[1]180-10110-10121
[5]| 2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992 |
[7]AGENCY :
[8]RECORD NUMBER :
[10]RECORD SERIES :
[12]AGENCY FILE NUMBER :
[14]ORIGINATOR :
[15]FROM:
[16]TO:
[18]TITLE :
[20]DATE :
[21]PAGES:
[23]SUBJECTS :
[25]DOCUMENT TYPE :
[26]CLASSIFICATION :
[27]RESTRICTIONS :
[28]CURRENT STATUS :
[29]DATE OF LAST REVIEW :
[31]OPENING CRITERIA :
[33]COMMENTS :
[35]HY 450955 Dacld: 3227635526
[37]HSCA
[38]180-10110-10121
[40]JFK Assassination System
[41]Identification Form
[43]Agency Information
[45]SECURITY CLASSIFIED FILES
[47]151-JFK
[49]HSCA
[51]06/02/1978
[52]7
[54]OSWALD, LEE, POST-RUSSIAN PERIOD, TRAVEL, TRIP TO
[56]MEXICO
[57]CIA
[59]SUMMARY
[60]Unclassified
[61]1B
[63]Redact
[64]08/07/1997
[66]Box 5.
[68]Page 1
[70]Document Information
[72]Date:
[74]10/21/20
[76]' KENNEDY
[77]7 ; . . . * 1A
[78]SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS 0 0 0 0 a 4
[79]. Name arnold Arehart (psydo) _ Date 6/2/78 Time 2:90 pm
[80]_ Address Mexico City ; Place _American Embassy, Mexico -
[84]Mr. Arehart was interviewed by -HSCA Staff members Gary Cornwell,
[85]. Dan Hardway, Edwin Lopez, and Harold Leap. He was shown a copy of the
[87]CIA omnibus release letter and stated that: he understood that’ it released —
[88]him of any secrecy agreement he may have signed while employed by the.
[89]CIA.
[91]Mr. Arehart was assigned to Mexico City asa technician in 1960.
[92]Mr. Arehart worked continuously on one project until his retirement | |
[93]after Phillip Agee's revelations compromised his project. Mr. Arehart
[94]worked outside the U.S, Embassy under deep cover. He worked inside of
[95]the base that monitored and taped the telephones that were subject to
[96]the CIA/Mexican liaison tapping operation. His specific duty was to
[97]do all technical work required in the base and to keep the equipment in:
[98]working order.
[100]Mr. Arehart stated that the base monitored 30 telephones, i.e., -
[102]there were thirty incoming lines and thirty tape machines to record the-
[103]conversations. He stated that he was not sure where the taps were placed
[104]or how many taps were in what locations. Mr. Arehart was in contact,
[106]routinely, with Anne Goodpasture and Win Scott. He said that there was
[108]Interviewer Signature
[110]Typed Signature (more)
[112]6/19/78
[114]Date transcribed
[116]: . By: :
[117]HW 50955 Docld:32263526 Page 2 ——— Form #4-a
[119]900045
[121]PAGE TWO.
[123]counterpart to him in the base in that he represented the Americans and
[124]his counterpart represented the Mexicans. He said that the counterpart's
[125]name was fnu Coseo. Coseo's father was the Mexican official in charge
[126]of the Mexican's involvement in the operations. Mr. Arehart was not at
[127]all clear about the role of Coseo Sr.
[129]_ The tapeing equipment was impulse activated in that a call
[130]coming into or going out of the tapped phone would automatically
[131]activate the recorders.
[133]Mr. Arehart said that he was the only American in the base.
[135]He said that there were 6 to 8 Mexicans who monitored the conversations
[136]and transcribed the tapes. As the Mexicans monitored the conversations |
[137]they would make summaries of the important conversations. ‘Tt was up to
[138]the monitors to decide which conversations. were important enough to
[139]summarize. Arehart was not aware of any instruction that was provided
[140]the Mexican monitors on which conversations should be deemed important.
[141]In addition to the summaries, the tapes from the Cuban taps and the
[142]Spanish language portions of the tapes from the Soviet taps were
[143]transcribed in the base. Arehart turned the summaries, Cuban transcripts,
[144]Russian (Spanish) transcripts, and the Russian tapes, over to his contact.
[145]He stated that his routine contact was Anne Goodpasture and that he just
[146]assumed that she was the case officer for the project.even though he
[147]claims that he received his orders directly from Win Scott by telephone.
[148]Summaries were always delivered very early in the morning the day after
[149]a conversation occured. The transcripts were literal transcriptions.
[150]Mr. Arehart said that sometimes, if the Mexican monitors felt something
[152]was really important, tapes and transcripts were passed immediately
[154]HY 50955 Docld: 322763526 Page 3
[156]PAGE THREE. ; Q 0 0 9 a 6G
[158]to Ms. Goodpasture.
[159]Mr. Arehart stated that he believed that the summaries would
[160]have been maintained at the station, probably in a chronological file.
[161]Mn. Arehart was questioned extensively about the retention
[162]and erasure of tapes used in the listening post. Mr. Arehart said that
[163]the tapes produced at the base would fall into three catagories:
[164]1) tapes produced by taps on Cuban related phones;
[165]2) tapes produced by taps:on Soviet related phones;
[166]3) tapes produced by taps on other phones such as Mexican radicals, poli-
[167]ticians, etc.
[168]Mr. Arehart said that the tapes produced by the Cuban taps were maintained
[169]in the listening post. He said that he had a special rack for these
[170]tapes in his workshop which was on the floor above the room in which /
[171]the listening post was situated. This rack had thirty’slots in it.
[172]The tapes from.each day's production went into a seperate slot. with
[173]the oldest tapes going back into use in the monitor room, i.e. the tapes
[174]from the Cuban tapes were held for thirty days before reuse. Mr. Arehart
[175]said that he routinely got requests for delivery of specific Cuban :
[176]tapes from Ann Goodpasture but that the tapes were not routinély given
[177]to her unless she asked for them.
[178]Mr. Arehart said that the Russian tapes were routinely given
[179]to Ms. Goodpasture so that she could get them to the Russian transcribers.
[180]He said that not all of these tapes were returned to him. He said that
[181]he knew this because his supply of tapes for the Russian taps kept
[182]dwindling. He assumes, while claiming no actual knowledge, that tapes
[183]were routinely retained by either the Russian translator or someone in
[185]the Station. He does not know which because he claims to have no:
[187]HW 50955 Docld: 32263526 Page 4
[189]000047
[190]PAGE FOUR.
[191]knowledge about what happened to the tapes after they left his possession
[192]and before they were returned to him. He said that the tapes were
[193]returned to him already erased and ready for use.
[195]Tapes from the third catagory were not held for very long and
[196]were routinely re-used, usually within a day or so after they were
[197]taped.
[199]Mr. Arehart said that he was not aware of any other surveillance
[200]operations in Mexico City. He said that he assumed that there was photo-
[201]graphic surveillance since the Agency would not be fulfilling their
[202]obligations if they did not have it. Mr. Arehart said that there was
[203]a process whereby the station could be notified that an interesting
[204]individual, or an individual whom the station was interested in, was
[205]at, or was going to be at, one of the Embassies. Mr. Arehart said that
[206]in such a situation the monitor would bring it to his attention and he
[207]would then call Ms. Goodpasture and alert her. “Mr. Arehart stated that
[208]his second duty at the base was to alert the station to anything
[209]important.
[211]‘Mr. Arehart said that he did not know what happened to the
[212]Soviet tapes. He did say. that for a short time he was responsible for
[213]delivering the tapes to Boris Tarasoff in order to expedite the process.
[214]Mr. Arehart said that he did remember a man named "Rudy" but he did not
[215]remember what he did or what he looked like.
[217]Mr Arehart said that it was possible that one of the Mexican
[218]agents transcribed English language conversations. He said that these
[219]convesations (tapes) were usually sent to the Embassy. He was not at
[221]all certain on these points. He said that on English conversations that
[223]HY 50955 Docld: 32263526 Page 5
[225]. ya 2
[226]PAGE FIVE. 900048
[228]he remembers that a Mexican would often come to the second floor and
[229]ask him to come and listen to thé conversation.
[231]Mr. Arehart was questioned about whether there was a process
[232]whereby transcription of important conversations in English or Russian
[233]could be expedited. He explained that there would not be such a
[235]. process for a Russian conversation since they could not judge the
[236]importance of the conversation due to the fact that no one in the
[237]base understood Russian. He said that there was.such a procedure for
[238]English conversations. He siad that after listening to the conversation
[239]and deeming it important.he would Mark the tape "Urgent" and would
[240]put it in a box and deliver it.
[242]Mr. Arehart said that when he worked with Tarasoff that he
[243]would pick up the tapes to reuse as well as drop them off for trans—
[244]cription. He said that he did not pick up the transcripts from Tarasoff
[245]and has no idea about what happened to them. Mr. Arehart said that
[247]wo | he did not receive all of the tapes back and just assumed that they
[248]~had been retained because of interest in the conversations contained on
[249]them. He said this was routine. After getting the tapes back, either
[250]from Tarasoff or Goodpasture depending on the time period, he would
[251]put them back into the working order. The tapes were not retained after
[252]they were returned to the base.
[254]Mr Arehart said that the tape machines were activated at
[255]approximately 7:00 a.m. They were turned off at 11:00 p.m.
[257]Mr. Arehart said that the Russian tapes were taken off the
[258]machines on a daily basis for delivery to Goodpasture or Tarasoff.
[260]The Cuban tapes were left on the machines until. the reel was full.
[262]They were then removed and transcribed.
[264]HY 50955 Docld: 32263526 Page 6
[266]HW 50955
[268]ane
[269]PAGE SIX. G00U49
[270]Mr. Arehart said that Lee Harvey Oswald never came to his attention
[271]prior to the assassination. He does not know whether or not he was
[272]ever asked to retain, or turn over to the station, any tape containing
[273]Oswald's voice. He explained that such requests would be made to
[274]him by giving him the tape number and that he never knew what was
[275]on.any particular tape that was requested from him. He has never
[276]heard of a tape of Oswald existing nor has he heard that such
[277]tapes did not exist; he has simply never discussed it.
[279]Mr. Arehart stated that there was a file of transcripts
[280]maintained at the base of the transcripts that were produced at the
[281]base. He remembered that after the assassination someone requested
[282]that those files be checked. Mr. Arehart said that he was not certain
[283]but thought that they had located one short conversation either by
[284]or about Oswald. Mr. Arehart could not remember the details of that
[285]conversation. He stated that he does not know what happened to the
[286]files that were maintained at the base station after his retirement.
[288]Mr. Arehart said that we were the first people to ever talk
[289]to him about these events. He said that he has never talked to any-
[290]one from the CIA about these things. He confirmed that he had never
[291]been contacted by anyone from the IG staff in regards to the assassir
[292]nation or Lee Harvey Oswald's trip to Mexico. Mr. Arehart said that
[293]he had never discussed the case with anyone in the Mexico CIA station,
[294]either at the time or since then.
[296]Mr. Arehart said that he did not get along with Anne Good-
[297]pasture. He said that she was a "show must go on type” that would
[299]get angry if she tried to contact him and he happened to be out to
[301]Docid: 322763526 Page 7
[303]PAGE SEVEN.
[305]Mr. Arehart said that Ann was so efficient that it was often very
[306]irratating. He said that Win Scott was also very efficient.
[308]Mr. Arehart said that he believed that the listening post
[309]used Ampex 701's to tape the conversations they intercepted. He
[310]said that the calls were monitored by the three or four of the
[311]employees as they came in. These employees prepared the log
[312]sheets and the resumen (summary). The reels were then given to
[313]the transcribers who fixed the times and reel footage cite numbers
[314]to the specific conversations on the transcripts. Mr. Arehart said
[315]that the times on the transcripts would be accurate, usually, within
[316]15 minutes. more or less.
[318]Mr. Arehart was shown transcripts from the Soviet and
[319]Cuban Embassy taps. These transcripts were in the Spanish language.
[321]He identified them as transcripts produced in the base.
[323]000058
[325]nA 50955 Docld:32263526 Page &