The JFK Assassination and the Cold War - Releasing the
Remaining Classified Records
IMPLIMENTING THE ARRB RECOMMENDATIONS -
“The Republic has not collapsed under the weight of threats
to national security.”
- The
Final Report of the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB)
By William E. Kelly, Jr.
The release of the records under the JFK Act has not only
given us a better understanding of what happened at Dealey Plaza but they also
help paint a more accurate portrait of the bigger Cold War picture in which it
occurred.
If the assassin really was a deranged lone nut, then his
purely psychological motives would be studied by psychiatrists in detail for
decades, but the accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was designated the patsy,
was not crazy in either case, and was a major player though a minor pawn in the
great game of espionage.
As Jesse Ventura and others have asked, if the President was
killed by a lone-nut then why are so many records still being withheld for
reasons of national security?
That’s because the total truth as to what really happened at
Dealey Plaza is still today – 50 years later, a matter of national security,
and when fully known, will shake the very foundations of the government.
So there’s a political and not psychological cause and
effect mechanism going on – and rather than a big disconnect - as a real psycho-killer
would create, there’s an historical symbiosis between the people and events on
the ground in 1963 and the larger Cold War, as well as a connection with us
today. And what happened at Dealey Plaza
The Final Report of the ARRB reads: “The Review Board is certainly aware that there are a great
many unresolved issues relating to the assassination of President Kennedy that
will be addressed in the years to come. The massive public collection of
documents that awaits the researchers will undoubtedly shed light not only on
the assassination, but on its broader context as an episode of the Cold War. The
community of professional historians, who initially exhibited comparatively
slight interest in the Board’s work, has begun paying attention with the new
accessibility of records that reflect the Cold War context in which the
assassination is enmeshed. Ultimately, it will be years before the JFK
Collection at NARA
Well, it’s now been twenty years since the Review Board dissolved,
so we should be able to judge the JFK Collection at NARA
We can also begin to answer some of the outstanding
questions, some the ARRB Final Report asks:
“Will the documents released under the JFK Act lead to still
other materials?”
BK: Yes, they most certainly do, including many records
within the agencies and departments of government as well as in the private
sector, including the Clifton Air Force One tapes, the Blaine Secret Service
reports and the Sprague papers that have yet to be included in the JFK
Collection. But there is no requirement, except that written into the words of
the law, for individuals in possession of such records to turn them over to the
NARA
“Will the mass of documentary evidence answer the questions posed
by historians and others?”
BK: Yes, but not all of the answers until all of the records
are released.
“Will the Board’s compliance program inspire confidence that
the agencies have produced all the relevant documentation that exists today in
agency files?”
BK: No, it certainly doesn’t, mainly because even though the
Board required an agency officer sign off under penalty of perjury that all of
the records in his department have been turned over, no one has ever been
prosecuted under this compliance program because the JFK Act law has not been
enforced since the demise of the Review Board.
“What do the records tell us about the 1960s and the Cold
War context of the assassination?”
BK: The records tell us that what happened at Dealey Plaza
was not the random act of a madman but a well planned and executed covert
intelligence operation and coup, and those who killed the president took over
the reigns of government power and covered up the true facts of the
assassination, a cover up that continues today.
As the Final Report of the ARRB
notes: “The Review Board approach, the precedent created, the tools identified,
and the lessons learned will assist future researchers immeasurably. Agency
reviewers will note that the Republic has not collapsed under the
weight of threats to national security because of Review Board
actions and, perhaps, they will also note that openness is itself a good
thing and that careful scrutiny of government actions can strengthen agencies
and the process of government, not weaken it.”
“There will likely be problems in the future that best lend
themselves to the extraordinary attention that a similarly empowered Review
Board can focus. Formation of a
historical record that can augment understanding of important events is
central not only to openness and accountability, but to democracy itself.”
ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD RECOMMENDATIONS
- The Review Board recommends that
future declassification boards be genuinely independent, both in the
structure of the organization and in the qualifications of the
appointments.
BK: There are now a number of such records review boards,
esoecially - ISOO, CUI, PIDB &
ISCAP.
ISOO - The
Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) is responsible to the President
for policy and oversight of the Government-wide security classification system
and the National Industrial Security Program. ISOO receives authority from: "Classified
National Security Information," Executive Order 13526 was released by the
White House on December 29, 2009
CUI - Controlled
Unclassified Informatin Office (CUI) of ISOO Develops standardized CUI
policies and procedures that appropriately protect sensitive information
through effective data access and control measures,
PIDB - Public
Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) The Public Interest Declassification
Board (PIDB) is an advisory committee established by Congress in order to
promote the fullest possible public access to a thorough, accurate, and
reliable documentary record of significant U.S. national security decisions and
activities. &
ISCAP - Interagency
Security Classification Appeals Panel The Interagency Security Classification
Appeals Panel (ISCAP) provides the public and users of the classification
system with a forum for further review of classification decisions.
- The Review Board recommends that any
serious, sustained effort to declassify records requires congressional
legislation with (a) a presumption of openness, (b) clear standards of
access, (c) an enforceable review and appeals process, and (d) a budget
appropriate to the scope of the task.
Congress provided the legislation
for the JFK Act, but has failed to do the same with the MLK
assassination records (of the HSCA) and other records, and especially failed to
provide an “enforceable review and appeals process” for JFK Assassination
records. Congress has not held an JFK Act oversight hearing in over 15 years.
- The Review Board recommends that its
“common law” of decision, formed in the context of a “presumption of
disclosure” and the “clear and convincing evidence of harm” criteria, be
utilized for similar information in future declassification efforts as a
way to simplify and speed up releases.
While the Review Board was strict
in promoting its “common Law” of decisions and “Presumption of disclosure,”
once it retired and went out of business, there was no more “clear and
convincing evidence of harm” criteria needed, the law was just ignored.
- The Review Board recommends that
future declassification efforts avoid the major shortcomings of the JFK
Act:
(a) unreasonable time limits,
(b)
employee restrictions,
(c) application of the law after the Board terminates, and
(d) problems inherent with rapid sunset provisions.
While unreasonable time limits and employee restrictions
certainly hampered the Review Board staff, there appears to have been no attention
paid to the problems inherent with rapid sunset provisions and application of
the law after the Board terminates. Once agencies realized that their appeals
to the board would go unheeded and the president uphold the board’s decisions,
they began to play a waiting game and knew that there would be no reprisals
after the board dissolved, and there hasn’t been.
- The Review Board recommends that the
cumbersome, time-consuming, and expensive problem of referrals for “third
party equities” (classified information of one agency appearing in a document
of another) be streamlined by
- requiring representatives of all
agencies with interests in selected groups of records to meet for joint
declassification sessions, or
- devising uniform substitute language
to deal with certain categories of recurring sensitive equities.
It seems that this is one ARRB recommendation that has been
actively adopted, as the National Declassification Center at NARA
reported (at their third annual public hearing) that they have obtained the
cooperation of all “third party equities” by bringing them together in the same
room to review and declassify records together, rather than passing them around
from one to the other and back again. Thus speeding up the process.
- The Review Board recommends that a
compliance program be used in future declassification efforts as an
effective means of eliciting full cooperation in the search for records.
The compliance program adopted of having individual agency
officers sign off under penalty of perjury, has not worked because, despite examples
of deliberately destroyed documents and blatant withholding of specifically
requested records, many relevant records are still not included in the JFK
Collection. A much more enforceable law must be developed and enforced by NARA
- The Review Board recommends the
following to ensure that NARA can exercise the provisions of the JFK Act
after the Review Board terminates: a. that NARA has the authority and
means to continue to implement Board decisions, b. that an appeals
procedure be developed that places the burden for preventing access on the
agencies, and c. that a joint oversight group composed of representatives
of the four organizations that originally nominated individuals to serve
on the Review Board be created to facilitate the continuing execution of
the access provisions of the JFK Act.
ARRB Final Report reads: SEC .
12. TERMINATION OF EFFECT OF ACT.
(a) PROVISIONS PERTAINING TO THE REVIEW BOARD- The provisions
of this Act that pertain to the appointment and operation of the Review Board
shall cease to be effective when the Review Board and the terms of its members
have terminated pursuant to section 7(o). (b) OTHER PROVISIONS- The remaining provisions of this Act shall
continue in effect until such time as the Archivist certifies to the President
and the Congress that all assassination records have been made available to the
public in accordance with this Act.
While it doesn’t appear that a Joint Oversight Group was
formed by the four organizations as recommended, one of those groups and their
nominee – Mr. Kermit Hall, did take their roles seriously. In the Organization
of American Historians (OAH) newsletter [See: “The Kennedy Assassination in the
Age of Open Secrets” OAH #26] Hall wrote: (The board’s job) “…is not running an
investigation; it is, instead, seeking to disclose documents in an age of open
secrets, an age in which we have come to embrace the idea that openness is to
be preferred and that accountability is the touchstone for public confidence in
government. Full disclosure is more desirable than partial, and the more we
know about what government has done, is doing, and plans to do, the more secure
we will be in our liberties.
- The Review Board recommends that the
Review Board model be adopted and applied whenever there are extraordinary
circumstances in which continuing controversy concerning government
actions has been most acute and where an aggressive effort to release all
“reasonably related” federal records would serve usefully to enhance
historically understanding of the event.
Besides the four records review boards mentioned above,
other similar acts have been introduced into Congress, specifically to release
the MLK assassination records of the House
Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), but it has never gotten out of
committee.
- The Review Board recommends that both
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Executive Order 12958 be
strengthened, the former to narrow the categories of information
automatically excluded from disclosure, the latter to add “independent
oversight” to the process of
“review” when agency heads decide that records in their unites
should be excluded from release.
While I am not up to the latest
legal manifestations of the FOIA, I don’t believe that Congress has
strengthened the FOIA or EO 12958, and should do both as well as hold JFK Act
oversight hearings.
- The Review Board recommends the
adoption of a federal classification policy that substantially: a. limits
the number of those in government who can actually classify federal
documents, b. restricts the number of categories by which documents might
be classified, c. reduces the time period for which the document(s) might
be classified, d. encourages the use
of substitute language to immediately open material which might otherwise
be classified, and e. increases the resources available to the agencies
and
Certainly the increased public interest in the classified
records and the emphasis placed on them by the Obama administration should
result in the proper financing of a larger declassification effort and a
decrease in the number of classified records, as well as the number of records
being classified today.
The ARRB Final Report: “The Review Board’s experience leaves
little doubt that the federal government needlessly and wastefully classified
and then withheld from the public access countless important records that did
not require such treatment. Consequently there
is little doubt that an aggressive policy is necessary to address the
significant problems of lack of accountability and an uniformed
citizenry that are created by the current practice of excessive classification
and obstacles to releasing such information. The need is not something recently
identified, although the Moynihan Commission on Secrecy in Government is a
recent expression of this longstanding concern. Change is long overdue and
the Review Board’s experience amply demonstrates the value of sharing important
information with the American public. It is a matter of trust.”
The change was long overdue twenty years ago – and the
change has yet to happen.
ARRB Final Report: “The Review Board’s recommendations are
designed to help ensure that the comprehensive documentary record of the
Kennedy assassination is both actively developed after the board terminates,
and that the experience of the Review Board be turned to the larger purpose of
addressing the negative consequences of the excessive classification of federal
records. The Review Board’s efforts to accomplish the purposes of the JFK Act
has been focused and aggressive. It will be for others, of course, to judged
the Board’s success in achieving these goals, but there can be no doubt about the
commitment to making the JFK Act and an independent Review Board a model for
the future.”
The future is here and we need to address these issues now to ensure that these recommendations are enacted, strengthen the laws with legislation in Congress and enforce the laws as they stand.
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