ISSUANCE OF A PASSPORT IN JUNE 1963
On June 24, 1963, Oswald applied for a U.S. passport at the Passport Office in New Orleans, La.[A15-257] He said he was planning to visit England, France, Holland, U.S.S.R., Finland, Italy, and Poland, and that he intended to leave the country sometime during November or December 1963 by ship from New Orleans.[A15-258] He stated further that he was married to a person born in Russia who was not an American citizen. For occupation, the word “Photographer” was inserted on the application.[A15-259]
On the same day a teletype was sent to Washington containing the names of 25 of the persons who applied for passports on that date in New Orleans, Oswald’s name among them. On the right side of the Washington Passport Office copy of the teletype message, approximately parallel to his name, are the letters, “NO,” written in red pencil.[A15-260] Oswald was issued a passport on June 25, 1963.[A15-261]
Since there was no lookout card on Oswald, the passport was processed routinely. Twenty-four hours is the usual time for routinely granted passports to be issued.[A15-262] The handwritten notation, “NO,” which appeared beside Oswald’s name on the list of applicants from New Orleans, is a symbol for the New Orleans Passport Office that is routinely placed on incoming teletype messages by anyone of a group of persons in the teletype section of the Passport Office.[A15-263] No one looked at Oswald’s file previously established with the Department.[A15-264] The Department, however, has informed the Commission that at the time the passport was issued there was no information in its passport or security files which would have permitted it to deny a passport to Oswald.[A15-265] No lookout card should have been in the file based upon the Moscow Embassy’s memorandum of March 28, 1960, which drew attention to Oswald’s intention to expatriate himself, because the subsequent determination that Oswald had not expatriated himself would remove expatriation as a possible ground for denying him a passport.[A15-266] And by January 29, 1963, the repatriation loan had been repaid, so a lookout card should not have been in the file on that basis.[A15-267]
* * * * *
Oswald was entitled to receive a passport in 1963 unless he came within one of the two statutory provisions authorizing the Secretary of State to refuse to issue it.[A15-268] Section 6 of the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, which has recently been declared unconstitutional,[A15-269] then provided:
* * * it shall be unlawful for any member of [an organization required to register], with knowledge or notice that such organization is so registered and that such order has become final—(1) to make application for passport, or the renewal of a passport, to be issued or renewed by or under the authority of the United States; or (2) to use or attempt to use any such passport.[A15-270]
Pursuant to section 6, the State Department promulgated a regulation which denied passports to
* * * any individual who the issuing officer knows or has reason to believe is a member of a Communist Organization registered or required to be registered under Section 7 of the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950 as amended.[A15-271]
Since there is no evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was a member of the American Communist Party or any other organization which had been required to register under section 7 of the Subversive Activities Control Act,[A15-272] a passport could not have been denied him under section 6.