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 2017 is Coming |
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Countdown to 2017
Pursuant to the JFK Records Act, 2017 is the year that the remainder of the designated "assassination-related documents" are supposed to be released by the National Archives. The Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board states that, unless the President certifies otherwise, NARA [National Archives and Records Administration] will release all postponed records or portions of records in 2017."
On this front, there was some recent good news from Martha Murphy, Chief of the Special Access and FOIA staff at NARA.
Murphy announced that a team of four archivists and three technicians was formed last year to assure that the estimated 3600 documents withheld in full and more than 30,000 documents partially withheld will all be released by 2017. She says that these documents will be scanned and posted online. MFF hopes that the NARA archivists stand firm to this commitment.
Murphy said that the default position will be to release the documents, as only the President of the United States can authorize continued withholding of documents and any redactions.
What is Still Withheld
Dan Alcorn, an Assassination Archives and Research Center board member, was instrumental in obtaining clarification from Ms. Murphy on several points, including these numbers:
- There are approximately 5 million pages of records in the JFK Assassination Collection at the Archives
- There are 318,866 documents in the JFK Assassination Collection
- There are 3,603 documents withheld in full in the JFK Assassination Collection
- 11% of documents in the collection are withheld in part
These numbers are substantial - 3,603 documents translates into likely tens of thousands of pages of fully-withheld records, and the number of redactions in even partially released documents remains very large. The JFK Records Act releases filled enormous gaps in our knowledge of the JFK assassination, its investigations, and its larger historical context; the still-withheld records are likely to further that knowledge significantly.
Getting Ready
There is some reason for concern that the CIA or other agencies might ask the (next) President to order the delay or cancellation of the 2017 JFK Act mandate, which is the one legal path to blocking their release. Citizen action resulted in the JFK Records Act, and more may be needed here.
Our colleagues at CAPA (Committee Against Political Assassinations) are planning a new wave of FOIA requests seeking additional documents on the JFK case, as well as mock trials and other actions.
Historian John Newman and other researchers have set up the 2017jfk.org website to create a place to ensure that the enforcement of the JFK Records Collection Act is fully executed (see 2017jfk.org mission statement). The Act has suffered due to Congress' failure to monitor enforcement of the Act since the Assassinations Records Review Board issued its final report in 1998.
It is also time to consider renewal of the JFK Records Collection Act. The Assassination Records Review Board emphasized in its Final Report that "there likely will be problems in the future that best lend themselves to the extraordinary attention that a similarly empowered Review Board can focus." The Board also made a formal recommendation for future Review Boards to be set up when "extraordinary circumstances" exist, and that the JFK Records Collection Act and the Review Board was a model for the future.
Call for Transparency
We know now that the large collection processed by the ARRB, including even the postponed records, falls short of what should be available. As just one of many examples, very few NSA or military intelligence assassination-related documents were provided to the Assassination Records Review Board. We now know that coded materials that went to the CIA Mexico City station were routinely sent to the NSA by the CIA's Staff D, but that communications between these two agencies have not surfaced to this day.
There are countless examples where the JFK Records Act releases expanded our knowledge of the assassination story, and indeed of the Kennedy Presidency and the underbelly of the Cold War which was then at its height. The planned 2017 releases are important to continuing this process,. And they are part of the larger and ongoing struggle for transparency and against excessive secrecy.
The 2017 releases should happen, but are not guaranteed. Check out the resources linked from this page and get involved in the efforts to make sure the JFK Records Act mandate is fulfilled.