Limitations of Vague Secret Service Intelligence Requests
Other agencies occasionally provided information to the Secret Service about potentially dangerous political groups—e.g., the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico—but only after members had resorted to political violence. The vague requests made by the Secret Service to federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies were not well designed to elicit information about persons other than obvious threats. The requests shifted responsibility for evaluating difficult cases from the Service—the agency most responsible for performing that task—to other agencies, with no specific guidance provided. Although the CIA had on file Treasury Department requests for information on counterfeiting and certain smuggling matters, it had no written specification of what foreign intelligence information the Secret Service desired in advance of Presidential trips outside the United States.
Pre-Assassination Information on Lee Harvey Oswald
No information concerning Lee Harvey Oswald appeared in PRS files before the President’s trip to Dallas, but Oswald was known to other federal agencies with which the Secret Service maintained intelligence liaison. The FBI had been interested in him, to some degree, since his defection in October 1959. It had interviewed him twice shortly after his return to the United States, again a year later at his request, and was investigating him at the time of the assassination. The Commission took testimony from Bureau agents who interviewed Oswald after his return, the agent assigned to his case at the time of the assassination, the Director of the FBI, and the Assistant to the Director in charge of all investigative activities. The CIA Director and Deputy Director for Plans testified about that Agency’s limited knowledge of Oswald. The Commission reviewed the complete pre-assassination files on Oswald from the Department of State, Office of Naval Intelligence, FBI, and CIA.
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