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Cryptonym: SYMPATHIZER

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Definition:
It sounds like a wiretap system that picked up Maria Snethlage, an ostensible left-winger living near the Hague, as well as the Third Secretary for the Cuban embassy at the Hague. The SYMPATHIZER source also reported on Lee Harvey Oswald's transit through the Netherlands in 1962, while Oswald and his family were moving from Minsk to Fort Worth.
Status:
Speculative
Discussion:
Willem Oltmans, a journalist also tracked by SYMPATHIZER during 1967, was a critical source of information on George de Mohrenschildt.
Sources:

104-10173-10133: FOLDER ON ISAACS, HAROLD

06/06/58: Air dispatch from COS, Withheld to Chief, WE: Subject: General - Operational/SYNCHRONY. Specific - Dutch Consul General Reports, Shanghai: "Attached is SYMPATHIZER report CQ 131 which transmits old reports from the Dutch Consul General in Shanghai concerning persons suspected of working for the Komintern and the RIS. (REDACTION)."

104-10209-10306 CABLE: HAS REPORTED THAT ON 23 NOVEMBER 1963,CASTROITE NAMED MARIA SNETHLAGE TALKED TO THIRD SECRETARY RICARDO SANTOS OF THE CUBAN EMBASSY

11/28/63 memo from C/WH/3 John Whitten to White House, McGeorge Bundy, Dept. of State, U. Alexis Johnson, the CIA and FBI that "our station in the Hague reported that on 11/23/63, a local Castroite named Maria Snethlage talked to Third Secretary Ricardo Santos of the Cuban Embassy in the Hague"...First she told him that Vincent Lee was the assassin - speculating that he had been misled by a group - and then she changed her statement later that day to refer to Lee Oswald. The report comes from "an extremely reliable and sensitive source". This language is used elsewhere to refer to wiretaps - which is what SYMPATHIZER may have been. Also see https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=95568#relPageId=40&search=snethlage - describes Maria Snethlage as the head of a Dutch group that did a newsletter on Cuba, composed of dissident Communists, pacifists, and Troskyists.

104-10018-10070: GPFLOOR TRANSMITTAL OF REPORTS

12/1/63 memo reports that Fidel Castro wrote in the wake of JFK's assassination: "After the assassination of President Kennedy, facts have been bringing up to light a sinister plot. Contradictions reveal that Oswald was either convicted by the police or prepared to plan the assassination (not clear), with the promise of letting him escape afterwards, so as to insinuate or make the responsibility fall upon those whom the actual authors want to blame. It is clear that reactionary North Americans wanted to make Cuba and the world victims of their criminal purposes even at the extent of assassinating the President. They sent Oswald to Mexico to ask for an in-transit visa for Cuba and then go to the USSR. Imagine the President's assassin just returning from the USSR and going to Cuba! He could have asked for a USSR visa in some European countries much much closer than Cuba without coming to Cuba and then returning to the USSR..." Discussion of Ricardo Santos and his brother can be found on page 5 (in Spanish).

104-10017-10049: FBI INTERESTED IN NAME TRACE ON RICARDO SANTOS'S PRO-CASTRO BOTHER LIVING IN UNITED STATES

12/5/63 cable DIR 87026 from CWH/3 John Whitten to the Hague, re HAGU 5063: "FBI very interested in name and address and details on Ricardo Santos' pro-Castro brother who lives in the US. Can you learn this from ()NAPSIS for passage to (FBI) here? The Mr. Lee mentioned by Maria Snetlage was probably Vincent Theodore Lee who replaced Richard Gibson as chairman of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New York."

104-10018-10070: GPFLOOR TRANSMITTAL OF REPORTS

12/13/63 memo from Richard Consley, Chief of Station, The Hague, to Chief of Station, WE (attn: C/WE-2): "Attached for Headquarters' information are the following three SYMPATHIZER reports: "a. CAH/63/795, dated 3 December 1963, which is the result of the SYMPATHIZER investigation of Oswald's transit through The Netherlands in June 1962...b. a BUSYBODY report of 1 December 1963, concerning a telegram received by the Cuban Embassy in The Hague, from Havana; c. SYMPATHIZER "AC" report #56, dated 2 December 1963, which was reported previously by the Station in HAGU-5063." The actual notes can be viewed at 104-10018-10070. - - - Page 4 in the December 2022 release is unredacted: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=229677#relPageId=4

104-10234-10032: PER SENSITIVE SOURCE, 2 MARCH TELEGRAM FROM MINREX ADVISES OF ARRESTS OF ROLANDO CUBELA AND RAMON GUIN.

3/7/66 cable HAGU 0061 to WAVE, slugline KAPOK SYMPATHIZER BUSYBODY: "Per sensitive source, 2 March telegram from MINREX advises of arrests of Rolando Cubela/AMLASH and Ramon Guin/AMTRUNK-10. Both men are accused of being (CIA) agents."

104-10429-10094: REVIEW OF SELECTED ITEMS IN THE LEE HARVEY OSWALD FILE REGARDING ALLEGATIONS OF THE CASTRO CUBAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION.

April 1966: "A sensitive liaison source, reporting after the Kennedy assassination, indicated that at the Soviet reception on 7 November 1963, the Cuban Third Secretary, Ricardo L. Santos Pena, discussed the recent refugee raids on Cuba and their implications with a host country diplomat, concluding with the admonition, "Just wait and see what we can do. It will happen soon." Asked to be more specific what would happen soon, Santos replied, 'Wait. Just wait.' These data were passed to the Warren Commission by memorandum, 31 March 1964. Santos was reported to have a history of mental instability and was subsequently recalled from the Hague reportedly for reasons related to that fact April 1966."

104-10414-10145: MULTI PAGES OF DOCUMENTS ON MR. GEORGE DE MOHRENSCHILDT FROM IG.

2/1/72 dispatch from Kenneth D. Pikelny of the REDACTED Division to the Chief of the European Division, slugline RYBAT SYMPATHIZER MHCOLOR: "Attached for European Division are English language translations of the press clippings concerning Willem Oltmans...also attached is compilation of Oltmans' contacts with the Soviets which was prepared by SYMPATHIZER. The latter requests this material be treated as very sensitive as it is based almost exclusively upon technical coverage of SYWEB." Other pages reveal that "Rodriguez" received this information from Fidel Castro, and that Rodriguez passed it on to Consul Ruiz.

Contributors:
Bill Simpich

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