ROUGHISPATCH TO HQ.
TO: PBSUCCESS HQ
IRCHs LlilCOLli
SUBJECT: GENERAL: SECURITY
SPECIFIC i ERRONEOUS TRAHSKISSION TAPES TO SHERWOOD
? from Sherwood to LincolnU.information that four (li) tapes marked ^Lnljervlev3 fslyiM^'k
^Jxt recorded atand requosted instructions on their use. PurkU> Sherwood was instructed to destroy those four tapes incediatoly and the destruction wo3 aire confirraod perated*
four tapes in question wore immediately recognized as being
^ anriefingrospective "K* program agent by GRAHAM L, PAGE which was conducted at Headquarters inU. Those tapes were brought to Lincoln by PAGE and had been kept in PAGE'S safe in Roomt Lincoln.
upon notification, an inquiry was initiated tofacte concerning thisnd to resolve the quostion as tonisdi.-cction was intentional or an error attributable* expediency
eiuiinil in the courseighly urgent natter. Extensive interviewe were conducted with all Lincoln personnel having any knowlodgo or access to the tapes in question.
".. It war ascertained that on the afternoon of, WXL D. LANGLVIil brought twelve boxes of tapes from Safehouse "D" to Lincoln. The boxes were numbered consecutively fror forty-fivehrough Tliose twelve
boxes of tapof; wa:ro giver, to, iERTOK who would malto the necessary arranearcenLr for thoir transmission to 5herwood. HEftTOM advises that heheseich were not wrapped, on his desk^fronmSCC onlay until
0 on the same date at which time he delivered them, still unwrapped, to i'ALCOLK H. XBBBXSBBX BHOADPROST Bt in MEBKffl states that ho had checked on the number of tapesumber of times and is sure that he delivered only twelve boxes of tapes numbered forty-fivehrough) to 3RQADFR0ST. BROACFRCST remembers receiving the tapes on the aftornoon ofay, but states he did not count them. He believes that upon delivery by KitfiTOH, KERTON mentioned that these were the twelve boxes of tapes whicho be furnished to0 onay for transmission to FJKOPEPUL and thence to SHERWOOD. DROAiiFROST left the tapes on his desk and was in and out ofumber of times during the course of the evening. At0 onay, BR0AEFRCS3 returned to his office and noted that the tapes weres desk. lie thenote to MERTON, who was out of the office^ but expected back that evening, and gave it to his secretary, Iden A. In his note to lOBTOiJ, BROADFROST requested that MSRTQN teke care of delivery of the tapes to Iden C due to tlie fact that operational activities would requireresenceotel rjrxfcxamxxkmamfcxxH where, for security reasons, lie was to place adistance phone call. BROADFROST completed! the writing of this note in the presence ofnd gave it to her with instructior to give itEL; liRRTOlo on his return, XSXXccepted the note, butunable to recall the contents of the note nor can she recall whether or not she rer-jmbcrr seeirfc, the tapes on "ROADFROST's desk.
5m Ifleneft the office shortly afterJFifCST departed, but did not, at that tine, putorkpapers in the safe. Iden A, together with JESCKEnd WILLIAK'LAYDOK, left the office at5roceededearby restaurant for dinner. They returned U> the office utXt approxim;0 on 13
rx the tir-'e of tho incident.
A etatos thut sin can not rocnll whether or not there wereUROADFROST's desk olther at0 mxxxt onay orO on lg Hay. not recall seeing any tapes nor does she recall putting any tapes zxtho da^es in question. >en B, who assisted her indesk, is quite positive in his statement that there ware noin BROADFROST's safe drawer on tho nightay by either hj^or
I den A. DFR'-ST keeps Ms fileaardboard box container. The size of thi box is such xx that the presence of twelve boxes of tapes would require careful arronecrwait to allow closing the drawer. Bothecall placing the cardboardapor boguantity of burn notorial and other miscellaneous papers In the drawer, but do not recall either putting tapes in thoseeing then there when the other material was inserted. They both contend that th* drawer was empty at the tine they inserted BRQ-ill^ic^ST's notorial. Tho safo was then locked und the security check sheet on the safomakes initialed bys having locked the safe ands having node the security check. The tine closed was lie ted0 onk,
Vs course of the evening, LUISAR learned thrt IQaTGilc office, lie thancontacted BttMXKS?hotel trd urrBr-gomcnts were made foro return to tlieon Ue anrn*nj ofay and lnrure the delivery of Uw> tapes to
C. tLtos tivX he returned to the office at ap.;roxiivtely
nU- Ho states he opened his safe shortly thereafter, although tlio saonocxxxsKt security check sheet on the safe does not record this fact, end removed the tapes from hie drawer. He slates positively that the tapes were located in the second drawer fron tiio bottom of the safe located in Room 3u.
throe stacks of tapes, stacked on edgo, between tho cardboard box and the tide of the file drawer. (Sixteen tapes were taken for demonstration purposes and placed in tl* drawer together with the cardboard box and it was found that those would fit in tho manner described, although such arrangement* would require some attention.) OST then took tha tapes out of the drawer and into Boomhere he wrapped and addressed the tapes in one package. Ba delivered this package totO onayAtADPS0ST recall counting the number of tapes, assuming that they had been counted by KKRTOH and having no particular reason to check on this point. He can not recall whether there wero twelve, sixteen or any other specific axxx nurber of tapes xxxjulxxx wrapped by him on tha morning ofay.
wee initiated to determinethe spesinto the picture. It was detemined thator four"to PAGS and believed to bo identical with tho ones in question, were
observed/in tlie tot ton arawer of the safe in Roompproximately two weeks prior to the incident. Careful checks with all Lincoln person-el fail reveal any evidonca that sv.ch tapes were removed fron the safo for any reason.
a caraier unresolved, these four c a?eS becane mingledtepor destined for Slicr.iood. It nuet be noted that Iden I) was the dutytheay and he attest* to the fact thtt SROADFROST arrlvodoffice at tha time indicated. There wore no other persons present inexceptcoswurdootAons officer and tho duty officer from
hen DUM3AR and PLATDQU departed until the arrival of the two janitors The janitors are kept under observation by the duty officer and they did not go near tho safe in question. The first LINCOLN personnel to enter was BRGAOFROST at DUNBAR tookome at approximately OH? onay, returned to the office at0 and then departed with PIAYDON at
11, The statements byndhat they do not recall seeing tho tapes or.putting them in BROADFROST's safe drawer and the statement by BROADFROST that he removed them from this same drawer some six hours later, appear to be an error in memory on the part of one of these three individuals. One distinct possibility is that the tapes were placed in the bottom drawer where they could have been mingled with the four boxes J} tapes. Thereossibility that such co-mingling of tapes was intentionally accomplished, although it is the opinion of the Security Officer of LIIJCOLN that this is highly improbable. If such an act had been committed intentionally it would seem reasonable to assume that the person involved would have accomplished his task more adroitly by removing four SHERWOOD tapes from their boxes and replacing them with theapes. The addition of an additional four boxes of tapes also would have increased tlie risk of premature discovery if the act had been intentional, and it is also to be noted that. ^tapes were narked as such on the outside of theDuenited amount of safe drawer space available to LLvCOUi employees due to the temporary nature of tlie project and the close working relationship of the various staffs and their mcriibars, the safe in question was used by both the Air Operations Officer aixl the Chief, PI, hort period prior to this incident, tlie botton drawer of the safe in question was utilized by members of the PK staff. This situation further tends to confuse the issue and make
clarification more difficult, in view of tlie fact that the c apes had
probably been roved from drawer to drawer on one or more occasions during the
past month. It is noteworthy to mention that the pertttOrrt drawer frequently
sticks dueinor mechanical defect, and therefore this drawer is not used
as frequently as tire other tliree drawers of the safe. This defective drawer
if
in no way impairs the security of the safe, butyls difficult to open at times. Knowing that this drawer is frequently difficult to open, it would seem that one of the members of the staff would remember placing the tapes in that drawer if such were the case.
| i. During the course of this incident, Graham L. PAGE has been away from LLUCOLMj however, he will be questioned concerning this natter upon his return,
f*f, CONCLUSIONS!
It is the considered opinion of theK Security Officer that this incident is not the result of an intentional desire on the part of anyone to disrupt the project. The co-mingling of tapes, while not resolved, appears to be tlie result of the rather casual handling of this sensitive material on the part of responsible staff employees. This serious incident has been brought to the attention of every staff employee and steps have been taken to insureimilar incident will not occur in the future. Thereossibility that one of the staff employees may be concealing the truth in order to avoid the ectoarrasst-xnt and responsibility forerious error. However, Idens A, D, BliGADFKCST and iffiRTCH have expressed willingness toechnical interrogation on this subject if that is deemed necessary. It is tlie personal opinion of the Security officer that such drastic actionechnical interrogation of PcSUCCijSS personnel at this time of the project, without more specific reasons for doini; so, would create serious morale factors and possibly r; Koraous decreoco in production. It ison
Original document.
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