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Audiotapes of Assassination Records Review Board presenations and open meetings are now available.
Joe Backes, a regular contributor to Fair Play, is making the tapes available for the reduced price of five dollars a copy. He is also making available photocopies of ARRB documents for ten cents a page.
Email Joe at JoeBackes@aol.com for more information. (If your Web browser supports forms, click on the highlighted text for a pre-addressed email document.)
Nearly all of the items listed in the following catalog were subjects of articles by Mr. Backes that appear in Fair Play. See our archive, accessible from a link at the main page.
The time of a tape listed below reflects the length of the tape, and not necessarily the time of a meeting. Several meetings were less than 30 minutes.
One 90 minute audiotape
Subj: public commentary on defining the term "Assassination record". See Federal Register Notice February 8, 1995, pages 7506-7508; "March Madness at the ARRB," by Joseph Backes, The Fourth Decade Vol 2 No. 4, May 1995.
Speakers:
Mr. Steve Tilley, NARA liaison to the ARRB, archivist in charge of the JFK Records Collection.
Cheryl Walters, of the ARRB staff, general counsel.
Mr. Bill Baugh and Terry O'Connor of the FBI.
Mark Zaid
Jim Lesar, president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center.
John Judge
Joseph Backes
Two 90 minute audiotapes
Speakers:
Mr. Steve Tilley
Mr. Philip H. Melanson, author of Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence; The Martin Luther King Assassination: New Revelations on the Conspiracy and Cover-Up, 1968-1991; and The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination: New Revelations on the Conspiracy and Cover-Up
Priscilla Johnson McMillan, history professor at the Harvard Russian Research Center, author of Marina and Lee
Mr. Richard Trask, author of Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the assassination of President Kennedy
Dick Russell, author of The Man Who Knew Too Much.
George Michael Evica, author of And We Are All Mortal
Mr. Edgar Tatro.
One 90 minute audiotape
Subj: Adopting the Final Guidlines on the Implementation of the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, including a defination of the term "assassination record".
Speakers:
Cherly Walters of the ARRB staff
Mary Ronan, speaking for Steve Tilley
Two 90 minute audiotapes.
Speakers:
Former U.S. Representative Lindy Boggs
New Orleans District Attorney Harry F. Connick
Cynthia Ann Wegman, daughter of Edward Wegman, member of the Clay Shaw legal defense team.
Stephen Tyler, producer of the documentary He Must Have Something
Mr. Wayne Everard, New Orleans Public Library Archivist.
Dr. Michael Kurtz, author of Crime of the Century
Mr. Elton Killam, a surprise witness who testified about the death of his cousin Thomas Henry "Hank" Killam.
One 90 minute audiotape
Subj: a discussion of how the Board will operate when all members are not present.
One 90 minute audiotape.
Dr. Henry Graff on a speaker phone.
Subj: Rules of Procedure, Scheduling future meetings Sunshine Act proposed rules, FOIA Act proposed rules. A professional photographer was snapping away furiously throughout the meeting.
Subj: Accept minutes of July 17th Board meeting. FOIA and Sunshine Act regulation adoption.
Jeremy Gunn refers to me as "A member of the public who happens to be sitting in the room". I wanted some of the restrictions by which some of the meetings could be closed to be removed from the proposed regulations of the Sunshine Act guidlines. This was rejected. Also, I tried to get Federal Register notices to be 2 weeks in advance rather than one. This too was rejected. Staff asks for subpoena power. I think this was Granted.
Dr. Hall absent.
Includes a bad audio recording of WDSU-TV story on Connick and the reappearance of the Grand Jury transcripts.
Subject: Accept Minutes of August 3rd Open Meeting.
Minutes of special meeting of August 30, 1995.
This meeting was to allow the FBI additional time to deal with five documents relating to the Swiss government. Privacy Act regulations adopted.
One 90 minute audiotape.
Subj: See Fair Play article.
Accept minutes of Sept 23. 1995 meeting.
Schedule future Board meetings.
Steve Tilley with a JFK Collection update.
Presentations from ARRB staff.
Saturday, January 6, 1996.
Two 60 minute audiotapes.
Chairman Tunheim, Dr. Anna Nelson, Dr. William Joyce, Dr. Kermit Hall.
Thursday March 28, 1996.
Dr. Kermit Hall, acting as moderator, Dr. Anna Nelson, Dr. William Joyce
Seven months since last open meeting!
Subj: Accept minutes of October 23 open meeting
New Board procedures
Three 90 minute audiotapes
See transcript I created for Fair Play
Speakers:
David Belin
Wesley Liebeler
Robert Tannenbaum
Jim DiEugenio
Eric Hamburg
James Rankin, son of J. Lee Rankin
David Lifton
One 90 minute audiotape
Subj: Discussion of how to handle records not believed to be relevant to the assassination. This was a continuation of a discussion from the August 6th Open Meeting.
Mr. Thomas Samoluk is no longer with the ARRB
Dave Powers film is donated to the Archives.
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