The meeting was held at the ARRB's offices. They used a small meeting room on the second floor. Dave Starks was amazed by all the round insignias that adorn the room which represent various governmental agencies. He started to videotape them all. Robert Groden pointed out "That one's the clock Dave," which set the mood for the goofiness that followed.

There was the usual setup for the Board members and a table facing them with a microphone. I walked between them and asked aloud to the empty seat, "Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the assassination research community?"

We had all gotten there early and I asked if it was okay to go down to the small coffee shop/newsstand and bring some coffee up. I got an okay and brought up some coffee for myself, John Judge and another guy whose first name was August. John then started to refer to the coffee as an "artifact," and how if it were, the National Archives idiots would insist that we follow their rules for how to drink a cup of coffee. "Please explain in writing why a photograph of the cup of coffee is not adequate for your research needs. Please do not contaminate the coffee with cream or sugar. Please do not share the coffee with more than two researchers at a time. Please, when returning the coffee make sure it is the same temperature as when you received it, etc."

A good number of people from the COPA conference did show up for the meeting, which I was glad to see. We all noticed that there are about five posters about how important security is. They looked like they were left over from World War II.

The first item on the agenda was to accept the minutes of the September 22-23 Review Board meetings. This is a mere formality as they were quickly accepted.

The next item was a vote to close portions of the November 13-14 Board meetings to review classified material. This too is a mere formality.

Steve Tilley, the National Archives liaison to the ARRB, gave a briefing on the current state of the collection at the Archives. The Secret Service has transferred its shift reports for November of 1963 and these records are available for research. The Archives did not issue a press release about this. Tilley said that the Archives will be releasing some records in the next couple of weeks and that the Secret Service records will be mentioned in that press release. The Secret Service has also returned documents that were referred to it for review from the HSCA records. The staff for the Legislative Archives is currently processing that material. The Secret Service has sent word that they cannot send a reviewer over to the Archives so Tilley had the documents copied and sent over to the Secret Service.

Tilley has also given the Secret Service additional data disks. This will allow them to review about 2 million feet of additional records in their custody. The SS boys have to re-enter the data on the disks because they made a data entry error. This will chew up a lot of time, I suspect. Are they playing a game trying to waste time until there is no Review Board anymore? Maybe...of course, from personal experience I know that the Archives forms and staff are not the easiest to deal with.

The CIA Records
Last December the CIA released the last major block of records they had located at that time. It is the final segment of what the Archives calls the "segregated" collection, that is separate from the 201 file on Lee Harvey Oswald. The first two segments of CIA records were those that were on paper and those that were on microfilm. The microfilm records were converted to paper by the CIA before the review process and are available. However, these CIA records, because they were released before the review process, do not have Reader Identification Forms (RIF's) so researching them is very difficult. I strongly believe that this is an intentional act to frustrate research of these documents. The Archives can and should give these documents RIF's. They will not do so. They should be forced to do so.

Now the CIA documents transferred in December were the documents created by the staff of the HSCA while they were reviewing CIA records. The National Archives is in charge of reviewing those records based on an agreement reached between the Archives and the House of Representatives. Mr. Tilley mentioned that these records will be made available in a matter of weeks, so they should be released this month. There will be a press release on this. Approximately 35-40 boxes will be released.

FBI Records
The FBI is planning to release 35 boxes of HSCA files fairly soon. These relate primarily to organized crime figures like Carlos Marcello. These records will also be mentioned in the upcoming press release.

Department of State Records
On October 11 the Department of State released 48 documents from the Passport Office. They also released one new document recently located and referred one document to the FBI.

Postal Service Records
On October 19 they [the Postal Service] informed Mr. Tilley that they had completed their review of their file on the investigation of the sale of the alleged assassin's rifle by Postal Inspectors. Most of the documents will be released in full with some information postponed.

Army Records
The staff of the Army's Investigative Records Depository at Ft. Mead is reviewing several cubic feet of records pertaining to defectors and other individuals. The review is not complete. This is the first time I can recall Army Records being mentioned by Mr. Tilley.

Mr. Tilley hopes that the JFK database will be available for researchers at Archives II and over the Internet by the end of this year.

They have recently added 114 data disks from the FBI to the master system and that will be incorporated into the public version of the database very soon.

In questioning Mr. Tilley it was learned that there were three disks: a program disk, a training disk, and the data disk. The information was supposed to go in the data disk. Instead it was placed on the program disk. The Archives computer system could not read the data from the program disk. This data error concerns the November 1963 shift reports only.

Dr. William Joyce asked about the Army records and it was learned that one of the other individuals mentioned is Mitchel [Livingston] WerBell [III].

Mr. David Marwell, bless him, asked about the problems that some researchers have had, including yours truly, in finding the documents that the Board decides to release. This is because the Review Board is concentrating on Mexico City and these are CIA documents that do not have RIF's. Mr. Tilley explained that the reason for much of the confusion was that the Board was releasing documents from Oswald's 201 file. There are 50 boxes and each document, not each box, each document has the same file number, 50,000 pages of documents with the same file number!

Now there is some kind of form, like a RIF, with a comment field. This is used to find the specific document, at least by the Archives staff. They will not pull specific documents for you at the Archives, however, so you are screwed.

Mr. Tilley seemed to be asking the Board for additional file numbers, series numbers, or box numbers to be given out so that the public can find the documents they want.

This discussion took place in the context of making the database available to the public. Mr. Tilley gave the impression that once this database is online that this will solve the problem. I beg to differ. Mr. Tilley said the best thing a researcher could do is to give the Archive staff a RIF for a specific document. How is anyone supposed to do that for these CIA records? I can only go to the Archives with what the Board gives me. The Review Board must give out the RIF's. This is the only way to improve this impossible situation.

The interesting thing that happened at this meeting was a briefing from the staff. Mary McAuliffe is head of the ARRB's CIA team. She said her team has studied the Mexico City angle and that they "have gotten to know it thoroughly." This has enabled them to isolate certain documents and key issues. They have been able to release the acknowledgement of CIA surveillance of Soviet and Cuban targets in Mexico City.

Big deal. This was no secret. Philip Agee did this nearly 20 years ago.

The Board has released a large number of cryptonyms related to this surveillance, also pseudonyms of CIA officers at Headquarters and in the field. True names have also been released of CIA personnel.

This will be brought up again in December when many documents will be reviewed again. As you may have noticed in the formal determinations many documents had postponements until 12/95.

Also released were a number of CIA cryptonyms of CIA agents, assets and sources, cryptonyms of U.S. agencies and specific agencies within the CIA itself, numbers and cryptonyms that reveal internal CIA operations and procedures. This last item includes cable dispatches and field report prefix numbers for Mexico City and the surrounding areas. File numbers for Mexico City files and sublines for cables containing action indicators have been released.

This release process is continuing elsewhere. "We are preparing to release a large body of operational and agent cryptonyms related to the Cuban target."

A few issues are still outstanding. True names will be discussed in December. CIA operations abroad is an issue under consideration. Ms. McAuliffe believes that they have the basic issues resolved and that the review process and release pace will quicken.

According to Ms. McAuliffe, the Board reviewed the Lopez report during these two days of Board meetings! Again the issue of CIA true names will be an issue in reviewing the Lopez report. And again that will be dealt with in December. However, Ms. McAuliffe said, "We hope that significant portions of the document can be released prior to that time."

Phil Grolick is the team leader for the FBI ARRB review team and he spoke next. Mr. Grolick started by saying that FBI records are a large part of this Board's work. He saw the work as twofold---one, to review postponement of FBI records, and two, to locate and identify records that have not been previously identified as assassination records by the FBI.

Regarding postponements, the first group of records that were voted on by the Board were subject to an appeal to the White House by the FBI. This material was already open yet the FBI appealed the Board's decision to release it. Preparing an appropriate response took up a lot of the staff's time. Now the question I have is if indeed the material was already open, and it was deliberately decided to release already released material to "test" federal agencies resolve to comply with the JFK Act and the Review Board, as John Newman suggests, then why weren't they prepared to show the President and everyone else that the material was already released and make any agency that appealed the Board's decision look like complete idiots? Why were they unprepared for a possible appeal?

Once the issues involved in the appeal are resolved that should clear the way for future releases because those issues are repeated throughout the collection of FBI records that the Review Board staff is reviewing.

In regard to determining that previously undetermined records are assassination records, the Board has decided that over 900 pre-1963 record serials from the FBI Headquarters file are assassination records.

The staff has asked to review other files. These include the entire contents of the files of the Dillon Commission, which is the popular name for the four man commission appointed by President Johnson to implement the recommendations of the Warren Commission, and on the FBI headquarters file on John F. Kennedy 94-37374.

Staff review of other files is ongoing.

T. Jeremy Gunn spoke next. He mentioned that the people standing along the back wall are not "spooks," they are members of the staff. Mr. Gunn spoke of the problem of reviewing assassination records and the need to prioritize which is why they have concentrated on the CIA and FBI.

Mr. Gunn mentioned that the Board and staff are now ready to move beyond these two agencies and concentrate on the files of the House Select Committee on Assassinations and Military records, including the NSA. First, with the HSCA, these records are the property of the Congress. The Board needed the permission of Congress to review them. The Board made this request several months ago. Only last week the Congress did not give their consent. The Board immediately contacted the Archives and requested that efforts be made to expedite the transfer of the original HSCA records from Archive 1 to the Review Board.

Some of these files and issues will be ready for review very soon. The first is the records made by HSCA staff and relate to privacy issues. The second is the Lopez report, portions of which the Board may be releasing very soon, according to Mr. Gunn, "within days". There are issues still to be resolved as Ms. McAuliffe previously mentioned. The release of these portions of the Lopez report will be prior to the review of the entire document itself.

This sounds pretty damn cool to me!

The other area of interest is/are Military records. "We do not feel that we have had stellar compliance with the Military generally," Mr. Gunn said. There are some positive things to mention. The Office of the General Counsel at the Pentagon had agreed to set up a meeting this coming Wednesday (November 1, 1995) where the various components of the Department of Defense will all be present and will be instructed upon their duties under the JFK Act.

Another positive development is that starting in the second week of November Colonel Tim Wray will be joining the staff. He will be leaving the Pentagon and will head up the Military team of the Review Board's staff.

Lastly, the National Security Agency, according to Mr. Gunn, "is a different kind of animal in the federal government which is extremely reluctant even to make its records available for review or to declassify them." However, in recent months the NSA has begun to release records unrelated to the Kennedy assassination.

The Board now has at its office the first shipment of records from the NSA, most of which are classified "Top Secret" and have SCI code words as well so these are some of their very sensitive documents.

Militarily, the branch that has been the most helpful has been the Army--- both through IRR and through and the Army's Intelligence area in Ft. Wachooga (sic?). So the Board has had some cooperation with them.

There are a number of Secret Service records that the Board will be reviewing at the November meetings.

The JFK Library
Mr. Gunn will be going to the JFK Library November 11, to begin the process of review.

Anne Buttimer spoke next and introduced Mr. David Montague, who is the other investigator. Yes, there are only two. That's two more than the Warren Commission had. He joined the staff in early September. Ms. Buttimer explained that she saw her job as locating and identifying state, local, county, and private sources of assassination records. David Montague is currently trying to locate photographs and films that witnesses in Dealey Plaza may have made during the assassination.

Ms. Buttimer also spoke of the recent acquisitions of records from the family of Jim Garrison and from the Clay Shaw defense team. She also took the time to thank the many researchers who have given her a lot of time over the phone and in person.

[It was at this point in writing this article that I learned of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Rabin. Another hero in the struggle for peace has fallen. He will be remembered along with Gandhi, President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Egyptian President Sadat. Let us pray that the Peace process in the Middle East will go forward---to use of phrase of President Kennedy---"with vigor," and that it will be an everlasting peace.]

The research community has given information and shared much of their research on where to look for records. Ms. McAuliffe said, "My heartfelt thanks to all of them for their contributions."

Another part of the job of the investigative staff is to provide investigative support for the research and analyst staff. Apparently Ms. McAuliffe is asked to interview people who know about assassination records and/or know where assassination records may be located. Several investigative trips have been made. The first was in late May/early June in preparation for the Board's Public Hearing in New Orleans.

Ms. McAuliffe has returned from almost three and a half weeks largely in the Southern part of the United States. She met with representatives of the Louisiana State Police, the New Orleans Police Department, the Miami Police Department, the Metro Dade Police Department, the Tampa Police, the Chicago Police, the Metropolitan Crime Commission of New Orleans, the Illinois Legislative Investigating Commission, and the Chicago Crime Commission. Many, if not all, of these organizations have records that were used or referred to by the HSCA. Wherever records still exist cooperation was given by all of those agencies.

Well, someone went through the HSCA's volume 9 rather thoroughly.

Ms. McAuliffe has also met with private individuals who may have records or can provide information as to where assassination records may be located. Earlier this summer Ms. McAuliffe spoke with Carlos Carroga (sic?), who was active in the Cuban exile community in New Orleans in the early 1960's. Recently Ms. McAuliffe spoke with Frank Ragano, who represented Santos Trafficante, Carlos Marcello and other organized crime individuals.

Ms. McAuliffe gave special thanks to FCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a division of the Department of Treasury. Very soon after coming to work for the Board Ms. McAuliffe forged a working alliance with FCEN. They have access to every commercial database available online. This provided a great resource to the Board and staff. They have used this resource to try to identify and locate at least 550 individuals. FCEN has provided information on 170 of those individuals and their work is ongoing.

Mr. Marwell thanked the staff for their hard work and again pointed out that the people standing at the back of the room are the staff, not secret federal agents. Mr. Tunheim mentioned that "normally we let them sit" which caused me and others to laugh.

The last item was to schedule Board meetings until the summer of 1996. Board Meetings, tentative until June of 1996:

November 13-14

December 12-13

January---a trip to Atlanta to attend the American Historical Association on January 5th and 6th where the Board will give a presentation. Board meeting in Washington on Thursday the 4th also January 30 and 31st.

February 29 and March 1

March18-19. On Thursday March 28 there is another Historical meeting, The Organization of American Historians annual meeting. I think this is in Chicago.

April---16-17th

May---13-14th

June---4th and 5th.

After the meeting I and several other researchers had a chance to talk with Mr. David Montague. Robert Groden, Hal Verb and myself talked about the photographic evidence in the case. I hope to have a good working relationship with Mr. Montague throughout the Board's remaining time. He was very pleasant and wanted to listen to us.

His email address is: Dave_Montague@JFK-ARRB.gov

I again encourage everyone to contact the Review Board: get on their mailing list, ask for documents, ask them to declassify certain documents that you are interested in, and tell them where assassination records can be located that are not part of the collection at the Archives. They cannot do their job without us. Contact them at:

Assassination Records Review Board
600 E Street NW
2nd Floor
Washington, D.C. 20530

Phone: (202) 724-0088
Fax (202) 724-0457

I can be contacted at:

Joseph Backes
9 Kaine Terrace
Albany, New York
12208-1215

email address: joebackes@aol.com

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