FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 17, 1995
The Review Board voted to release 16 CIA documents in full and 21 CIA documents in part. These documents have been publicly available, but contain many redactions. For the first time, the Board sustained the CIA's position that some information relating to sensitive intelligence sources and methods should not be publicly relesed at this time. The Board indicated in its notification to the President that some redacted parts of the documents still need to be protected, but also noted they contain no information about the assassination of President Kennedy or about Lee Harvey Oswald. In other instances, the Board proposed substitute language which gives some relevant information in place of the redactions, while not revealing the sensitive intelligence information. The Review Board voted to release 393 of the 478 redactions that the CIA was seeking to still keep secret in these 37 documents.
"The members of the Board are exercising careful independent judgement with all of the sensitive information we are seeing, just as Congress had envisioned when it created this independent agency," said John R. Tunheim, Chair of the Review Board. "Under the law, our job is to balance the need to protect still sensitive government information versus the public's right to know. The vast majority of the time we have voted in favor of public disclosure. However, there will be instances when fulfilling the mandate of the law means continuing to protect certain information."
In other Review Board action, on July 31, 1995, President Clinton was notified that the Board had voted to open in full 16 FBI documents and 2 other CIA documents. The FBI documents relate to their investigation of Oswald while he was in the Soviet Union in 1960 and 1961; the Communist Party, USA reacton to the assassination; and Jack Ruby's shooting of Oswald. The CIA documents relate to Oswald's trip to Mexico City. The FBI has appealed the Board's decision to the President on 9 of the 10 documents (as well as some duplicates). The CIA has notified the Review Board that it will not appeal. President Clinton has 30 days from the date of notification to agree or disagree with the Board's determinations on these documents.
In addition, the Board recently made a determination regarding whether certain records meet the definition of an assassination record. By unanimous vote, the Review Board designated all serials dated after January 1, 1960, in Sections 1-16 of the FBI Headquarters file on Sam Giancana as "assassination records."
The Assassination Records Review Board was established by the JFK Act, which was signed into law by President George Bush. The five members of the Board were appointed by President Clinton, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and sworn in on April 11, 1994. THe law gives the Review Board the mandate and the authority to identify, secure, and make available all records related to the assassination of President Kennedy. It is the responsibility of the Board to determine which records are to be made public immediately and which ones will have postponed release dates.
The Review Board consists of the following members:
John R. Tunheim, Chair; Minnesota Chief Deputy Attorney General.
Dr. Henry F. Graff; Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University.
Dr. Kermit L. Hall; Dean, College of Humanities, and professor of History and Law at The Ohio State University.
Dr. William L. Joyce; Associate University Librarian.
Dr. Anna K. Nelson; Adjunst Professor of History at The American University.
The Review Board has until October 1, 1996, to fulfill its mandate, plus an additional year at the Board's discretion to complete its responsibilities.
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