PAUL KUNTZLER
Suite Number B-218
Mr. David JS. Ferriero
Archivist of the United
States
The National Archives
Dear Mr. Ferriero:
As American historical researchers, we are out here this
morning to protest the decision of the National Archives not to declassify
documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy, a decision made at
the request of the Central Intelligence Agency.
On Wednesday, January 21, 2009, the day following his
inauguration, President Obama declared that “no information may remain
classified indefinitely” as part of a sweeping overhaul of the executive
branch’s system for protecting classifying national security information.
On Tuesday, June
26, 2012 , I wrote to you requesting an explanation why the National
Archives decided to violate President Obama’s executive order. As you know,
your office failed to respond to my letter. Other members of the research
community also wrote to you about the JFK assassination records, including Jim
Lesar, president of the Assassination Archives and Research
Center
As I did last June 26, I am attaching a copy of the New York
Times story, “Obama Moves to Curb Secrecy with Order on Classified Documents”
from Wednesday, December 30, 2009 .
In particular, President Obama “established a new National
Declassification Center
As the Archivist of the United
States
Over the course of American history, no single event has had
such an impact on our national political system than the assassination of
President Kennedy, largely because of the unresolved nature of the case both in
legal and moral terms, particularly with the continued withholding of relevant
records from the public.
Polls have consistently shown that the American public’s
confidence in their government began to decline shortly after the release of
the Warren Report in 1964 and has continued to decline ever since. That
confidence will never recover until all the government records on the JFK
assassination are released to the public.
When the Warren Commission concluded its work, Chief Justice
Earl Warren, in response to a question as to when all of its records would be
released, responded by saying, “Not in your lifetime!”
Then when the House Select Committee on Assassinations
(HSCA) disbanded, its records were sealed for a half-century. The second chief
counsel to the HSCA said that he could live with the judgment of historians in
fifty years.
But in response to Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK, Congress passed
the John F. Kennedy Records Act of 1992. This act created the Assassinations
Records Review Board (ARRB), which despite releasing over four million pages of
records, failed to locate the complete Air Force One radio transmission tapes
of November 22, 1963 , the
relevant documents of Office of Naval Intelligence Director Admiral Rufus
Taylor, and numerous other records related to the JFK assassination.
Since agencies, especially the CIA, FBI and the Secret
Service, knew that the ARRB was a temporary agency, they delayed responding to
requests for records, and intentionally kept records from being reviewed and
becoming part of the JFK assassination records collection.
Even among those records that were to be included, the CIA
has withheld over a thousand documents. Many of these documents are now part of
a major Freedom of Information Act court case which should be resolved in the
public’s interest.
Some agencies, such as the Department of Defense and the
Secret Service, intentionally destroyed relevant records to keep them from
becoming released to the public. Those individuals responsible for the
destruction of these documents have never been questioned or reprimanded for
their actions.
Thus Mr. Ferriero, why have you not, as the Archivist of the
United States
These records were created by public servants working for
the federal government. They do not belong to those who created them, or the
agencies they work for, or the Kennedy family. They belong to the people of the
United States
Fifty years ago there might have been some reason to keep
some of these records secret, but now, it is a matter of our national security
that the JFK assassination records be released to the public.
The provisions of the John F. Kennedy Records Act require
the full disclosure of all unredacted copies of all related records
immediately, when the reason for postponing release in each case is no longer
relevant, and no later than 2013, the 50th anniversary of President
Kennedy’s assassination.
We want the National Archives to assume the role previously
performed by the ARRB, as the law requires, continuing to fulfill the remaining
work until it is done.
Since a copy of the Air Force One radio tapes was discovered
in November 2011, the allegedly destroyed Secret Service documents were found
among the effects of a former agent, and the records of the first chief counsel
of the HSCA were not obtained by the ARRB, we want the National Archives to
resume the search for all relevant JFK assassination records, including
federal, state, local, foreign and personal files, secure them and make them
part of the JFK Assassination Records Collection, open to the public.
Finally Mr. Ferriero,
as the Archivist of the United States, do your sworn duty and fulfill
the requirements of the JFK Records Act so that you can, as the law requires,
report to Congress that the last JFK assassination record has been released to
the public.
Sincerely
SIGNED
Paul Kuntzler
THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2009
Obama Moves to Curb Secrecy With Order on Classified
Documents
By Charles Savage
In an executive order and an accompanying residential
memorandum to agency heads, Mr. Obama signaled that the government should try
harder to make information public if possible, including by requiring agencies
to regularly review what kinds of information they classify and to eliminate
any obsolete secrecy requirements.
“Agency heads shall complete on a periodic basis a
comprehensive review of the agency’s classification guidance, particularly
classification guides, to ensure the guidance reflects current circumstances
and to identify classified information that no longer requires protection and
can be declassified,” Mr. Obama wrote in the order, released while he was
vacationing in Hawaii
He also established a new National
Declassification Center
Moreover, Mr. Obama eliminated a rule put in place by former
President George W. Bush in 2003 that allowed the leader of the intelligence
community to veto decisions by an interagency panel to declassify information.
Instead, spy agencies who object to such a decision will have to appeal to the
president.
As a presidential candidates, Mr. Obama campaigned on a
theme of making the government less secretive. But in office his record has
been more ambiguous, drawing fire from advocates of open government by
embracing Bush-era claims that certain lawsuits involving surveillance and
torture must be shut down to protect state secrets.
Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government
Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, expressed cautious optimism
about Mr. Obama’s new order, saying it appeared to be “a major step forward”
from the vantage point of those who believe the government is too secretive.
“Everything depends on the faithful implementation by the
agencies,” Mr. Aftergood said, “but there are some real innovations here.”
Mr. Obama also suggested that his administration might
undertake further changes, saying he looked forward to recommendations from a
study that Gen. James L. Jones, the national security advisor, is leading “to
design a more fundamental transformation of the security classification
system.”
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