Mr. Fain.

or not he would report to us if he were contacted under suspicious circumstances abroad or otherwise. We worked on several of those, that type of case.

Representative Ford.

Your contacts with these confidential informants, were they prior to or subsequent to this interview with Oswald?

Mr. Fain.

This was subsequent. This was the day following. I had also previously interviewed them.

Representative Ford.

I think there was a somewhat similar statement in one of your other reports.

Mr. Fain.

I believe in the other report, yes, sir.
(At this point, Chief Justice Warren entered the hearing room.)

Mr. Dulles.

Do you recall any other instances where you have marked a case closed where headquarters has come back and suggested that it not be closed and that further investigation be made?

Mr. Fain.

Right now, I can't specifically recall any instances, but it has been done, and if the supervisor felt additional work should be done we would have no hesitancy in doing it.

Mr. Stern.

Mr. Fain, your recommendation about closing a case is checked by how many supervisors that you know?

Mr. Fain.

One on the security desk there before it goes on here to the seat of Government.

Mr. Stern.

This is one on the security desk in Dallas?

Mr. Fain.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Stern.

Then what happens?

Mr. Fain.

Then the report goes on into Washington here, to the FBI.

Mr. Stern.

As far as you know is it checked again here?

Mr. Fain.

Oh, yes.

Mr. Stern.

And by whom or by what kind of official?

Mr. Fain.

Well, they have a desk up here that has that function, too, you see. I don't know just, Mr. Belmont can probably answer that better than I can because I am not familiar at all with the workings of it up here. But I know they are rigidly checked and rechecked.

Mr. Stern.

Now, :at the time you filed this report, in view of the fact that you didn't see, as you testified, any further work to be done at this time----

Mr. Fain.

That is right.

Mr. Stern.

Could you have put the case in any other status besides "Closed"? Is there any other administrative procedure that might have been available to you under the circumstances where you had nothing further, no further work to recommend at the time?

Mr. Fain.

Any other status? I could have put it, of course, in a pending status and set out some leads.

Mr. Stern.

No, no; assuming you didn't see any further work to be done, any further leads at that time, under your administrative practices?

Mr. Fain.

No; if the work has been completed, we put the recommendation that it be closed and as I say, of course, that is no ironbound thing, to keep it from being reopened. It can be reopened any time, any of these security cases, the very next day, if necessary or the next 5 days or the next month, anything comes in on it or we get any specific reason for reopening it, it certainly is reopened.

Representative Ford.

A few minutes ago I asked you a question about checking with confidential informants. Did this check involve only confidential informants in Fort Worth as far as the Communist Party was concerned, or would it have a broader check?

Mr. Fain.

These were the confidential informants available to me in Fort Worth only.

Representative Ford.

Would there be a different set of informants in Dallas?

Mr. Fain.

Yes; they had informants, I suppose, one or two from the area there, but we certainly had two when I considered to be excellent right in Fort Worth and I am sure they had good access.

Representative Ford.

But would such a check of informants at Fort Worth necessarily mean there couldn't have been some relationship Oswald had with the Communist Party in Dallas, for example?