One tiny stamp in a newly declassified 2025 file might rewrite everything we think we know about Lee Harvey Oswald’s relationship to U.S. intelligence.
Document 206-10001-10010 contains a two-page internal summary bearing the code “6L-52A” - a CIA routing designation typically reserved for foreign contact trace files.
The problem?
Oswald’s wasn’t supposed to be one of them.
🧾 A Stamp With A Job
The code in question - 6L-52A - wasn’t arbitrary.
It was part of the Foreign Contact Trace and Vetting System, a classification used within the CIA’s Soviet Division when handling files related to:
- Asset evaluation
- Recruitment attempts
- Indirect contact investigations
The routing memo in question, dated late 1962, is labeled:
“Subject: OSWALD, Lee H. – Repatriation Summary, Internal”
That same document appears again in the file - but this time, with no stamp.
🕵️♂️ A Duplicate Document With Different Metadata
According to the internal audit log included in the March 2025 release:
“Stamped copy appears to originate from earlier Soviet Division routing. Original from Domestic Contact Division lacks this designation.”
In short:
📌 Two versions of the same document
📌 One routed domestically
📌 One filed through a channel used for handling CIA assets or contacts
📉 The Memo That Killed The Question
One analyst included a handwritten note in the margin:
“Unclear how 6L-52A designation applied. Trace system was not engaged per protocol.”
The response?
“Treat as filing irregularity unless replicated in parallel file sets.”
Translation: they didn’t investigate.
They treated a highly specific CIA asset routing tag as a clerical accident - because to do otherwise would be to question the agency’s entire handling of Oswald.
📁 Why This Changes Everything
If Oswald was being tracked in the foreign contact trace system, it suggests one of two things:
- He was flagged by someone internally as a potential or past contact
- His file was duplicated into a stream reserved for vetted intelligence assets - possibly to sanitize or monitor him
Either way, it blows a hole in the claim that Oswald was just another lone drifter on the government’s radar.
🧨 They Weren’t Supposed To Treat Him Like An Asset But They Did
The CIA has always denied that Oswald was ever contacted, recruited, or used by the agency.
But this one stamp suggests that, for at least one moment in 1962 - they filed him like he was.