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Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. V - Page 382« Previous | Next »

(Testimony of Frances G. Knight)

Representative Ford.
Miss KNIGHT. No, sir.
Senator COOPER. Why do you say that?
Miss KNIGHT. Because, there was nothing in the passport file or in the reports that we received from investigative agencies that would indicate that he had any Communist leanings or any Communist affiliations prior to his sojourn in the Soviet Union.
Senator COOPER. There wasn't anything in his file from the reports of the State Department concerning his defection to Russia and his return which indicated that he was a member of the Communist Party?
Miss KNIGHT. No, sir.
Senator COOPER. Or a Communist organization?
Miss KNIGHT. No, sir.
Senator COOPER. Was there anything in the files from the FBI or any other security agency which would give you that information?
Miss KNIGHT. None that I saw; no, sir. I do know that there were two recent intelligence reports from the FBI, and they were dated October 31. 1963, and October 25, 1963, and these were logged into the Passport Office on November 20, 1963, and on November 22, 1963, respectively.
Senator COOPER. They were then, of course, would have been, received in the office after the time.
Miss KNIGHT. That was the date of the assassination.
Senator COOPER. After the time that the passport had been renewed.
Mr. Cooper.
That included the information that he was active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
Miss KNIGHT. That is correct, and these were referred to us by the Office of Security, and then on 5:30 a.m. on November 23, 1963, these reports were called for on an urgent basis by the Administrator of the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs and we delivered them to him at approximately 7:30 that morning.
I never saw these reports and no one in the Passport Office had an opportunity to read them or see them.
Senator COOPER. The point I am making is, am I correct or are you correct, when you say at the time Oswald's passport was either issued or renewed to make the trip to Mexico City, that there was no evidence in his files of any kind which would indicate that he was a member of a Communist organization?
Miss KNIGHT. No, sir; there was nothing in the file.
Senator COOPER. What weight would you give to the fact that he had defected and had returned to the United States, and had claimed once that he wanted to renounce American citizenship? Would that be a fact to which you would give weight in determining whether or not you believed he was a member of the Communist organization?
Miss KNIGHT. Yes, sir; I understand your question. I did not adjudicate the Oswald citizenship case. But I would say that the adjudicators must have taken into consideration his instability which was reported in the dispatches, his attitude, his age, he was 20 years old at the time, and the fact that when he finally made his appeal to come back to the United States, he denied that he had asked for Soviet citizenship, that he was considered a Soviet citizen, and he further denied that he had offered anybody information.
He denied practically everything that he, in very bad temper, had told the consul that he was going to do. This, I think, is fairly well established in the document he signed, and which was sent to us when his passport was renewed and limited for return to the United States.
Senator COOPER. I am first directing my attention to the issuance or renewal of the passport which enabled him to go to Mexico City. I want to keep on that for a moment.
Miss KNIGHT. He didn't have a passport for Mexico City.
Senator COOPER. Not a passport for Mexico City.
Mr. Cooper.
He had the passport in June 1963.
Senator COOPER. Yes; to go over to Cuba and different places.
Miss KNIGHT. We did not know, and there was nothing, I think I am right about this, there is nothing in our files to indicate that he went to Cuba or that he went to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City. I understand this was brought out.
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