa. She gave
her consent, which was required.
Still, high government officials, suspected Robert Edward Webster was on
a CIA mission. On April 15, 1961, the Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, Allen Dulles, sent a letter to McGeorge Bundy, the
National Security advisor to President John F. Kennedy's, which stated
the CIA had no operational relationship with Robert Edward Webster.
{Rockefeller Commission handwritten notes.] In June 1961, Robert Edward
Webster was apprised that his request for an exit visa had been denied;
he would have to wait one year before he could reapply.
On November 8, 1961, a CIA Official Routing Slip indicated that
documents on Webster had been sent to CI/SIG Mr. O'Neal, Mrs. Egerter,
Evans, Grady, RID Files. Remarks: CD/OO Case 29.267 From S. Stetson
CD/OO Support Branch.
Soviet officials from
he was unhappy, and suggested he send for his American family. In
February 1962 he was granted an exit visa. In March 1962 the American
Embassy gave him instructions on obtaining an American entrance visa.
Robert Edward Webster quit his job, and his father sent him a plane
ticket for his passage home. He surrendered his internal Soviet passport
for his exit visa in May. Robert Edward Webster arrived in the
States
attempt to get Ivchenko or his daughter out of the
For. Ser. Disp. 10.25.59 - Edward Freers; WCE960 p3; FBI 105-82555-NR
2.7.64; HSCA V12 p448-450]
WEBSTER'S DEBRIEFING
Shortly after his return to the
wife divorced him. She married W.G. Belding of
Eugene S. Rittenburg, Cleveland Resident Agent, reported this to
Headquarters. Robert Edward Webster was debriefed in
Force representatives. The CIA reported: "(Deleted) and (Deleted) talked
alone with Webster in the INS offices for about one hour. During this
time, no attempt was made to secure any FPI, rather it was a general
'get acquainted' type session. Webster was very well-dressed, but
extremely nervous. His nervousness was not caused by our presence, as
Mr. O'Brian had previously told us that he was having difficultly
getting Webster's fingerprints as he was perspiring so profusely - even
through his fingertips." [CIA Pitts F.O. 6.28.62] Robert Edward Webster
was brought to CIA Headquarters where he was debriefed for two weeks.
The debriefing reports included a chronology of his life, the CIA's
assessment of him, information regarding life in the Soviet Union,
Robert Edward Webster's work there, biographical data on persons he met
there, and other information which was classified. [CIA SR/6-62-274,
11.1.62, Kay Grady] Ann Egerter, Birch O'Neal, (FNU) Grady and (FNU)
Evans received copies of the debriefing.
Robert Edward Webster told the CIA that his father was a ceramics
engineer who was still in college when he was born. "The family lived in
Columbus until the father graduated from college and then moved to South
Milwaukee...Subject describes these years as being lean and describes
the family as being 'poor.'He recalls that in Milwaukee he developed a
fear of being in water. In
apples from a neighborhood store. He states he was sent home by the
store owner but not punished. In
seven years old his mother reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown. It
was described to him that his mother passed out and was hospitalized in
a
never knew the reason why his mother became ill. He recalls visiting his
mother in the hospital and viewing her through a screen wire door. This
scene became quite vivid for him again in January 1960 in Moscow when he
received a letter from his father in which the father stated that his
mother had suffered a complete mental breakdown and was in the hospital
again...He isn't sure how long his mother was in the hospital...At the
same time while studying at night he took a day job in a manufacturing
plant. On weekends he went home to his parents by bus and during one
such trip he met his future wife. She was also studying away from home
in a beauticians school and going home on weekends. After a short
courtship he proposed, she accepted and they eloped. His wife was under
age and kept her true age from the authorities when applying for a
marriage license. Their plan was to keep their marriage secret until
after his wife had finished beauticians school. However, the news
somehow got back to his wife's parents and the secret was out. His
mother-in-law was quite upset over the marriage. His parents, however,
accepted in calmly and without fanfare and the subject notes that they
could do little else since they also eloped when they were married. His
wife finished beauticians school and he dropped out of Carnegie Tech and
began the job of supporting them. He changed jobs and his wife began
part-time work as a beautician. But they found the going difficult and
after a few months he found a job in a plastics factory in his home
town. His wife, who is a diabetic and has been since childhood, became
pregnant. Because of her diabetes she required special medical care
during her pregnancy. One year and one month after their marriage their
first child, a son, was delivered by cesarean section. Subject became
active in civic and church affairs, was promoted to foreman capacity in
the plastics plant and he began attending a local small college in the
evening studying chemistry. (Paragraph Deleted) His wife required
constant medical attention as well as insulin and special diet. On two
occasions early in their marriage she went into insulin coma and was
seriously ill. Their expenses were greater than his income and he found
himself getting deeper in debt. Feeling he could better himself he began
looking for a new job and found a better paying one in a nearby town. He
again was given a supervisory position in this plastics plant but this
time he was supervising all female workers. (Paragraph Deleted). The
plastics plant where he was working was purchased by another firm and
though he was advised that he would not loose his job, in anticipation
of being fired he quite his job...he continued to look for other work
and through business contacts was approached by the Rand Development
Company of Cleveland and was offered a better paying job with them. He
accepted an moved to
in which he was to demonstrate a new piece of plastics manufacturing
equipment. He began to travel frequently and each trip began to keep him
away from home for longer periods of time. His wife became increasingly
upset because of his prolonged absences...On one trip in 1958 in Chicago
after getting an exhibit set up and eating and drinking in excess he had
his first episode of passing out. He describes being under a great deal
of tension he knew he was going into shock. Realizing what was going on
he told people what to do for him and after lying down for a while, he
soon recovered. A similar episode occurred in
he was preparing the plastics equipment for the exhibition. In 1959 his
company asked him to go to Moscow to set up an exhibit...On the second
trip he was gone much longer than originally planned for and he soon
began receiving letters from his wife in which she gave him a 'fit about
his long absences. He notes that once in the States he was away for some
time and on returning home he found that his wife had taken the children
and had left town. He located them at his in-laws and when he asked his
wife to return she questioned whether he really wanted his family or
not. He convinced her that he did and she returned.
"During his second stay in
met her in restaurant where she worked as a translator and soon
thereafter began dating her. He found himself comparing her with his
wife and soon began telling Vera all his family troubles. He describes
Vera as married but separated from her husband. She was pictured as
petite, womanly and passionate. In the next breath he spontaneously
denied intimate relationships with her until after the Soviets had
officially informed him he could stay in the
Subject feels that somehow, somewhere during his second prolonged seven
to eight week visit in Moscow, Vera subtly suggested that he stay in
Russia. But at the same time she 'pooh-poohed the idea that he could or
would stay.' During this visit he made up his mind to attempt to stay in
Russia and so informed Vera. 'I must have been way off base and I wonder
if I had a nervous breakdown.' But staying in Russia offered him a
chance to get as far away as possible from his troubles at home and the
plastics industry in Russia was in its infancy and he felt he could make
his mark there.
"Sometime in mid-summer 1959 he returned to the U.S. and was home for
ten days. This period with his wife is described as being a honeymoon
but in spite of this he continued with his plan to return to the Soviet
Union and request permission to remain there. He packed some winter
clothes, books and jazz records to take with him.
"On returning to the USSR sometime in July 1959 he approached a male
translator at the exhibit and inquired as to necessary procedure to
obtain permission to become a permanent resident of the USSR. He
received some vague answers and then was asked to identify the person
who was interested in such a step. He then indicated he was the
interested party and there began shortly thereafter a series of
clandestine meetings with various Soviet officials. At each meeting he
states he drank heavily and was generally 'loaded' by the time the
meeting was over."
Technical information supplied by Robert Edward Webster was included in
a Joint Report of the Foreign Technical Division, Air Force Systems
Command, and the CIA. On February 20, 1970, the Domestic Contacts
Division/Operational Support Staff contacted CI/Liaison Jane Roman
regarding Robert Edward Webster. [NARA 1993.08.02.20:01:25: 870033]
Robert Edward Webster
Sstetson/ bm HH-20822
DCS/Operational Support Staff 2268
900 Key Building February 20, 1970
DO/DCSL
CI Liaison (Illegible)
Mrs. Roman For your information
2 C 42 Hq. (Illegible)
ROBERT EDWARD WEBSTER: A VEGETABLE
Frontline located Robert Edward Webster in 1993. He was in Oaks Nursing
Home, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and was allegedly unable to converse.
[CIA 535-227A, 522-228; CIA Name List with Traces Vladimir Makarov,
Robert Aleksanddrovich Ivanov also Vanda Kuznetsova] Robert Edward
Webster's nurse, Susan Gilbert, told me: "He suffers from no mental
illness. His family doesn't want him to talk and his legal guardian
doesn't want him to talk. He's a shell of the man he once was. Medical
ethics prevent me from telling you more. He doesn't want to talk to you
or see you."
OSWALD'S DOMESTIC CONTACTS DIVISION DEBRIEFING
The HSCA conducted a review of defector files to determine whether
defectors were routinely debriefed upon their return to the United
States. The HSCA began with the CIA's full list of 380 defectors. From
this list, the HSCA compiled a list of persons who were U.S. born
citizens who defected, or attempted to defect, to the Soviet Union
between 1958 and 1963, and who returned to the U.S. within the same
period. In addition, the Committee included individuals from the October
25, 1960, State Department letter regarding defectors sent to the CIA.
The Committee requested files on 29 individuals and the CIA provided
files on 28 individuals on whom it maintained records. These 201 files
were reviewed as well as any existing Domestic Contacts Division files.
The review revealed that, in the cases of six of the individuals, there
was no indication they had ever returned to the United States. As for
the other 22 defectors, the file review showed there was no record of
CIA contact with 17, although 4 of these files contained reports by
sources who had advised the Agency of their contact with the
re-defectors, so they had been indirectly contacted. The circumstances
of the CIA's contact with the other five defectors differed:
Irving Amron (born December 4, 1917) - His file reflected that he had
been living in the USSR since 1933 and returned to the United States in
1962. He was debriefed by a CIA officer after applying for employment in
response to a newspaper advertisement. Amron had been in the Soviet
Union too long to have been included in the study.
Bruce F. Davis - His file contained a CIA debriefing report.
Harold Citrynell - His file reflected he was unwittingly debriefed by a
CIA officer, upon the departure of the official from the Soviet Union,
in the American Embassy, Copenhagen. Also interviewed by Domestic
Contacts Division.
Robert Edward Webster - Extensive debriefing at CIA Headquarters.
Libero Ricciardelli - CIA debriefing by Boston Domestic Contacts Division.
Out of 22 defectors, nine had been debriefed by the CIA either directly
or indirectly, almost half. The HSCA: "Based on this file review, it
appeared to the committee that the CIA did not contact returning
defectors in 1962 as a matter of standard operating procedure. It
becomes clear from the review of these defector files that CIA
debriefing of defectors was a random occurrence. Nonetheless, in the
instances when the Agency did choose to debrief returning American
defectors...the persons who were debriefed were similar to OSWALD in
that they defected and returned within the same general time period and
each spent his time in the Soviet Union in areas of interest to the CIA."
If the CIA had debriefed Robert Edward Webster and Bruce Frederick
Davis, the defectors whose circumstances most closely resembled
OSWALD'S, why not OSWALD? Was he debriefed by a component other than
Domestic Contacts Division? The Committee: "The CIA has denied ever
having any contact with OSWALD and its records are consistent with this
position. Because the Agency has a Domestic Contacts Division that
routinely attempts to solicit information on a non-clandestine basis
from Americans traveling abroad, the absence of any record indicating
that OSWALD, a returning defector who had worked in a Minsk radio
factory, had been debriefed has been considered...not to be indicative
that OSWALD had been contacted through other than routine Domestic
Contacts Division channels."
REDWOOD
The Committee discovered conflicting information when it "interviewed
the former chief of an Agency component responsible for research related
to clandestine operations within the Soviet Union," who, on November 25,
1963, wrote the following memo:
Chief, (Deleted)
Chief, (Deleted)
Chief of Station, (Deleted).
(Deleted) OSWALD
For Information
For the record we forward herewith a memorandum by (Deleted) Staff
Employee in which he gives his recollections of (Deleted) interest in
Subject following Subject's return to the United States from the USSR.
(Deleted).
SUBJECT: OSWALD
TO: Deleted.
(1) It makes very little difference now but REDWOOD [the CARS - another
version] had at one time an OI (Overseas Intelligence) interest in
OSWALD. As soon as I heard OSWALD'S name, I recalled that as Chief of
the 6 Branch I had discussed, sometime in the summer of 1962, with the
then Chief and Deputy Chief of the 6 Research Section the laying on of
interviews through the Domestic Contacts Division or other suitable
channels. At the moment I don't recall if this was discussed while
OSWALD and his family were on route to this country or if it was after
their arrival. (2) I remember that OSWALD'S unusual behavior in the USSR
had struck me from the moment I had read the first (deleted), and I told
my subordinates something amounting to 'Don't push to hard to get the
information we need, because this individual looks odd.' We were
particularly interested in the information that OSWALD might provide on
the Minsk Radio factory in which he was employed, and of course we
sought the usual biographic information that might help develop foreign
personality dossiers.
(3) I was phasing into my (deleted) cover assignment, and out of
(deleted) at the time. Thus, I would have left the country shortly after
OSWALD'S arrival. I do not know what action developed thereafter. Addendum
(4) As an afterthought, I recall also at the time I was becoming
increasingly interested in watching a pattern we had discovered in the
course of our biographical and research work in 6: the number of Soviet
women marrying foreigners, being permitted to leave the USSR, then
eventually divorcing their spouses and settling down abroad without
returning 'home.' The (deleted) case was among the first of these, and
we eventually turned up something like two dozen similar cases. We
established links between some of these women and the KGB. (Deleted)
became interested in the developing trend we had come across. It was
partly to learn if OSWALD'S wife would actually accompany him to our
country, partly out of interest in OSWALD'S own experiences in the USSR,
that we showed operational intelligence interest in the HARVEY story.
(Deleted.)" [CIA 435-173A; CIA DO-02647-p3 of 3]
Edward Petty: "REDWOOD was not an operation, it was a type of activity.
It was the examination for exploitation of people who had come out of
the Soviet Union. REDSKIN was more a penetration type activity. Looking
for operational opportunities with people who were going in."
The author of this document told the HSCA that, to his knowledge,
contact was never made with OSWALD. Moreover, if a debriefing had
occurred, the officer stated he would have been informed. This officer
was wrong. OSWALD photographed the plant and procured a floor plan; this
was corroborated by a CIA employee, who, in 1962, had worked in the
Soviet Branch, Foreign Documents Division, Directorate of Intelligence.
He "Advised the HSCA he specifically recalled collecting intelligence
regarding the Minsk radio plant. This individual claimed, that during
the summer of 1962, he reviewed a contact report from CIA Field Office
representatives who had interviewed a former Marine who had worked at
the Minsk radio plant following his defection to the USSR. This
defector, whom the employee believed may have been OSWALD, had been
living with his family in Minsk. The employee advised the HSCA that the
contact report had been filed in a volume on the Minsk radio plant that
should be retrievable from the Industrial Registry Branch, then a
component of the Central Reference Office. Accordingly, the committee
requested that the CIA provide both the contact report and the volume of
materials concerning the Minsk radio plant. A review by the committee of
the documents in the volumes of the Minsk radio plant, however, failed
to locate any such contact report." Frontline researcher John Newman
reported: "A memo from CI/SIG has surfaced in these files with
handwriting on it which gives the name of a Domestic Contacts Division
employee - a name which appears to be one 'Andy' Anderson - as a CIA
contact for OSWALD. This document confirms the recollections of other CS
employees that Andy Anderson did in fact debrief OSWALD. Don Deneselya,
who worked in the Russian Branch, Foreign Documents Division, Office of
Contacts read Anderson's debrief in 1962." [Testimony to Rep. Conyers
11.17.93] John Newman stated that the former deputy chief of the
Domestic Contacts Division Division said that the CIA did debrief Oswald.
OSWALD'S ADDRESS BOOK
Scott Malone reported that when OSWALD was questioned about his address
book he pointed to a number and said it belonged to a CIA agent who
debriefed him. OSWALD had the telephone number of McGehee Investments
(RI 8 7604) in the Texas Bank Building in his address book. The words
"Rand 4 U at Jobco" appeared before this number. This firm was not
listed by Dunn and Bradstreet. There was no indication it existed other
than a listing in the 1963 Dallas Criss-Cross Directory. Earl Goltz
reported that President John F. Kennedy's Under Secretary Of State,
Dallas resident George McGhee (born March 10, 1912), was mentioned in a
letter written by OSWALD associate George DeMohrenschildt in 1961, in
which he suggested the Soviets might be interested in the film of his
Central American walking trip. George McGehee had an office in the
Republic National Bank Building. McGehee was in Washington and Germany
during the period OSWALD was in Dallas.
HELMS
Scott Malone also reported that in September 1993 Richard Helms admitted
that OSWALD "might have been" debriefed. In 1964 the Warren Commission
questioned then-CIA Director John McCone about CIA contact with OSWALD.
John McCone's testimony was based on a search supervised by Richard
Helms. John McCone submitted an affidavit and testified: "I have gone
into the matter in considerable detail personally, in my inquiry with
the appropriate people within the Agency, examined all records in our
files relating to OSWALD...OSWALD was not a CIA agent, employee or
informant. The Agency never contacted him, interviewed him, talked with
him...The Agency never furnished him with any funds or money...in the
Soviet Union or anyplace." John McCone was then asked whether he was
made aware of every CIA agent and informer. He answered, "Mr. Helms, who
is directly responsible for that Agency division's activities as a
Deputy Director, might explain. Would that be permissible?"
Richard Helms stated: "On Mr. McCone's behalf, I had all of our records
searched to see if there had been any contacts at any time prior to
President Kennedy's assassination by anyone in the CIA with OSWALD. We
checked our card files and our personnel files and all our records. Now,
this check turned out to be negative." Richard Helms said "no contact
had even been contemplated with OSWALD." [Wash. Star 10.1.76] The Warren
Commission never questioned ANGLETON.
ANGLETON
When questioned in the late 1970's ANGLETON denied that the CIA ever
contemplated contacting OSWALD. Attorney Marvin Miller asked:
Q. Could it have happened without your knowledge?
A. No.
Q. Then your testimony would be that every single activity undertaken by
your section with any individual was cleared with you first or given to
you afterwards?
A. Well, I think I would have learned from my Deputy if there had been
any, any attempt or any desire to contact OSWALD because of the FBI
jurisdiction of the case.
Q. What about the time he was in the Soviet Union?
A. I don't think I was aware at the time.
END OF NODULE.
CLICK HERE TO GO ON TO THE NEXT NODULE.
>
>>>>> influx. LHO was the 3rd one. Most didn't go to
Russia, just eastern
>>>>> bloc
>>>>> countries. They didn't go there on their own whim.
>>>> Most? OK. How does that translate to 40?
>>> Seen lists, and people in the know who leaked. Oswald
was at the top
>>> of the list.
>> Nonsense.
>>
>>
>
> Otto Otepka.
>
>>>>>>> one was so secretive because they were using two.
The evidence is
>>>>>>> overwhelming that they lived very parallel lives
and worked through
>>>>>>> CIA
>>>>>>> folk. It was too bad one portion of the CIA
hated JFK so bad a
>>>>>>> vendetta
>>>>>>> formed, and finding away for one to be their
scapegoat in the end.
>>>>>>> It
>>>>>>> ended with both Oswalds in the Texas Theater, and
the subsequent
>>>>>>> cover-up,
>>>>>> You saw two Oswalds in the Texas Theater? Show us.
>>>>> Unfortunately they weren't able to get any photo shots of
either one.
>>>> They? Who? Pictures were taken of Oswald. Who is this other
guy?
>>> You just asked to show the photos of Oswald in the Texas Theater.
And
>>> how
>>> would I see them? What is so hard to understand that there
were none?
>>> I
>> Show me evidence of another Oswald in the theater.
>>
>>
>
> I did in past threads within the year, as well as this one. One does
have
> to watch where one casts their pearls...
>
Evidence, not speculation.
> CJ
FALSE
DEFECTOR
The Kennedy
Assassination and the Current Political Moment
"James
Angleton was the mastermind not of the Bay of Pigs (that was Richard Bissell),
but of a false defector program that sent spies into the
Transcript of a lecture given on January 28, 2007 at the 92nd
Street Y in New York City
by Joan Mellen
It
happened going on 44 years ago; yet, the murder of President Kennedy remains
simultaneously a subject of fascination and taboo within mainstream discourse.
You will not find a free exchange of views on the Kennedy assassination in the New
York Times nor, to date, an acknowledgement of the unanswered questions
arising from 9/11. This past November, I spoke at a Jewish
I'm
grateful to the
James Jesus Angleton
The Kennedy assassination is present even in its absence in the recent film, The
Good Shepherd, a movie about the CIA. Its central character, played by Matt
Damon, is based largely on the late head of CIA Counter Intelligence, James
Jesus Angleton. The distortions of the film return us to the meaning of the
Kennedy assassination.
James
Angleton in real life was the mastermind not, as the film suggests, of the Bay
of Pigs (that was Richard Bissell), but of a false defector program that sent
spies into the
An
FBI document demonstrates that Oswald, who was indeed one of Angleton's assets
in the
One
CIA document refers to an FBI "65" file, an espionage file, for
Jelisavic, a reference inadvertently unredacted when CIA declassified the
document. This number clearly directs CIA to an espionage file. Oswald also had
Jelisavcic's name and room number in his possession. Angleton's false defector
program, not mentioned in The Good Shepherd, remains among the CIA's most
closely guarded secrets; a secret necessary to preserve the fiction of the
Warren Report.
Otto Otepka
The figure of Lee Harvey Oswald, and his peculiar biography
as a low-level intelligence agent, continues to haunt those whose paths he
crossed. After A Farewell to Justice was published, I drove down
Highly
commended for his diligence, Mr. Otepka displayed to me a wall filled with a
display of framed commendations, including one signed by Secretary of State John
Foster Dulles on behalf of President Eisenhower. (In these times President
Eisenhower seems to be a bonafide liberal, not only for his prescient remark
about the military industrial complex, but for another of his observations, that
most of America has accepted the idea of the New Deal, but for a few oil
millionaires in Texas).
Otepka
saw at once that there was something unusual about Lee Oswald, “tourist.” As
he placed this list of defectors into his security safe, Mr. Otepka planned to
request that the CIA look into this individual. A nighttime burglary, obviously
an inside job, resulted in this file vanishing. Soon Otto Otepka was demoted to
an inconsequential post, writing summaries of documents. Oswald's
“defection” was not to be scrutinized.
This
all took place in the early sixties. In the year 2006, The Good Shepherd
still could not mention Angleton's false defector program, which would have
driven the film to the door of the Kennedy assassination. Instead the film
conveniently closes in 1961 during the
Oswald CIA Courier
In A Farewell to Justice I demonstrate that Oswald was
an employee of the CIA; a fact recently re-confirmed by historian Michael Kurtz.
Professor Kurtz reports on an interview he did in 1981 with Hunter Leake, second
in command at the
Leake
also explained in this telephone interview with Professor Kurtz why there was no
documentation on Oswald's employment with CIA in
In
A Farewell to Justice, I write for the first time that Oswald had also
been enlisted by
As
you study the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, you discover repeatedly
that the press relinquished its freedom more than forty years ago. The latest
document I was sent came from the LBJ library in
CIA
releases once marked “Secret” are filled with revelations of how reporters,
such as Al Burt, the Latin America editor of the Miami Herald, visited
the CIA to be instructed on what was and was not in the Agency's interest that
he print. There are precedents for our present co-opted press, from FOX to CNN,
its twin. Even Keith Olbermann on MSNBC seems unduly cautious.
E. Howard Hunt
In his memoir, American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA,
Watergate & Beyond, long-time CIA operative E. Howard Hunt suggests that
Lyndon Johnson should be viewed as the prime suspect in “having Kennedy
liquidated.” It seems clear that Hunt, age 88, was still engaged in the
business of drawing attention away from the massive evidence connecting CIA to
the assassination.1 Lyndon Johnson, the direct beneficiary of the
assassination, seemed to Hunt a likely target.
Hunt
was far too clever to regurgitate J. Edgar Hoover's disinformation that the
Mafia planned and then covered up this crime. His obvious intention was to
provide a false sponsor, someone other than the Agency. Even Hunt didn't bother
to revive the fantasy that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, or acted at all, in
the assassination.
The
Richard
Reeves' 1994 biography, President Kennedy: Profile of Power, quotes
President Kennedy's fury at the sabotage of his presidency by the CIA. In the
one true political moment in The Good Shepherd, Kennedy threatens to
splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and cast them to the winds. “I'll get
those CIA bastards if it's the last thing I do,” Kennedy said, famously,
underestimating his adversaries. The CIA's “Executive Action”
("murder") capability was in place by 1963; it had already been
involved in the murder and/or attempted murders of various heads of state,
efforts which are outlined in detail in the papers of the Church Committee.
Bobby Kennedy
Our mainstream press manages to avoid confronting the Church Committee
documents, writing about the CIA as if it had no history, but was born in the
aftermath of 9/11. They are particularly unwilling to connect our present
political morass to past events. Foreign reporters have not been similarly
restrained. On a magazine segment on BBC-2 which aired on November 20, 2006,
documentarian Shane O'Sullivan revealed an extraordinary photograph connecting
the assassination of John and Robert Kennedy. You won't find this information in
that other Kennedy movie of this season, Bobby.
The
press photographs (shown on page __) were taken at the Ambassador Hotel
on the evening of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, where a crowd had
gathered to celebrate his victory in the
With
Campbell was a long-time CIA operative named David Sanchez Morales, who worked
with CIA propaganda expert David Atlee Phillips, a figure I discuss at length in
A Farewell To Justice. Morales had assisted Phillips in the 1954 coup
against President Arbenz in
Morales
was also close to a CIA operative named Felix Rodriguez, famously present at the
murder of Che Guevara in
The
third unlikely well-wisher of Robert Kennedy in this trio was CIA psychological
warfare specialist, George Joannides. Joannides was CIA handler in
I
also discovered what Oswald actually said to Lieutenant Francis Martello, which
Martello chose not to share with the
It
may be (here I'll speculate), that the street fight on Canal Street that
established Oswald as pro-Castro, purveyor of leaflets for “Fair Play For
Cuba,” was a propaganda victory by Joannides, whose specialty was
psychological warfare. Five years later, Joannides apparently stands awaiting
the impending murder of Robert F. Kennedy. There was a complete blackout in the
George H.W. Bush
I'm sure many in this audience are aware of the third recent
moment at which the Kennedy assassination has surfaced. There are a few scant
degrees of separation between the two Bush presidents, the role of the CIA in
the Kennedy assassination, and Lee Harvey Oswald, the CIA asset. This surprising
invocation of the Kennedy assassination occurred on January 2, 2007 at the
funeral of President Gerald Ford, the last surviving member of the
After
a deluded gunman assassinated President Kennedy, our nation turned to Gerald
Ford and a select handful of others to make sense of that madness – and a
conspiracy theorist can say what they will – but the Warren Commission report
will always have the final definitive say on this matter. Why? Because Gerry
Ford put his name on it and Gerry Ford's word was always good.
Allow
me to add that when amendments were offered to the Freedom of Information Act,
enlarging public access to affairs of state, Gerald Ford vetoed the bill; only
to have Congress to override his veto. Ford was no more a supporter of the truth
than Mr. Bush's son. George H. W. Bush's own word was not always so good either.
There are powerful reasons why George H. W. Bush was motivated to invoke the
Warren Report, even, amazingly, to refer to a “conspiracy theorist”—as if
that designation would at once banish some truths he does not want available.
There are only two degrees of separation between George H.W. Bush and Lee Harvey
Oswald.
At
his 1976 confirmation hearings for the post of Director of Central Intelligence,
a post into which he was elevated by Gerald Ford, Bush denied that he had any
prior connection to the CIA. This was a falsehood. A CIA document at the
National Archives and posted on the Internet (Record Number 104-10310-10271)
reveals that in 1953, when George H.W. Bush founded Zapata Oil, his partner was
one Thomas J. Devine—an oil wildcatter and long-time CIA staff employee.
Thomas Devine's name does not appear in the original papers of Zapata, but it
does in the company Bush created shortly thereafter as “Zapata Offshore.”
This
CIA document reveals that Thomas Devine had informed George Bush of a CIA
project with the cryptonym, WUBRINY/LPDICTUM. It involved CIA proprietary
commercial operations in foreign countries. By 1963, Devine had become not a
former CIA employee, but "a cleared and witting contact" in the
investment banking firm which managed the proprietary corporation WUSALINE.
WUBRINY involved Haitian operations, in which, the documents reveal, a
participant was George de Mohrenschildt, the
In
late April 1963, in
A
May 22, 1963 CIA document has de Mohrenschildt admitting he had “obtained some
Texas financial backing” and had visited interested people in Washington
regarding the candidacy of one M. Clemard Joseph Charles for President of Haiti,
“as soon as Duvalier can be gotten out.” We are reminded of CIA's efforts to
influence the political configurations of other countries. An obvious example is
the CIA's obliging of British Petroleum—for a price—in the overthrow of
Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, and his replacement by the Shah.
To
summarize: George H.W. Bush is linked in April 1963, seven months before the
Kennedy assassination, to a CIA project involving Lee Oswald's handler, Count
Sergei Georges de Mohrenschildt, through his own CIA partner, Thomas Devine.
Bush and Devine later traveled to
On
the day Gaeton Fonzi was to interview de Mohrenschildt for the House Select
Committee on Assassinations, de Mohrenschildt was shot, and his death ruled a
suicide. Fonzi's card was in his pocket. Joseph McBride's Nation article
("The Man Who Wasn't There: George Bush, CIA Operative, July 16, 1988),
exposed how George H.W. Bush was debriefed by the FBI about the Kennedy
assassination on November 23rd . The inadvertently released document refers to
“Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency.” Bush claimed it was a
different George Bush, George William Bush, who worked for the Agency. But it
wasn't so. George William came forward to say he was never debriefed by anyone.
Every
road leads to the assassination of President Kennedy. What should also give us
pause is that these documents about Zapata Offshore, which had offices on
several continents but never did much business, were released under the JFK Act
as Kennedy assassination documents. So it is the Agency itself, not the dreaded
“conspiracy theorists,” that links George H.W. Bush with the Kennedy
assassination. Or it's the government that is the ultimate “conspiracy
theorist.”
A
Farewell to Justice was
published in November 2005. In the intervening time, new documents have emerged
that corroborate my view that the Central Intelligence Agency planned,
supervised and implemented the assassination of President Kennedy. Those who
claim that we will never know what happened to President Kennedy would do well
to spend some time at the National Archives. P
<![endif]>
©2007
Joan Mellen is the author of A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK's
Assassination and the Case That Should Have Changed History (www.joanmellen.net),
available from The Last Hurrah, 937 Memorial Ave, Williamsport, PA 17701 (570)
321-1150. She is also the author of Jim Garrison: His Life and Times, The
Early Years, available at www.jfklancer.com. She is a professor of English
and creative writing at
Endnotes
1.
According to Hunt's son, Saint John, Hunt left a more specific two-page deathbed
memorandum, explaining how Frank Sturges had attempted to enlist him in the
Kennedy assassination, which, according to this fragment, was being masterminded
by Lyndon Johnson. Involved also were CIA murder specialist William Harvey, CIA
officer out of Counter Intelligence named Cord Meyer, David Atlee Phillips,
against whom there is massive evidence indeed, and a few others. According to
Saint, as he is called in Rolling Stone, Hunt said, no thanks. He didn't
want to be involved in any operation with William Harvey. Instinct if nothing
else suggests that Hunt was settling old scores with those in the Agency with
whom he had issues. There is no way to corroborate any of these accusations made
by Hunt, deathly ill and, as another of his children suggests, drifting in and
out of clarity. If nothing else, this Hunt brouhaha suggests that "deathbed
confessions," if that's what this is, are specious sources of historical
information. ("The Last Confession of E. Howard Hunt," Rolling
Stone, April 5, 2007)
<![endif]>
ADDENDUM
Shane
O'Sullivan's documentary "Who Shot Bobby Kennedy?," which aired in the
UK on November 20, 2006, revealed photographic evidence that three senior CIA
operatives were present at the scene of RFK's assassination. Present at the
Ambassador Hotel in
FALSE
DEFECTOR
The Kennedy
Assassination and the Current Political Moment
"James
Angleton was the mastermind not of the Bay of Pigs (that was Richard Bissell),
but of a false defector program that sent spies into the
Transcript of a lecture given on January 28, 2007 at the 92nd
Street Y in New York City
by Joan Mellen
It
happened going on 44 years ago; yet, the murder of President Kennedy remains
simultaneously a subject of fascination and taboo within mainstream discourse.
You will not find a free exchange of views on the Kennedy assassination in the New
York Times nor, to date, an acknowledgement of the unanswered questions
arising from 9/11. This past November, I spoke at a Jewish
I'm
grateful to the
James Jesus Angleton
The Kennedy assassination is present even in its absence in the recent film, The
Good Shepherd, a movie about the CIA. Its central character, played by Matt
Damon, is based largely on the late head of CIA Counter Intelligence, James
Jesus Angleton. The distortions of the film return us to the meaning of the
Kennedy assassination.
James
Angleton in real life was the mastermind not, as the film suggests, of the Bay
of Pigs (that was Richard Bissell), but of a false defector program that sent
spies into the
An
FBI document demonstrates that Oswald, who was indeed one of Angleton's assets
in the
One
CIA document refers to an FBI "65" file, an espionage file, for
Jelisavic, a reference inadvertently unredacted when CIA declassified the
document. This number clearly directs CIA to an espionage file. Oswald also had
Jelisavcic's name and room number in his possession. Angleton's false defector
program, not mentioned in The Good Shepherd, remains among the CIA's most
closely guarded secrets; a secret necessary to preserve the fiction of the
Warren Report.
Otto Otepka
The figure of Lee Harvey Oswald, and his peculiar biography
as a low-level intelligence agent, continues to haunt those whose paths he
crossed. After A Farewell to Justice was published, I drove down
Highly
commended for his diligence, Mr. Otepka displayed to me a wall filled with a
display of framed commendations, including one signed by Secretary of State John
Foster Dulles on behalf of President Eisenhower. (In these times President
Eisenhower seems to be a bonafide liberal, not only for his prescient remark
about the military industrial complex, but for another of his observations, that
most of America has accepted the idea of the New Deal, but for a few oil
millionaires in Texas).
Otepka
saw at once that there was something unusual about Lee Oswald, “tourist.” As
he placed this list of defectors into his security safe, Mr. Otepka planned to
request that the CIA look into this individual. A nighttime burglary, obviously
an inside job, resulted in this file vanishing. Soon Otto Otepka was demoted to
an inconsequential post, writing summaries of documents. Oswald's
“defection” was not to be scrutinized.
This
all took place in the early sixties. In the year 2006, The Good Shepherd
still could not mention Angleton's false defector program, which would have
driven the film to the door of the Kennedy assassination. Instead the film
conveniently closes in 1961 during the
Oswald CIA Courier
In A Farewell to Justice I demonstrate that Oswald was
an employee of the CIA; a fact recently re-confirmed by historian Michael Kurtz.
Professor Kurtz reports on an interview he did in 1981 with Hunter Leake, second
in command at the
Leake
also explained in this telephone interview with Professor Kurtz why there was no
documentation on Oswald's employment with CIA in
In
A Farewell to Justice, I write for the first time that Oswald had also
been enlisted by
As
you study the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, you discover repeatedly
that the press relinquished its freedom more than forty years ago. The latest
document I was sent came from the LBJ library in
CIA
releases once marked “Secret” are filled with revelations of how reporters,
such as Al Burt, the Latin America editor of the Miami Herald, visited
the CIA to be instructed on what was and was not in the Agency's interest that
he print. There are precedents for our present co-opted press, from FOX to CNN,
its twin. Even Keith Olbermann on MSNBC seems unduly cautious.
E. Howard Hunt
In his memoir, American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA,
Watergate & Beyond, long-time CIA operative E. Howard Hunt suggests that
Lyndon Johnson should be viewed as the prime suspect in “having Kennedy
liquidated.” It seems clear that Hunt, age 88, was still engaged in the
business of drawing attention away from the massive evidence connecting CIA to
the assassination.1 Lyndon Johnson, the direct beneficiary of the
assassination, seemed to Hunt a likely target.
Hunt
was far too clever to regurgitate J. Edgar Hoover's disinformation that the
Mafia planned and then covered up this crime. His obvious intention was to
provide a false sponsor, someone other than the Agency. Even Hunt didn't bother
to revive the fantasy that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, or acted at all, in
the assassination.
The
Richard
Reeves' 1994 biography, President Kennedy: Profile of Power, quotes
President Kennedy's fury at the sabotage of his presidency by the CIA. In the
one true political moment in The Good Shepherd, Kennedy threatens to
splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and cast them to the winds. “I'll get
those CIA bastards if it's the last thing I do,” Kennedy said, famously,
underestimating his adversaries. The CIA's “Executive Action”
("murder") capability was in place by 1963; it had already been
involved in the murder and/or attempted murders of various heads of state,
efforts which are outlined in detail in the papers of the Church Committee.
Bobby Kennedy
Our mainstream press manages to avoid confronting the Church Committee
documents, writing about the CIA as if it had no history, but was born in the
aftermath of 9/11. They are particularly unwilling to connect our present
political morass to past events. Foreign reporters have not been similarly
restrained. On a magazine segment on BBC-2 which aired on November 20, 2006,
documentarian Shane O'Sullivan revealed an extraordinary photograph connecting
the assassination of John and Robert Kennedy. You won't find this information in
that other Kennedy movie of this season, Bobby.
The
press photographs (shown on page __) were taken at the Ambassador Hotel
on the evening of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, where a crowd had
gathered to celebrate his victory in the
With
Campbell was a long-time CIA operative named David Sanchez Morales, who worked
with CIA propaganda expert David Atlee Phillips, a figure I discuss at length in
A Farewell To Justice. Morales had assisted Phillips in the 1954 coup
against President Arbenz in
Morales
was also close to a CIA operative named Felix Rodriguez, famously present at the
murder of Che Guevara in
The
third unlikely well-wisher of Robert Kennedy in this trio was CIA psychological
warfare specialist, George Joannides. Joannides was CIA handler in
I
also discovered what Oswald actually said to Lieutenant Francis Martello, which
Martello chose not to share with the
It
may be (here I'll speculate), that the street fight on Canal Street that
established Oswald as pro-Castro, purveyor of leaflets for “Fair Play For
Cuba,” was a propaganda victory by Joannides, whose specialty was
psychological warfare. Five years later, Joannides apparently stands awaiting
the impending murder of Robert F. Kennedy. There was a complete blackout in the
George H.W. Bush
I'm sure many in this audience are aware of the third recent
moment at which the Kennedy assassination has surfaced. There are a few scant
degrees of separation between the two Bush presidents, the role of the CIA in
the Kennedy assassination, and Lee Harvey Oswald, the CIA asset. This surprising
invocation of the Kennedy assassination occurred on January 2, 2007 at the
funeral of President Gerald Ford, the last surviving member of the
After
a deluded gunman assassinated President Kennedy, our nation turned to Gerald
Ford and a select handful of others to make sense of that madness – and a
conspiracy theorist can say what they will – but the Warren Commission report
will always have the final definitive say on this matter. Why? Because Gerry
Ford put his name on it and Gerry Ford's word was always good.
Allow
me to add that when amendments were offered to the Freedom of Information Act,
enlarging public access to affairs of state, Gerald Ford vetoed the bill; only
to have Congress to override his veto. Ford was no more a supporter of the truth
than Mr. Bush's son. George H. W. Bush's own word was not always so good either.
There are powerful reasons why George H. W. Bush was motivated to invoke the
Warren Report, even, amazingly, to refer to a “conspiracy theorist”—as if
that designation would at once banish some truths he does not want available.
There are only two degrees of separation between George H.W. Bush and Lee Harvey
Oswald.
At
his 1976 confirmation hearings for the post of Director of Central Intelligence,
a post into which he was elevated by Gerald Ford, Bush denied that he had any
prior connection to the CIA. This was a falsehood. A CIA document at the
National Archives and posted on the Internet (Record Number 104-10310-10271)
reveals that in 1953, when George H.W. Bush founded Zapata Oil, his partner was
one Thomas J. Devine—an oil wildcatter and long-time CIA staff employee.
Thomas Devine's name does not appear in the original papers of Zapata, but it
does in the company Bush created shortly thereafter as “Zapata Offshore.”
This
CIA document reveals that Thomas Devine had informed George Bush of a CIA
project with the cryptonym, WUBRINY/LPDICTUM. It involved CIA proprietary
commercial operations in foreign countries. By 1963, Devine had become not a
former CIA employee, but "a cleared and witting contact" in the
investment banking firm which managed the proprietary corporation WUSALINE.
WUBRINY involved Haitian operations, in which, the documents reveal, a
participant was George de Mohrenschildt, the
In
late April 1963, in
A
May 22, 1963 CIA document has de Mohrenschildt admitting he had “obtained some
Texas financial backing” and had visited interested people in Washington
regarding the candidacy of one M. Clemard Joseph Charles for President of Haiti,
“as soon as Duvalier can be gotten out.” We are reminded of CIA's efforts to
influence the political configurations of other countries. An obvious example is
the CIA's obliging of British Petroleum—for a price—in the overthrow of
Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, and his replacement by the Shah.
To
summarize: George H.W. Bush is linked in April 1963, seven months before the
Kennedy assassination, to a CIA project involving Lee Oswald's handler, Count
Sergei Georges de Mohrenschildt, through his own CIA partner, Thomas Devine.
Bush and Devine later traveled to
On
the day Gaeton Fonzi was to interview de Mohrenschildt for the House Select
Committee on Assassinations, de Mohrenschildt was shot, and his death ruled a
suicide. Fonzi's card was in his pocket. Joseph McBride's Nation article
("The Man Who Wasn't There: George Bush, CIA Operative, July 16, 1988),
exposed how George H.W. Bush was debriefed by the FBI about the Kennedy
assassination on November 23rd . The inadvertently released document refers to
“Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency.” Bush claimed it was a
different George Bush, George William Bush, who worked for the Agency. But it
wasn't so. George William came forward to say he was never debriefed by anyone.
Every
road leads to the assassination of President Kennedy. What should also give us
pause is that these documents about Zapata Offshore, which had offices on
several continents but never did much business, were released under the JFK Act
as Kennedy assassination documents. So it is the Agency itself, not the dreaded
“conspiracy theorists,” that links George H.W. Bush with the Kennedy
assassination. Or it's the government that is the ultimate “conspiracy
theorist.”
A
Farewell to Justice was
published in November 2005. In the intervening time, new documents have emerged
that corroborate my view that the Central Intelligence Agency planned,
supervised and implemented the assassination of President Kennedy. Those who
claim that we will never know what happened to President Kennedy would do well
to spend some time at the National Archives. P
<![endif]>
©2007
Joan Mellen is the author of A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK's
Assassination and the Case That Should Have Changed History (www.joanmellen.net),
available from The Last Hurrah, 937 Memorial Ave, Williamsport, PA 17701 (570)
321-1150. She is also the author of Jim Garrison: His Life and Times, The
Early Years, available at www.jfklancer.com. She is a professor of English
and creative writing at
Endnotes
1.
According to Hunt's son, Saint John, Hunt left a more specific two-page deathbed
memorandum, explaining how Frank Sturges had attempted to enlist him in the
Kennedy assassination, which, according to this fragment, was being masterminded
by Lyndon Johnson. Involved also were CIA murder specialist William Harvey, CIA
officer out of Counter Intelligence named Cord Meyer, David Atlee Phillips,
against whom there is massive evidence indeed, and a few others. According to
Saint, as he is called in Rolling Stone, Hunt said, no thanks. He didn't
want to be involved in any operation with William Harvey. Instinct if nothing
else suggests that Hunt was settling old scores with those in the Agency with
whom he had issues. There is no way to corroborate any of these accusations made
by Hunt, deathly ill and, as another of his children suggests, drifting in and
out of clarity. If nothing else, this Hunt brouhaha suggests that "deathbed
confessions," if that's what this is, are specious sources of historical
information. ("The Last Confession of E. Howard Hunt," Rolling
Stone, April 5, 2007)
<![endif]>
ADDENDUM
Shane
O'Sullivan's documentary "Who Shot Bobby Kennedy?," which aired in the
UK on November 20, 2006, revealed photographic evidence that three senior CIA
operatives were present at the scene of RFK's assassination. Present at the
Ambassador Hotel in
On 18 Nov,
16:39, Bill <beatle...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> it seems to me that after he defected to the soviets & offer up
> information about U-2 flights, & one U-2 gets shot down ( Power's U-2
), I
> would think someone from the cia would be waiting for Lee when he returned
> to the USA. & arrest him for spying. I read that the Russian were not
> interested in Oswald's knowledge of U-2's but how do we know this, after
> all no U-2 were shot down before Oswald's defection, this alone should
> send a red flag to everyone!
Because it would have implicated the CIA in an embarrassing position for
having him sent there in the first place?, and of course if they were
involved in JFK's murder and had controlling interests in its
investigation, it would have to be bypassed?
Oswald and The CIA (Otto Otepka) - Previously posted in 2008
Otto Otepka was head of the State Department's Office of Security (SY) and
responsible for issuing or denying security clearances for State
Department personnel. He took his job very seriously and, in 1958,
received an award for Meritorious Service from Secretary of State, John
Foster Dulles (brother of CIA Director Allen Dulles) for his attention to
detail, loyalty, devotion to duty, and sound judgment.
By October, 1960 eighteen US Citizens had "defected" to the Soviet
Union
and came to Otepka's attention at the State Department. He *informally*
asked the CIA and military intelligence to identify which these
"defectors" were double agents working for the US but, after receiving
no
response, formally requested the information.
On October 25 Hugh Cumming, of the State Department's Intelligence and
Research Bureau, wrote a letter to CIA Deputy Director of Plans (DDP)
Richard Bissell requesting detailed information on the eighteen
"defectors." Bissell turned the request over to James Angleton's
Counterintelligence (CI) staff and Sheffield Edwards' Office of Security
(OS), *but not to the Soviet Russia (SR) division which had jurisdiction
in dealing with the "defectors," including Oswald. This is
confirmation
that Angelton's CI staff was involved with false "defectors,"
including
Oswald.* Angleton's CI/SIG chief, Birch D. O'Neal, prepared the responses
on behalf of counterintelligence while Robert Bennerman handed the request
to members of his staff in the CIA's Office of Security that included
Bruce Solie, Morse Allen, and Paul Gaynor. Gaynor was head of the
Security Research Staff where *James McCord, of future Watergate fame*,
worked.
Bennerman specifically instructed Marguerite Stevens, in the research
staff (OS), to provide information *only on American "defectors" other
than Lee *Harvey* Oswald* (and six other "defectors"), explaining that
Otepka already had information on these individuals. The Office of
Security then coordinated their response with Angleton's CI staff before
sending it to Richard Bissell (DDP) in late November for his signature.
When Otepka finally received the CIA's response at the State Department,
the 10th name on the list was Lee Harvey Oswald with the notation
"SECRET."
On December 9, 1960, a few days after providing information on
"defectors"
to the State Department, Angleton's trusted associate Ann Egerter, of the
Special Investigation Group (SIG), opened a "201" file on Lee *Henry*
Oswald (201-289248). *This file was opened 13 months *after* Oswald
"defected" to the Soviet Union and 6 months *after* the memo was
written
about the CIA's interest in the *Harvey* story."*
It appears that if not for Otepka's investigation into American
"defectors", the CIA would never have opened a file on Oswald.
*This
indicates that Lee *Harvey* Oswald and his activities were so sensitive
that only Angleton, and perhaps SIG , knew the truth about Oswald which
they held only in memory.* Prior to President Kennedy's assassination, Lee
*Henry* Oswald's "201" file was held within Angleton's Special
Investigations Group (SIG).
NOTE: *During Oswald's stay in the Soviet Union cover sheets of Oswald
documents contained the notation "CI/OPS," which is an abbreviation
"Counterintelligence Operations."
#SIG member Ann Egerter was asked by the HSCA if a CIA asset or agent
would have a "201" file and if it would contain material of an
operational
nature. She replied, "I assume that person would have a 201 file but
it
would be a restricted 201 file and *it might even be a false 201 file, not
having anything in it. Everything would be held by the case
officer...operational material is not filed in 201 files...It would be
held by the operations officer, case officer."*
#*Angleton's deputy Ray Rocca said, "The key documents in establishing a
fiduciary relationship would not be in the 201. They would be in a
separate file held by the desk and whoever was handling the individual."*
#*Former CIA employedd Phillip Agee said, "The 201 file is divided into
two parts which are stored separately for maximum secutiry. One part
contains true name documents while the other contains operational
information."
#*The obvious question: "Who was Oswald's case officer?"*
Soon after trying to pry information on the eighteen American
"defectors"
from the CIA, Otto Otepka's duties began to change and soon his position
as Chief of Security at The State Department appeared to be in jeopardy.
Even though head had received awards for Meritorious Service only two
years earlier. Otepka soon found that his access to sensitive cases was
limited. Stories began to appear in the press that the State Department,
and specically Otepka's Office of Securiy, would soon experience a
"reduction in force." Otepka was soon asked by his superior to
transfer
to another division within the State Department and take a different job
but refused.
*NOTE: James Angleton had developed a fearsome reputation within the
agency and was known to expose agents he no longer trusted. CIA career
officer John Whitten (aka John Scelso) told the HSCA, "Several times in my
career I was appointed by Helms or Karamessines to investigate or look
into investigations where Angleton was running....They always told him.
And when they say, now, you go tell Angleton you are going to do this. I
used to go in fingering my insurance policy, notifying my next of kin."*
*It is reasonable to speculate that Otepka's problems originated with
Angleton after he began pressing the CIA for information relating to
"defectors", including Oswald. A phone call from Angleton to CIA
Director
Allen Dulles, and a subsequent call from Dulles to his brother, Secretary
of State John Foster Dulles , could easily have set the wheels in motion
to "neutralize" Otepka and stop his investigation at the State
Department
(the Eishenhower administration remained in the White House until late
January, 1961).*
Otepka, *for unexplained reasons*, was called before the Senate Internal
Security Subcommittee, which was chaired by Senator James Eastland and
Senator Thomas Dodd. He was questioned at length by Jules (Jay) Sourwine,
the subommittee's Chief Counsel, about procedures established by Otepka
for issuing clearances for State Department applicants. Sourwine and
Otepka soon became friends and discussed at length a proposal by the
subcommittee to loosen security clearance procedures for State Department
personnel.
Sourwine soon realized that the loosening of security procedures was not
the only reason the subcommittee was focusing their attention on Otepka.
In an attempt to learn what was really happening at the State Department,
behind the scenes, Sourwine began to informally question Otepka. But
Otepka, following protocol and procedure, told Sourwine that if he wanted
to question him further he would have to question him before the
committee.
When the subcommittee questioned Otepka they asked if had been subjected
to any recent "reprisals" from the State *Department, which he denied,
and
defended the department's actions. A short while later* hidden listening
devices were placed in Otepka's office and a former employee of the
National Security Agency (NSA), David Belisle, was assigned to work with
him. Otepka's secretary was replaced by an individual who spied on him,
his house was placed under surveillance, and his trash was inspected
daily.
*QUESTION: Which agency of the US government has the capability and the
political muscle to electronically bug the Office of Security at the State
Department?*
One evening Otepka was working late in his office and went out for dinner.
Upon returing he found David Belisle and an NSA employee in his office,
but when he asked for a reason for their intrusion *neither man gave a
rational explanation for being there.*
Otepka soon found that someone had drilled a hole in his safe and, with a
tiny mirror, had determined the combination and removed the contents.
According to Otepka the only sensitive material in the safe was his
uncompleted study of American "defectors" to the Soviet Union, *which
included Lee *Harvey* Oswald. Fred Traband, who also worked in the Office
of Security ate the State Department, told the Eastman Committee that it
was Otepka's boss, John Francis Reilly, who searched, who searched
Otepka's files and his safe.
*NOTE: Three weeks before the assassination of President Kennedy, Otto
Otepka was ousted from the State Department, but had not yet determined if
Lee *Harvey* Oswald was an agent of the US Government. Following the
assassination OTepka told journalist Sarah McClendon that he knew who had
JFK killed, but declined comment in public.*
pgs. 306-08 Harvey and Lee, How the CIA framed Oswald, J. Armstrong.
* = Italicizing
CJ
HSCA
XII Defector Study Page 435
THE
DEFECTOR STUDY
Staff
Report
of
the
Select
Committee on Assassinations
Ninety-fifth
Congress
Second
Session
March
1979
(435)
Contents
Page
436
CONTENTS
Paragraph
I. Foreword
1-13
II. Morris and Mollie Block
14-24
III. Harold Citrynell
25-29
IV. Bruce Frederick Davis
30-34
V. Shirley Dubinsky
35-38
VI. Joseph Dutkanicz
39-49
VII. Martin Greendlinger
50-55
VIII.
Nicholas Petrulli
56-64
IX. Libero Ricciardelli
65-76
X. Vladimir Sloboda
77-85
XI. Robert Webster
86-103
XII. Lee Harvey Oswald
104-149
XIII.
Soviet citizenship
150-158
XIV. Propaganda use and financial arrangements
159-163
XV. Residence employment and financial arrangements
164-168
XVI. Soviet relationships and exit visas
169-174
XVII.
KGB contact
175-188
Addendum
: American Debriefing Practices
189-199
(436)
Foreword
Page
437
I.
FOREWORD
A.
BACKGROUND
(1)
From a comparative analysis of 11 defectors who were similar to Lee
Harvey Oswald, the committee sought to determine what, if anything, was unusual
about Oswald's defection.
(2)
To determine which individuals the committee would study, a letter was
sent to the CIA requesting the names of persons who defected to the Soviet Union
between 1958 and 1964. In response, the CIA provided a list of the names and
variations of the names of 380 Americans who were in the U.S.S.R. during that
time period.
(3)
The CIA was subsequently requested to provide more information on the 380
defectors to enable the committee to select, for a detailed analysis, those most
similar to Oswald. The CIA provided a computer listing of the name. 901 file
number,* date and place of birth, and a compilation of information derived from
the 201 file, as well as citations for various other Government agency reports.
(4)
From this second list of defectors, the committee eliminated those that
appeared to have (a) been born outside the United States; (b) gone to the
U.S.S.R. sometime other than the 1958-69 time period; and (c) remained outside
the United States until 1964. The committee decided to examine the files on the
remaining- 03 individuals, listed below:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name
Date of birth
Place of birth
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amron,
Irving __________________________________
United States.
Block,
Mollie _______________
Nov. 6, 1912 ________ New
York, N.Y.
Block,
Morris _______________
Mar. 30, 1920________
Do.
Citrynell.
Harold ____________ Mar. 10, 1923
_______ Do.
Davis,
Bruce Frederick ______
May 4, 1936 ________
Rome, N.Y.
Dubinsky,
Shirley ____________ Mar. 11, 1925
_______ New York, N.Y.
Frank,
Richard Cyril ________
Aug. 22, 1922 _______ Rochester,
N.Y.
Frank,
Susan Heligman ________ Nov. 18.
1913 _______ New York, N.Y.
Gold,
Robert _________________ Mar. 14,
1928 _______ Massachusetts.
Greendlinger,
Martin _________ Mar. 25, 1932
_______ New York. N.Y.
Halperin,
Maurice H __________ Mar. 3, 1906
_______ Boston Mass.
Jones,
Louis Henry ___________ Mar. 17,
1934 _______ Arlington Heights, Ohio
Lawson,
John Howard __________ Sept. 25,
1894 ______ New York, N.Y.
Martin,
William H ___________
May 27, 1931 ________ Columbus,
Ga.
Martinkus,
Anthony V _________ June 15, 1911
_______ Chicago, Ill.
Meyer,
Karl Henry ____________ June 30,
1937 _______ Mountain, Wis.
Mitchell,
Bernon F ___________ Mar. 11, 1931
_______ San Francisco, Calif.
Parker,
James Dudley _________ Feb. 21, 1926
_______ Oakland, Calif.
Petrulli.
Nicholas ___________ Feb. 13, 1921
_______ Brooklyn, N.Y.
Pittman,
John Orion __________ Sept. 17, 1906
______ Atlanta, Ga.
Ricciardelli.
Libero _________ June 18,
1917________ Needham, Mass.
Webster,
Robert Edward _______ Oct. 23, 1928
_______ Tiffin, Ohio.
Winston,
Henry _______________ Apr. 2, 1911
________ Hattiesburg, Miss.
(5)
The committee then examined the October 25, 1960, request from the State
Department to the CIA for information on 13 individuals they considered
defectors. That list included the following:
----------------
(437)
Page
438
438
(a) Lee Harvey Oswald.
(b) Seven individuals whose
files the committee had decided to examine under the previous criteria: Block,
Mollie; Block, Morris; Davis, Bruce Frederick; Martin, William H.; Mitchell,
Bernon F.; Ricciardelli, Libero; Webster, Robert Edward.
(c) Two individuals whose
names appeared on the computer listing but had been excluded because they were
not born within the United States: Dutkanicz, Joseph--Date of birth: June 9,
1926, place of birth: Corlice, Poland; Sloboda, Vladimir--Date of birth: January
7, 1907, place of birth: Redkomien, U.S.S.R.
(d) Three individuals who
had not previously been known to the committee as defectors: DuBois, David--Date
of birth: March 9, 1925; David Graham McConns--place of birth: Seattle, Wash.;
Jones, Sergeant (FNU); Fletcher, Sgt. Ernie.
(6)
The CIA response to this State Department request is dated November 21,
1960. It included available information on the above defectors and stated:
In addition to those appearing on your list, there is included
information on Virginia Frank Coe and Maurice Hyman Halperin. While these
individuals have not renounced their American citizenship or declared themselves
in any way, both are employed by the bloc countries in which they now reside.
(7)
The committee had selected Halperin from the computer listing as a
defector who fit the previously stated criteria, but had no knowledge of Coe.
(8) In a February 27, 1978,
letter from the committee to the. CIA, access to all existing 201 files were
requested for the following individuals:
(a) The 23 individuals from
the computer listing;
(b) Dutkanicz, Sloboda,
DuBois, Jones, and Fletcher (because their names appeared on the defector list
with Oswald's name); and
(c) Coe (because the CIA
added his name as a possible defector)
(9)
Five of the individuals were immediately dropped from this defector
analysis. The CIA could not identify Sergeant Jones without additional
identifying data, none of which could be found. DuBois and Coe were eliminated
because they defected to Communist China and did not offer any insight into
Oswald's defection to the Soviet Union. The information on Martin and Mitchell
was considered too sensitive in nature by the CIA to be provided to the
(10)
The committee also requested the FBI, the Department of Defense and the State
Department to provide selected information on the 24-name defector sample.
(11)
From the available information, the committee performed an analysis of
treatment provided by the Soviets to individuals during the approximate period
Oswald was there. The committee used the following criteria for its detailed
examination:
Background
Date of defection
Page
439
439
Defected with whom
Rejection of American
citizenship
Length of time for Soviets
to grant residence
Type of residence permit
granted
Circumstances after
defection and prior to resettlement
Propaganda statements made
to Soviet press
Relationships with Soviet
citizens
Place of residence in Soviet
Union
Military training prior to
defection
Employment in Soviet Union
Income provided
Financial aid provided
Contact with Soviet
officials, especially KGB personnel
Known surveillance
Time period for Soviets to
grant exit visa
Time period for United
States to grant entrance visa
Time period for spouse or
children to obtain exit visa
Time period for spouse or
children to obtain entrance visa
(12)
During this analysis, 13 individuals were eliminated for the following
reasons:
(a) Lack
of substantive information: Fletcher, Ernie; Gold, Robert: Jones, Louis; Lawson,
John; Meyer, Karl; Parker, James.
(b)
Communist Party members who made frequent trips to the Soviet Union, were on
official party business in the Soviet Union, or had resided outside the United
States for an extended period before entering the Soviet Union, making a
comparison to Oswald's situation difficult:Frank, Richard; Frank, Susan; Halpenn,
Maurice; Pittman, John; Winston, Henry.
(c)
Residents in the Soviet Union for over 90 years, making a comparison to Oswald's
situation difficult: Amron, Irving;
Martinkus, Anthony.
(13)
The defector sample eventually compared to Lee Harvey Oswald was reduced
to 11 ,individuals, 2 of whom were married:
Block,
Mollie; Block, Morris; Citrynell, Harold; Davis, Bruce; Dubinsky,
Shirley; Dutkanicz,
Joseph; Greendlinger, Martin;
Petrulli, Nicholas; Ricciardelli, Libero; Sloboda, Vladimir;Webster, Robert.
Morris
and Mollie Block
Page
439
II.
MORRIS AND MOLLIE BLOCK
(14)
Morris Block attended the Sixth World Youth Festival in the Soviet Union
during 1957. (1) Immediately after the conference he traveled to Communist
China, prompting the State Department to impound his passport for misuse. (2) In
1958, he made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the Soviet Union with a falsified
passport. (3)
(15)
Then, in July 1959, Morris Block arrived in Gydnia, Poland with his wife
and child. (4) After being kept in seclusion for 1 month, they were transferred
to Moscow where they were met by, a "Soviet representative." (5) The
Blocks were taken to the Leningradskaya Hotel and provided excellent
accommodations while they applied for travel visas to China. (6).Although the
Soviet representatives had reached an agreement with the Blocks to participate
in
press conference, it did not take place. (7)
Page
440
440
(16)
In September 1959, the Soviets suggested the Blocks accept Soviet asylum,
and later issued them Soviet internal passports for foreigners.
(8) The Soviet authorities
immediately settled the Blocks in a two-room, 19 ruble-a-month apartment in
Odessa and provided them 1,000 rubles to buy furniture. (9) Morris Block
obtained a job as a mechanic in a Soviet shipyard while Mollie Block taught in
the Polytechnic Institute. (10) Their combined
income
was 166 rubles per month. (11)
(17)
A Ukranian newspaper published a letter by Block in December 1959,
stating his intent to live in the Soviet Union. (12) He severely criticized life
in the United States and detailed a long history of unemployment and alleged
"persecution" by the FBI after his return from China. (13) Again he
denounced the United States interview with his local newspaper in 1960. (14)
(18)
Because Morris Block had difficulty with the Russian language, he was
assigned a young girl to teach him. (15) An affair resulted and Mollie Block
arrived in Moscow with her daughter in February 1960. (16) The same Soviet
official met Mrs. Block, this time taking her to the Hotel Metropole. (17) Until
June she remained there, with the Soviet Red Cross paying expenses. (18) When
her daughter hospitalized due to a nervous disorder, Mollie Block moved into a
one-room apartment and began work as a typist-translator for the Soviet
Publishing Office in Moscow. (19)
(19)
In August Morris Block arrived in Moscow and requested remain there with
his family. (20) Because the Soviets insisted months later Mollie and Morris
Block returned to their previous jobs in Odessa. (21) Their daughter did not
join them until May 1961.(22)
(20)
After numerous visits to the Soviet authorities, the Blocks received
permissiou to visit the American Embassy in Moscow. Mollie Block requested the
Embassy provide passports for herself, her husband, and an immigration visa for
their daughter. (24) She also requested financial aid to repatriate. (25) The
U.S. authorities were willing to aid the Blocks since their passports had
expired, but the Soviet authorities refused to grant exit visas and forced a
return to Odessa. (26) The Blocks were subsequently approached on three
occasions to renounce their U.S. citizenship and become Soviet citizens. (27)
They refused to do so. (28)
(21)
The State Department asked the American Embassy on January 30, 1963, to
issue Mollie Block a passport for return to the United States only, her daughter
an alien entry visa and Morris Block an emergency certificate of identity and
registration for return to the United States only. (29) They did so. (30)
(22)
Then in late February 1963, the Blocks lost their Soviet documentation.
(31) In May the Soviet. Government stated they would not reissue temporary
documents axed the Blocks would have to accept permanent registration instead.
(32) Applications for exit visas were filed during the summer months of 1963,
refused, and filed again in April 1964. (33)
(23)
Morris Block became annoyed at the Soviets broadcasting propaganda
through the loudspeaker at his place of employment early 1964.(34) He
disconnected it and was severely punished by
Page
441
441
several
young Soviet workers. (35) The Soviets would not grant permission for the Blocks
to visit the Embassy in Moscow or grant exit visas so they could leave the
Soviet Union. (36)
(24)
Mollie Block provided an account of their difficulties to a cor-
respondent for the New York Times that was visiting Odessa.(37) When the article
concerning Soviet treatment of the Blocks was published, the Soviets began
harassing the Blocks. (38) The U.S. consular officials discussed the Block case
with Minister of Foreign Affairs, and then the Blocks were expelled from the
U.S.S.R.(39) Morris Block was charged with acts of hooliganism and Mollie Block
was charged with handling out anti-Soviet propaganda to foreign students at the
Polytechnic Institute.(40) They departed from the U.S.S.R.
to
the United States on July 11, 1964. (41)
Harold
Citrynell
Page
441
III.
HAROLD CITRYNELL
(25)
Harold Citrynell entered the Soviet Union with his wife and child on
February 27, 1958. (42) He crossed the Czechoslovakian border as a tourist,
intending to establish residence and become a citizen. (43)
(26)
After several days in Moscow, Citrynell applied to the Office Visas and
Registration for permanent residence ,and Soviet citizenship. (44) He wrote a
statement containing 13 reasons prompting his request for Soviet citizenship,
one which may have been his inability to obtain employment in his desired
field.(45) Within a few days Citrynell was notified that he had been accepted
and that the Red Cross would take care of him and his family.(46)
(27)
Citrynell was provided a one-bedroom apartment in Kharkov job in a mine
surveying instrument factory with an "above average salary for the
job." (47) He stated that while living in Kharkov, he felt that his
neighbors and coworkers had participated in planned effot to make him dislike
the Soviet Union.
(28)
In the autumn of 1958, Citrynell decided to return to the United States.
(49) He requested an exit visa and began writing government offices and
influential people. (50) He stated that after October 1958 his detention was
involuntary. (51)
(29)
Before Citrynell's departure on June 29, 1959, the Red Cross requested he
sign a statement agreeing never to say anything derogatory about the Soviet
Union or any individual in it. (52)
Bruce
Frederick Davis
Page
441
IV.
BRUCE FREDERICK DAVIS
(30)
After serving approximately 5 years in the U.S. Army, Bruce Frederick
Davis left his post in Germany.(53) He defected to East Germany in August 1960,
and spent a month in East Berlin before entering the Soviet Union. (54)
(31)
In October 1960, two articles appeared in Izvestiva and Pravda with
statements by Davis attributing his defection to disillusionment with U.S.
foreign and military. policy.(55) Although Davis physically defected, he did not
officially denounce his American citizenship and was documented by the Soviet as
a stateless person.(56)
(32)
Davis was settled in Kiev as a student at the Kiev Institute
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442
of
National Economy.(57) He was provided a free dormitory room and a stipend of 900
old rubles a month.(58) This is three times what Soviet students receive, but
normal for a non-Soviet-bloc student. (59) In October Davis wrote a friend of
his in the Army stated he was given an outright sum of 10,000 old rubles; it is
known if this is true. (60) He was promised a free apartment if his unauthorized
travel was discontinued and his grades were improved. (61)
(33)
In August 1962, Davis appeared at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to request
an American passport.(62) He phoned the Embassy the following day and stated he
would not be completing the application as he had been arrested for his
participation m a brawl Kiev. (63) He returned to the Embassy in October 1962
and was issued a passport and entry visa into West Germany.(64) Davis, allowed
the passport and visa to expire due to a new Soviet girl friend he had met. (65)
(34)
In 1963 Davis visited the Embassy on an unauthorized trip January to make
statements concerning his dissatisfaction and deliver papers from another
disgruntled U.S. citizen.(66) In May he made another trip to renew his passport
and reapply for a West German visa.(67) Davis was returned to military control
in July 1963.(68)
Shirley
Dubinsky
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442
V.
SHIRLEY DUBINSKY
(35)
Shirley Dubinsky wrote several letters from East Berlin to Soviet Premier
Khrushchev denouncing her American citizenship and requesting Soviet citizenship
in October 1961.(69) On December 95, 1962, she arrived in Moscow after
purchasing a 3-day tour from a travel agency in Switzerland. (70) She refused to
leave the Soviet Union when her visa had expired. (71)
(36)
The American Embassy in Moscow was informed by the Hotel Metropole that
an American guest there, Dubinsky, was acting "queer?' (72) She was
committed to a mental hospital on January 5, 1963, with $100 in her possession.
(73) The diagnosis was "schizophrenic break."(74)Soviet psychiatrists
advised that Dubinsky was unable to travel and extended treatment was necessary.
(75) The American Embassy informed the State Department of the situation. (76)
(37)
It was reported that Dubinsky had visited the offices of Department of
Visas and Registration, apparently to obtain Soviet citizenship. (77) When she
attempted to visit the offices of the Supreme Soviet in the Kremlin she was
turned over to Intourist. (78)
(38)
A repatriation loan, in the form of a plane ticket to New York, was
awarded to Shirley Dubinsky, and she returned to the United States on Febru- ary
1, 1963.(79)
Joseph
Dutkanicz
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442
VI.
JOSEPH DUTKANICZ
(39)
Joseph Dutkanicz informed the American Embassy that in 1958 while he was
stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army, he was approached by KGB officers and,
because of threats and inducements, was recruited.(80) His wife stated that he
often spoke of fleeing to the
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443
Soviet
Union during 1959.(81) The Soviets
recommended that Dutkanicz defect in May 1960 and a Western bloc investigation
for security reasons prompted him to do so.(82) Two weeks prior to his scheduled
return to the United States in June 1960, Dutkanicz took his wife and three
children on a trip.(83) They visited Czechoslovakian Embassy in Vienna, then,
passing through Czechoslovakia, were escorted to the Ukraine, Soviet Union. (84)
After being driven to L'vov, the family was settled in first-class
accommodations, with KGB assistance.(85)
(40)
Tass announced the Dutkanicz family had sought assistance in July 1960.
(86) Articles began appearing that gave autobiographical statements on
the history and motivation for defection in anti-American terms. (87) Later an
article by Dutkanicz was published that indicated he was living in L'vov with
his family and contained anti-Hitler and anti-U.S. propaganda. (88) Two radio
broadcasts were made in Moscow also.(89)
(41)
Dutkanicz stated he never applied for or requested Soviet
citizenship.(90) A private bill bestowing citizenship on him, Supreme Soviet
decree No. 135/3, was enacted in March 1960, before he defected.(91) September
1060, a Soviet passport was delivered to him.(92)
His wife was documented as a foreigner upon request and his children as
Soviet citizens.(93)
(42)
Dutkanicz was given employment as a technician in a TV factory for an
undisclosed salary and his wife taught English conversation lessons for 10
rubles a month. (94)
(43)
Although they moved into an apartment in 1061, the daily contact by
Russian agents that Dutkanicz's wife described during their first 6 months, did
not end.(95) During a March 6, 1967, visit to the American Embassy she stated
that the secret police (KGB) were in constant contact with her husband,
telephoning daily, and that 1960 were watching them closely."(96)
(44)
The American Embassy received a letter from Dutkanicz's wife, Mary, on
September 14, 1961, requesting a visa to visit her sick mother in the United
States.(97) It stated she thought
her husband was only visiting the Soviet Union at the time of his defection and
that her passport had been taken from her.(98) She appeared at the Embassy on
December 5, 1961, for a passport, stating her mother had died.(99) Mary was sent
back to L'vov.(101)
(45)
An application to the Red Cross was filed in February or March 1962 for a
loan of 500 rubles to be used for a trip to Moscow.(102) The request is denied
"although the so-called Soviet Red Cross had given large sums of money to
other defectors who were American born and had no KGB connection."(103)
(46)
During Mary Dutkanicz's visa processing visits to the Embassy, she
revealed that her husband was thoroughly disillusioned and wanted to return to
the United States regardless of any charges.(104) She explained that her husband
was encouraged by the fact he had received an undesirable discharge from the
Army, not dishonorable.(105)
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444
(47)
Dutkanicz requested the Embassy to aid his children and himself in
returning to the United States on March 22, 1962 (the day after his wife
departed to the United States).(106) The FBI and CIA did not want Dutkanicz
brought back on their account, but on August 15, 1962, the State Department
advised the Embassy to issue him a passport.(107) The file reflected that the
Embassy could not reach Dutkanicz on the phone prior to November 22, 1963. (108)
(48)
Dutkanicz's children, ages 11, 9, and 8, stated that on July 25, 1963.
they were taken from their home and placed in boarding schools (the 11-year-old
had been in school previously).(109) They were allowed to see their father once
and he had cried, saying that. "they" wanted to do something to his
nervous system to make him an idiot. (110)
(49)
Mary Dutkanicz was informed that her husband had been found in a drunken
state, placed in the hospital in L'vov and died in November 1963.(111) The U.S.
consul was informed in March 1964, that the three children would be allowed to
leave the Soviet Union.(112) The children were to be documented as Soviet
citizens for the departure, but were to travel on U.S. passports after crossing
Soviet borders.(113) In May 1964, the children joined Mary Dut-
kanicz
in the United States. (114)
Martin
Greendlinger
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444
VII.
MARTIN GREENDLINGER
(50)
A mathematician at New York University, Martin Greendlinger attended the
World Youth Festival held in Moscow in 1957. (115) He met Yelena Ivanovna
Pyatnitskaya, nee Kapustina, a student at the Lenin Pedagogical Institute. (116)
(51)
Greendlinger returned to the Soviet Union in April 1958, and within a
month had married Yelena. (117) He had been encouraged to believe her passport
and Soviet exit visa would be issued in 3 to 4 months by OVIR. (118)
Greendlinger meant to bring his wife, her daughter by a previous marriage, and
possibly a child of their own marriage to the United States. (119)
(52)
In July 1959 Greendlinger left his home in Borisoglebsk and returned to
the United States alone.(12O) After a year, the Soviet authorities had issued
his wife an exit visa to depart from the U.S.S.R.(121) The U.S. Embassy,
however, refused to issue an entrance visa due to her membership in Komsomol
after 1947 and in trade union after 1951. (122)
(53)
Greendlinger applied to the State Department for his wife's entry visa in
August 1960.(123) In September he received a U.S. passport to visit his wife and
child for a month and was awarded National Science Foundation fellowship for 1
year.(124)
(54)
It was December 1960 before Greendlinger returned to Moscow.(125) He and
his wife spoke to American Embassy personnel about acquiring an entrance visa.
(126) The Embassy stated his wife could not receive an entrance visa to the
United States because there could be no waiver of section 243(g) of the
act.(127) The CIA file on Greendlinger states:
This apparently involved Komsomol membership, although the Soviet wives
of Parker and Oswald--q.v.--had many more drawbacks and were let in. (128)
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445
(55)
When Greendlinger applied for visas at the British Embassy he was told
that his wife would be issued a visa if he could get a job in England and
guarantee support. (129) He settled in Ostankine, a suburb of Moscow, and worked
as a mathematician. (130) Finally, the National Science Foundation approved his
studying math at Manchester, England. (131) No further information is known.
(132)
Nicholas
Petrulli
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445
VIII.
NICHOLAS PETRULLI
(56)
An American laborer, Nicholas Petrulli purchased an organized tour to
Western Europe and the U.S.S.R. for $965.(133) He entered the Soviet Union at
Vyborg on August 10, 1959, using a regular 7-day tourist visa issued in
Washington the previous month. The tour passed through Leningrad en route to
Moscow where it was to remain until August 18. (134) Petrulli did not show up at
the train station to depart from Moscow. (135) He canceled his ship reservations
through an Intourist guide and remained in the Ukraine Ho-
tel.(136)
(57)
Petrulli spoke to several Americans in the hotel restaurant the following week
about his decision to remain in the Soviet Union.(137) He had no communistic
sympathies or ideological leaning toward the U.S.S.R. and had no grievances
against the United States. (138) Petrulli believed there was a good opportunity
to obtain employment in the Soviet Union, although he did not know the language,
people, or country. (139)
(58)
A resident American correspondent encouraged Petrulli to tell the Embassy
in Moscow about his intention to defect. (14O) On August 28, 1959, Petrulli was
interviewed for 2 hours by an Embassy official, Snyder.(141) The correspondent
was present when Petrulli explained his reasons for staying and how he had
learned the procedure for remaining from the hotel manager and Intourist guide.
(142) He stated no one had induced
or influenced him. (143) Petrulli stated that upon the guide's advice, he had
drafted a letter to the Supreme Soviet requesting Soviet citizenship, but had
not sent it yet. (144) He stated be had informed the intourist guide he was
virtually out of
money.(145)
He did, however, have possession of ship and plane tickets for his return to the
United States. (146) Petrulli was given the name of a Catholic priest in Moscow
he subsequently spoke to who warned about possible exploitation, and so
forth.(147)
(59)
The following day Petrulli sent the letter to the Supreme Soviet.(148) He
told the Embassy it contained five points as specified by the Intourist guide:
(1) date and place of birth; (9,) names and addresses of relatives; (3) property
and bank accounts (none); (4) skills, education, and work record; and (5) moral
and ideological reasons for wanting Soviet citizenship. (149) Petrulli would not
relate what he had written for No. 5 or if it was derogatory to the United
States. (150)
(60)
Petrulli visited the American Embassy on September. 9, 1959, turned in
his passport, stated he had sent the letter to the Supreme Soviet and asked to
renounce his U.S. citizenship. (151) Snyder explained the irrevocabi]ity of
renunciation and told Petrulli to return in the afternoon. (152) He did so and
Snyder administered the oath of renunciation. (153)
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446
(61)
Several people were told by Petrulli that he felt "morally and
economically at home in the Soviet Union," that they were trying to do
things right, that people were not in a hurry and not nervous wrecks.(154) He
said he had many jobs in the United States and he was not happy there; he liked
the Soviet Union better.(155)
(62)
Petrulli visited the American Embassy. again on September 8, 1959 and
asked for a written statement of his citizenship status for the Soviet
authorities. (156) When told that the Embassy would inform him as soon as the
State Department informed them, Petrulli began requesting information on visa
requirements to the U.S.(157) The Soviet authorities had not responded to his
letters on job requests and Petrulli felt he was getting the run-around.(158)
His hotel was being paid for by the Soviets but he was without money, friends or
the ability to communicate with Russians.(159). Petrulli left the
Embassy
and told an American correspondent he just wanted to go home. (160)
(63)
On September 14, 1959, a Soviet official informed Petrulli he should have
applied at the Soviet Embassy in Washington for citizenship. (161) The manager
of the Ukraina Hotel told him he had 2 days to vacate the premises.(162) Both
men told him he had to leave the Soviet Union and needed some type of traveling
document from the American Embassy. (163)
(64)
The next day Petrulli was back at the Embassy.(164) It is unknown if he
applied for a passport during this visit, but a September 19, 1959, newspaper
article stated that the State Department had declared Petrulli legally
incompetent and returned his U.S. citizenship. (165) He was given a one-way
passport to the United States and returned to his home m New York on September
22, 1959. (166)
Libero
Ricciardelli
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446
IX.
LIBERO RICCIARDELLI
(65)
Libero Ricciardelli decided that exposing his family to a socialistic
system of government might straighten out domestic problems and guarantee his
children's future well-being. (167) In 1958 he visited the Soviet Embassy in
Washington. D.C., and asked to visit Soviet Russia.(168) Ricciardelli obtained
Soviet visas to tour Moscow for six days with his wife and three children, and
did so in February 1959.(169)
(66)
When his Intourist guide learned that he wanted to defect, she
recommended
that Ricciardelli visit the visa department, Intourist Service Bureau. (170) He
did so and was informed that he must depart on the expiration date on his
visa.(171) Ricciardelli did not depart and was not pressured to do so. (172) He
continued to visit the visa department and wrote the President of the RSFSR as
was recommended to him by Intourist. (173)
(67)
Financial aid was requested by Ricciardelli because he had $500 and 6
days of meal tickets on him.(174) The director of the Soviet Union Red Crescent
or Red Cross and a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met with
Ricciardelli and discouraged remaining in the Soviet Union. (175) An
investigation concerning Ricciardelli's application for a visa at the Soviet
Embassy in the United States was begun.(176)
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447
447
68)
Riccardelli contracted influenza, which developed into rheumatic fever
and was placed in a hospatal for 3 weeks.(177) While there, he was visited by
representatives of the Red Cross and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who announced
he could remain in the Soviet Union and the Red Cross would be responsible for
him.(178) They helped Ricardelli fill out forms, and the Soviet in charge of
Intouristat the hotel arranged for aid from the International Red Cross.(179)
(69)
After Ricciardelli returned from the hospital, he was questioned from 7
p.m. to 7 a.m. by a journalist from "Izvestia" and presumably a Red
Cross Representative(180) Ricciardelli signed a statement that dealt with having
conditions in the United States as compared to the Soviet Union and information
that would protect the Soviets from allegations he was being held against his
will.(181) These articles later appeared in "Pravda" and "Izvestia."(182)
When Ricciardelli could understand enough Russian to read the articles he did so
and felt they, were slanted, self-serving statements condemning life in the
United States. (183)
(70)
Although Ricciardelli applied for Soviet citizenship, his wife refused to
do so. (184) Subsequent to this application for citizenship, the director of the
Red Cross in Moscow and a reprentative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
arranged for a move to a climate more suitable to Ricciardelli's health (185) He
had requested a home Kiev or L'vov.(186)
(71)
In July 1959. Ricciardelli arrived in Kiev and was presented with an
Internal Russian Passport, indicating he was a Soviet citizen.(187)
No oath of allegiance was taken and Ricciardelli did not give up his U.S.
passport and did not feel as if he had given up his U.S. citizenship. (188) The
Soviets considered all his children Soviet citizens although his wife refused to
accept the passport offered to her. (189)
(72)
Ricciardelli sketched ideas for new tools and machines as mechanical
engineer for the Main Operation for Building Construction. (190) He was required
to join a trade union but refused to vote or give speeches at the meeting when
asked.(191)
(73)
With his salary of 150 new rubles, Ricciardelli rented a thirdfloor
walkup apartment consisting of four rooms and a bath. (192) As rent was only
seven to nine rubles a month, there was a]so money for a TV and radio. (193) For
2 rubles a month, Ricciardelli kept a phone in his apartment, though it took him
2 years to get it installed. (194) Ricciardelli traveled on five or six trips to
Moscow from Kiev and went on a vacation to Gagua, Cavcasas on the Black Sea.
(195)
(74)
There were few visitors to the Ricciardelli apartment, and those that
came believed it was wired for sound. (196)
(75)
In the summer of 1960, Ricciardelli visited the Czechoslovakian Embassy
in Moscow and applied for visas.(197) After his children had received an
education, Ricciardelli felt it would be easier to return to the United States
from Czechoslovakia than the Soviet Union. (198)
Two years later when the entrance visas were granted, the Soviets refused
to grant exit visas. (199)
(76)
Ricciardelli's domestic problems had increased by August 1962 and he decided his
wife should return to her parents' home in Illinois
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448
and
he would return to his parents' home with the three children. (200)
Ricciardelli applied for a renewed U.S. passport and was told his
citizen- ship was terminated when he accepted Soviet citizenship. (201) On March
27, 1963, his wife left the Soviet Union for the United States after filling out
an application to have him granted a permanent resident visa as the husband of a
U.S. citizen. (202) Ricciardelli applied as an alien to return to the United
States on a permanent resident visa. (203) The U.S. Embassy granted the visa in
June 1963, and after 14-day delay over whether his oldest daughter was a Soviet
citizen he and his children flew to New York. (204)
Vladimir
Sloboda
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448
X.
VLADIMIR SLOBODA
(77)
Vladimir Sloboda became a naturalized citizen of the United States on
August 14, 1958, and was assigned to the 513th Military Intelligence Group, U.S.
Army, with duty station at Frankfurt, Germany. (205)
(78)
August 1960, Sloboda defected into East Germany, requesting Soviet
asylum. (206) Although his wife said he was extremely worried about gambling
debts, his 201 file, maintained by the CIA reflects that "emotional state
and fact of Army countermeasures caused by arrest of 154 MID agents
recently" are probably responsible for defection. (207) Sloboda later
explained he had been blackmailed and framed into defecting. (208)
(79)
Immediately after Sloboda's defection, he was utilized by the Soviets for
propaganda purposes.(209) In an August interview on Moscow TV, Sloboda based his
defection on the expressed views that the United States was a warmonger with spy
activity in Germany.(210) The September issue of Golos Roding repeated this as
did other articles and various press releases (211) According to one of the
later articles Sloboda was given Soviet citizenship in August 1960, the month he
defected. (212)
(80)
Sloboda's British wife requested that the Soviet consul in London arrange
transportation for herself and three children to the Soviet Union. (213) Travel
arrangements were made to Leningrad and all expenses, such as shipment of
furniture and transportation tickets were paid for by the Soviets.(214) A
Russian Intelligence Service (RIS) resettlement officer made arrangements for
travel from Leningrad to L'vov.(215).When she and the children joined Sloboda on
November 19, 1960, he was already having doubts about his defection(216)
(81)
Soviet authorities provided Sloboda with approximately
300 rubles a month and a three-room flat in L'vov for his parents, with
and children. (217)
(82)
In early 1962 Sloboda's wife requested an exit visa from the L'vov
authorities.(218) She called the American. Embassy and informed them that both
she and her husband were desperate to return to the United States. (219)
In March she received an exit visa and passport, (220) Sloboda and his
wife then visited the British Embassy discuss bringing her Son and daughter out
of the Soviet Union with her. (221)Sloboda explained to the Embassy that he was
afraid to visit
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449
the
American Embassy. (222) He stated that his wife and oldest and youngest children
had been issued Soviet internal passports for foreigners. (223) He stated his
other child was a U.S. citizen with an expired passport. (224)
(83)
Sloboda's wife took the youngest child to England, leaving the
eldest
at the International Boarding School and the other son at day school.(225) On
her departure she was given 50 rubles to purchase present for her mother. (226)
(84)
The British Embassy sent a representative to visit Sloboda in August
19612. (227) They learned that "he had been subjected to fairly frequent
questioning by the KGB in L'vov since he visited the embassy in Moscow."
(228) (85)
In March 1963, Sloboda's wife sent him a telegram stating she was
returning to the Soviet Union so the eldest sons should not be sent. (229)
Robert
Webster
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449
XI.
ROBERT WEBSTER
(86)
Robert E. Webster, an employee of the Rand Development Co., made several
trips to the Soviet Union in order to prepare for the 1959 U.S. exhibition in
Moscow. (230) While there for 7 weeks, beginning in May 1959, Webster steadily
dated the hostess employed at the Hotel Ukraine's tourist restaurant. (231) She
worked there during the period correspondents accompanying Vice President
Nixon's visit to the U.S.S.R. resided there, and was suspected of being a KGB
agent. (232) Webster informed his girlfriend
he wished to divorce his wife in the United States and return to the
Soviet Union to marry her. (233)
(87)
Webster first revealed his desire to defect on July 11, 1959. He
approached the two Soviet officials in charge of arrangements for the exhibi-
tion at the fairgrounds and requested information concerning the procedures for
a U.S. citizen to remain in the U.S.S.R. (235) Webster was told to call one of
the officials in their Solkolniki Park office and a meeting was set up.(236)
(88)
A few days later, the English-speaking official Webster had met
previously, escorted him to a private room in a restaurant. (237) A represen-
tative of the Soviet Government, questioned him about his desire to remain in
the Soviet Union.(238) The representative was also interested in whether Webster
had told other Americans of his interest to defect and instructed him not to.
(239) While intoxicated with vodka Webster was told to write a letter to the
Supreme Soviet requesting to remain as a Soviet citizen. (240) He did so and was
given a biographic data sheet to take with him and fill out.(241)
(89)
Subsequently when Webster submitted the data sheet, he stated that his
dissatisfaction with the United States was due to the tendency of American
employers to hire a man and then fire him when he had learned the job. (242)
This reason was not acceptable because Webster had not personally experienced
this. (243) He rewrote the form to state that in the United States, Government
controlled big business.(244) He also wrote that he wished to work, marry, have
children, earn a degree and learn the Russian language in the Soviet Union.(245)
Although he stated he wished to cooperate in every way with the Soviet Union,
the Soviet authorities tried to dissuade Webster from
defecting.(246)
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450
450
(90)
In the last of July or early August, Webster attended what described as a
serious, no drinking meeting held in a private restaurant room at the Metropole
Hotel.(247) Webster told two Soviet chemists he could help them make the Rand
spray gun he had demonstrated at the U.S. Exhibition.(248) On September 9 he was
told he had been accepted by the Soviets. (249) Although he had requested to
work in Moscow, Webster was informed he would be sent to Leningrad. (250 )
(91)
The following day the Soviet officials registered Webster at the Bucharist
Hotel, and instructed him not to leave.(254) He was given 1,000 old rubles and
asked to write a note to a Rand employee requesting the money be left for him at
the hotel because he was on a tour of Russia. (252)
(92)
There was a short party for Webster on September 11. (253) He was
immediately flown to Leningrad with an interpreter and met by an Intourist
representative.(254) He applied for work at the Leningrad Scientific Research
Institute, Polymerized Plastics and lived in the Baltiskaya Hotel for a month.
(255) He was allowed to call his girlfriend and she was allowed to visit and
make plans for a vacation. (256)
(93)
On October 17, 1959 Webster was staying in Moscow.(257) He artended a
meeting at the central office, visas and registrar, ion (OVIR) with the original
Soviet representative he had contact with, an unknown Soviet, H.J. Rand. his
assistant George H. Bookbinder and Richard E. Snyder of the U.S. Embassy. (258)
Webster stated he was free to speak, and told Snyder when he had applied for
Soviet citizenship, he had been granted a Soviet passport on September 21,
1959.(259) He filled out a form entitled "Affidavit for Expatriated
Person" and wrote his resignation to Rand Development Corp. (260)
(94)
Webster later explained he had no Soviet documentation at the time,
having in his possession an American passport which he never sent to Snyder as
requested.(261) Webster stated the Soviets had instructed him to say his reasons
for defecting were political. (262)
(95)
Webster's girlfriend joined him the following day and both went on a
month vacation at the Suitland Sanitarium in Sochi. (263) They returned to
Leningrad and began work at the institute, where his girlfriend was employed as
an assistant and translator. (264) Webster received 280 rubles per month and a
semiannual bonus of 50 to 60 rubles. (265) He lived with his girlfriend in a new
apartment building and had three rooms with a bath. (266)
(96)
After writing a summary of his life, listing his relatives and where they
worked, submitting pictures of himself and undergoing medical examination,
Webster was granted a Soviet internal passport.(267) In December 1959 or January
1960, he turned over his American passport and obtained the Soviet passport at
the OVIR office in Leningrad. (268)
(97)
On January 27, 1960, a letter was delivered to Webster from his
father.(269) It contained news of
his mother's nervous breakdown and word that his father had assumed financial
support of Webster's children. (270) At that point, Webster decided to return to
the United States.(271)
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451
(98)
A note in Webster's file stated that on April 6, 1969, he was to give a
speech on the United States, although there was no indication whether he, in
fact, did make the address. (272)
(99)
The original Soviet representative in Moscow arranged for Webster and his
girlfriend to visit there for the May Day celebration.(273) Webster entered the
U.S. Embassy unchallenged, due to his American clothing.(274) He informed John
McVicker that he wished to return to the United States. (275) He was told to
apply for a Soviet exit visa. (276)
(100)
Webster requested two notarized invitations for his return to the United
States, to be made by his father, copies to be sent to the American Embassy.
(277) His girl friend helped him fill out the application for a Soviet exit visa
and gave her consent, which was required. (278)
(101)
Webster's girlfriend gave birth to Svetlana Robertovna Webster in August
1960.(279) The child was immediately adopted by Webster and reistered. (280)
During the majority of the time after this. Svetlana's Russian grandmother also
lived in the Webster apartment.(281) Webster was assigned a new translator at
the Institute.(282)
(102)
Two months after submitting his application for a Soviet exit visa,
Webster was turned down and told he could not reapply for 1 year. (283) Soviet
officials visited him from Moscow, inquiring why he was unhappy and suggesting
that he send for his family from the United States.(284) One year later he
reapplied, and in February 1962. Webster
was granted a Soviet exit visa.(285)
(103)
In March 1962, the American Embassy gave Webster instructions on how to
obtain an American entrance visa.(286) His father sent him a plane ticket for
his passage home, and Webster quit his job (287) It was May before Webster
actually surrender his internal Soviet passport for his exit visa. (288) Webster
arrived in the United States as an alien under the Russian quota on May 20,
1962. (289) He had never intended to aid his girlfriend in leaving the Soviet
Union. (290)
Lee
Harvey Oswald
Page
451
XII.
LEE HARVEY OSWALD
(104)
In comparing Oswald's defection to the other 11 individuals in this
study, certain points must be taken into consideration.
The Warren Commission requested through the State Department that the
Soviet Government provide "any further available information concerning the
activities of Lee Harvey Oswald during his residence from 1959 to 1962 in the
Soviet Union, in particular, copies of any official records concerning
him." (291) In May 1964 the Soviet
Union
provided approximately 15
documents concerning
the sojourn employment and medical history of Oswald while in their
country. (292) The documents also dealt with the departure of Oswald and his
wife from the U.S.S.R. (293)
(105)
No documents appear to be from the KGB or make mention of Oswald's being
debriefed by it. (294)There are some dates, times, and facts in the documents
that differ from Oswald's statements. (295)
Page
452
452
The
signatures of most of the Soviet officials are illegible. (296) The authenticity
of these documents could not be established, but they must be taken into
consideration. It was the only case in this study in which the Soviet Union
added to the existing body of information.
(106)
The committee also had available to it statements and a diary that
handwriting experts determined were written by Lee Harvey Oswald. (297) The
diary covered the period Oswald was in the Soviet Union. (298). The committee
found all of Oswald's writings concerning his life in the Soviet Union to be
generally credible. To a great extent, they parallel the documents provided by
the Soviet Union on Oswald in 1964; that is, that he was in the Soviet Union
during the time period stated; that he attempted suicide; that he worked at
radio plant in Minsk; that he met and married a Russian woman; that he was
originally issued a residence visa for stateless persons and then a residence
visa for foreigners; that he obtained exit visas for himself and his family, and
left the Soviet Union. (299)
(107)
The committee tried to determine the credibility of both the Soviet
documents and Oswald's writings, and in doing so endeavored to obtain any
additional information. Witnesses before the committee stated that the Soviet
Government would have additional information on Oswald from its surveillance of
him. (300) Through the State Department. the committee requested the Soviet
Union to provide any documentation on Oswald they might possess. (301) The
Soviet was requested to allow the interviewing of the Soviet citizens Oswald
mentions
throughout his diary.(392) The State Department was informed by Soviet officials
that no additional information was available and Soviet citizens could not be
interviewed.
(108)
Thus, information that the committee has collected and used concerning
Oswald's stay in the Soviet Union for this study, is only partially complete.
(109)
Lee Harvey Oswald was issued an entry visa to the Soviet Union by the
U.S.S.R. consul in Helsinki, Finland, on October 14, 1959. (303) Stamps on
Oswald's passport show he entered Finland October 10 and left on October 15.
(304)
(110)
On October 16, Oswald arrived in Moscow after crossing the border from
Finland at Vyborg. (305) He was escorted to the Hotel Berlin by an Intourist
representative who met him at his train. (306) There, he registered as a student
on a 5-day luxury tourist ticket and met his Intourist guide Rimma Shirikova.
(307)
(111)
Oswald wrote in the October 16 entry of his diary, referring to Rimma:
I explain to her I wish to apply for Rus.*
citizenship. She is flabbergassed but aggrees to help. She checks with
her boss, main office Intour, than helps me add a letter to Sup. Soviet asking
for citizenship, meanwhile boss telephones passport & visa office and
notifies them about me. (308)
Rimma
insisted they continue sightseeing the following day and asked Oswald himself
and his reasons for defecting. (309) Oswald believed his explanation concerning
his Communist beliefs makes Rimma uneasy. (310)
-------------------
Page
453
453
(112)
On October 20 Oswald was told by Rimma that the Passport & Visa
Department had requested to see him.(311) Oswald wrote in the October 21 entry
of his diary:
Meeting with a single official, balding stout, black suit, fairly good
English, asks what do I want? I say Soviet citizenship, he ask why I give vague
answers about "Great Soviet Union" He tells me "U.S.S.R. only
great in literature wants me to go back home"l am
stunned I reiterate he says
he shall check and let me know weather my visa will be (extended it exipires
today). (312)
Oswald
wrote that at 6 p.m. a police official informs him he must leave the Soviet
Union in 2 hours.
(313) At 7 p.m. he decided to commit suicide and wrote "when Rimma
comes at S p.m. to find me dead, it will be a great shock." (314) Oswald
stated that about 8 p.m. Rimma found him unconscious and he was taken to the
hospital in an ambulance for stitches. (315)
(113)
The Ministry of Health records supplied, reflect that Oswald was admitted
to "Botkin Hospital at 16:00 (4 p.m.) on October 21, 1959 upon request at
15h. 19."(316) He received an examination in the admission's department at
4:30 p.m. where a skin wound was found on the lower third of the left forearm.
(317) Oswald was given four stitches and an aseptic bandage for the iramediate
wound and kept in a psvchosomatic department"for observation. (318) The
report stated that 'Oswald's mind was c]ear his perception was correct and he
inflicted the injury upon himself in order to postpone his departure from the
Soviet Union. (319) Oswald was transferred to the somatic department on October
23. (320)
(114)
Oswald's hospital records stated that ha was visited by the head of the
Service Bureau and daily by an interpreter.(321) His place of employment was
listed "K-4-19-80 Service Bureau. Radio technician," which was the
only other mention of the Service Bureau. (322)
(115)
The authenticity of the hospital records can in no way be determined. One
indication that they may not be valid documents was the April 25, 1953 date that
appeared at the bottom of Oswald's blood analysis. (323)
(116)
Oswald wrote in his diary that while in the hospital he was visited daily
by Rimma and on October 23 by Rosa Agafonova, from the hotel tourist office.
(324)
(117)
Oswald's diary and the hospital reports reflected he was discharged from
the hospital on October 28. (325) He wrote in the diary that Rimma chauffeured
him from the hospital to the Hotel Berlin where he picked up his clothes and
money, $100, and moved to the Hotel Metropole.(326) Oswald stated he Was invited
to visit with Ludmilla Dimitrova, Inturist office head and Rosa. (327)
(118)
Oswald also wrote that on October 28 he visited the pass and registration
office with Rimma. (328) He stated there were four known officials that asked
questions about the last official he had met with and his desires for the
future.(329) Oswald requested Soviet citizenship again and provided his
discharge papers from the Marine Corps as identification.(330) Oswald described
this meeting in discouraging manner. (331)
Page
454
454
(119)
On October 31, Oswald visited the American Embassy in Moscow.(332) Consul
at the Embassy, Richard Snyder, informed the committee that he had no
information concerning Oswald before he walked into the Embassy. (333) Snyder
said:
He handed me a handwritten statement which stated, in effect, that he
renounced his American citizenship. I used the pretext that the Embassy was not
officially open that day and, therefore, I was not in a position to prepare the
required form to go through with the renunciation and invited him to come back
on the first business day of the Embassy if he so wished.
I retained his passport at that time.(334)
Snyder
recalled that Oswald had made some comment that "he had worked, or advised,
or something to that effect, what I would try to tell him and that he didn't
want to waste his time or mine."(335) Snyder was told by Oswald that he had
been a radar operator in the Marine Corps and that he intended to give
information he possessed to the Soviets. (336)
(120)
Oswald wrote in his diary that when he returned from the Embassy he was
contacted by two American reporters in Moscow, named Goldstein and Mosby. (337)
Although he did not grant interviews to either, he answered a few questions for
Mosby. (338)
(121)
Alice Mosby wrote an article, dateline November 14, containing Oswald's
statements to her.(339) It said that imperialism and lack of money while a child
were Oswald's main reasons for saving $1,600 and coming to the Soviet
Union.(340) "He had announced on October 31 that he renounced his U.S.
citizenship and was seeking Soviet citizenship for purely political
reasons."(341) Oswald was denied the Soviet citizenship he had requested
but was allowed to live freely in Russia. (342)
(122)
Among Oswald's belongings was a handwritten account of his "interview
November 14 with Miss Mosby."(343) Oswald wrote that Mosby agreed to let
him see the story before it was sent out. (344) He explained to her the
political reasons he went to the Soviet Union and applied for citizenship and
how he developed those political beliefs.(345) 'Oswald made no comment about his
present situation in the Soviet Union.
(123)
In Oswald's diary he stated that during December he stayed in the hotel
studying Russian, seeing no one except Rimma, who called the ministry for him.
(347) She had told the hotel he would be receiving a great deal of money from
the United States so he paid no bills that month. (348) Oswald recorded that he
only had $28 left. The passport office had met with Oswald again and he wrote
that the same questions were answered by three new officials.(350)
(124)
Oswald's application to the Visa and Registration Office, Interior Department,
Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council for the issuance of an identity
bore the date December 29, 1959. (351)
(125)
Oswald wrote that the passport office issued him a Soviet document "for
those without citizenship on January
4" '352 He stated he was
told that he would be sent to Minsk and that the Red Cross would provide him
with money. (353)
Page
455
455
(126)
The Soviet document that bore a January 5, 1960, date was Oswald's
receipt stating that the legal status of a person without citizenship has been
explained to him, and his receipt for an identity card Series P No. 31179 issued
by OVIRMoscow City Executive Committee on January 4, 1960, with expiration date
January 4, 1961. (354)
(127)
Oswald wrote that January 5 he was given 5,000 rubles by the Red Cross,
2,200 of which paid the hotel bill and 150 of which purchased the train ticket
to Minsk. (355)
(128)
In the January 7 entry, Oswald described being met at the train station
in Minsk by two Red Cross workers, then proceeding to the where he met two
Intourist representatives. (356)
(129)
An application and autobiographical sketch written by Oswald in
connection with his employment at the radio factory in Minsk bore the date
January 11, 1960.(357) Oswald also received the signature of the doctor and
trainer in safety and fire precautions of the Minsk radio plant. (358) On
January 13, he was hired in the experimental shop at the radio factory as a
checker. (359) Oswald stated that he received 700 rubles a month from his job
and another 700 rubles a month from the Soviet Red Cross. (360) He wrote
"therefore every month I make 1400 R, about the same as a director of the
factory."
(361)
(130)
In a March 16 entry Oswald wrote: "I received a small flat one-room
kitchen-bath near the factory (8 min. walk) with splendid view from 2 balconies
of the river. Almost rent free (60 Rub. a month) it a Russian dream." (362)
(131)
On January 4 1961. Oswald wrote that he was called into the passport
office and asked if he wanted Soviet citizenship. He said no, but requested his
residential passport be extended. (363) A document provided by the Soviet
Government reflected that an identity card a person without citizenship, Series
P No. 311479, belonging to Lee Harvey Oswald, was entered from January 4, 1961
to January 1962.(364)
(132)
Another document provided by the Soviets was a certificate from the Minsk Radio
Plant, Administration of Electrotechnical and Instrument Manufacturing Industry.
Council of the National Economy, U.S.S.R., bearing dates January 1, 1960, and
July 15, 1961, that Lee Harvey Oswald was employed as an assembler there. (365)
(133)
The American Embassy received an undated letter from Oswald on February
13. 1961. (366) He stated that he had not received a reply to a December 1960
letter he had written to the Embassy, so he was writing again. (367) Oswald
requested that his American passport be returned and suggested that some
agreement be reached concerning any legal action proceeding against him so he
could return to the United States. (368) He stated:"They have at no time
insisted that I take Russian Citizenship?' (369) "I am living here with
nonpermanent-type papers for a foreigner."(370) The return address listed
on
the envelope was Ulitsa Kalinina, House 4 Apartment 24, Minsk; and Oswald said
he could not leave without permission. (371)
(134)
In a letter dated February 28, 1961, Snyder requested that Oswald appear in
person at the Embassy to determine his citizenship status.(372) Snyder explained
that the December 1960 letter, which Oswald had mentioned, was never received.
(373)
Page
456
456
(135)
Oswald wrote the Embassy again in March 1961. He stated he could leave
Minsk without permission and would find it inconvenient to visit Moscow for an
interview.(374) He requested that preliminary inquiries be sent in questionnaire
form. (375)
(136)
Oswald artended a trade dance in Minsk on March 17 and described meeting
Marina N. Prusakova. (376) Records provided by Ministry of Health. U.S.S.R.,
reflected that on March 30 Oswald was admitted to a clinical hospital--ear,
nose, and throat division. (377) According to these records, he was discharged
on April 11, 1961, and he wrote in his diary that he proposed to Marina 4 days
later.
(137)
The date on a certificate of marriage for Marina and Lee Oswald from the
Minsk Civil Registrar Office of Leninsky District is April 30, 1961.(379) The
entry in Oswald's diary concerning his marriage also bears this date. (380)
(138)
In a letter dated May 1961. Oswald informed the Embassy he had married a
Russian-born woman who would travel to the, United States with him. (381) He
wrote that a marriage stamp was placed on his present passport for an individual
without citizenship.(382) Oswald said, "I am asking not only for the right
to return to the United States, but also for full guarantees that I shall not
under any circumstances, be persecuted for any act pertaining to this case
"(383)
(139)
The July 8 entry in Oswald's diary described an airplane trip
to
Moscow for his first interview at the Embassy since his attempt to denounce
American citizenship.(384) Oswald stated that he took no oath, affirmation, or
allegiance of any kind nor was he required to sign any kind of papers in
connection with his employment. (385) He denied being a member of the factory
trade union or ever having been asked to join. (386) Oswald gave his earnings as
90 new rubles per month.(387) This contradicted an earlier entry in his diary
that he made the equivalent of 70 new rubles as a salary and 70 new rubles
supplement per month. (388)
(140)
Oswald denied making statements of an exploitable nature concerning his
original decision to reside in the Soviet Union. (389) He remembered being
interviewed in his room at the Metropole Hotel by a reporter from Radio Moscow
concerning his impressions of Moscow as an American tourist. (390) He stated he
had never been asked to make any statements for radio, press or audiences since
his arrival. (391) This contradicts his first comment and what he wrote in
January 13--March 16, 1960 entries in his diary. "I meet many young Rus-
sian
workers my own age. * * * All wish to know about me even offer to hold a mass
meeting so I can say. I refuse politely." (392)
(141)
When asked if he had provided information he had acquired, as a radar
operator in the Marine Corps, Oswald stated "that he was never in fact
subjected to any questioning or briefing by the Soviet authorities concerning
his life or experiences prior to entering the Soviet Union and had never
provided information to any Soviet organ." (393)
(142)
Oswald stated he never applied for Soviet citizenship. (394) His original
application was for permission to remain in the Soviet Union and a temporary
extension of his tourist visa pending the outcome of his request. (395) Oswald
stated he had addressed this
Page
457
457
application
and mailed it to the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet although it appeared to have been
delivered to the central office of the Moscow OVIR. (396) Apparently this was
the basis of a notification Oswald stated he received 3 days later that
permission had been granted for him to remain in the Soviet Union. (397)
Subsequently he was issued a "stateless" internal passport. (398)
(143)
The Embassy returned his passport to him after it was amended to be valid
only for direct return to the United States. (399) The passport expiration date
was September 10, 1961, but Oswald needed the passport to apply for exit visas
immediately in Minsk. Oswald wrote
"July 9 received passport. Call Marina to Moscow also" (401)
Oswald wrote after he and Marina returned to Minsk on July 14, that
meetings to persuade Marina not to go to the United States began. (402) Her
visit to the Embassy was known. (403)
(145)
The 20 or so papers, birth certificates, affidavits, photos, and so forth
needed to apply for exit visas were turned in by Oswald between July 15 and
August 20. (404) He writes in the diary that "they say it will be 3 1/2
months before we know whether (sic) they'll let us go or not. (405) The date on
Oswald's application to the OVIR Militia Department, Minsk City Executive
Committee for the issuance of an exit visa from the U.S.S.R. is July 15, 1961.
(406)
(146)
The application Marina had to sign to give permission for her husband to
leave the Soviet Union bears a July 19 date.
According to Marina's visa application she requests an exit visa to join
him on his departure from the Soviet Union, August 21, 1961.
(147)
The personnel department chief and plant director where Oswald worked, issued a
report to the Minsk City Militia Department in December 1961. (409) It stated
that Oswald:
(1) Takes no
part in the social life of the shop and keeps very much to himself.
(2) Reacts in an
oversensitive manner to remarks from the foreman.
(3) Is careless
in his work.
(4) Does not
perform satisfactory as a regulator, and
(5) Does not
display the initiative for increasing his skills as a regulator. (410)
(148)
Oswald wrote in his diary that on Christmas Day 1961 Marina was told at
the passport and visa office that she and Oswald were granted exit visas from
the Soviet Union. (411) Oswald's
application to the Minsk Militia Department for the extension of his identity
card bore it January 4, 1962, date. (412) He
wrote
in his diary he was granted a residence document for foreigners. (413) Identity
card for an alien series AA No. 5-19666, received by Lee Harvey Oswald was
issued January 4 and was valid until July 2, 1963: (414)
(149)
On February 15 Oswald wrote ,that, June Lee Oswald was born. (415) His
diary stated-that Marina formally quit her job March 24 and he received a letter
stating her entrance visa to the United States had been approved the following
day. (416)
Soviet
Citizenship
Page
458
458
XIII.
SOVIET CITIZENSHIP
(150)
Lee Harvey Oswald was not a Soviet citizen during his residence in the
Soviet Union. He requested Soviet citizenship by mail on October 16, 1959. On
October 21, a Soviet official interviewed Oswald and tried to dissuade him from
defecting to the Soviet Union. Later that night a police officer told him he
would have to leave the Soviet Union within 2 hours.
(151)
Oswald immediately attempted to commit suicide. His hospital
records reflected it was done in an effort to postpone his departure.
After a week in the hospital, Oswald applied at the pass and registration
office for ,Soviet citizenship. Three days later he orally denounced his
American citizenship at ,the Embassy. Although he did so in order to convince
the Soviets to grant him citizenship, he was granted a residence visa for
foreigners without citizenship. Oswald received this visa on January 4, 1960, 2
1/2 months after his original application. Oswald
told American reporters in November that the
Soviets would allow him to stay. The January 4 date appears in Oswald's
diary and on the residence document provided by Soviet authorities.
(152)
One year later the residence visa was extended after Oswald refused the
Soviet citizenship offered to him. When he wrote to the U.S. Embassy in February
1961 he stated the Soviets had not insisted on his acceptance of citizenship.
Oswald wrote that he had "nonpermanent type papers" for a foreigner.
In January 1960. the Embassy had reissued Oswald's American passport and the
Soviets issued him a residence visa for foreigners.
ANALYSIS
(153)
Oswald was not the only American who had difficulty obtaining citizenship while
residing in the Soviet Union. Ricciardelli repeatedly requested citizenship from
the Visa Department of the Intourist Service Bureau. He was told that he would
have to leave the Soviet Union on the expiration date that appeared on his visa.
Ricciardelli did not depart and was told he would be allowed to remain only
after being hospitalized for rheumatic fever. A Soviet passport was given to
Ricciardelli 7 months after he requested it. Although his wife refused a Soviet
passport his children were considered Soviet citizens.
(154)
Webster waited 2 months for
acceptance by the Soviets. He received Soviet citizenship only after altering
his stated reason for defection and assuring the Russians he could manufacture
the Rand spray gun he was exhibiting in the Soviet Union.
(155)
Soviet authorities did not grant citizenship to Dubinsky or Petrulli,
both of whom left the country. Davis was documented as "stateless
person" and allowed to reside in the Soviet Union.
(156)
Sloboda waited 1 month to be granted
Soviet citizenship, did his oldest and youngest child. His wife and middle child
were issued internal passports for foreigners.
(157)
The Soviets offered citizenship to the Blocks, but they received internal
passports for foreigners. After a number of years in the Soviet
Union
the Blocks were pressed to accept Soviet citizenship, which they would not do.
Page
459
459
(158)
In the case of Dutkanicz, the Supreme Soviet, by special decree, granted
him citizenship 1 month prior to his defection.
Propaganda
Use and Financial Arrangements
Page
459
XIV.
PROPAGANDA USE AND FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS
(159)
Richard Snyder, the American consul at the Embassy in Moscow was asked
about the Soviet use of defectors for propaganda.
He said:
I think that if there is a
usual pattern--and, again, this is difficult to use words like 'usual' because
there are never two cases alike in this sort of thing---but if there is a usual
pattern, it is that there is some exploitation of the defector Soviet public
media, usually after the details of his defection have been settled,
particularly the detail as to whether the Soviet Union desires to have him. Up
to that point, publicity in the Soviet Press probably is not to be expected.
He
testified that in the Oswald case, there was no known Soviet press or propaganda
(418) Marina Oswald's testimony before the Warren Commission was to the
contrary. She said that "Lee took part in radio broadcasts, propaganda in
favor of the Soviet Union, which he felt helped him to stay in the Soviet Union.
(419)
(160)
Oswald wrote in his diary he had been asked to give a speech, which he
did not do. He also informed the American Embassy in Moscow that he had made
several statements to Lev Sefyayev on his impressions of Moscow as a tourist.
The committee found no information that any statements made by Lee Harvey Oswald
were used for Soviet propaganda purposes.
(161)
The committee also found no information that the Soviets had used
Citrynell, Dubinsky, Greendlinger, Petrulli, or Webster for propaganda purposes.
There was no apparent correlation between Soviet citizenship being granted to an
individual and subsequent propaganda exploitation as suggested by Snyder.
Dubinsky and Petrulli were not granted any type of residence visa and remained
the Soviet Union only a short time. Citrynell and Webster became
Soviet
citizens with relatively little difficulty. There was no information available
on Greendlinger's circumstances. Absence of data does not necessarily mean the
Soviets made no propaganda use of these five individuals or Oswald.
(162)
Three of the defectors that had anti-American propaganda statements
published--Ricciardelli, Slobode, and Dutkanicz--were Soviet citizens. Two other
defectors whose anti-American statements received Soviet press, the Blocks, had
residence visas for foreigners. They
were, however, frequently pressured to accept Soviet citizenship.
Davis was the only defector documented. as a "stateless
person," as was Oswald, who had anti-American statements published for
propaganda purposes.
(163)
Two defectors made the type of propaganda statements during radio broadcasts
that Marina Oswald Porter describes Oswald as making. Both these defectors,
Slobode and Dutkanicz, had contact with the KGB while stationed in West Germany
with the U.S. Army. They were still
serving in the Army when they entered the U.S.S.R.
Residence,
Employment, and Financial Arrangements
Page
460
460
XV.
RESIDENCE, EMPLOYMENT, AND FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS
(164)
All the individuals within this study, including Oswald, who received
permission to remain in the Soviet Union, were assigned reside in cities within
the western portion of the country. Oswald was asigned employment, as were the
others, with the exception of who was a student at the Kiev Institute. Slobode
also received rubles a month, although his employment is unknown.
(165)
Income comparison was difficult as the number of household members varied
over time. Income
of additional household members, an important variable, was usually
known. The devaluation of the ruble
in 1960 confused amounts in some cases. (420)
(166)
Salary was known for Oswald and five other defectors. Financial aid
received from organizations like the Soviet Red Cross was also known in most of
these cases. Oswald received the lowest salary among the defectors in this
study. 70 new rubles. Davis, a single male attending the Kiev Institute,
received the salary closest to that made by Oswald. He was paid 90 new rubles
and lived in a free dorm room. Oswald,
however, was the only individual known to receive a monthly stipend in addition
to his salary. He wrote that each month he received the equivalent of 70 new
rubles, technically from the Red Cross. It
was, in fact, probably arranged for by the M.V.D. (421) This would bring
Oswald's monthly income to 140 new rubles. The Blocks and Ricciardellis made
close to this amount, but had families to support in addition to themselves.
Sloboda and Webster both received over 250 new rub]es a month.
(167)
The defectors also received occasional financial aid. The amount varied
greatly from the 10,000 rubles (presumably old rubles, equaling 1,000 new
rubles) that Davis wrote a friend he had received and 50 rubles given to
SIoboda's wife to buy a present. Oswald received the equivalent of 500 new
rubles to pay hotel and transportation bills to Minsk. No defector received
payments above 100 new rubles except Oswald and Davis. The CIA 201 file on Davis
states that because sum Davis wrote he had received was so fantastically high it
was perhaps a mistake.
(168)
Although Oswald received more aid than most of the other in dividuals
studied, it is possible that it supplemented the low salary he received. Oswald
wrote "it was really payment for my denunciation of the United States in
Moscow * * * As soon as I * * * started negotiations with the American Embassy
in Moscow for my return to the United States my Red Cross allotment was cut
off?' (423)
Soviet
Relations and Exit Visas
Page
460
XVI.
SOVIET RELATIONS AND EXIT VISAS
(169)
Two American citizens married Soviet citizens while residing in the
U.S.S.R. Oswald had been in the Soviet Union 18 1/2 months when he married
Marina N. Prusakova. Two months prior to the marriage, Oswald wrote the American
Embassy concerning an agreement that might be made for his return to the United
States. A month the marriage he informed the Embassy his wife would be returning
to the United States with him. Marina applied for an exit visa to leave the
Soviet Union and waited 4 months for it to be granted. Oswald, who
Page
461
461
had
applied for a Soviet exit visa approximately 1 1/2 months earlier than Marina,
learned his had been granted with Marina's. He had waited 5 1/2 months for an
exit visa.
(170)
Greendlinger's second trip to Moscow in April 1958 resulted Iris marriage
to Yelena Ivanovaa Pyatnitskaya within the month.
He had been encouraged to believe her passport and Soviet exit visa would
be issued in 3 to 4 months by OVIR. After a year, the Soviet
authorities issued his wife an exit visa to depart the Soviet Union.
The U.S. Embassy refused to issue her an entrance visa due to her
membership in Komsomol and a trade union. Because Greendlinger left the Soviet
Union in July 1959, it took, at most, 16 months for the Soviets to grant
Greendlinger an exit visa. His wife's Soviet exit visa took approximately 12
months to obtain.
(171)
Webster did not marry the woman with whom he lived in the Soviet Union
and did not try to arrange for her departure from the U.S.S.R. He applied for a
Soviet exit visa for, himself and, after a 2-month wait, was refused and told he
could reapply in a year. Webster waited the year and reapplied for an exit visa.
The Soviet authorities granted it, and Webster departed for the United States
after 14 months.
(172)
Others living in the Soviet. Union were also refused immediate issuance
of exit visas. The Blocks had their requests denied or not acted upon for at
least 12 months until they were expelled for acts of hooliganism and handing out
anti-Soviet propaganda. Citrynell reported he was detained in the Soviet Union
involuntarily for 8 months.
(173)
It may be assumed Mary Dutkanicz obtained an exit visa because she was
allowed out of the Soviet Union on March 22, 1962.
Her husband made immediate efforts for his children and himself to depart
also. Sixteen months later his children were taken from their home. They spoke
to their father once and learned his fears that the Soviets would render him an
idiot. Three months after the children's removal, Dutkanicz was reported as dead
to Iris wife. The children were allowed to depart from the Soviet Union 6 months
after the reported death, or 25 months after their mother had left.
(174)
In this analysis, only one Soviet exit visa was granted in a shorter time
period than was Oswald's. Sloboda's wife received an exit visa within 3 months
of application. Nevertheless, this was the only case in which the visa was an
exit-reentry visa, and application procedures may have been different. Reasons
for Oswald's short wait obtaining an exit visa are unknown.
KGB
Contact
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XVII.
KGB CONTACT
(175)
During Oswald's efforts to regain his American passport, he was
questioned by Embassy personnel about his activities in the Soviet Union. He was
not candid in all of his responses. This places into doubt Oswald's statement
that he had never been subjected to any questioning of briefing by Soviet
authorities concerning his life prior to entering the, Soviet Union and that he
had never provided information to any Soviet organ. Oswald had previously
informed the Embassy that he would provide "information he learned as a
radar operator in the Marines.
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(176)
Other questions are raised about Oswald's. state. ment by an October 17,
1959, entry in his diary that his Intourist guide "asks me about myself and
my reason for doing this. The committee was informed by KGB officers who had
defected from the Soviet Union that Intourist guides were frequently used by the
KGB as agents or sources of information. Oswald's diary reflects he saw a great
deal of his Intourist guide.
(177)
Oswald's diary also described various meetings with Soviet officials to
discuss his desire to reside in the Soviet Union. He met with at least five
representatives of the pass and registration or visa department. Later Oswald
had a meeting with the Soviet Red Cross, and he is met in Minsk by two other Red
Cross employees and two Intourist representatives. Oswald wrote in his diary
that he kept contact with one of the Intourist representatives for 3% months,
and 6 months after that, she attended his 21st birthday party.
(178)
Oswald's diary also contained entries concerning his associates. (424)
Marina told the FBI that:
She believes he was observed and perhaps his neighbors and associates
were questioned concerning his beliefs and his activities * * * there is a
possibility that there will be speculators and espionage agents among tourists
and immigrants in Russia * * * for this reason * * * tourists and immigrants are
investigated to a degree in Russia." (425) Marina also informed the FBI
that she knew Oswald's contacts and knew of no contact by Russian intelligence
or government agencies. (426) Marina did not believe Oswald had been given any
assignment to perform, either in Russia or the United States. (427)
(179)
The committee requested permission of the Soviet Embassy to conduct
interviews of the Soviet citizens that were reported by Oswald to have had
contact with him. (428) This permission was refused, as was the committee's
request for additional Soviet documents concerning Oswald's surveillance. The
committee had no other available means to determine possible connections between
the described individuals and the KGB.
(180)
The committee interviewed Webster concerning any contact he may have had
with the KGB while in the Soviet Union. (429)
Webster
said the KGB had never contacted him, that there was no reason for them to do
so, as the government officials that had aided him in his defection had his
entire story. (430) He stated he had never been questioned relative to
intelligence matters. (431)
(181)
File reviews revealed that Mrs. Block thought they would have been of
interest to the KGB while in the Soviet Union, but that they had no knowing
contact with them. (432) She said that the Soviet representative who resettled
them asked a lot of questions. (433) She recalled his inquiries about how an
illegal U.S. passport, or one, with false identity, could be obtained. (434).
(182)
The committee found that Ricciardelli had contact with a representative
from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Red Cross.
It was the Red Cross that relocated him to Kiev. He stated that visitors
to his apartment believed it to be bugged. File reviews produced no, information
concerning KGB contact with either Ricciardelli or Citrynell.
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Citrynell
was known to have had contact with the Office of Visa and Registration and the
Red Cross. The only defector requested not to make degoratory comments about the
Soviet Union after leaving was Citrynel. He
was asked for a signed statement concerning this by the Red Cross.
(183)
Apparently, Dubinsky and Pertrulli never met with any Soviet
authorities other than thier Intourist guides. They were refused
citizenship or any type of Soviet residence visa and remain in the Soviet Union
only for a short period. Dubinsky's treatment may characterize Soviet treatment
of foreigners they consider mentally unbalanced.
(184)
The committee found Dubinsky and Sloboda had contact with the KGB before
and after their defection to the Soviet Union.
Dutkanicz was recruited in a bar in West Germany by the KGB. Upon his
defection, his family was resettled in L'vov with KGB assistance.
The KGB watched over Dutkanicz closely and kept in daily telephone
contact with him.
(185)
Sloboda, a reported KGB agent before defection, was subjected to frequent
questioning by the KGB. His wife,
however, reported the only Russian Intelligence Service officer she knew was the
resettlement officer.
(186)
In reviewing the circumstance concerning KGB contact with these 12
defectors, it could be concluded that only those having had contact with the KGB
prior to their defection, had contact with Soviet intelligence afterward.
This conclusion, however, would be in direct conflict with the testimony
before the committee of experts in Soviet intelligence and officers who defected
from the KGB.
(187)
The committee received testimony that: (1) Americans entering the Soviet
Union were of intelligence interest to the KGB; (2) Americans offering to defect
to the Soviet Union were rare and paid particular attention to by the KGB; (3)
in any case similar to that of Lee Harvey Oswald, the defector would have been
debriefed for intelligence information.(435)
(188)
In the cases of these defectors, representatives from the Soviet Red Cross,
Intourist, the Office of Visa and Registration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and the KGB fulfill overlapping roles. In addition, KGB officers use the
employees of the various other agencies as agents to gather information. It is
probable that KGB officers misrepresent their employment while debriefing
unknowledgeable defectors. It is also possible that the defectors misrepresented
any contact they may have with foreign intelligence agencies, thus files might
not accurately reflect experiences in the Soviet Union. Consequently, contact
between the KGB and Lee Harvey Oswald cannot be ruled out. In most cases, the
files reviewed in. the FBI and CIA did not in fact contain indications of
debriefing of, the defectors by either agency in the United States. Thus, most
in individuals were never asked if the KGB had made
contact
with them during their stay in the Soviet Union.
Addendum:
America Debriefing Practices
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ADDENDUM:
AMERICA DEBRIEFING PRACTICES
(189)
The committee conducted a review of defectors files in order to determine
whether defectors other than Oswald were routinely debriefed upon their return
to the United States. The committee
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requested
that the CIA provide a list of persons traveling to the Soviet Union during the
period from 1958 to 1963, including both visitors and those persons considered
by the agency to be defectors. (436) In response, the CIA provided a computer
listing of 380 individuals entitled "U.S. Persons Who Have or May Have
Defected to the U.S.S.R. Between 1958-1963."(437)
The Agency
stated that this listing represented U.S. persons including some non-U.S.
citizens who owed some measure of allegiance the United States, who either had
defected or had shown some intention of defecting to the U.S.S.R. within the
requested time period. (438)
(190)
As this list was compiled from a more detaled computer program on
American defectors, a more detailed description concerning these individuals was
requested and provided in an expanded version of the original list. This machine
listing included the following information where relevant or available for each
individual: name, date, and place of birth, 201 file number, arrival in Soviet
Union, departure from Soviet Union, employment in Soviet Union, most
current
address, and other miscellaneous information compiled from the individual's 201
file and citations for/or other agency documents regarding this individual.
(191)
The committee compiled a list of persons who appeared from the
information available in the Agency's expanded list, to be U.S. citizens born in
the United States, who defected or attempted to defect to the Soviet Union
between the years of 1958 and 1963 and who returned to the United States within
the same period of time. In addition, the committee included individuals from an
October State Department request for information from the CIA regarding these
persons whom they considered to be defectors to the Soviet Union or Soviet bloc
countries. (439)
(192)
The committee requested files or '29 individuals who fit the
above-described criteria and the CIA provided files on 28 individuals on whom
they maintained records. These 201 files were reviewed as well as any existing
Domestic Contact Division files regarding these persons. The committee's files
review revealed that, in the case of six of the individuals, there was no
indication that they ever returned to the United States.(440)In some of these
cases, the files contained a report from a source who observed or spoke with the
subject and then reported the contact to the CIA, but there was no indication of
direct contact with any of these persons on the part of the CIA.
(193)
In regard to the other 9:29 defectors, the file review showed there is no
record of CIA contact with 18 of them. Again, four of these files contain
reports by sources who advised the Agency of their contact. Included in this
group are Joseph Dutkanicz and Morris and Mollie Block. (441) One file regarding
a former military person, Bruce Frederick Davis, contained a report of a
debriefing.
(194)
The circumstances of the CIA's contact with the four remaining defectors
differed in each case. The file of Irving Amron reflected that he had actually
been living in the U.S.S.R. since 1933 and returned to the United States in
1962. He was debriefed in 1964 by a CIA officer after applying for employment in
response to a newspaper advertisement. (443) Another returning defector, Harold
Citrynell,
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was
unwittingly interviewed by a CIA officer abroad upon the official's departure
from the Soviet Union enroute to the United States.
(444)
While Citrynell's file indicated that the Agency considered it desirable that a
full and controlled debriefing by the CIA and FBI be conducted and CIA wrote to
the FBI suggesting a joint debriefing, there is no evidence in Citrynell's 201
file nor in any DCD documents that suggested further contact on the part of the
CIA. (445)
(195)
More extensive debriefings were conducted of the other two defectors. Robert E.
Webster, a plastics expert with the Rand Development Corp., whose defection to
the Soviet Union in 1959 was highly publicized, returned to the United States in
June of 1962 (446) Weber had been employed by the Soviet Union at the Leningrad
Scientific Institute of Polytechnic Plastics.(447) Shortly after his return to
the United States, Webster was debriefed in home, territory by CIA's
representatives in conjunction with representatives from the Air Force. (448) It
was decided that a more extensive debriefing was order and Webster was sub-equently
brought to the Washington, D.C. area where he was debriefed for a period of 2
weeks. (449) The debriefing reports included a chronology of Webster's life and
the CIA's assessment of him as well as a large body of information regarding
life in the Soviet Union, Webster's work there, and biographic information on
persons he had met during his residence there.(450)
(196)
Likewise, Libero Ricciardelli who had lived in the Soviet Union for
nearly 4 years was contacted for purposes of debriefing soon after his return to
the United States in late June of 1963.(451) His initial debriefing included
such subjects as the motivation to defect to the U.S.S.R. as well as activities
engaged in during his Moscow stay, relocation from Moscow to Kiev, and general
aspects of life such as residence controls and costs. (452) While the CIA
believed it was infeasible to debrief Ricciardelli more thoroughly due to his
current status of attempting to regain U.S. citizenship, the Agency expressed an
interest in eliciting more information on such topics as cost of living medical
care, consumer goods, highways, transportation, and restrictions upon travel
within Kiev. (453)
(197)
It becomes clear from the review of files on these defectors that
debriefing of defectors by the CIA was, in fact, somewhat of random occurrence.
Nonetheless, the instances in which
the Agency did choose to debrief returning American defectors, the Agency
appeared to be interested in topics of general interest regarding life in
certain areas of the Soviet Union. In this regard, the persons who were
debriefed were similar to Oswald in that they defected and returned within the
same general time period and each spent his time in the Soviet Union in areas of
interest to the CIA.
(198)
It appears from an examination of all available materials that Lee Harvey
Oswald was not interviewed by the CIA following his return to the United States
from the Soviet Union. Although, persons branch of the Soviet Russian division
expressed an interest in interviewing Oswald
they never followed up on this interest. There was also no indication that the
Office of Operations interviewed Oswald.
(199)
While the CIA did conduct interviews of some tourists who visited the
Soviet Union during the period 1959-63 as well as some American citizens who
defected to the Soviet Union and then returned
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to
the
Submitted by:
JOHANNA
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