[1]157-10005-10224) | 2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992 |
[3]Date:10/01/93
[5]Page:1
[6]JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM
[7]=. IDENTIFICATION FORM
[8]AGENCY INFORMATION. =~——Ss—=<CSst‘“‘< OS!
[9]AGENCY : SSCIA
[10]RECORD NUMBER : 157-10005-10224
[11]RECORDS SERIES :
[12]AGENCY FILE NUMBER : R174 1 OF 3
[13]DOCUMENT INFORMATION
[14]ORIGINATOR : SSCIA
[15]. FROM :
[16]TO:
[17]TITLE
[18]TRANSCRIPT/REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS WITH EXHIBITS
[19]DATE : 06/02/75 . . os
[20]PAGES : 111 ;
[21]SUBJECTS :
[22]HOUSTON, LAWRENCE - EXECUTIVE SESSION COMMITTEE MEETING
[23]ee HOUSTON WAS FORMER CIA EMPLOYEE FROM 1947-1973 y
[25]CIA OPERATIONS WITH REGARD TO CASTRO, FIDEL
[27]DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT
[28]CLASSIFICATION : T .
[29]RESTRICTIONS : REFERRED
[30]CURRENT STATUS : P
[31]DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 10/01/93
[33]OPENING CRITERIA :
[35]COMMENTS :
[36]BOX 248-1
[38][R] - ITEM IS RESTRICTED
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[55]WARD & PAUL
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[78]One or two who were excellent and they wanted more, and they
[80]CU reer
[82]TOP SECRET 46
[84]trouble come see you?
[85]Mr. Houston. Oh, no, there's a number of times. For
[87]instance, I think it was back in the '50's, there's a lot of
[89]them, but a couple might illustrate -~ in those days we were 1
[90]doing a good deal of political action abroad in the sense of.
[91]giving guidance to factions in foreign countries that U.S.
[92]policy favored in organizing elections. I don't mean in
[93]rigging them, but how to get down to the grass roots, the old-
[94]‘fashioned political advice on how to run a political campaign.
[96]We didn't have many trained officers on this. We had
[98]came to me with the proposition that --' this was an election year,
[99]which one I have forgotten -- that we put officers in both the
[100]Republican and Democratic campaign parties to get the practical
[101]experience, and I advised -- actually, I went over and talked
[102]with Malcolm Wilkie, who was then the legal counsel in the
[103]Department of Justice, and this was most ill-advisable, and I
[104]went back and they dropped tha project.
[106]More recently, our Soimunication] fellows down in Virginia
[108]found they could easily monitor jlong:.distance telephone.
[110]t
[112]conversations |from Latin American to Canada, and in some cases
[114]to New York, and these frequently carried {conversations..]
[116]involving [narcotics)in great detail. They had no telephone,’
[118]discipline at all, security discipline on/thetelephone). And
[120]they would even give the name of the person who's going to
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[165]receive the Marcdtics Jand where.
[167]However, this immediately got us into an internal security
[169]and a police function. I told them they had to drop it, and
[171]they did. And it's too bad, because nobody else has found a way
[173]of doing it, and this information is floating over our heads
[174]right now and we cannot use it.
[176]Mr. Schwarz. Have there been any instances where you or
[177]your office advised the Agency that it should net do something
[178]when nevertheless the Agency went ahead and did it?
[180]Mr. Houston. I should think I would remember an occasion
[181]like that, but I don't.
[183]Senator Mondale. Thank you.
[185](Senator Mondale left the hearing room.)
[187]Mr. Schwarz. Mr. Houston, with the Senator absent, you
[188]don't have to go ahead.
[190]Mr. Houston. Fine, fine.
[192]Mr. Schwarz. I'm going to go on to another subject.
[194]Does anyone else have anything else about the Robert Kennedy
[196]meeting?
[198]Mr. Kirbow. I have only one other question, and perhaps _
[200]more about the leadership of the Agency.
[202]Mr. Houston, your reputation over the some twenty-six
[203]twenty-eight years you were General Counsel was one of intense
[204]loyalty to the Director and the Deputy Director of the Agency.
[206]Mr. Houston. That is correct.
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[259]chest operator, but so far as I know he always operated in the
[260]line of command, and something like this I think I should have
[261]been consulted, but I can understand the operator's viewpoint.
[262]They might have felt there were reasons why I should not be
[263]consultad.
[265]But just what want on in the line of command between
[267]| Harvey and the Director I just cannot fathom this.
[269]Mr. Schwarz. Harvey worked for Helms at the time, did
[270]he not?
[272]Mr. Houston. That's right.
[273]as you understood it?
[275]Mr. Houston. They were not too compatible as people, but
[276]I have never known that there was any difficulty in complying
[277]with the chain of command. I wouldn't necessarily have known
[279]if there had been, but I didn't know it.
[281]Mr. Wides. And Harvey had worked for Mr. Helms in Berlin?
[283]Mr. Houston. He had been {Chite:
[285]f:0f Station: in Berlin,
[287]ann,
[289]he had been Ghief,of.Station. in Rome, and I*think it was after
[291]the Rome assignment he came back and took over the staff. |
[293]Mr. Wides. But in connection with some of the operations
[295]Lin: Tunnel: and other intelligence operations he
[296]had a pretty close-working relationship with Mr. Helms?
[298]Mr. Houston. They were all in the DDP and certainly
[300]anything of the importance of jthe Bert.
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[306]fufiel, they would bd
[308]Mr. Schwarz. And what was the nature of their relationship
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[319]1 could you think of anything which would be of benefit to this
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[327]g 2 Committee that we have not inquired into?
[329]< 5 Mr. Houston. The only thing I thought you might ask that --
[331]& 4 | I thought you were going to mention it -- somewhere, and this is
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[335]5 i Very vague in my mind, both where I heard it, in what context,
[336]6 | and what the timing of the event was, but I have heard and I am
[337]7 | sure you must have heard of the delivery of a sniper's rifle
[338]8 to the Embassy in Havanna, which may have been intended for 1
[339]9 | some sort of assassination attempt.
[340]10 Mr. Schwarz. The Embassy when we still had an Embassy
[342]12 Mr. Houston. It was apparently when we still had the
[344]13 Embassy.
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[347]WARD & PAUL
[349]14 Mr. Kirbow. Was this a couched delivery, covert
[350]15 || delivery, much like the later deliveries into the Dominican
[351]16 Republic? |
[353]7 Mr. Houston. I think so. |
[355]18 I don't know much about it. I just, through a vague
[356]19 || recollection, I don't know any details or any specifics, it's
[357]20 || one of tha things you pick up.
[359]21 Mr. Kirbow. When would that have bean? I am trying to
[361]22 date when we no longer had an Embassy there.
[363]410 First Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003
[365]oe 24 || (Chiefs Tint NOl1,. and I believe he left in late 1959.
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[367]25 Mr. Kirbow. Was that about the correct time?
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