Mr. DULLES. Yes; it went to the CIA. Copy went to the CIA. I would like
to clarify one point. It is not quite clear to me what information
about Oswald was in the passport files as distinct from the Department
files. I didn't realize that there was much about Oswald in the
passport file itself in the absence of, what do you call it, a check----
Mr. COLEMAN. A lookout card.
Mr. DULLES. A lookout card.
Mr. CHAYES. No; the passport file, I am holding it up.
Mr. DULLES. It is a big file.
Mr. CHAYES. It is roman numeral X and it contains in our numbering
system 80 documents or something like that.
Mr. DULLES. That was in the passport file itself?
Mr. CHAYES. In the passport file itself. A large amount of the security
material is there, and of course the security file would have been
pulled too whenever the passport file was reviewed.
Mr. DULLES. Do you know whether that file was reviewed before the
issuance of the passport in June 1930 or not?
Mr. CHAYES. 1963.
Mr. DULLES. I mean 1963?
Mr. CHAYES. It was not.
Mr. DULLES. It was not?
Mr. CHAYES. It was not, because what happened then was that the Telex
came in from New Orleans. The only thing that you do is go to the
lookout card file. There was no lookout card. In the absence of a
lookout card, routine approval goes out and the passport was issued
from the New Orleans office. If there had been a lookout card, then
the lookout card would have sent them back to the file. There was no
lookout card because the file as it then stood didn't have anything
in it that warranted the denial of a passport, and under our then
procedures we didn't have a flag for people of this kind to stimulate a
further inquiry or investigation.
Mr. DULLES. Isn't it usual in issuing a passport though to look, in
addition to the lookout card, to look at the file you have on the
individual?
Mr. CHAYES. No, sir; unless there is a lookout card, the passport is
issued automatically on the basis of the local agency's determination
of citizenship. There has to be evidence of citizenship.
Now let me say there are different ways in which this can come up,
because for example a man may apply for a passport before a clerk of
the court and that application would be forwarded to the Department.
But even then the Department adjudicator would first look at the
lookout file. If there is no card in the lookout file, all he would
do is determine whether the application was complete, and whether
satisfactory evidence of citizenship was presented, and whether on the
face of it, you know, the oath was properly taken or any supplementary
questionnaire resolved doubts.
And then would issue the passport. If there were a supplemental
questionnaire or something like that, then he would probably go to the
file.
In our agency there are special passport issuing offices. New Orleans
is one of the big ones, we have one in New York, we have some others,
there the system is very routinized.
Daily, and sometimes more than once daily, the agency will telegraph by
Telex the name, date, and place of birth of its applicants, the people
who have come in that day to make an application.
Mr. COLEMAN. Could we mark as Exhibit No. 952 the teletype that came in
on Oswald. I think that would help the Commission to indicate how it
comes in.
(Commission Exhibit No. 952 was marked for identification and received
in evidence.)
Mr. CHAYES. Yes.
Mr. COLEMAN. You had better explain the "NO" which is beside Oswald's
name. name.
Mr. CHAYES. Yes; well here you see the Telex coming in from New
Orleans, and there are 25 names on it with date of birth beside each
name, and it is interesting that opposite Lee Harvey Oswald is capital
letters "NO" which might be rather interesting except that it stands
for New Orleans, and every Telex that comes from New Orleans has that
mark on it. It is covered by our abbreviations manual, and one of your
investigators made, of course with our knowledge in our office, but not
in the Passport Office, a surprise visit to the Passport Office to make
sure that they were, in fact, putting NO on these things, and they are.
That is the designation of the office.
What happens is when these 25 names come in, the lookout file is
searched for those names, and if there is no lookout card, then a
responding Telex is sent back. It says here 561, OW561. That is this
one, "All okay." OW is office to Washington. WO is Washington to
office. So the control number of the outgoing from Washington is WO38,
and it says that on your OW561, all the names were okay.
Now it is interesting, the Telex came in and it is stamped June 24,
4:19 p.m.--June 24, 1963. It went out June 25, 10:57 a.m. and these 25
people all got the passports.
Now it is only on the basis of that kind of a system that you can get
out a million passports in a way that really provides first class
service to the American people. Miss Knight in her administration of
the office, which extends back into the previous administration, has
cut down the time from something like 2 weeks to 24 hours in most of
the cases.
Mr. DULLES. Could the Passport Office itself prepare a lookout card on
its own initiative on the basis let's say of a file like the Oswald
file?
Mr. CHAYES. It would have prepared a lookout card on any person as to
whom the file suggested that there were grounds for withdrawal, or
denial of the passport.
Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. Chayes, at this point could we mark as Commission
Exhibit No. 951 the existing standard operating notice which was in
effect on February 28, 1962, of the Department with respect to the
lookout card system?
(Commission Exhibit No. 951 was marked for identification and received
in evidence.)
Mr. CHAYES. Yes.
Mr. COLEMAN. Would you describe Commission Exhibit No. 951?
Mr. CHAYES. This is the standard operating notice which covers the
categories, and if you look at them they relate each category to a
ground of potential disqualification.
Mr. DULLES. As of what date does this read?
Mr. COLEMAN. February 1962.
Mr. CHAYES. Now we have added by the Schwartz to Knight memorandum
of recent date a defector category which differs slightly from the
others in that in all of the other categories something in the file
already suggests that the person may be ineligible for a passport. The
defector category would simply stimulate further investigation in the
case of application by such a person, and would automatically trigger
notification of the other security agencies.
Mr. DULLES. How do you define the defector category, do you know?