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The Twelve Who Built the Oswald Legend

Part 4: When the U-2 Goes Down, Oswald is Ready to Return

by Bill Simpich, Nov 16, 2010

Oswald meets Don Alejandro, a White Russian in the Soviet Union

When Oswald began working in Minsk at the Radio and TV factory as one of 5000 employees, he noticed that he was "being observed" by his supervisor. The supervisor was chief engineer Alexander Romanovich Ziger, a Polish Jew in his late forties who had supposedly relocated to Argentina in 1938 and returned to Belarus around 1955 or 1956. Mr. Ziger spoke English with an American accent, while his family spoke no English. Ziger claimed he had worked for an American company in Argentina.

Oswald on the left, Don Alejandro Ziger on the right
Oswald on the left, Don Alejandro Ziger
on the right

Sources describe Ziger as Alejandro or as Aleksandr. Oswald called himself "Alec" or "Alik" while in the USSR, and even obtained a hunting license under the name "Aleksey Harvey Oswald". Although the story is that "Lee" is difficult for Russians to pronounce, I suspect that his friendship with Don Alejandro was a major factor. Between 1959-1962, Oswald and "Don Alejandro" spent six days a week together at the factory and three or four nights at the Ziger home speaking in English over tea and cakes. Oswald enjoyed many Sunday drives into the country with the family. Don Alejandro is Legend Maker #8.

Most of the CIA's file cards and forms spell Alejandro's surname as "Zeger". The Moscow phone book spells it as "Ziger". The Warren Commission is partial to "Zieger". We do see a note stating that "Alexander Zeger...is probably identical with Alejandro Ziger, a Polish engineer and radiotelephonic expert.... As his homeland was in a contested border region claimed by both Poland and the Ukraine, Ziger was what is known as a White Russian. Although Ziger was enticed to bring his Argentine family with him to his Belarus homeland after the death of Stalin - now part of the USSR rather than Poland due to the border changes of World War II - he was quickly disappointed by the dismal living conditions of Soviet life. The story is that by January 1957, Ziger had already applied at the Argentine Embassy in Moscow to return to Argentina.

Among the twelve who built the Oswald legend, Ziger is the one who we know the least about. Ziger not only spoke several languages (Russian, Polish, Spanish, and English), but he appears to be a man with leadership skills. It is apparent that he was a voice listened to at the sheet metal plant.

The CIA's information on Ziger is heavily redacted to this day. At a minimum, it looks like Ziger had at least one family member involved in CIA counterintelligence. There is a reference in Oswald's phone book to a "Debovy or Debooy". CIA analyst Marguerite Stevens wondered if it might be a reference to "David DeBoey Sagier". Born in 1908, David Zagier's memoir Botchki describes growing up in Poland and his work with the OSS and the CIA. David D. Zagier wrote an OSS paper on the devaluation of the Finnish mark. "D. Zagier" can be found among a list of the CIA's most famous counterintelligence officers of the 1960s.

Similarly, the history of Ziger's family is very odd. His daughter Lenora Ziger is described as divorced and a singer. Lenora and Lee used to like to flirt together. The CIA's traces indicate that Lenora's birthdate is supposedly "1923". This would make Lenora old enough to be Lee's mother. Oswald's diary estimates that Lenora was born in 1934. The CIA's traces for the younger sister Anita indicate that her birth year is supposedly "1929". Regarding Ziger's wife Ana, her traces are run for her apparent name, "Ana Dmitruk". The odds are strong that Ana is related to Pavel Dymitruk, whose ex-wife Lydia took in Marina Oswald after the Oswalds left the USSR and arrived in Texas virtually penniless.

An alleged ship manifest says that Ziger and his family left Argentina for the USSR in 1956, but the birth years don't track what we have previously seen - his birth year as approximately 1912, his wife Ana's as 1910, daughter Leonor as 1935, and daughter Anita as 1941. The ship manifest may be entirely made up. Ziger may have been a long-time American asset. It is clear that there was genuine affection between the Ziger family and the Oswald family.

While in the Soviet Union, Oswald spoke very little Russian in public

In recent years, an astonishing revelation about Oswald has emerged. Oswald pretended to understand almost no Russian during his entire time in the Soviet Union. Author John Armstrong went to Argentina in 1998 and interviewed Anita Ziger. To Armstrong's astonishment, Anita Ziger told him that Oswald "didn't speak any Russian at all". She amended her statement to say "not much".

For spying purposes, an operative is much more valuable if people say things around him assuming that the operative does not understand what is being said. Ziger knew English, but the rest of his family did not. Oswald's male friends spoke English, and his female companions were from the foreign language institute who spoke English.

His Intourist guide Rimma Shirokova recalled that "he didn't seem to know a single word in Russian" when he arrived in the USSR. Angleton's aide Ray Rocca told the Church Committee that Shirakova was a KGB agent. Stanislav Shushkevich, who taught Oswald Russian, reported that Oswald found Russian difficult, but he eventually was able to understand with the aid of gestures, written notes, and a dictionary.

Lee Oswald with Marina in Minsk
Lee Oswald with Marina in Minsk

When Oswald was hospitalized for his alleged suicide attempt, the authorities thought that he understood the Russian spoken to him despite his verbal denials. "Sometimes he answers correctly, but immediately states that he does not understand what he was asked".

Oswald's Russian was considered good enough in the United States to qualify him as a professional translator, and for his wife Marina to mistake him as a native-born Russian with a Baltic accent when they first met. Russian is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn. No one can master Russian during the less than three years that Oswald was in the Soviet Union, particularly when that someone refuses to use Russian in most public settings. Credible witnesses say that Oswald mastered Russian before his trip to the USSR. He probably picked up the Baltic accent during his time with the Zigers.

The story behind the shootdown of the U-2, and how it played into Oswald's decision to return to the USA

An NSA agent named Jack Dunlap now enters our story in a most dramatic fashion. "An extremely sensitive and reliable source" is quoted in an FBI letterhead memo that "Dunlap gave the Soviets important information regarding the U-2 flights over the USSR and that Dunlap's information provided the Soviet Union with the capability of shooting down the Powers U-2 aircraft...as a result of Dunlap's information, the Soviets were well aware of when the U-2 planes crossed over the Soviet Union. The Soviets always had their anti-aircraft guns trained on those planes." This source was known as TOPHAT. TOPHAT was Lt. General Dmitri Fedorovich Polyakov, exposed by Aldrich Ames - a real mole inside the CIA.

The FBI memo that recounts TOPHAT's story then adds that "Khrushchev held back from allowing them to shoot down the planes, waiting for an appropriate political time to do this. Khrushchev eventually "gave the okay" to shoot down the Powers U-2 aircraft at a time when he thought it would do the most good for Soviet prestige and at a time when he was being pressed by China to show their hand."

Dunlap succeeded in his mission even though CI chief James Angleton realized that Dunlap was a mole in 1959, a year before what is known as the U-2 affair. After Dunlap committed suicide in July 1963, and numerous classified documents turned up in his possession, his widow admitted to the FBI on August 20, 1963 that Dunlap told her before his suicide that he had been selling secrets to the Soviets.

Another piece of the puzzle is that Moscow had just recently obtained the ability to shoot down the U-2 with the development of the SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles. By 1960, these missiles were installed around big cities and sensitive locations. All of the sites on Francis Gary Powers' flight path were protected by SA-2 missile sites.

When a U-2 flight was conducted on April 9, 1960, the plane's electronic intelligence (ELINT) collection unit indicated that the Soviets were tracking them early on. The CIA's Deputy Director of Plans Bissell was warned that "penetration without detection" was now a problem. When Powers went on that fateful flight on May 1, 1960, the CIA knew that he was in danger. There is no record that the CIA warned Eisenhower that the peace summit might blow up in his face.

DDP Bissell has said that the photographic capabilities of the U-2s provided "more than ninety percent of all its hard intelligence about the Soviet Union." during that era. During the early "60s, military surveillance satellites were in their infancy. Until the first satellite launch in August, 1960, the U-2 was the only way to obtain overhead photos of military test sites and similar sensitive installations.

U-2 pilot Gary Powers on trial in Moscow
U-2 pilot Gary Powers
on trial in Moscow

Throughout the 1950s, the U-2 was able to defeat Soviet air defenses for two reasons: It could fly beyond the range of their missiles to an altitude of 90,000 feet, and it had ultra-secret radar-jamming equipment. Kelly Johnson, the legendary research engineer for Lockheed, designed the U-2 and many key US military planes at the largely autonomous "Lockheed Advanced Development Projects" (better known as the "Skunk Works") in Burbank, California, delivering the first U-2 in 1955 to the infamous top-secret base Area 51. Johnson said that the Soviets were "somehow able to isolate the (U-2's) radar-jamming signals and use their beams to guide the anti-aircraft missile...(this meant) either a penetration by Soviet intelligence of United States radar countermeasures or, by some other means, the ability to take precise measurements of the U-2's radar signals."

The U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers, wrote in his book Operation Overflight that he believed Oswald's defection was related to his being shot down: "Oswald's familiarity with MPS 16 height-finding radar gear and radio codes...are mentioned in the testimony of John E. Donovan, a former first lieutenant assigned to the same El Toro radar unit as OSWALD."

Lt. John Emmett Donovan had been Oswald's commanding officer in 1959, and had discussed more than radar gear and codes: "OSWALD has access to the location of all bases in the west coast area, all radio frequencies for all squadrons, all tactical call signs, and the relative strength of all squadrons, number and type of aircraft in each squadron, who was the commanding officer, the authentification code of entering and exiting the ADIZ, which stands for Air Defense Identification Zone. He knew the range of our radar. He knew the range of our radio. And he knew the range of the surrounding unit's radio and radar."

Donovan was an FBI agent from 1953-1956, and was a recent graduate from Georgetown University's Foreign Service school when interviewed by the Secret Service during December 1963. On the same day as this Secret Service interview, Donovan was contacted by Evening Star reporter Jeremiah O'Leary who was "also a Marine reservist". Donovan told the Warren Commission that the Marines spent thousands of hours changing all the tactical frequencies and verifying the destruction of codes.

No question that Oswald made the US government's security much more vulnerable by his threat to talk to the Soviets. But whether or not he did it, Oswald didn't know anything about how to unjam the U-2's radar-jamming signals, which was the Soviets' core problem as it made it very difficult for the Soviets to even find an overflying U-2. Nor was Oswald's knowledge of the height-finding radar gear all that helpful, if the U-2 could fly higher than the Soviet air defenses could reach and simultaneously jam Soviet radar.

What is fascinating is that there is no investigation in the CIA or FBI files dedicated to whether Oswald was handing U-2 information over to the Soviets. Nor is there anything in the military files that I am aware of, other than this complaint by his own lieutenant John Donovan. Incredibly, the Warren Commission did not ask Donovan or any of Oswald's military colleagues a single question about the U-2, even though the shootdown incident happened on the second overflight after Oswald's arrival to the USSR. Donovan said that "he did not know whether Oswald had actually turned over secrets to the Russians. But for security's sake it had to be assumed that he did".

Eight days after Donovan testified to the Warren Commission, Richard Helms wrote a memo to the Warren Commission entitled, "Oswald's Access to Information About the U-2", which was classified as "Commission Document 931" and not released for thirty years. Francis Gary Powers discussed it at length in his book, as he really wanted to know what it said. Powers died in 1978. When Helms' memo was released in 1993, this was its conclusion:

"To summarize: There is no evidence or indication that OSWALD had any association with, or access to, the JTAG (Joint Technical Advisors Group) operation or its program in Japan. This applies also to information regarding the U-2 or its mission."

The gap between Helms' version and Donovan's version is vast. Donovan talks about how his unit provided U-2 support at Cubi Point in the Philippines, where Oswald once tracked a U-2 flying over China and showed it to him.

Whether or not Oswald actually provided U-2 secrets to the Soviets, it was certainly part of the legend created on his behalf. The best tip-off is right in Oswald's own diary, where he says that Don Alejandro advised him to go back to the USA on the night of May 1, 1960, the night that the Soviets shot down Powers' U-2.

"It's the first voice of opposition I have heard. I respect Ziger, he has seen the world. He says many things, and relates many things I do not know about the USSR. I begin to feel uneasy inside, it's true!"

The CIA's memo says that Ziger "cautioned Oswald not to tell any Russians".

Oswald's work in the Soviet Union was done. Both sides would take a long look at him, saying: "Whose man is he?"

- Bill Simpich

Bill Simpich is an Oakland civil rights attorney who knows that it doesn't have to be like this. He was part of the legal team chosen by Public Justice as Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2003 for winning a jury verdict of 4.4 million in Earth Firster Judi Bari's lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland police. He works with the Mary Ferrell Foundation to decipher the cryptonyms and pseudonyms used by intelligence operatives in the JFK documents, and suggests that we will achieve historical resolution in this case more quickly than most people believe.


See all chaptersNext => Part 5: The Double Dangle



ENDNOTES

The CIA cited Oswald's estimate of 5000 employees at the factory: Oswald 201 file, Vol. 24, p. 143.

He noticed that he was "being observed" by his supervisor: Oswald 201 File, Vol 24 Bulky, Oswald Chronology Part 2 to Name Trace Appendix Draft, p. 26.

The supervisor was chief engineer Alexander Romanovich Ziger, a Polish Jew in his late forties who had supposedly relocated to Argentina in 1938 and returned to Belarus around 1955 or 1956: Oswald 201 File, Vol 38B/NARA Record Number: 1993.06.10.15:01:04:030000, Chronology of Oswald in the USSR.

Mr. Ziger spoke English with an American accent, while his family spoke no English. Ziger claimed he had worked for an American company in Argentina. Sources describe him as Alejandro or as Alexsandr: ARRB 1996 Releases / NARA Record Number: 104-10009-10068, Revised and Updated Version of List Forwarded to WC re Names. Also see John Armstrong, Harvey and Lee, p. 288 (interview with daughter Ana Evelina Ziger, 1998).

Oswald called himself "Alec" or "Alik" while in the USSR, and even obtained a hunting license under the name "Aleksey Harvey Oswald": Oswald 201 File, Volume 24, p. 8.

Oswald enjoyed many Sunday drives into the country with the family: Oswald 201 File, Vol 24 Bulky, Oswald Chronology Part 2 to Name Trace Appendix Draft, p. 32.

Tea and cakes with Don Alejandro: John Armstrong, Harvey and Lee, p. 287 (interview with daughter Anita Evelina Ziger, 1998) Photo of Don Alejandro: Warren Commission Exhibit 2624.

Most of the CIA's file cards spell Alejandro's surname as "Zeger": Name Check Request - Alexsandr Ziger, ARRB 1996 Releases/NARA Record Number: 104-10006-10226.

The Moscow phone book has the listing as "Ziger": Commission Document 680 - CIA Appendix C to Chronology of Oswald in USSR, p. 193.

The Warren Commission is partial to "Zieger". J. Lee Rankin memo to J. Edgar Hoover, 9/5/64, FBI Warren Commission Liaison File (62-109090), FBI 62-109090 Warren Commission HQ File, Section 19, p. 239.

We do see a note stating that "Alexander Zeger...is probably identical with Alejandro Ziger, a Polish engineer and radiotelephonic expert..." Oswald 201 File, Vol 24 Bulky, Oswald Chronology Part 2 to Name Trace Appendix Draft, 4/16/64 draft of "Chronology of Oswald in the USSR", CIA document. See p. 160. Background notes on this draft: Chronology of Oswald in the USSR, cover and opening page.

The CIA'sinformation on Ziger is heavily redacted to this day. At a minimum, it looks like Ziger had at least one family member involved in CIA counterintelligence: Name Check Request - Alexsandr Ziger, p.3, ARRB 1996 Releases/NARA Record Number: 104-10006-10226.

There is a reference in Oswald's phone book to a "Debovy or Debooy". CIA analyst Marguerite Stevens wondered if it might be a reference to "David DeBoey Sagier": Memo by M.D. Stevens to Chief, Research Branch SRS/OS, 2/3/64, HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, Box 47/NARA Record Number: 1993.07.24.10:25:23:530550.

Born in 1908, David Zagier's memoir Botchki describes growing up in Poland and his work with the OSS and the CIA: David Zagier, Botchki (George Braziller, 2001)

David D. Zagier wrote an OSS paper on the devaluation of the Finnish mark: OSS Secret Intelligence/Special Funds Records, 1942-46, p. 214.

"D. Zagier" can be found among a list of the CIA's most famous counterintelligence officers of the 1960s: CIA File Card Review, p. 2; HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, Box 35/NARA Record Number: 104-10096-10321.

Alejandro Ziger's daughter "Lenora Zeger" is described as divorced and a singer. Lenora and Lee used to like to flirt together. The CIA's traces indicate that Lenora's birthdate is supposedly "1923": Name Check Request - Lenora Zeger, Oswald 201 File (201-289248)/NARA Record Number: 104-10006-10227.

Oswald's diary estimates that Lenora was born in 1934: Revised and Updated Version of List Forwarded to Warren Commission Re Names, p. 204, ARRB 1996 Releases/NARA Record Number: 104-10009-10068.

The CIA's traces for the younger sister Anita indicate that her birth year is supposedly "1929": Name Check Request - Anita Zeger, Oswald 201 File, Vol 53B/NARA Record Number: 104-10006-10228.

Regarding Mrs. Ziger, her traces are run for her apparent maiden name,"Ana Dmitruk": Name Check Request - Ana Dmitruk, Oswald 201 File (201-289248)/NARA Record Number: 104-10006-10114. Note that the attached documents identify a woman who was born in the 1880s and couldn't have been Ana. The identified woman may have been Ana's mother.

The odds are strong that Ana is related to Pavel Dymitruk, whose ex-wife Lydia took in Marina Oswald after the Oswalds left the USSR and arrived in Texas virtually penniless: Memo from James Angleton to Director of Naval Intelligence, 5/19/64, Russ Holmes Work File/NARA Record Number: 104-10423-10255. Although unsigned by Angleton, the format and typeface reveals it as an Angleton memorandum; see this 2/14/64 Angleton memo for comparison.

An alleged ship manifest says that Ziger and his family left Argentina for the USSR with his family in 1956, but the birth years don't track what we have previously seen - his birth year as approximately 1912, his wife Ana's as 1910, daughter Leonor as 1935, and daughter Anita as 1941: "Chronology of Oswald in the USSR", for date January 12, 1960; Oswald 201 File, Vol 38B/NARA Record Number: 1993.06.10.15:01:04:030000

Author John Armstrong went to Argentina in 1998 and interviewed Ana Ziger. To Armstrong's astonishment, Ana Ziger told him that Oswald "didn't speak any Russian at all"...: John Armstrong interview with Ana Ziger, October 1998. See Armstrong's Harvey and Lee, (Quasar, Ltd., Arlington, Texas 2003), p. 336.

Oswald's male friends spoke English, and his female companions were from the foreign language institute who spoke English: Norman Mailer, Oswald's Tale, pp. 108, 122-123 (Erich Titovets), Inna Pasenko, other girls at the Foreign Languages Institute, pp. 123-126. Pavel Golovachev's letters to Oswald are all in English.

When Oswald was hospitalized for his alleged suicide attempt, the authorities thought that he understood the Russian spoken to him despite his verbal denials. "Sometimes he answers correctly, but immediately states that he does not understand what he was asked". Soviet hospital medical notes, Warren Commission Exhibit 985.

His Intourist guide Rimma Shirokova recalled that "he didn't seem to know a single word in Russian" when he arrived in the USSR: Norman Mailer, Oswald's Tale, p. 43.

Angleton's aide Ray Rocca told the Church Committee that Shirakova was a KGB agent: Memorandum for the Record by AC/CI/OG Robert Wall re Ray Rocca meeting with Senate Select Committee staff, 11/13/75, Russ Holmes Work File/NARA Record Number: 104-10423-10002.

Oswald's Russian was considered good enough in the United States to qualify him as a professional translator...: Testimony of Paul Gregory, Warren Commission Hearings, Volume 2, p. 338.

...and for his wife Marina to mistake him as a native-born Russian with a Baltic accent when they first met: Testimony of Paul Gregory, Warren Commission Hearings, Volume 9, p. 146.

As a result of Dunlap's information, the Soviets were well aware of when the U-2 planes crossed over the Soviet Union: FBI letterhead memo, "Jack Edward Dunlap", 4/21/66, LA Division Work File/NARA Record Number: 104-10309-10022.

An extremely sensitive and reliable source, the source known as TOPHAT: William Sullivan to Alan Belmont, 12/4/63, FBI-HSCA Subject Files, C-D/FBI-SCA Subject File: Church Committee, NARA Record Number: 124-10287-10185.

Tophat was Lt. General Dmitri Fedorovich Polyakov, exposed by Aldrich Ames - the real mole inside the CIA - whose motivation was money and not ideology: Elaine Shannon, Time Magazine, "Death of the Perfect Spy", 8/8/94.

See Scott Van Wynsberghe, Third Decade, Jan.-Mar. 1992, "Stray Shots VIII", p. 21: "In 1978, Epstein exploited his contacts with the Angleton crowd to reveal the existence of one traitor in the Soviet U.N. delegation. Epstein apparently thought this individual, Dmitri Polyakov to be another fake, but Mangold says Polyakov, too, was genuine. In fact, he was executed in 1988." Also see Tom Mangold, Cold Warrior, pp. 205-214.

For more on TOPHAT, see Mangold, Cold Warrior, pp. 227-236; David Wise, Molehunt, pp. 153-154.

Khrushchev eventually "gave the okay" to shoot down the Powers U-2 aircraft at a time when he thought it would do the most good for Soviet prestige: FBI memo of 4/21/1966: Jack Edward Dunlap, in CIA LA Division Work File, NARA Number: 104-10309-10022.

His widow admitted to the FBI that Dunlap told her before his suicide that he had been selling secrets to the Soviets: No Title, FBI memo from William Sullivan to Alan Belmont, 12/4/63, FBI - HSCA Subject File: Church Committee/RIF#: 124-10287-10185.

By 1960...all of the sites on Francis Gary Powers' flight path were protected by SA-2 missile sites: Gerald McKnight, Breach of Trust (University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 440, citing Dino A. Brugoni, Eyeball to Eyeball: The Inside Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: Random House, 1991), pp. 43-44.

When Powers went on that fateful flight on May 1, 1960, the CIA knew that he was in danger. There is no record that the CIA warned Eisenhower that the peace summit might blow up in his face.: Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954-1974, indepdendently published, 2018, pp. 171-176.

On details surrounding the U-2 sources such as Richard Helms and Richard Bissell: U-2s provided "more than ninety percent of all its hard intelligence about the Soviet Union.": Edward Jay Epstein, Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald (Reader's Digest Press, 1978) p. 119.

Kelly Johnson designed the U-2: See Wikipedia: Lockheed U-2.

Delivering in 1955 the first U-2 to the infamous top-secret base Area 51: Jeffrey Richelson, Wizards of Langley (Westview Press, 2002), p. 14.

Johnson: The Soviets either penetrated US radar countermeasures, or, by some other means, the ability to take precise measurements of the U-2's radar signals: Epstein, Legend, at p. 119.

Powers: "Oswald's familiarity with MPS 16 height-finding radar gear and radio codes...are mentioned in the testimony of John E. Donovan, a former first lieutenant assigned to the same El Toro radar unit as OSWALD.": Francis Gary Powers, Operation Overflight (Brassey's Inc., paperback version 2004), pp. 304-305.

Lt. John Emmett Donovan was Oswald's commanding officer in 1959, and had discussed more than radar gear and codes: "(Oswald) had the access to the location of all bases in the west coast area, all radio frequencies for all squadrons...": Testimony of John E. Donovan, Warren Commission Hearings, Volume 8, p. 298; Incident Report Re. John E. Donovan's Acquaintance with Lee Harvey Oswald, 12/1/63, HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, Box 41/RIF# [[:mffdocpage:53655:3 | 104-10113-10241].

On the same day of this Secret Service interview, Donovan was contacted by Evening Star reporter Jeremiah O'Leary who was also a Marine reservist: Remarks on routing slip re John E. Donovan, HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, Box 47/RIF#: 104-10132-10126.

Incredibly, the Warren Commission did not ask Donovan or any of Oswald's military colleagues a single question about the U-2, even though the shootdown incident happened on the second overflight after Oswald's arrival to the USSR: Powers, Operation Overflight, p. 305.

The gap between Helms' version and Donovan's version is vast. Donovan talks about how his unit provided U-2 support at Cubi Point in the Philippines, where Oswald once tracked a U-2 flying over China and showed it to him: Interview by John Newman with James Donovan, 7/19/94, in Newman's Oswald and the CIA, p. 32.

Donovan said that "he did not know whether Oswald had actually turned over secrets to the Russians. But for security's sake it had to be assumed that he did": New York Journal American, "Oswald in Russia: Did He Tell Our Military Secrets?", quoting John Donovan, 12/2/63.

"To summarize: There is no evidence or indication that OSWALD had any association with, or access to, the JTAG (Joint Technical Advisors Group) operation or its program in Japan. This applies also to information regarding the U-2 or its mission." Warren Commission Document 931, Richard Helms memo re Oswald's access to the U-2, final page.

In Oswald's diary, he indicates on May 1, 1960 Don Alejandro advised him to go back to the USA...: "Historic Diary from Oct. 16, 1959 Arrival", p. 9, Russ Holmes Work File/NARA Record Number: 104-10418-10355.

The CIA's memo says that Ziger "cautioned Oswald not to tell any Russians": Oswald 201 File, Vol 24 Bulky, Oswald Chronology Part 2, Name List with Traces, p. 29.

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