OPERATIONAL OSWALD - UN-REDACTED
Warren Commission attorney Sam Stern was interviewed by a HSCA attorney in 1978. When shown an un-redacted version of the following memo by a CIA intelligence officer, he responded: "...that would have been a major explosion..." -
"When shown the CIA memorandum of November 1963 in
which a CIA officer wrote that the Agency had once considered using Oswald for
intelligence purposes, Stern stated that “I have never seen this. I was never
given this, and we had asked for and were supposed to be given anything of
relevance like this.” In reading the memo, Stern stated that 'that would have
definitely been relevant. If they (the CIA) were taking him that seriously,
then you might think that others could or did also. If we found that had been
withheld, that would have been a major explosion also.”
]
NARA Record Number: 1993.07.17.08:34:21:590460
MEMORANDUM BY CIA STAFF EMPLOYEE OF HIS
RECOLLECTIONS OF AGENCY INTERE
Redacted:
25 November 1963
SUBJECT: Mr. Lee Harvey Oswald
TO: Walter P.
HALTIGAN
It makes little difference now, but REDWOOD had at
one time an OI 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 Summer 1960 – with
the then Chief and Deputy Chief of the 6 Research Section the laying on of
interview(s) through KUJUMP or other suitable channels. At the moment I don’t
recall if this was discussed while Oswald and his family were en route to our country
or if it was after their arrival.
I remember that Oswald’s unusual behavior in the
USSR had struck me from the moment I had read the first ODACID on him, and told
my subordinates something amounting to “Don’t push too hard to get the
information we need, because this individual looks odd.” We were particularly
interested in the OI Oswald might provide on the Minsk factory in which he had
been employed, on certain sections of the city itself, and of course we sought
the usual BI that might help develop target personality dossiers.
I was phasing into my LPOVER cover assignment, and
out of KUDOVE, at the time. Thus, I would have left the country shortly after
Oswald’s arrival. I do not know what action developed thereafter.
Thomas B. Casasin
Addendum
As an afterthought, I recall also that at the time I
was becoming increasingly interested in watching develop a pattern that we had
discovered in the course of our bio 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 without returning “home.”
The AEOCEAN 3 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. KUDESK became interested in the
developing trend we had come across. It was partially out of curiosity 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 in the Harvey story.
(BK Notes – there is a hand notated circle around
Harvey and a question mark - ?)
More fascinating stuff, Bill! I hadn't heard about this unredacted CIA doc before. Wow! And that last sentence in which they called LHO's story "the HARVEY story" was rather breathtaking, especially with "Harvey" circled and the "?" under it. I have not been a believer in the Harvey and Lee story but maybe I should keep an open mind about it. I appreciate your site and all the great things you post!
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