On June 24, 1963, OSWALD applied for a new passport; he received it the following day. He listed his occupation as photographer, and stated he planned to travel to "England, France, Germany, Holland, USSR Findland, Italy, Poland." As stated, before the State Department issued or renewed a passport, it checked the name of the applicant against its lookout card file. The State Department had issued a refusal sheet on OSWALD after he defected. In addition, a lookout card for OSWALD should have been prepared in June 1962, when he received a repatriation loan. These additional refusal sheets and lookout cards disappeared or were never prepared. [WCD 2, 294, 427]
FRANCES G. KNIGHT PAPERS Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
On February 28, 1962, HENRY KUPIEC, Foreign Adjudications Division, Passport Office, USDS, advised that subject, by a letter dated January 16, 1962, to the American Embassy in Moscow had advised he would not consider returning to the United States alone for any reason as it appeared to him that his passport would be confiscated upon his return . Subject also forwarded to the American Embassy an affidavit for support of his wife. On March 27, 1962, :,'rs . F:1_ NCES W-l CWT, Office
It is amazing how just one name, Henry F. Kupiec, can bring back a whole flood of memories from the early 1970's. This man was the man that handed me a "For Eyes Only" package while working at the U.S. Passport Office to take to then Secretary of State, Henry Kissenger's Office. (YES, FROM ONE HEN TO ANOTHER) I was told to first call from his office on the 8th floor of the 21st and C Street building if he was not available and that I would be given further instructions. He was not in his office and when I called I got instructions to leave the package with the his private secretary. I can tell you this was one big office and took up much of the top floor of the eight story State Department building. You must realize that most of the people such as, Henry F. Kupiec, were past officers in the U.S military during WWII, when the Soviet Union were our allies. At this time we were in a war with Viet Nam and in the middle of a domestic crisis called Watergate. Also just recieved a book that sells for over $400.00 that I found for $25.00. This book "The Protectors" by Harry Jacob Anslinger is a copy that was the copy donated to The Cardinal Spellman Library, St. Pius X Seminary, Graymoor, Garrison, New York (closed in 1969). - Joe Payne
On June 22, 1962, the records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service on OSWALD were reviewed by Special Agent William F. Martin: "The file reflects that an emergency lookout was placed on OSWALD on May 4, 1962." [FBI 105-8255-27] OSWALD'S repatriation loan was repaid in January 1963. A State Department employee was obliged to cancel the refusal sheet and remove the lookout card. This also failed to occur.
Gerald Posner quoted State Department Legal Advisor Abram Chayes as having said this was a "bureaucratic error." It was not simply one error. Lookout cards should have been prepared for OSWALD on two occasions. They were not. A lookout card was supposed to be removed on two occasions - when OSWALD'S passport was returned to him in Moscow and after he paid his repatriation loan. They were not.
A State Department document that named employees who had access to OSWALD'S passport file included Bernice Waterman, John T. White, George M. Masterton, Giacomo Cacciatore, Henry F. Kupiec (I knew Mr. (Gen.) Kupiec), Edward J. Hickey, Carroll H. Seeley, William E. Duggan (I knew Mr. Duggan), James L. Ritchie and Robert D. Johnson. Robert D. Johnson was listed in Who's Who in the CIA: "Born: October 7, 1926, Languages: German; 1944 to 1946 Captain in CIC of U.S. Army; from 1951 in Department of State; 1955 Chief of Intelligence Reporting Section, Department of State. Opa: Washington." The State Department Biographic Register indicated Robert D. Johnson became Chief of the Passport Legal Division in 1957. In 1962 he became the Chief Counsel of the Passport Division. Robert D. Johnson told Frances Knight: "I was not satisfied with the implication in Mr. Rando's (I knew Mr. Rando very well - Joe Payne) memorandum that we did NOT have a catch card on OSWALD. No one knows for sure whether we did or did not, and the making of the flat statement has caused many more questions than it has answered." [DOS RDJ to FGK 3.27.64] (These were people I worked with for over two years)
Former State Department official Giacomo Cacciatore was contacted: "I was never questioned about OSWALD. The Watch Card or Lookout Card was done by another section of the Passport Office. I worked in the Foreign Passport Division and was concerned with determinations of citizenship and loss of nationality." Former State Department official William E. Duggan was contacted in November 1993. He stated that a court action forbade the State Department from withholding passports for non-payment of repatriation loans. William E. Duggan could not say precisely when this occurred. A spokesman for the Legal Division of the State Department recalled no such decision.
In March 1960 Marguerite Oswald wrote to the State Department and asked it to contact her son. A cable went to Moscow suggesting a message be relayed to OSWALD. The American Embassy replied to Washington that no action had been taken, because OSWALD could not be located. [DOS prim. ser. 0056; WCE 12C file 294 DOS; SCS 261.1122]
A State Department Operations Memorandum dated MARCH 23, 1960, read:
TO: American Embassy, Moscow
FROM: The Department of State
SUBJECT: CITIZENSHIP AND PASSPORTS - LEE HARVEY OSWALD
Unless and until the Embassy comes into possession of information or evidence upon which to base the preparation of a certificate of loss of nationality in the name of LEE HARVEY OSWALD, there appears to be no further action possible in this case.
An appropriate notice has been placed in the Passport Office's lookout card section in the event that Mr. OSWALD should apply for documentation at a post outside the Soviet Union.
PPT:B Waterman: Jn: March 25, 1960.
Reason for refusal: "May have been naturalized in the Soviet Union or otherwise have expatriated himself. Frances G. Knight. March 25, 1960."
A refusal sheet is prepared for insertion in the passport file when information is received which may effect the issuance of the passport. It is used primarily as a 'flag' and does not necessarily mean the person concerned should be denied passport facilities. It does indicate, however, that a lookout card for the named individual should have been prepared.
The State Department reported: "The FEA card record shows as follows: March 13, 1960, case to BW (Bernice Waterman)...March 28, 1960, Refusal for Warning..."
The State Department reported: "The information from Moscow, beginning in October 1959, indicating that OSWALD desired to renounce his citizenship and to acquire Soviet citizenship, was sufficient basis for the preparation of a lookout card for use until the expatriation question was resolved. The passport file shows that a refusal sheet was prepared on March 25, 1960, at the same time an Operations Memorandum was drafted to the American Embassy at Moscow. The Operations Memo which was approved and mailed on March 28, 1960, stated in part: 'An appropriate notice has been placed in the lookout section of the Passport Office in the event that Mr. OSWALD should apply for documentation at a post outside the Soviet Union.' The refusal sheet should have led to the placement of a lookout card in the ordinary course of business. At that time, such cards were prepared in the Clearance Section of the Passport Office. A present review of the passport file tends to indicate that a lookout card may not have been prepared or filed. This opinion is based on the following grounds:
(1) No such card has been located.
(2) Under standard operating procedures in effect in March 1960, a file "130" should have been placed on the refusal sheet immediately preceding the name on the index line on the right margin of the sheet when the card had been made. No such file number appears on the sheet.
(3) The passport file contains a record stamp of a 'PT/RCL (Lookout Files)' search made on August 2, 1961, which reports 'No Lookout file record' located on that date.
There is no evidence or information contained in the file to indicate that any action was taken to remove from the lookout card file any card which may have been filed pursuant to the refusal sheet.
The file shows refusal sheet prepared by Miss Waterman on March 25, 1960, - "May have been in the Soviet Union or otherwise expatriated himself." Immediately on top of this sheet is a File Request Form prepared by G. Masterton dated April 6, 1960, - PT/FEA. The Search Report on this form shows the following boxes checked
X Classified File
X File Attached
The Search Report is dated March 12, 1960.
The FEA card record shows as follows:
March 28, 1960, Refusal for Warning
April 6, 1960, Conference OM [Office Memo]
April 13, 1960, Same and case to BW
This sequence indicated that the file was sent to file after OM to Moscow was mailed. Then the file was returned to FEA on April 13, 1960, with search request form." [DOS FOIA 11-1-10004-10027; File Request Form G. Masterton April 11, 1960, - PT/FEA.Search Report dated April 12, 11960; NARA 11-1-10004-10027]
A lookout card is a small IBM card kept in a special file maintained in the Passport Office. Without a lookout card a refusal sheet is worthless because a lookout card is an index to numerous refusal sheets. It appears as if a lookout card was prepared for OSWALD then removed from OSWALD'S file. The employees concerned with the preparation of a lookout card on OSWALD were Bernice Waterman, Henry F. Kupiec and John T. White.
Even in 1972-1975 personal computers were not in use in any govenment office that I ever visited. In 1983-1985 when working for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were desktop computers used to connect to mainframe and mostly for financial information only. The use of the IBM card was in use in the Passport Office in my General Services office for requisition of supplies from the General Services Administration. - Joe Payne
If I could have told the U.S. Passport Office that their mistake of not allowing the Office of Security (SY), U.S. Department of Sate to continue their Relentless Pursuit, the one that then head of SY, Mr. Otto Otepka had initiated rather than conveniently enhance the plans of one Lee Harvey Oswald, it would have been great. In a memo from the top brass something said might have changed history. All they needed was for someone to tell them that all was OK. That a terrible mistake had not been made. Mr. John T. White's, then Chief of the Passport's Foreign Operations Memo on March 21, 1960 to Mr. Edward Hickey, "For the best interest of the United States, therefore, and as the possession of a passport might facilitate his obtention of an exit visa it is believed that we should do everything within our power to facilitate Oswald's entry into the United States". More on my remembrances of the friendliest people in the world - those I encountered while working with the U.S. Passport Office.