JFK Act
of 1992 RIP – 2019
Rep. Elijah Cummings
I
thought that holding a Congressional Briefing on the JFK Act (44USC2107) - one that we would
control, would convince the chairman of the House Oversight Committee to do his
job and hold JFK oversight hearings to answer many outstanding questions. I thought such a briefing and hearings would be the easiest of the legal venues we
are pursuing. Boy was I wrong.
With the
recent deaths of Rep. Elijah Cummings and former congressman John Conyers, the
possibility of a JFK Act oversight hearing and legal enforcement of the law has
practically dissolved and could be considered a dead issue.
Instead we are having a mock Texas Court of Inquiry in Dallas on Friday, November 22, 2019, while the Congressional Briefing on the JFK Act is put on hold, and JFK Act oversight hearings are shelved, possibly forever, or at least the foreseeable future.
Instead we are having a mock Texas Court of Inquiry in Dallas on Friday, November 22, 2019, while the Congressional Briefing on the JFK Act is put on hold, and JFK Act oversight hearings are shelved, possibly forever, or at least the foreseeable future.
When the
Democrats took control of the House in the last election, elevating Cummings to
the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, I thought that we had a really
good chance of convincing him to schedule oversight hearings not only
because they are necessary, and haven’t been held in over twenty years, but
because only one person in the world can schedule such a hearing – the committee
chairman, and I thought Cummings was one man we could convince to hold them.
Professor
John Newman had worked with Cummings before on another issue and knew him
personally, we had constituents who lived in Cummings district who were willing
to meet with him as he met with constituents for a few hours every week, and a
half dozen of our heavy hitters were willing to sit down with him for a half
hour to convince Cummings of the necessity for the oversight and the hearings.
My heart
sunk however, when Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was taken aback when asked if she
would talk to Cummings, who she knew, about holding such hearings on the JFK
Act, and every JFK Act advocate who lived in DC said that the climate in the
swamp was focused on Trump and Congress would do nothing.
My heart
sunk even further when I learned that Rep. Cummings appeared at a National
Press Club event in a wheel chair, not a healthy sign, but I was surprised at
his death – as he was not that old, a year older than myself.
And I don’t know
how much time I have left, but I am going to continue to pursue this even though I think Cummings was our last good chance at having Congress hold serious JFK Act oversight hearings.
Then,
shortly after the death of Cummings and the testimonials to him on Capitol
Hill, former Rep. John Conyers (D. Mich.) also died, and put the nail in the
coffin of holding JFK Act hearings in Congress. Conyers was a leading member of
the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), and one of the few
Congressmen who bothered to listen to us when we lobbied for the release of the
HSCA records, that were sealed for 50 years as Congressional records are.
When he
dissolved the HSCA, the second chief counsel G. Robert Blakey said, “I will rest
on the judgement of the historians in fifty years,” a statement that made my
blood boil and began my commitment to release those records. Of course Congress
exempted itself when it passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), requiring
all branches of government to respond to requests for records, except itself.
So
throughout the 1980s John Judge, myself, and a small team of dedicated
researchers met at Union Station in Washington D.C. for breakfast, then divided
into teams of two and targeted dozens of Congressman, asking them to release
the HSCA records, and John Conyers was one of the few to let us in, sit down
with him and listen.
But
nothing happened for years – until early 1990s when word got out about Oliver
Stone’s film “JFK,” and the media was in an uproar over the film.
When a
few researches had lunch in the Senate cafeteria one afternoon – someone mentioned
– I think it was Congressional investigator Kevin Walsh, that just as the movie “Executive
Action” had a trailer at the end of the movie that mentioned the strange deaths
– Stone could put a trailer at the end of his movie about the still sealed
records.
When
Stone was in DC for a visit John Judge and I visited him at his hotel room and
told him about our Committee for an Open Archives (COA), the new group we were
forming that became COPA – Coalition on Political Assassinations, and our
efforts to free the sealed HSCA records. Stone said we could ask him for
anything but money, as it was all tied up in his movie. When we asked him about
putting a trailer at the end of the film mentioning the still sealed JFK
assassination records, he said someone else had already suggested that to him
and he would consider it. And that he did, and it worked beyond all
anticipation.
So many
people – citizens – complained to their representatives in Congress about the
sealed JFK records, that Congress decided it had to do something – and a group
of lawyers, including Mr. Blakey, wrote the JFK Act that not only required the
release of the HSCA records we sought, but ALL government records on the
assassination from every agency and department of government, going WAY beyond
what we asked for.
The law
was unanimously passed by Congress – when does Congress ever do anything
unanimously? And was signed by then President George H. W. Bush – one of the
last things he did as President. But before he signed the law Bush added a
rider that put a twist to the law that required all of the government records
on the assassination be released by October 26, 2017, twenty-five years after Bush signed the bill into law. Bush’s rider gave the
President of the United States the power to continue withholding records beyond
that date – and only the President – whoever he or she may be.
Well as
we know that turned out to be Donald Trump, an enemy of the Swamp and Deep
State who repeatedly tweeted that he would release all of the records on the assassination,
up to the day the records were to be released, when the CIA and his former
chief of staff Gen. John Kelly (USMC), convinced him to continue to withhold
many thousands of records for reasons of national security.
Two
weeks before that decision was made, the Archivist of the United States, an
advocate of open records, gave the president his recommendations, a report that
remains secret over two years later.
The most prudent thing to do is to convince Congress to hold JFK Act oversight hearings, to obtain the AOTUS recommendations,
determine why the law is being breached, why there are so many missing and
destroyed records, and exactly how many records are still being withheld – a number
the NARA doesn’t even know. That would be the prudent thing to do, especially
since there hasn’t been an oversight hearing in over twenty years and such a hearing could convince Congress to reconvene the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) to ensure the law is upheld. That's what attorney Mark Adamczyk suggests in his recent article at K&K.
But with
the death of Cummings, the vice chair of the House Oversight Committee –
freshman Congresswomen Katie Hill, would have risen to the chair. But she not
only knows nothing about these things, she admitted to having affairs with two
staff workers – a male and female, while engaged in a messy divorce from her
husband. The House Ethics committee began an investigation and she recently
resigned.
Now, the
senior Democratic on the Oversight Committee – Rep. Carolyn Maloney is the new
chairwomen. From a New York district that includes much of Manhattan, Maloney
may be the one – the one to schedule JFK Act oversight hearings and answer the
outstanding questions. But don’t hold your breath.
While I
thought it would be rather easy having a JFK Act Congressional Briefing and
convincing the House Oversight Committee chairman to hold JFK Act oversight hearings,
as required by the law, that doesn’t seem likely at this point in time.
We will
be holding a meeting of the minds on this subject at the CAPA conference in
Dallas Nov. 22-23, when a number of JFK assassination record archivists will hold an important panel discussion on the issues associated with the records.
Those scheduled to appear include Britney Crawford - Acting Director of the JFK Collection at NARA, John Slate - Head Archivist for the City of Dallas, Mary Goolsby - Archivist at the Poague Library at Baylor University, and Stephen Fagin - Curator of the Sixth Floor Museum. Rex Bradford, Jim Lesar and others will be consulted.
Depending on what happens in Dallas, we could possibly organize a Congressional Briefing on the JFK Act on a weekend at a DC university in late January or early February – and then a few days later, a Congressional Briefing before the responsible House Oversight Sub-Committee on Information and the NARA.
Those scheduled to appear include Britney Crawford - Acting Director of the JFK Collection at NARA, John Slate - Head Archivist for the City of Dallas, Mary Goolsby - Archivist at the Poague Library at Baylor University, and Stephen Fagin - Curator of the Sixth Floor Museum. Rex Bradford, Jim Lesar and others will be consulted.
Depending on what happens in Dallas, we could possibly organize a Congressional Briefing on the JFK Act on a weekend at a DC university in late January or early February – and then a few days later, a Congressional Briefing before the responsible House Oversight Sub-Committee on Information and the NARA.
What we
really need however, is another media spark – like Oliver Stone’s “JFK” movie
trailer – a spark that will ignite the nation once again to call for the legal
enforcement of the JFK Act, get the required JFK Act oversight hearings,
answer the outstanding questions, and release the remaining records that were
supposed to be released two years ago by law, a law that is now being ignored.
We need to give the JFK Act CPR and breath new life into a law that must otherwise be considered dead.
We need to give the JFK Act CPR and breath new life into a law that must otherwise be considered dead.
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