◆ SpookStack

36. (Continued) proportion of these dealt with the deployment of defensive mis- Siles and related activities. Knowledge onthe part of the analysts that such a deployment was in fact going on, plus the normal difficulties encountered by untrained observers in tell- Hl ing an offensive missile from a defensive one, tended to throw a sort of smoke-screen around the Soviet offensive deployment 1 when it finally began. The CIA analytic apparatus, -however, recognized and correlated the first authentic repo> ts of MRBY equipment ever to be received in washington, ard took action upon then. It targeted the San Cristobal area, not as another location where alleged missile activity should be negated by } photography, but as a suspect SS-4 site. 47. This process took about three weeks, fron the date when the first observation was made on the ground in Cuba to { the preparation of the target card. The two reports from Opa Locka which triggered it were: a. An observation in Havana on 12 September of a convoy. carrying: long canvas-covered objects hich the source identified under interrogation as resembling SS-4s. This re- port, which was disseninated by CIA on 21 September, contained sufficient accurate detail to alert intelligence analysts. 4 b. An observation on 17 Septenber of a convoy mov- ing toward the San Cristobal area, This information, received on 27 September, dovetailed in many respects with the earlier report. 48. The arrival of the second report led Ci4 analysts to a tentative conclusion that the two observers had in fact seen the same convoy,-and that there was a possibility of the SS-4 identification. being genuine. A day or so earlier, a. target card on San Cristobal had been prepared on the ‘basis of a vague report of "Russians building a rocket base." Now this card was removed and, with the two reports cited above and other less specific information on activity in this area which was beginning to trickle in, a new card was prepared between 1 and 3 October which was in effect a priority require- ment for photographic coverage. This card was used in the targeting of the 14 October flight (see para 63). It read-as follows: "Collateral reports indicate the existeace of a re- stricted area in Pinar del Rio Province which is suspected of including an SSH site under construction, particularly SS-4 Shyster. The area is bounded by a line connecting the follow ing four town: Consolacion del Norte (8332N/2244"); San Diego del Los Banos (8325N/2235a); San Cristobal (8301N/2243H); and Las Pozos (8317N/2250%). Requirezent: Search the area deli- neated for possible surface missile construction, with parti- cular attention to SS-4 Shyster." 101