Warren Commission (05 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (05 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. BELMONT. No; that is not correct. We had talked to this man twice
in detail concerning the question of possible recruitment by Soviet
intelligence. We had checked his activities. He was settling down. He
had a wife and a child. He had, according to what he had told us, in
our interview with him, he had not enjoyed his stay in Russia. The
State Department evaluation of him in Moscow was that he had learned
his lesson and, as a matter of fact, he had made some statement to the
effect that he now recognized the value of the American way of life,
along those lines.
So that we had pretty well settled that issue. At the time that we
interviewed him in the jail in New Orleans, we had again been following
his activities because of his communications, his contacts with The
Worker and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and our interest there was
to determine whether he was a dangerous subversive. The interview in
the jail was very apparently a self-serving interview in an attempt
to explain his activities in the New Orleans area, and if I recall
correctly, he took the position that the policy as directed against
Cuba was not correct, and that the Fair Play for Cuba Committee was
merely addressing itself to the complaints of Cuba, and was not in
effect a subversive organization.
If, Mr. McCloy, during those first two interviews where we were
pursuing this matter of him being a defector and his recruitment, he
had lied to us, and the agent was not satisfied we would have pursued
it to the bitter end. Or if during any other time information came to
our attention which indicated a necessity to pursue that further we
would have pursued it to the bitter end.
Mr. McCLOY. You speak of this as a self-serving interview. Do you think
that he sought the interview with you, with Mr. Quigley eventually,
because he had known of the prior contacts that he had had with the
FBI, and he simply wanted to keep out of trouble?
Mr. BELMONT. I don't know why he asked to see an agent. I simply do not
know why.
Mr. McCLOY. I think that is all.
Mr. STERN. Mr. Belmont, I show you a letter marked for identification
Commission Exhibit No. 834. Can you identify that for the Commission,
please?
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 834 for
identification.)
Mr. BELMONT. This is a letter dated May 4, 1964, addressed to the
Commission which sets forth in summary the contents of the headquarters
file on Oswald prior to the assassination.
Mr. STERN. Do you have that file with you?
Mr. BELMONT. Yes, sir.
Mr. STERN. Would you explain generally to the Commission what materials
there are in that file that for security reasons you would prefer not
to disclose?
Mr. BELMONT. The file contains the identity of some of our informants
in subversive movements. It contains information as to some of the
investigative techniques whereby we were able to receive some of the
information which has been made available to the Commission.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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