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| POLITICS OF US PASSPORT
OFFICE
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This was one year before
my coming to work at the U.S. Passport Office on February 14, 1972 and had I completely realized the gravity
of the situation Ms Knight faced I would have never left. An article by Sanford J. Unger, J. Edgar Hoover leaves the State Department, that I am in the process of obtaining should give you an idea of how important Miss Knight was to Mr. Hoover, Director of the F.B.I.
My place there was secure because of my efficiency but I had no idea the pressure this office was under and I left. I feel it is my duty to put a lot of what I have received from Ms Knight's file stored at Marquette University online to show what efforts this great lady put forth under pressure from the bureaucracy imposed by an unfavorable administration. The first memo mentions James Earl Ray and his ability to travel out of the country. Much of the Warren Commission's questioning of Ms Knight and their
employees centered on the ability of Lee Harvey Oswald to travel freely to
Russia and Mexico without having been flagged by the Passport Office. If
you read all the way to the last memo you will see that on June 12, 1970 Ms
Knight had tendered a resume and planned to take indefinite leave on July
1, 1970. A particular statement in Ms Knight's resume is as follows:
Miss Watson was selected by Rooney to be Administrator of Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs because he allegedly stated to a Democratic colleague "Putting a Negro over her will finish Frances Knight." Miss Watson has been very carefully tutored and guided by the Rooney group.
The preceding statement does not reflect Miss Knight or any of the employees I worked with at the U.S. Passport Office. There were not outward appearances of prejudice that I ever saw.
After she decided to return as Director late in 1970 there was a five page MEMO written to the President
<Title: Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Name: Barbara M. Watson State of Residency: New York Non-career appointee Appointment: Jul 31, 1968 Entry on Duty: Aug 12, 1968 Termination of Appointment: Dec 31, 1974 Title: Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Name: Leonard F. Walentynowicz State of Residency: New York Non-career appointee Appointment: Dec 31, 1974 Entry on Duty: Jan 2, 1975 Termination of Appointment: Mar 7, 1977 Note: An earlier nomination of Mar 26, 1974, was not acted upon by the Senate. Title: Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Name: Barbara M. Watson State of Residency: New York Non-career appointee Appointment: Apr 7, 1977 Entry on Duty: Apr 13, 1977 Termination of Appointment: Aug 17, 1977 Note: Originally commissioned as Administrator of the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs; title changed to Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs on Aug 17, 1977. The following file would be a most interesting file to see: FG 11-8: Security and Consular Affairs, Bureau of Executive 160 pp. / General 25 pp. Material on the resignation of Barbara M. Watson and the appointment of Leonard F. Walentynowicz as administrator of the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs; activities of Frances G. Knight, director of the Passport Office; and relocation of the New York City Passport Agency office from Rockefeller Center to Foley Square.
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