I will add these to the Master List of Missing JFK Assassination Records that I will prioritize and present to former Assassinations Records Review Board Chairman Judge John Tunheim, who requested this list when I met with him at the CAPA Press Conference at the National Press Club in March.
Peter Dale Scott to Dear John (Newman),
I have not thought much
about Vietnam since 2008, when I published a revised version of The War
Conspiracy with a new section on NSAM 273. Can I count on you to add to the
list of records missing at the National Archive the minutes of the Honolulu
Conference of Nov. 20, 1963? I consider this omission (even the fact of it)
extremely important, not just for understanding the JFK assassination, but for
understanding U.S. history.
I was hoping in fact that you might
supply a complete list of missing records on Vietnam from late November 1963.
For example: The documents about the Honolulu Conference in the FRUS 1961-1963
Volume make no reference to North Vietnam. The first FRUS record to do so is
FRUS Doc. 327 [SECRET]. Memo of Conversation Between Hilsman and Lodge, Nov.
24, 1963, 10 AM.[1]
A SECRET/EYES
ONLY second version follows as Doc. 328. There was also a third version, as we
learn from this footnote 2 to Doc. 327: “2. Because of different distribution
limitations, Hilsman made three separate memoranda of this conversation. The
second is infra; the third was not declassified.”[2]
Has it since been declassified? Do
you discuss this in the new version of your book? (I confess I have not looked
at it yet, but will do so if your answer is yes.) Are there more missing
records of this importance?
Above all, will you take on the job
of compiling this list? I will be happy to help, but I am not up to speed and
in addition now have bad eyes.
I do think this is an important
project, not because I think we can make the documents appear, but so we can
help make this sleeping nation more aware that America has a deep history.
Peter
[1] U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United
States, 1961-1963, Vol IV, 632, Doc. 327. Memo of Conversation Between Hilsman
and Lodge, Nov. 24, 1963, 10 AM, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/pg_632.
[2] U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United
States, 1961-1963, Vol IV, 632, Doc. 327. Memo of Conversation Between Hilsman
and Lodge, Nov. 24, 1963, 10 AM, fn. 2
Peter Dale Scott
There is a whole file which, as I
told the ARRB in 1994, should be considered am assassination record. It is the
FBI’s Mexico City file MX 105-2137. Let me begin with the Board’s
explanation of why this file, brought to their attention by me, was not seen by
them:
“The Review Board also sought to
determine whether the FBI maintained a file in Mexico City on a "Harvey
Lee Oswald" under the file number 105-2137. The Mexico City Legal Attache
(Legat) opened a file on Lee Harvey Oswald (105-3702) in October 1963 following
Oswald's visit to Mexico City. Some of the documents in the Legat's file
contain notations for routing records to a file numbered 105-2137, and were
captioned “Harvey Lee Oswald.” One researcher conjectured that this file would
predate the Lee Harvey Oswald file. 105-3702, and might lead the Review Board
to other FBI documents on Lee Harvey Oswald. In response to the Board’s request,
the FBI searched its Legat's files for a file numbered 105-2137 and
captioned "Harvey Lee Oswald," but it did not find such a file.”[1]
The report accurately summarizes my
conjecture: Bill Turner had assured me that new FBI file numbers were in
chronological order, in which case MX file 105-2137, dealing with “Harvy [sic]
Lee Oswald,” would antedate considerably the alleged Oswald visit to Mexico.
But my public testimony to the
Board, the only occasion I ever had to communicate my “conjecture,” does not
(as recorded on the ARRB website) contain any reference to it. Indeed
it is almost nonsensical, and when
clear it is misleading.
“I want to suggest to you that the
FBI may have been tracking all of this in a file which I am quite sure has
never been seen by the Warren Commission, never been seen by the House
Committee, and never certainly seen by me or by the Archives today. I have found
a reference to it in a cover sheet which I am going to leave with you. It is
Mexico City FBI File 105-2137, which is then struck out and replaced by a
different file number with a different name, Lee Harvey Oswald. I hope you will
pursue that original file.”[2]
There are many deliberately garbled
records in this case. This appears to be one of them. I am absolutely certain
that at the time I not only shared my “conjecture,” but drew attention to the
anomalous name, ”Harvey Lee Oswald.”
In fact, the cover sheet mentioning
this file is available from the Mary Ferrell Foundation website. It is NARA
RIF 124-10029-10270, FBI serial MX 105-3702-254. It is from “Wesley” [SA Howard
D. Wesley], has the title “Information re Allegations re Oswald case,” and
(apart from still classified cross-file references) contains only this
reference: “105-2137, [corrected manually in ink to “3702”] (Harvy Lee
Oswald).” (It makes no reference to “Lee Harvey Oswald.”)[3]
Forty-five years ago, I discussed
how the FBI by mutilating a photograph of General Walker’s back yard,
reproduced as Warren Commission Exhibit 5 (16 WH 7), in order to obliterate the
licence plate of a car belonging to their informant, Charles Klihr. Pressed by
the Warren Commission to explain the hole, another FBI report reported that the
car belonged to a “CHARLES F. KILHR,” [sic] and added that the
Dallas FBI files “are negative concerning the name CHARLES F. KILHR” (Warren
Commission Exhibit 1351, 22 WH 586). In like fashion, when the French asked the
United States to hand over a major war criminal in their protection, Klaus
Barbie, U.S. army intelligence officers pretended ignorance by
maintaining files on him in the name of Klaus Barbier.[4]
It is not too late to ask for the
FBI’s file MX 105-2137, withoutspecifying whether it was captioned “Harvey
Lee Oswald,” “Harvy Lee Oswald,” or something else. If not illegally destroyed,
the file should be absurdly easy to find -- between files 105-2136 and
105-2138.
P.S. Bill, are you persuaded
by this argument? Or should I add how "Harvey Lee Oswald: records keep
turning up from all over (see my Deep Politics Two, pp. 142-46). Last
night, for example, I found this one from CIA in 1972.
CIA MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD:
SUBJECT - HARVEY LEE OSWALD
NARA Record Number: 104-10209-10001
Harvey Lee Oswald
1. Today the DC/CI Staff advised me
that the Director had relayed via the DDP the injunction that the Agency was
NOT, under any circumstances, to make inquiries or ask questions of any source
or defector about OSWALD.
2. I will arrange to have the
questions about Oswald sent to SB/CI for use with the
defector Oleg Lyalin returned to me
and will advise C/SB/CI of the injunction.
6
April 1972
(https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=3611&relPageId=106&search=mexico_AND%20%22105-2137%22),
emphasis added.
[3] At the time I did not know who Wesley was. But other FBI
“Harvey Lee Oswald” records identify him as SA Howard D. Wesley, then at the
FBI Mexican branch office in Monterrey.
[4] For the public facts, and subsequent U.S. apology, see Stuart
Taylor Jr., “U.S. Says Army Shielded Barbie; Offers Its 'Regrets' To The
French,” New York Times, August 17, 1983, http://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/17/world/us-says-army-shielded-barbie-offers-its-regrets-to-the-french.html?mcubz=3.
Peter Dale Scott
Dan Alcorn notes: Joan Mellen
reports that the Bruce-Lovett Report on the CIA is missing from RFK's files at
the JFK Library.
Malcolm Blunt: Gerry Hemming Church
testimony. Oreste Pena Church testimony......FBI espionage "65" File
on Oswald,(they deny they had one)Correspondence between Office of Security
(Bruce Solie and David Slawson during WC "investigation"..... Werbell
tape erased only tape counter survives not the transcript.....second part of
Bruce Solie HSCA Security Classified Testimony (might surface in the October
release).....full debriefs of INS and Customs officers at the Department of Justice
following their testimony to the Church committee(all missing) (single page
precis only in Robert Keuch files)..4 boxes of unedited witness depositions
sent to NARA in April 1965 by the Office of U.S. Attorneys....RG 118....only
fragments of this "no good testimony" survive,bits of Ruth Paine
etc.....nothing like 4 boxes,I asked a NARA archivist to search for the 4
missing boxes and gave her the Accesion number...nada, zero, nothing......and
accession numbers are supposed to be the Holy Grail in order to find stuff at
NARA......there's more Bill, I will think on.....best, Malcolm
Bill Simipich: Here's missing
documents logged by the ARRB. Below is the backstory, Alan Dale has
posted it on the AARC website. Bill
Mexico City Station to Headquarters
(September 26–30, 1963);
Headquarters to Mexico City Station (September 26–30, 1963);
JMWAVE to Headquarters (September 26–November 21,1963);
Headquarters to JMWAVE (September 26–November 21, 1963);
Headquarters to Mexico City Station (September 26–30, 1963);
JMWAVE to Headquarters (September 26–November 21,1963);
Headquarters to JMWAVE (September 26–November 21, 1963);
and all traffic between the Mexico City Station and JMWAVE for the periods September 26–October 20, 1963 and November 22–December 30, 1963. A CIA Tutorial: How to Avoid Providing Files
-- With the October releases coming
up, we should keep in mind what the ARRB has already told us we will not find.
For those of us who research the
Mexico City story, it has always been very frustrating to find that there is no
organized way to find the cables and dispatches between Mexico
City and Headquarters, or between these two entities and JMWAVE in Miami, except
within carefully circumscribed dates.
What we have run into amounts to a CIA tutorial on how to avoid providing information that is mandated under the law.
As shown below, the listing of files
for JMWAVE begins on November 21, and the listing of files for HQ and
Mexico City begins on October 1. Very unhelpful for putting together the
Oswald story, as well as the events prior to the assassination in Miami.
But not all of the files are
missing. A number of the files within this timeframe do exist - simply in
a less organized format. Many memos are tucked away in various other
files, such as the files on Cuban consul Eusebio Azcue in CIA microfilm, Reel 2.
In fact, it is probable that most or
all of these files could have been provided by the CIA if they had simply
cross-indexed the files within their own Records Integration
Division.
The National Archives has the duty to index the files themselves, and send a demand to the CIA for the missing files. The Act is in effect until "the Archivist certifies to the President and the Congress that all assassination-related records have been made available to the public in accordance with this Act."
The National Archives has the duty to index the files themselves, and send a demand to the CIA for the missing files. The Act is in effect until "the Archivist certifies to the President and the Congress that all assassination-related records have been made available to the public in accordance with this Act."
This is yet another reason we need a
new JFK Records Act with stronger enforcement powers.
From the ARRB Final Report in 1999:
The Review Board determined that,
while much of the Mexico City Station cable traffic
existed in the JFK Collection, the
traffic contained numerous gaps, particularly in communications between Mexico
City and the CIA Station in Miami, JMWAVE.
The Review Board deemed these gaps
to be significant because both CIA stations played roles in U.S. operations
against Cuba.
The cable traffic that the Review Board reviewed in the CIA’s sequestered collection commences on October 1, 1963, and contains the earliest known communication—an October 8, 1963, cable—between the Mexico City Station and CIA Headquarters concerning Lee Harvey Oswald.
The cable traffic that the Review Board reviewed in the CIA’s sequestered collection commences on October 1, 1963, and contains the earliest known communication—an October 8, 1963, cable—between the Mexico City Station and CIA Headquarters concerning Lee Harvey Oswald.
In 1995, the Review Board submitted
a formal request for additional information
regarding the above-referenced gaps
in CIA cable traffic. CIA did not locate additional
traffic for the specified periods.
CIA completed its response to this request in February
1998 explaining that:
In general, cable traffic and
dispatches are not available as a chronological collection and thus, for the
period 26 through 30 September 1963 it is not possible to provide cables and
dispatches in a chronological/package form.
During the periods in question, the Office of Communications (OC) only held cables long enough to ensure that they were successfully transmitted to the named recipient. On occasion. . .cables were sometimes held for longer periods but not with the intention of creating a long-term reference collection.
During the periods in question, the Office of Communications (OC) only held cables long enough to ensure that they were successfully transmitted to the named recipient. On occasion. . .cables were sometimes held for longer periods but not with the intention of creating a long-term reference collection.
The Review Board was not able to locate cables or dispatches from the following periods:
Mexico City Station to Headquarters
(September 26–30, 1963);
Headquarters to Mexico City Station (September 26–30, 1963);
JMWAVE to Headquarters (September 26–November 21,1963);
Headquarters to JMWAVE (September 26–November 21, 1963);
and all traffic between the Mexico City Station and JMWAVE for the periods September 26–October 20, 1963 and November 22–December 30, 1963.
Headquarters to Mexico City Station (September 26–30, 1963);
JMWAVE to Headquarters (September 26–November 21,1963);
Headquarters to JMWAVE (September 26–November 21, 1963);
and all traffic between the Mexico City Station and JMWAVE for the periods September 26–October 20, 1963 and November 22–December 30, 1963.
In addition, CIA informed the Review
Board that it did not have a repository for cables and dispatches from stations
in the 1960s.
Although originating offices
maintained temporary chronological files, the offices generally destroyed the
temporary records in less than ninety days.
After the assassination, the Office of the Deputy Director of Plans ordered relevant CIA offices to retain cables that they would have otherwise destroyed. The HSCA used the remaining cable traffic to compile its Mexico City chronology.
Had CIA offices strictly applied the ninety-day rule, there might have been copies of cable traffic commencing as early as August 22, 1963, rather than October 1, 1963, available to CIA on November 22, 1963.
https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/chapter-06-part1.pdf
After the assassination, the Office of the Deputy Director of Plans ordered relevant CIA offices to retain cables that they would have otherwise destroyed. The HSCA used the remaining cable traffic to compile its Mexico City chronology.
Had CIA offices strictly applied the ninety-day rule, there might have been copies of cable traffic commencing as early as August 22, 1963, rather than October 1, 1963, available to CIA on November 22, 1963.
https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/chapter-06-part1.pdf
PDS: Oswald's full ONI file makes
reference to classified ONI and Marine G-2 files that never reached the Warren
Commission. I discuss this in Dallas '63.
(Didn't Oliver Revell come to the
FBI with Marine records on Oswald?)
The first military Intgc group to
consult LHO's State Dept file was OSI. No trace of that visit survives.
And the the full ONI file cites a
document opening the discharge case against LHO, that the Schweiker-Hart
subcommittee asked the Pentagon for. The appeal went up to I believe
Cheney in the Ford White House and stopped there, as far as we know.
Malcollm: Bill, recently came aross
when revisiting LHO Security files the following.... in 1976 when the CI Staff
were reviewing JFK Assassination related and Oswald files the security office
did not hand over their "secondary files" on Oswald,ostensibly these
were their research files,so the HSCA never got these and more importantly
neither did another CIA component,the Counterintelligence Staff.....demonstrates
perfectly to me the description tagged to the Office of Security,"they are
like a whole separate agency".......best, Malcolm
Larry Haapanen: Not to make the list too long, but here are
some recommendations that come readily to mind:
Airborne radio log for Air Force One
for 11/22/63.
White House Situation Room
Incoming-Outgoing Message Log for 11/22/63-11/30/63 (the extant log for
November 1963 ends abruptly on morning of 11/22/63).
Records of the Dallas-based 488th
Military Intelligence Detachment (Strategic) and 349th Military Intelligence
Detachment (Counter-Intelligence) -- for example unit histories and unit
rosters -- from 1962-63.
Records of the FBI wiretapping of
Lee Harvey Oswald while in police custody.
Bill Simpich: Records of the FBI
tapping of Marina Oswald (and almost definitely the Paines on 11/22/63 and
thereabouts, see statements of Irving police chief Paul Barger)
Missing WHCA records for 11/22 and
other relevant dates
Missing Secret Service tape for
11/22 and a host of other SS documents. Among other things, the records
for Miami, Tampa, Chicago and Dallas in Sept-November.
Missing FBI dispatch tape of Dallas
calls on 11/22 (we know Odum called in about the rifle 1:30-2 pm)
Missing 134 (FBI informant) records
Missing NSA and Army Intelligence,
and ONI records, as mentioned in ARRB Final Report
Missing LILYRIC (Soviet embassy
photo records, Sept 63); LIFEAT (wiretap records, all of 1963), the daily
resumen (wiretap summary) kept in 1963, and a host of missing Mexico City
documents.
Missing Church Committee interviews
as detailed in office memo.
Malcolm Blunt: U.S Customs in MIami
refused to hand over their Cuban exile records to the HSCA because they were
quote,"too voluminous" ...and said they would need instructions from
H.Q. in any case..by the time Ron Haron and the ARRB got round to asking U.S.
Customs for their JFK related files.....Customs were unable to locate next to
nothing.. now adays.go to NARA and ask for the JFK U.S Customs files and you
get one grey file box containing just a few documents....a disgrace, an
absolute disgrace...the ARRB should have pressurised those people into doing a
proper search.......if anybody wants to get some idea of what was lost to
research they should call up the Alexander Rorke FBI files at NARA and take a
look at U.S Customs documents forwarded to the Bureau....they are always packed
full of detail...hardly a space on the page......sickening,just sickening....
I think this is a very useful
exercise;making me cast my mind back....maybe we should also include and
amplify the egregious destruction of records by government agencies ....the
Secret Service has to be high on this list with the destruction of trip records
whilst the ARRB sat and also the huge cull of JFK assassination files by James
Mastrovito on instruction from Rowley,circa 1966.....all this is not
coincidental IMO; the hiding of the Oswald Army Intelligence files from the
Warren Commission and their later "routine destruction" is another
huge loss;it's really a miracle we have anything left....additionally will the
FBI be releasing any further material from their 89a DL files?.....last time I
looked these files only went up to 1993 when they were monitoring a conference
in Dallas...further and later releases may contain further monitoring of JFK
conferences in Dallas plus names of sources and informants (redacted of course)
Bill, how about the missing Oswald New Orleans court records;Anne Buttimer of
the ARRB tried to get these and was told that they were accidentally
destroyed......supposedly sent for microfilming ......
The Dept of Justice OLC had a pile
of documents excluded from the Warren Commission,I found a memo about it...sent
a copy to the ARRB (nada,nothing) I also asked NARA archivist Steve Tilley to
chase it,again nothing.....more stuff lost in the shuffle......
John Armstrong: Bill,nice list of
missing items. You might also want to include the following:
1) employment records of LHO
collected by the FBI from the Pfisterer Dental Lab have disappeared
2) Stripling Junior High (Ft. Worth)
records of LHO's attendance in 1954, collected by the FBI, have disappeared
3) the "original" US
postal money order, allegedly used to pay for the MC rifle, has disappeared
4) documents relating to LHO's
discharge from the Marine Corp in March, 1959, reviewed by asst Provost
Marshall William Gorsky at El Toro, CA., disappeared
5) LHO's Texas drivers license (and
file), seen and handled by numerous employees at the TDPS, disappeared
6) the Oswald wallet, produced by
Capt. Westbrook at 19th & Patton and shown to officers and FBI agent
Barrett, was last seen in the hands of Capt. Westbrook.
7) film taken of anti-Castro Cubans
training in Louisiana, which also showed Oswald, has disappeared
8) all original NYC school records disappeared
while in FBI custody. Only photographs remain in the National Archives.
9) FBI file on LHO in NYC from Sept,
1961- March, 1962
10) interviews by Epstein of US
Marines, who knew LHO in Japan, kept for years at Georgetown University, are
now missing
11) complete files of LHO's
attendance at radar school in Keesler (2 files with two different numbers; two
different graduation dates; two different class numbers, etc)
12) Marine Corps unit diaries for
LHO at El Toro, CA from December, 1958 thru March, 1959
13) Interviews by John Hart Ely of
Marines who knew LHO at El Toro, CA are missing
14) all employment records of MO
from 1955 thru 1963
15) SS records for MO and LHO -
This a partial list, which I
compiled from memory in about 20 minutes. I am sure there are more
Did you have an interest in asking Tunheim about the missing Conservation Tour SS trip records that were supposedly shredded by the SS, but in the file boxes single pieces of paper simply said, "withdrawn for national security reasons".
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