Oswald and the CIA: The Documented Truth About the Unknown Relationship Between the U.S. Government and the Alleged Killer of JFK (44 page)

The documentary trail began on February 18, 1963, when a sensitive CIA source reported on the volatile marriage and extramarital affairs of Carlos Lechuga, the Cuban ambassador to the U.N., who had previously served as the Cuban ambassador to Mexico. According to the CIA information report, classified "Secret No Foreign DISSEM," this is what their Cuban source said:

In late December 1962, Carlos Lechuga Hevia, described as an ambitious, evasive, and not overly intelligent man, was unhappy in New York, as Cuban Ambassador to the UN, because neither the United States nor the USSR paid any attention to him. In spite of being in love with his wife, Lechuga had denounced her to Raul Roa and Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado, President of Cuba, as being a passive enemy of the revolution.108

The Cuban source to which this less-than-flattering portrait of Lechuga was attributed was described in the CIA report's subject line as "a Former Cuban Government Official." Whoever it was knew a lot about what was happening inside the Cuban missions in New York and Mexico City.

How Lechuga's denunciation of his wife had come about was an interesting story. According to the CIA information report, the "former Cuban official described it this way:

The denunciation was allegedly made under pressure by certain members of the Cuban Embassy in Mexico, who, in their attempts to persuade Lechuga, had employed the influences of Ana Maria Blanco, then First Secretary at the Embassy, and Silvia Duran, a Mexican married woman employed at the Cuban-Mexican Cultural Institute. Lechuga had offered to marry Duran after divorcing his wife, since she was ready to accompany him to Cuba, and Lechuga considered this a requisite indispensable to his revolutionary spirit. In addition, at that time his wife was emphatically refusing to return to Cuba so long as the Castro regime continued in power, and especially after learning that she had been denounced.109

The Cuban source pointed out that when Lechuga and his wife had arrived in Mexico City in May 1962, he had promised her that he would renounce his job as soon as he could find an opportunity, because he was "not a Communist" and did not want to lose her. "Far from doing that," the Cuban source lamented, "as of late December 1962, Lechuga seemed to have surrendered more and more to the revolution." 10

The next piece to this story occurred on November 24, 1963, two days after the Kennedy assassination, in a memo on Oswald prepared for FBI Counterintelligence chief W. C. Sullivan." The memo mentioned CIA information from the "Liaison Agent,""' possibly Sam Papich, about the arrest of Silvia Duran in Mexico City and "that she had allegedly been in contact" with Oswald. The CIA told the FBI liaison that they were following the story and would report any developments of significance. The memo then mentioned this:

Bureau files indicate that Duran may be identical with Silvia T. DeDuran, who was described by CIA on November 30, 1962, as a Mexican national who had been the mistress of Carlos Lechuga, former Cuban Ambassador to Mexico and now his country's Ambassador to the United Nations. CIA further indicated that the aforementioned woman had served as a director of the MexicanCuban Cultural Institute and that her husband was Horacio Duran, a well-known Mexican decorator (105-77113-57). Raichhardt stated that this information was also being furnished to our Legal Attache, Mexico City. Legal Attache will be kept apprised of information coming to the attention of CIA in Mexico City."3

If accurate, this would indicate that at least one more CIA document on the Duran-Lechuga affair exists, and bears the date November 30, 1962. By the end of 1962, the information on Duran in CIA and FBI files was substantial and growing.

Up to now, Duran's alleged affairs in Mexico City have been shrouded in controversy. In an interview conducted for this book by British journalist Anthony Summers, Mrs. Duran admitted to the affair with Lechuga. Here is the pertinent passage from the interview transcript:

SUMMERS: [After explaining to Duran there are new documents released mentioning she supposedly had an affair with Carlos Lechuga.] Is this true?

DURAN: Yes, but it's-that's top secret.

SUMMERS: It is all over the documents, clearly the Americans knew about it in '62. Is it possible that you were being used by anyone, or was it entirely a spontaneous thing? Or were you perhaps pointed in Lechuga's direction?

DURAN: No. No. It was completely accidental, I mean it was not ... No, I don't think so. Because, no, no. I had problems in my marriage, and you know what happens in these things, no? And I didn't divorce because my husband didn't let my child come to Cuba. So that's why I didn't divorce. I divorced later, but not in that moment.

SUMMERS: Was the Lechuga affair over by '63? The time of the assassination?

DURAN: Yes.

SUMMERS: You see no connection?

DURAN: No. This is the first time I've talked about that. But no, of course not. He even went to New York, so I could get a divorce and-he was named Ambassador at the United Nations. He asked Fidel for that, so we can get married. But, no, we couldn't. It was impossible. Very complicated. It was going to mean problems. People were going to use that for, oh, you know ... 14

For whom was this affair "top secret"? Probably the Cubans, but Duran's insistence that it was "accidental" seems problematical, for the story intercepted by the CIA explained the affair as a device to separate Lechuga from his wife and keep him on the revolutionary path.

Whether or not the affair was orchestrated by the Cuban Embassy, it made the rounds of both the CIA and FBI in the U.S., and therefore became relevant two years later when the story of an affair between Oswald and Duran surfaced. That is a subject to which we will return in Chapter Nineteen. For now, we turn out attention to events taking place in the anti-Castro segments of the Cuban underworld in Miami and New Orleans.

Hemming IV: WQAM Radio Show, Miami

Oswald's participation in a live debate on WDSU Radio in New Orleans in August 1963 is covered in Chapter Seventeen. There was a lesser-known call to a local radio show, the Alan Courtney Show, on WQAM, Miami. We do not know the precise date of the program, but surviving FBI records suggest it was in November 1962. A November 27, 1963, FBI report by Miami Special Agent Vincent K. Antle summarized an interview on that date with Alan Courtney, including this segment:

Approximately one year ago, Alan Courtney had Jerry Patrick and three other individuals on his night program on WQAM Radio. These individuals were involved with the training of antiCastro troops. At the conclusion of the program, Courtney received a telephone call from an individual who had a very young voice. This young man said he would like to talk to one of the persons that had been on the show. He explained that he was from New Orleans and a former Marine and that he wanted to volunteer his services to be of assistance to them.15

The person who called in, according to Courtney, "gave the name of Lee Oswald or something like that, such as Harvey Lee or Oswald Harvey or Oswald Lee." Courtney said he gave the phone to one of the guests named "Davey." A December 2, 1963, FBI report by Special Agent James Dwyer identified the man as Howard Kenneth Davis, who, in his own words, was "associated with American mercenaries involved in Cuban revolutionary activities for the past six years." 116

Once again, Hemming's path crosses Oswald's-providing that the caller was Oswald. Antle's report continues:

Courtney could not recall his last name nor did he recall the names of any of the other individuals except Jerry Patrick whom he described as 6'4" in height. Courtney said that Davey and Oswald did talk on the phone but he does not know if they agreed to an appointment date subsequently. Courtney said he knew that the caller said he stayed up to hear the program so that he could call and attempt an appointment with the participants on the radio show."'

While it is not impossible for this caller to have been Oswald, we need harder evidence that he was in Miami in November 1962. The FBI report also states that John Martino alleged that "during the last year" Oswald had been in a "fracas in Bayfront Park" in Miami. After the Kennedy assassination, Martino reportedly claimed advance knowledge of plans for the assassination."8

More Oswald Banjos: Alex in Minsk and Chicago

The most sensitive part of Oswald's mail was to and from the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. and to and from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Embassy "take" was handled by the Washington field office of the FBI, and the amount was not insubstantial, as the last five months of 1962 indicate: On August 5, 1962, Marina wrote to the Soviet Embassy regarding the return of her passport19; on July 20 Oswald wrote to the Soviet Embassy,121 asking for information on how to subscribe to Russian periodicals 121 ; the embassy may have told Oswald of the Washington Book Store, Washington, D.C., where Oswald does place an order' 22; on August 17, Oswald filed a change-of-address notice (from 7313 Davenport to 2703 Mercedes, Fort Worth 121; on September 6, 1962 Marina's passport is returned by the Soviet Embassy, Washington 124; and on December 31, Marina wrote New Year's greetings to the Soviet Embassy.125 The FBI opened all mail going into and out of the Soviet Embassy. The above demonstrates that the FBI had a very good handle on Oswald's whereabouts.

In the first half of 1963, the CIA's HT/LINGUAL project produced fascinating material on Oswald. The postassassination context of the intercepted material is the link between Oswald and the alleged murder weapon. This was relevant to one of the most important aspects of the case. The HT/LINGUAL "take" on the Oswalds, however, contains several anomalies. For example, it was a distinction to be put on the CIA's illegal mail intercept program once, let alone twice, like Oswald had been. But then, Oswald's mail was opened even after he was taken off the list.

Just as anomolous was having mail opened before one is even on the list. This is what happened to Marina. According to the records released by the CIA, Marina was not listed until four days after the assassination, November 26, 1963. But two letters to Marina from the Soviet Union were opened by the CIA in January and May 1963. They prove that the CIA's HT/LINGUAL program did produce important. evidence that bears directly upon fundamental aspects of the case and links the disparate ends of Oswald's official files.

Unfortunately, over the years the CIA has made misleading statements about the Oswald letters they opened. Take, for example, this CIA memo-prepared during the Warren Commission investigation-about the 1961 opening of a Marguerite letter: "The letter contains no information of real significance." 126 How strange then, that a SECRET EYES ONLY, June 22, 1962, CIA memorandum from the deputy chief of the mail intercept program to the deputy chief of Counterintelligence said this about the same missive: "This item will be of interest to Mrs. Egerter, CI/SIG, and also to the FBI." Years later, in a response to an FOIA request by researcher Paul Hoch, the CIA stated that "a copy of the document [Marguerite's letter] was forwarded to the FBI immediately upon discovery." Why would the CIA and the FBI be interested in items of no significance?

We don't know whether the CIA told the Warren Commission about Marguerite's letter. The timing of the comment about the letter's insignificance leaves a bad taste, especially because we know the deputy chief of the mail intercept program at the Agency thought it was significant before the assassination. We know more about what the CIA told the HSCA, which probed this intercept program. The HSCA report contains this revealing comment:

Although the Agency had only one Oswald letter in its possession, the HT/LINGUAL files were combed after the assassination for additional materials potentially related to him. Approximately 30 pieces of correspondence that were considered potentially related to the investigation of Oswald's case (even though not necessarily directly to Oswald) were discovered. None of these was ultimately judged by the CIA to be of any significance. These materials, however, were stored in a separate Oswald HT/LINGUAL file."

We know that this story is not true. The CIA's claim that they judged none of these materials to be of "any significance" appears to be a cover story. Any other explanation requires an unbelievable level of incompetence.

From the newly released files, we have begun to learn much more about the value the CIA attached to the Oswald HT/LINGUAL file. During the course of Oswald's return from Russia, this program was expanding. "During 1962 the number of disseminations stemming from project HT/LINGUAL increased," said an April 1964 internal CIA assessment, "as it has each year since the inception of the project. The total number of disseminations in 1963 was 10,999 as compared to the total in 1962 of 8,391." As preciously discussed in Chapter Thirteen, the mail intercept chief, John Mertz, concluded in early 1964 that some of "the most interesting" items intercepted from "ie-defectors" were the "several items" to and from Oswald and Marina.

Mertz singled out one of those particular "banjos" (intercepted pieces of mail) that showed that Oswald's Russian nickname, "Alik," was similar to the "Alex Hidell" pseudonym. 128 Mertz, however, did not indicate when the CIA came into possession of these banjos. From the available record, it would appear the CIA did not show the Mertz memo to the Warren Commission. They should have. Presumably, the Warren Commission would have been interested in this.

Still more clues to what the senior Agency leadership felt about the Oswald HT/LINGUAL materials can be found in the newly released files, including this comment to FBI director Hoover by CIA Counterintelligence chief James Angleton, four days after the assassination:

Your representatives in Mexico advised our representative there that it had not been determined whether Hidell is a person, or an alias used by Oswald. In this connection we refer you to the attached HUNTER items-63 E 22 U and 63 A 24 W. These items indicate that Oswald was known to his wife's friends as "Alik" (also spelled "Alick"). While we have no items in which the name Hidell (or Hydell) appears, it is believed that the fact Oswald was known to his Russian friends as "Alik" may be significant.""'