COPA Campaign for JFK Act Oversight

COPA SPRING OFFENSIVE – Pro-active Strategies and Tactics will be employed in a campaign for Congressional oversight of the JFK Act and enactment of the MLK Act.

When the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) closed up shop nearly ten years ago, we thought that oversight hearings of the JFK Act would be forthcoming, a sort of After Action Report, as required by law, but it never happened and won't happen unless a concerted effort is made to make it happen.

Once JFK Act oversight hearings are held, and new sworn testimony is taken, then the dominos will begin to fall, and it will become easier to accomplish other goals, such as the convening of a Special Federal Grand Jury to determine if anyone can be indicted for crimes related to the assassination, and order a proper forensic autopsy of the victims.

The Congressional Oversight Hearings appear to be the easiest of things desired, but it has proved elusive. After years with no interest by the Republicans, who decided not to exercise their oversight responsibilities at all when they controlled the leadership, the Democrats are now equally busy with their own agendas on what issues they intend to hold public hearings on.

There are others who are quietly trying to persuade Congress to hold JFK Act oversight hearings, and acting privately through correspondence and behind closed doors, but we are the most outspoken and broadest coalition of people interested in and intent on getting Congressional oversight of the JFK Act.

So far, we have agreed, per Bill Simpich's suggestion, that we do something different every month – and build up some momentum and pubic support for Congressional hearings and oversight of the JFK Act. Towards this end we have laid out the following:

January – 18 Monday, Martin Luther King Birthday – and national "day of service," in which we will ask everybody to lobby their representatives and the Congressmen on the House Oversight Committee to hold the JFK Oversight Hearings.

Surprisingly, Senator John Kerry (D. Mass.), in a story out of Boston, endorsed the MLK Act and the release of the MLK assassination records (See: Story link).

Feburary – There's a COPA event in New York City to commemorate the assassination of Malcolm X, which was addressed by COPA director John Judge and others.

This week – March – 14 – 20 – is Sunshine Week - not only in Washington DC – but everywhere – when Open and Transparent Government issues are discussed and the media pays attention, sometimes.

COPA meeting Wednesday 9 am - 12 noon - Stewart Mott House Conference Room, 122 Maryland Ave. (Join Us)

Thursday - 2 p.m. House Oversight and Government Reform Sub-Committee on Information Policy, NARA and Census Meeing on Freedom of Information Act Issues - Room 2154 Rayburn House Office Building. (Attend this meeting if you can, or watch in steamed on the Sub-committee's web site).

April – MLK assassination remembered with a focus on the release of the MLK records of the HSCA and other government agencies, and the passage of the MLK Act.

May – 7 Days in LeMay – Scheduled whenever the House Oversight Committee holds JFK Act Hearings, and if they are not scheduled, we take out ads calling for them and hold our own Mock Hearings.

May 15 – JFK's Birthday. He would be 93 years old.

June – 4 RFK's assassination remembered.

June 10 Annual COPA memorial at JFK monument at American University, when we honor JFK's life, his peaceful policies and why he was killed. We will ask Jim Douglas, author of "JFK & the Unspeakable" to be guest speaker, since his Dallas COPA speech in November was so inspiring. The American University history professor who is co-authoring Oliver Stone's TV series on Hidden History will also be invited.

We hope it inspires you to help us achieve are very achievable goals.

If we don't have JFK Act Oversight Hearings in this Congress (before January) we will never get them, or they will be too late.

Congress goes into summer recess in July and August and return in September-December. It can be done, but the battle plan must be laid out firmly and followed, and we need a regiment – not an army – a regiment will do, to follow through, foot soldiers on the ground in Washington, especially Capitol Hill, hitting up every Congressman on the Committee and Subcommittee personally.

List Congressmen targeted to be contacted and invited to meeting and given briefing.

1) Rep. Ed Towns (D. New York) Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee

2) Rep. William Lacy Clay (D. St. Louis, Missoui), Chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Information Policy, NARA and Census.

3) Rep. D. Kucinich (D. Ohio) Chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Justice, and member of the Committee, who does TV show with Towns on oversight issues.

4) Senator John Kerry (D. Mass.), has endorsed the MLK Act and needs to be briefed on necessary preliminary hearings on MLK Act and oversight hearings of JFK Act.

5) Your Representative will listen to you and reflect the need for JFK Act oversight hearings to these committee and subcommittee chairman or other members of the committee (See: List of House Oversight Committee ) who they work with on other issues.

If any of these Congressmen represent you, please contact them and ask them to support oversight of the JFK Act.

Subcommittee:

Jurisdiction includes public information and records laws such as the Freedom of Information Act, the Presidential Records Act, and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Census Bureau, and the National Archives and Records Administration.

Majority
William Lacy Clay, Chairman
Paul Kanjorski
Carolyn Maloney
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Danny Davis
Steve Driehaus
Diane Watson

Minority
Patrick McHenry, Ranking Member
Lynn Westmoreland, Vice Ranking Member
John Mica
Jason Chaffetz

THE FULL COMMITTEE

Democrats

Chairman, Edolphus Towns, New York
Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, Pennsylvania
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, New York
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Rep. John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri
Rep. Diane E. Watson, California
Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts
Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee
Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia
Rep. Mike Quigley, Illinois
Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia
Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Rhode Island
Rep. Danny Davis, Illinois
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
Rep. Henry Cuellar, Texas
Rep. Paul W. Hodes, New Hampshire
Rep. Christopher S. Murphy, Connecticut
Rep. Peter Welch, Vermont
Rep. Bill Foster, Illinois
Rep. Jackie Speier, California
Rep. Steve Driehaus, Ohio
Rep. Judy Chu, California

Republicans

Rep. Darrell Issa, California, Ranking Minority Member
Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana
Rep. John L. Mica, Florida
Rep. Mark E. Souder, Indiana
Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee
Rep. Michael Turner, Ohio
Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, Georgia
Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina
Rep. Brian Bilbray, California
Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio
Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, Nebraska
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Utah
Rep. Aaron Schock, Illinois
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, Missouri