A few years ago I wrote a piece for S.T. Patrick’s “Garrison Magazine” which reported serious discrepancies in the two surviving copies of visa applications allegedly used by Lee Oswald in Mexico City to get himself into Cuba on his way to the Soviet Union. The forms were digitally analyzed, however, there was always a feeling that there were unresolved issues. Moreover, since then, Lee’s actual 1963 passport D092526, renewed on 25 June 1963, and used in those visa applications, has been located and reported in this post.
Recently declassified documents now fill out more pieces of the puzzle and offer an incredible narrative. Despite brandishing a brand new passport, Lee supposedly and unnecessarily used this tourist visa to visit Mexico. It was only valid for 15 days and the person who solicited the visa used a U.S. birth certificate (acta nacimiento americano) as proof of identity which obviously is not a photo identification.
As noted in our previous post, it was used in Mexico City in the visa applications. Here is an enlargement of that portion of the application where “non-valid for travel to Cuba” passport D-092526 was used.
Despite Sylvia Durán being the most important witness to an increasingly less believable Mexico City scenario, she was never brought in to testify before the Warren Commission. When three stooges Willens, Coleman, and Slawson visited Mexico City in April 1964, COS Win Scott and his crony Mexican Presidents ensured they were buffered against having anything to do with Durán.
Then came dispatch HMMW-12889 on 10 September 1964 towards the end of the Warren Commission mandate. The Warren Commission had decided not to confront Sylvia Durán with a copy of “Lee Oswald’s” visa applications that she allegedly helped him fill out. This order was relayed from the upper echelons of the CIA to COS Win Scott. The dispatch was written and signed by one “Hugh Ashmead“, which is a confirmed pseudonym for the notorious James Jesus Angleton. Interestingly enough, a non-redacted version of this dispatch reads: “You will undoubtedly recognize the significance of comments made by the Cuban Embassy, recipient of OSWALD’S application” Was this a veiled message that Cuba was on to the Lee Oswald false flag operation, and objected to the authenticity of the visa applications, thereby destroying the Lee Oswald lone nut theory which was so vital to the coup? Did this detail — which would suggest that Fidel Castro kept his mouth shut and played along — save Cuba from a full-scale invasion?
Handwritten above and below, “Deleted per discussion with —>” arrow points to the signature of a surrogate for Ashmead, guaranteeing full compartmentalization.
Reason to not confront Sylvia Durán with a copy of visa applications — the CIA suspected they had been faked and were not authentic!
Document HMMW-12889 attachment below is the actual copy of visa application submitted to the Warren Commission via the Swiss Embassy by Cuba in 1964 and is one of the “twin visa applications”:
On 18 September 1964, newly appointed Western Hemisphere Division Chief Desmond Fitzgerald — obviously not comfortable with the Mexico City scenario — wanted to know about the authenticity of the visa application. Here are two versions of 50732 with added notations:
But there was a problem — the Station did not have copies or exemplars of the Cuban visa application used in the Lee Oswald application! Besides, how many typewriters of different makes could there exist at the Cuban Embassy and Consulate? Since the Mexico City Station did not have exemplars of Cuban Consulate visa applications available, they decided to obtain one…
…and put David Atlee Phillips (Michael Choaden) in charge of coordinating this trash-picking operation without compromising LITAMIL-9 (Luis Alberú Souto), their top mole, informant, and penetration agent inside the Cuban Embassy. LITAMIL-9’s handler, Lawrence Barker (Robert Shaw), is also mentioned in this dispatch of 6 October 1964 where he signs for Win Scott (Willard Curtis) and is the originating officer as well.
Result of trash operation. This packing list mended with scotch tape was fished out of the trash by Luis Alberú Souto (LITAMIL-9) for David Atlee Phillips.
Armed with both exemplars, it was now possible to complete the task at hand, yielding negative results. The typewriter used to create the packing list was not the same one used in the “Lee Oswald” Mexico City “twin” visa applications and is easily demonstrated here:
Why did Desmond Fitzgerald doubt the authenticity of the Mexico City Lee Oswald visa applications? This disorganization is emblematic of how convoluted the Mexico City scenario and its subsequent cover-up turned out to be. As more documents are released, it becomes clearer that the CIA Mexico City Station under Win Scott did not know about the “Lee Oswald” operation (need to know) and was completely caught off guard after the JFK assassination, having to create a paper trail after the fact, (see Peter Dale Scott “Deep Politics II” pg 20) which was impossible to reconcile with the truth. The participation of Angleton in the clean-up phase — ditching the Durán Warren Commission testimony — is also a very new and interesting twist.
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