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Cryptonym: HTLINGUAL

Definition:

CIA mail opening and mail cover program, operated from 1952 to 1973. It was a joint operation of the CI Staff and the Deputy Director of Security/Investigations and Operational Support. The mail of Lee Harvey Oswald while in the USSR was among the targets of this program.

Status:

Documented

Discussion:

Within the Office of Security, this project was known as SRPOINTER. See FBI_CHURCH2.WPD - Within the FBI, this project was known as Hunter Project Hunter or Bureau Informant 200. Chris Gikas at DDS/IOS was monitoring Boris Tarasoff (the one who listened to the Oswald phone calls in Mexico City after they were recorded/transcribed) during June, 1963 shortly before Tarasoff went to Mexico City. https://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=31210&relPageId=2&search=IOS

Sources:

ARRB Final Report p.83: Final Report of the Assassinations Records Review Board

"HTLINGUAL is the crypt for CIA's mail opening and mail cover program for 1952 to 1973. The CIA reported to the Review Board that it destroyed most of its formal HTLINGUAL records in 1990 at the direction of CIA's Office of General Counsel."

Church Committee Book III p.565: Church Committee: Book III - Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans

The Church Committee's overview of four CIA mail opening programs which "resulted in the opening and photographing of nearly a quarter of a million items of correspondence..."

Church Committee Vol 4 p.206: Church Committee: Volume 4 - Hearings on Mail Opening

The Church Committee published an entire report volume on mail opening programs conducted by FBI and CIA.

Memo re: Priscilla Johnson mail intercepts: HTLINGUAL MAIL INTERCEPTS

Priscilla Johnson, who wrote about Oswald after his defection to the Soviet Union, and later wrote Marina and Lee, was herself the target of the HTLINGUAL program.

HTLINGUAL Soft File: Reel 44, Folder D - HTLINGUAL SOFT FILE

This entire file is about Lee and Marina Oswald and their various family, friends, and acquaintances.

104-10303-10002: SHACKLEY EXTRACTS: MEMORANDUM AND NOTE

"(Theodore Shackley) has been briefed regarding Project HTLINGUAL a sensitive project conducted jointly by the CI Staff and DDS/IOS."

Contributors:

MFF • Bill Simpich

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