Declassified: The CIA "Oswald" and Mexico City

[David Josephs]

If information about Oswald was the "deck of marked cards", the whole operation could have begun with his defection. Apparently lacking any nibbles from the Russian side, they could have simply decided to set him into the Cuban situation rather than discard him and start fresh with someone new.

So I don't see why the "intrusion" and the molehunt needs to post-date the anti FPCC operation.

I believe the "marked card" we are referring to here is the name "HENRY" and little else.

Who would be using "HENRY" after these reports are sent back and forth who SHOULDN'T be using "HENRY" unless they saw these docs.

I'm not sure what people think he was supposed to do in Russia other than what he did... take photos and write notes about what he saw and the capacities of manufacturing.
I believe the Russians were aware of the "false defector" program and used women like Marina to attach themselves to these men and get taken back to the USA.



It is not until he arrives in New Orleans that all his pro-Castro work for anti-Castro bosses begins... the "Oswald Project" begins in April 1963 just after the estranged Michael Paine comes to Neely to pick the Oswalds up for a visit.
10 days later Walker is shot at... not Oswald but conveniently attributed to him... maybe to gain sympathies and credibility from the anti-Walker, pro-Castro groups he is infiltrating...
a couple weeks later Oswald buses to New Orleans alone and the summer of 63 begins... Ruth will move Marina down to New Orleans in May and back from in Sept, just in time for the Mexico Charade...

I believe we are making too much of the decision to use HENRY as the marked card. Had JFK met his end in Chicago as planned, or Tampa for that matter, Oswald's infiltration work would have continued.
Yet by this time the name Oswald was getting more and more intertwined with those who would be on the front lines in the planning and execution of JFK.

Who Oswald was or what he looked/sounded like was of no consequence to whatever was happening within the embassies that week... it was NOT Oswald. Alvarado lied. The FBI knew right off it was not Lee HENRY and said so.
So if anything was being hunted, IMO it was the attempted infiltration of the Cuban embassy in MExico City by either the Mexicans themselves or Cubans trying to see what their embassy was being used for by the US intelligence services.

We must remember that the Cuban Embassy and Duran are not part of the inital info on Oswald... this was all Russian Embassy spying...

On Oct 16th Win Scott sends the "tell all" memo regarding the Oct 1 call (which never happened) to Ambassador Mann that includes: Kostikov contact & "HENRY"
On Oct 18th the FBI sends virtually the same exact info to Hoover
On Oct 22nd Hoover tells MExico that HENRY is NOT correct, it is Lee HARVEY - but now he has been reported as drinking and beating his wife (first mention of this) - this is also the FIRST MENTION of the FPCC or Cuba - yet still no mention of the Cuban Embassy... only the Russians
On Oct 24th the CIA is asking the Navy for photos of Oswald to see if "Lee OSwald in Mexico and Subject are the same individual" (the Navy drags their feet)
All thru Nov, the FBI is checking Mexican sources related to Russian, Cuban or Communist activities or personnel - all negative for Oswald
The Paine typed letter dated Nov 9th refers to FPCC and Havana
Photos sent here and there are all of a man outside the RUSSIAN compound, never the Cuban.
On Nov 22nd the CIA tells us they have found the SAME unidentified man who is possibly Oswald (not) entering the C[B]UBAN EMBASSY on Oct 15th.[/B] This is the first CIA mention of the Cuban Embassy and possibly why the FBI does not claim to know where Oswald is until Nov 1st. We also learn that the same unidentified man visited the Russian Emabssy on Oct 4th.
Also on the 22nd, the CIA mentions copies of coverage for OCT 28 (yet claims it should be Sept)
Also on the 22nd, CIA acknowledges the photo from Oct 4th which they claim was on Oct 1st is the same person as "the only visitor to the SovEmb 28 OCT who could be identical with Oswald" -
Also on Nov 22nd the FBI tell sus that they still have no info on Entry/Exit Mexico and that the CIA advise that subject was in contact with SOVIET EMBASSY - still no mention of Cuban Embassy
Also on the 22nd Win Scott writes JC King to tell him of photos of "a certain person who is known to you"...

Finally, on 11/23 we get our first official CIA releases of the transcripts starting with the Sept 28th call from the Mex station to the CIA Director. He only goes to the Cuban Embassy "because they have it. (my address)"
It is here they claim that they cannot compare voices since 1st tape erased prior to receipt of second call... so between Sept 28 and Oct 1 they erased the tapes?

Finally, on Nov 23rd Amb Mann sends Rusk a note... https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html...9&tab=page
it is finally here in this telegram that the STATE DEPT finally puts into words what others have been thinking... this is late in the evening of 11/23

(Alvarado has yet to come forward) "CIRCUMSTANCES ALREADY DEVELOPED HERE POINT TO POSSIBILITY THAT OSWALD MAY HAVE BEEN CASTRO'S AGENT" (The State Dept and CIA were hand in hand with all this while the FBI and I&NS are sent to find buses)

My point to all this is that connecting Oswald to Castro to the assassination does not happen until after the assassination, of course. That whatever was going on during this time with the calls and transcripts and delays and photos and all had little if anything to do with the JFK assassination at THAT point in time. If COULD be used if need be yet even Alvarado gets squashed... the "Castro agent paid to kill JFK" story may have served two purposes...

1) Take the attention away from what was actually going on in Mexico at the time &
2) Continue with the implication of Oswald as an agent of Castro... had the WC been made aware of the assassination attempts on Castro, the false Alvarado story would have been in Context. Painting Alvarado out of the picture kept anyone from continuing with the CASTRO angle...

I truly feel that readers sometimes fail to grasp the breadth or context of activity that was going on within the CIA and FBI at the time.