CIA OFFICER OUSTED OVER JFK FILES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100160006-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2011
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: June 22, 1979
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100160006-0
Copyright o 1979 Facts on File, Inc.;
Facts on File World News Digest
June 22, 1979
SECTION: U.S. AFFAIRS; Other U.S. News
PAGE: Pg. 466 A3
LENGTH: 289 words
HEADLINE: CIA Officer Ousted Over JFK Files
BODY:
A Central Intelligence Agency officer who was assisting the House
Assassinations Committee investigation into the 196.3 murder of President John F.
Kennedy was dismissed after his fingerprints were found on sensitive material
kept in a committee safe, the CIA acknowledged June 17. [See p. 166C1]
CIA spokesman Herbert Hetu said the officer, Regis T. Blahut, was
dismissed in the summer of 1978 after the rifled files were discovered by
committee members.
Hetu said the agency was satisfied that the incident was simply "a matter of
curiosity" on Blahut's part.
The Washington Post reported June 18 that "informed sources" said there had
been an unauthorized entry into the locked safe, where the committee kept
physical evidence of the assassination, including autopsy photos, X-rays, and
the so-called "magic bullet" that wounded both President Kennedy and then-Texas
Gov. John B. Connally.
The Post article said that sources said nothing had been taken from the
files.
The newspaper quoted Blahut as saying there was an innocent explanation for
his action. Blahut refused to give it, saying he had signed an oath of secrecy
with the CIA.
Sources close to the House committee's chief counsel, G. Robert Blakey, were
quoted by the Post as saying that Blahut had failed three polygraph
examinations.
The Post quoted one source as claiming: "He (Blahut) denied he did it., and he
flunked that. They also asked him whether anyone ordered him to do it. He said
no one and he flunked that."
Blahut insisted in his interview with the Post that he had come through the
tests with his credibility unblemished. Blahut had been detailed to assist the
committee with the CIA records it needed for its investigation.
LEXIS? NEXIS LEXIS? NEXIS?
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100160006-0