Eldon Hensen

[Robin Finn]

Eldon Hensen was an American who attempted to contact the Cubans in Mexico City and offer to sell them services.Does anyone know if anything further has been revealed about him? I think I remember reading somewhere that a copy of the cable about Hensen had been put in LHO's 201 file at some point.

WH division didn't like it that Mexico City station had risked the LIENVOY phone tap operation in the case of Hensen.

Edited November 17, 2005 by Robin Finn

[Tim Gratz]

Interesting! Await comments from members who are aware of this report.

Robin wrote:

WH division didn't like it that Mexico City station had risked the LIENVOY phone tap operation in the case of Hensen.

Of course it was fear of the exposure of its surveillance methods that also made the CIA so concerned about the "Mexico City mystery man".

[Nathaniel Heidenheimer]

More on Eldon Henson in Jefferson Morely's new book on Winston Scott:

There was one aspect of his new Cuba responsibilities that Phillips never spoke about: impersonation observations aimed at visitors to the

Cuban embassy. On July 29th 1963, for example a man named Eldon Henson called the Cuban embassy for the second time in a week,

saying he wanted to make contact with the embasy but did not want to cme in person because "an American spy might see him" LIENVOY

picked up the conversation, which was forwarded to the Cuba desk at the station. Phillips read it and authorized one of his agents, an

exiled Cuban journalist to return Henson's call...... The Eldon Hensen story, not revealed until 1996, shows how David Phillips used an imper-

sonation operation in a counterintelligence maneuver agains the Cuba embassy. JFK conspiracy theorists would later speculate that someone

had impersonated Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City, a claim that many journalists and historians scoffed at. But the Henson story confirmed

that the CIA station in Mexico City did mount impersonation operations on visitors to the Cuban embassy. (pp.155-156)

First I had read of Phillips apparent direct knowledge of this impersonation incident.

[Brendan Boucher]

I recently stumbled across the documents recounting this incident and CIA HQ's response.  I think there are some interesting things we can learn from the affair.  

 

Here is Mexico City's cable to HQ concerning their effort's to ensnare Hensen.

Job well done boys!  Who knows what Eldon is planning to move "from one place to another"?!?

 

Turns out HQ doesn't quite see it that way.  

 

A pretty scathing dispatch is sent back to Mexico City and the implications may be instructive to help us understand future conduct.

Mexico City acknowledges HQ's misgivings in their July LIENVOY report.

 

I have seen it suggested here and the few other places this episode is detailed that because the CIA Mexico City Station used assets to impersonate others in the Hensen case that it increases the possibility that it might have been the CIA themselves impersonating Oswald in the Oct. 1st-Kostikov calls.  Those that cling to the official tale might say that this was the CIA just doing their job, trying to gain additional intel on the recent American visitor.  Based on these documents I find it unlikely that the MEXI Station had anything to do with the bogus Oswald calls and that they were placed for far more nefarious purposes. 

 

Is there any additional information out there about Mr Hensen?  Ironic that he was concerned abut visiting the Embassy because a spy might see him but he accepted calls and meetings from complete strangers.  Judging from the Mexico City Station's performance on Oswald, Mystery Man, and others unknown, he would have been much better off just turning up at the Embassy and offering his services in person.

Edited June 30, 2017 by Brendan Boucher
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