Miss. KNIGHT. That is right. This project was very time-consuming and tedious but it had to be done, and it was completed in 1962, at which time we transferred all the data on the cards we considered active onto a permanent IBM key punch card system which was coded and legible.
To relate this file, this tremendous file, to the Oswald case, I think it should be remembered that the Passport Office is not a police organization, nor is it an investigative agency. We must depend on other sources in and out of the Government to supply us with the information which we must adjudicate under the criteria of the passport regulations.
When we issued a passport to Oswald in June 1963 we felt that he had not expatriated himself and that determination was made.

Mr. Coleman.

In 1963 you didn't make any judgment at all. He just wasn't in the lookout file so you just issued it. You didn't make any independent judgment at that time in 1963, did you?
Miss KNIGHT. If we had thought he had expatriated himself we would have had a card in his file.

Mr. Coleman.

Yes; but in 1963 no decision was made.
Miss KNIGHT. There was no question raised. There was never a question at that time.

Mr. Coleman.

It was never a question because your Office never looked at the file.
Miss KNIGHT. Not at the file, but his application was checked over the lookout cards.

Mr. Coleman.

Yes.
Miss KNIGHT. Oswald didn't owe money to the Government, and he was not involved in fraud or criminal activity. So, in retrospect, I feel that Oswald could have had a catch card inserted in the lookout file under a very broad and undefined category which is right here, as number "R" and that is, "Individuals whose actions do not reflect credit to the United States abroad," but for practical reasons this category is very narrowly construed in view of the hundreds of U.S. citizen bad-check artists, the drunks, the con men, the psychotics who travel worldwide, and so forth.
My office is deluged with requests from irate U.S. citizens returning from abroad asking us to do something about some of the people they find traveling overseas.
We have no such authority, and we are not in a position to determine the good or bad behavior of U.S. citizens here or abroad.
(At this point, Senator Cooper entered the hearing room.)
I think it is a debatable question as to whether Oswald fell into this broad category of "R" and finally there was no request in the file from any Government agency or any area of the Government for a lookout card on Oswald for this reason or any other reason at the time that his 1963 passport was issued.

Mr. Dulles.

Who finally determines whether a lookout card should be made? Would you determine that or in your office?
Miss KNIGHT. That would be determined within our domestic operation division, our foreign operation or our legal division. An adjudicator, for instance, is the first person to make a decision.

Mr. Dulles.

If the FBI or CIA asked you to put in a card you would do it?
Miss KNIGHT. Yes, sir; and this is part of "O" and "P" project.

Mr. Dulles.

Would you read again that paragraph about Communist or Communist sympathizer?
Miss KNIGHT. Category K is, "Known or suspected Communist or subversive."

Mr. Dulles.

And you interpret that pretty narrowly?
Miss KNIGHT. Yes.

Representative Ford.

Why do you interpret it narrowly?

Mr. Dulles.

Well, this goes back to a question of passport regulations and the decision, the Supreme Court decision in the Kent-Briehl case and passport denials. I believe we sent you the regulations currently in effect.

Mr. Coleman.

The record will note that it is attached to Commission Exhibit No. 948, which is the letter from Mr. Chayes.
Miss KNIGHT. Would you like an extra copy of it?

Mr. Dulles.

May I ask a further question there? When you issue a passport

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