JFK Experts Advocate Compliance With Records Deadline

JFK Researchers Letter to the White House:

October 26, 2017 will mark the 25th anniversary of the JFK Records Act, one of the most successful full disclosure measures in the annals of open government law. We write to ask your support for effective enforcement of the Act now and under the next administration. The JFK Assassination Records Act was approved unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on October 26, 1992. The Act resulted in the declassification of some 4 million pages of records related to the assassination of President Kennedy. The Act also serves as a model for other open government measures that have made public key chapters in the nation’s history without compromising legitimate secrets. As President Obama said in August, “we have a responsibility to confront the past with honesty and transparency.”

The JFK Records Collection is now the single most-requested body of records at National Archives II in College Park, Maryland. Scholars, journalists, historians, and students have found these records invaluable for writing the history of the Cold War, Kennedy’s presidency, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Warren Commission, Vietnam, the counterculture, and Watergate. The final test of the law will come on October 26, 2017. That’s when all of the redacted documents in the collection, as well as nearly 3,600 JFK records still withheld in full, are scheduled to be declassified in their entirety. The staff of the National Archives is now preparing for the online release of all material before the statutory deadline, an ambitious goal that we hope will be fulfilled.

One provision of the Act gives federal agencies the right to request continued postponement of JFK records after 2017, if release would result in “identifiable harm” that outweighs the public interest. As authors, historians and investigators, we believe, withholding any portion of any JFK records would result in identifiable harm to the public interest. After 53 years, continuing JFK secrecy would provoke unnecessary suspicion and flout Congress’s clear preference for full disclosure within 25 years of 1992. And it would deny the American people access to portions of our history. We ask you, as White House Counsel, to affirm and uphold the spirit and language of the JFK Records Act, and to instruct all U.S. government agencies to fully release all assassination-related records on or before October 26, 2017.

Signed:

• Russ Baker, author, lecturer and WhoWhatWhy founder and editor
• G. Robert Blakey (shown at right), attorney, law professor, author, and former general counsel, House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)
• Rex Bradford, Mary Ferrell Foundation president and History Matters founder
• Debra Conway, Publisher, JFK Lancer Events and Productions
• Dan Hardway, attorney and former HSCA investigator
• Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, author, whistleblower, and former RAND researcher
• Douglas Horne, author and former Assassination Records Review Board analyst
• Brian Latell, professor, author, and former CIA Cuba analyst
• James H. Lesar, attorney and president, Assassination Archives & Research Center
• Ed Lopez, attorney, educator and former HSCA investigator
• Dr. Joan Mellen, author and professor
• Jefferson Morley, author and journalist
• Dr. John M. Newman, author, professor and former assistant to the NSA director
• Gerald Posner, author and journalist
• Dick Russell, author and former reporter
• Dr. Larry Sabato, author, professor and historian
• Dr. Peter Dale Scott, author and retired professor and Canadian diplomat
• Philip Shenon, author and former reporter
• Anthony Summers, author and former reporter
• Robbyn Swan, author and former reporter
• David Talbot, author and San Francisco Chronicle columnist
• Howard P. Willens, attorney and former Warren Commission assistant counsel

Other Experts

“I feel very strongly that the more information we release the better. The public has the right to information.”

— Edwin "Ed" Meese, III, The Heritage Foundation's Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow Emeritus, Federalist Society board member, author, and former Reagan administration Attorney General (1985-88)

“I was in charge of arranging the retirement of the records. I have no objection to release.”

— Alfred G. Goldberg, Ph.D. (shown in Department of Defense sketch), Warren Report co-author and co-editor as U.S. Air Force historian, retired Air Force colonel, and World War II Army veteran, and former Chief Historian for the U.S. Secretary of Defense (1973-2007). Also, co-author and / or co-editor of many U.S. Defense Department histories, including “The Army Air Forces in World War II” (7 volumes); “History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense” (5 volumes); and co-author of “Pentagon 9/11” (2007).

“In full compliance with the 1992 JFK Records Act, the government should release all the materials and documents pertaining to the investigation of President Kennedy's assassination. Only after such complete disclosure and opportunity for objective, unbiased analysis of those materials will it be possible for U.S. citizens to believe that justice has been served regarding this tragic event.”

— Cyril H. Wecht, J.D., M.D., forensic pathologist, medical school professor, leader or former leader of multiple professional societies, author or co-author of nearly 50 books, and former Allegheny County coroner for 20 years

“I totally support opening the files.”

— The Hon. Burt W. Griffin, J.D., retired judge and former Warren Commission assistant counsel

“Personally, I have given up on the hunt for the smoking gun, but I also am very much looking forward to this release. We already have the RIF sheets (the metadata including titles, subjects, number of pages, etc. for all 3,571 fully withheld documents). So we have a sense of what to expect. This metadata, along with metadata for the full collection, is now all available and searchable at maryferrell.org, in a project called the ‘JFK Database Explorer.’”

— Rex Bradford, Mary Ferrell Foundation president and History Matters founder

“The public deserves full information on this historic event via release of the still-hidden files.”

— Robert Ames Alden, M.A. (shown at left), former Washington Post night news editor in charge of the post-midnight editing Nov. 22-23, 1963, and later Washington Post World News Editor in a career spanning 1951 to 2000, and former president of the National Press Club, and co-founder and former president of the National Press Foundation

“There is an expectation based in law that all JFK assassination records that have not yet been disclosed will be released later this year. That expectation should be fulfilled, as required.”

— Steven Aftergood, B.S., Director, Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists and former AARB hearing witness

“NARA should release the remaining JFK assassination records and documents no later than October 2017, as the law (JFK Act) requires. This will help answer the remaining questions that the American people still have, and help restore their confidence in our government and its promise of transparency.”

— Michael Nurko, concerned citizen and Citizens Against Political Assassination (CAPA) board member

CAPA, a non-partisan research organization, organized these events and reported them in these articles parallelling coverage here:

• Top Experts To Assess JFK Murder Records, Revelations March 16 In DC
• Speakers For March 16 CAPA Forum On Secret JFK Records
• Experts Seek Legal Compliance By Officials On JFK Records 

The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) founded Sunshine Week to foster open government via events like this throughout the nation. For further information, contact Andrew Kreig at andrew @ justice-integrity.org or (202) 638-0070.

 

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