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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: EILEEN SULLIVAN
DECEMBER 22, 1997
(202) 724-0088, EXT. 253
"These military records on U.S. policy toward Vietnam add important depth to the historical record because they are from both before and after the assassination of President Kennedy," said Dr. Kermit L. Hall, a member of the Review Board. "At the time of President Kennedy's death, Vietnam was increasingly becoming a matter of foreign policy concern. Any records that add substance to our understanding of the impact that the assassination had on U.S. policy in Vietnam are a welcomed addition to the JFK Collection at the National Archives and Records Administration."
The mandate of the Review Board is to make the record surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy as complete as possible. The Board has been aggressive in its pursuit of records on U.S. foreign policy that put the assassination into its historical context. Last month the Review Board released previously classified military records related to U.S. policy toward Cuba in the early 1960's.
As with the November release of military records on Cuba, the Review Board worked cooperatively with representatives from the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to locate records stored at NARA that met the definition of being "assassination related." The documents being released today are from the files of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The records have been transferred to NARA for inclusion in the JFK Collection, which is housed at the NARA facility in College Park, Maryland. These documents are now available to researchers.
Copies of selected documents are available from the Assassination Records Review Board, 600 E Street, NW, Second Floor, Washington, DC 20530; telephone number: (202) 724-0088.
ASSASSINATION RECORDS ADVISORY
DECEMBER 17, 1997
CONTACT: EILEEN SULLIVAN
(202) 724-0088, ext. 253
November 17, 1997 Board Meeting Totals
The Assassination Records Review Board met on November 17, 1997 and voted
to release 3,620 CIA, FBI, NSA, Army, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and HSCA
documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In
addition to this total, 108 Warren Commission documents will be open in
full by consent release.
CIA Records
The Review Board voted to release 215 CIA documents in part. The majority
of these records are from the ?Sequestered Collection.? The CIA documents
relate primarily to cable traffic to and from Mexico City regarding
administrative and operational matters. The HSCA documents include notes
of CIA files and cables, primarily regarding biographical information on
individuals such as Luisa Calderon, Leo Cherne, Barney Hidalgo, and
Mohammed Reggab. An additional 290 CIA documents and two HSCA documents
will be open in full by consent release.
FBI Records
The Board also voted to release 678 FBI documents, two in full and 676 in
part. The majority of these documents are from the HSCA subject files,
which contain issues that the HSCA investigated as potentially relevant to
the assassination of President Kennedy. These particular documents relate
to subjects including Sam Giancana, E. Howard Hunt, Orlando Bosh Avila,
Gilberto Lopez, Frank Chavez, Angelo Bruno, Maurice Lerner, and Cuba Libre.
In addition, 2,317 FBI documents will be open in full by consent release.
NSA Records
The Review Board voted to release 26 NSA documents in part. These
documents include an NSA report about the testing, on the behest of the
Warren Commission, of
some of Lee Harvey Oswald?s belongings, including his radio equipment, for
possible transmittal capabilities, copies of the Cuban Government?s press
statements regarding the assassination of President Kennedy and Oswald?s
request for a Cuban transit visa, information on suspected Cuban
intelligence activity, and correspondence regarding requests by the HSCA
and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). An additional 74
NSA documents will be open in full by consent release.
Army and Joint Chiefs of Staff Records
The Board voted to release in part 12 Army documents and six Joint Chiefs
of Staff records. These documents relate to U.S. policy toward Cuba,
Operation Mongoose, Vietnam, and foreign government reactions to the
assassination of President Kennedy.
Notification to the President and the Agencies
Notification of the Review Board?s action on the above documents was sent
to the President of the United States and the agencies on December 1, 1997.
Unless an agency objects and the President agrees with that objection, the
documents will be available 30 days from the date of the Federal Register
notification, and after administrative processing.
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 20, 1997
CONTACT: EILEEN SULLIVAN
(202) 724-0088, EXT. 253
The Assassination Records Review Board, an independent federal agency overseeing the identification, review, and release of records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, announced today that it has acquired original handwritten notes on the interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald taken by the late Dallas Police Captain who was in charge of questioning the alleged presidential assassin. This is the second time that the Board has obtained previously unavailable Oswald interrogation notes made by a law enforcement official.
Dallas Police Captain J. W. "Will" Fritz, who headed the homicide and robbery bureau, was the primary interrogator of Oswald while he was in police custody from the afternoon of November 22 until the morning of November 24,1963 when Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas police station. The Board recently acquired the notes along with other papers and photographs found after Captain Fritz's death in 1984. The materials had been in the possession of the donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, until they were voluntarily turned over to the Board last month.
"Captain Fritz's original notes on the Oswald interrogations add depth to the primary record of what went on during the hours following the shooting of the President while Oswald was in custody," said Dr. Henry F. Graff, a member of the Review Board. "The notes are important because a stenographer was not present and no audio recording was made during the interrogation sessions."
Fritz told the Warren Commission in 1964 that he took no notes during the Oswald interrogations, but indicated that he later typed a report based on "rough notes" that were made "several days later." These notes are believed to be the ones acquired by the Review Board. They chronicle all of the key points of the Oswald interrogation, including his denials that he shot President Kennedy or owned a rifle, that he said nothing against the President and claimed that a photo of him holding a rifle was a forgery, with his head was superimposed on someone else's body. The notes end abruptly, showing the time of the last interrogation session on Sunday morning, November 24 as "10-11:15." Oswald was shot by Ruby a few minutes later.
The Fritz notes are only the second set of original handwritten notes taken on the Oswald interrogations that have surfaced in the 34 years since the assassination. Earlier this year, the Review Board announced the acquisition of handwritten notes taken during the Oswald interrogation by former FBI agent James P. Hosty, Jr.
The Fritz notes and other materials acquired by the Review Board have been transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration for inclusion in the JFK Collection, which is housed at the National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland. These materials are now available to researchers.
Copies of Fritz's handwritten notes on the Oswald interrogation sessions and a transcription of the notes are available from the Assassination Records Review Board, 600 E Street, NW, Second Floor, Washington, DC 20530; telephone number: (202) 724-0088.
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 18, 1997
CONTACT: EILEEN SULLIVAN
(202) 724-0088, EXT. 253
The Assassination Records Review Board, an independent federal agency overseeing the identification, review, and release of records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, today released approximately 1,500 pages of previously classified military records from 1962-64 that relate to U.S. policy toward Cuba.
"These documents further expand the historical record by illustrating the United States government's deep interest in developing a policy that would force Castro from power during the early 1960's," said Dr. Anna Nelson, a member of the Review Board. "We now have a new window into the policy options toward Cuba that were being considered and debated at the highest levels of the military services."
The mandate of the Review Board is to make the record surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy as complete as possible. The Board has aggressively sought to uncover records on U.S. foreign policy that put the assassination into its historical context.
The Review Board worked cooperatively with representatives from the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to locate records stored at NARA that met the definition of being "assassination related." The documents are from the files of Joseph Califano, who served as General Counsel to the Secretary of the Army, the files of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairmen Lemnitzer, Taylor and Wheeler, and the central files of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The records have been transferred to NARA for inclusion in the JFK Collection, which is housed at the NARA facility in College Park, Maryland. These documents are now available to researchers.
Copies of selected documents are available from the Assassination Records Review Board, 600 E Street, NW, Second Floor, Washington, DC 20530; telephone number: (202) 724-0088.
CONTACT: EILEEN SULLIVAN
(202) 724-0088, ext. 253
October 14, 1997 Board Meeting Totals
The Assassination Records Review Board met on October 14, 1997 and voted to release 2,649 CIA, FBI, Army, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and HSCA documents
related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In addition to
this total, 41 other HSCA documents will be available by consent release.
CIA Records
The Review Board voted to release 213 CIA documents in part. A portion of
these records are from the CIA's "Sequestered Collection," which contains
HSCA documents with CIA equities. The CIA documents relate primarily to
cable traffic to and from Mexico City regarding operational details and
personnel matters. The HSCA documents from the Sequestered Collection
pertain in part to Lee Harvey Oswald during the post-Russian period, and
security issues related to Cuba. An additional 624 CIA documents will be
open in full by consent release.
FBI Records
The Board also voted to release 445 FBI documents in part. These documents
are from the HSCA subject files, which contain issues that the HSCA
investigated as potentially relevant to the assassination. These
particular documents relate to subjects including John Roselli, Dino
Vincent Cellini, Edward Moss, M.I.R.R., and the American G.I. Forum. In
addition, 1,151 FBI documents will be open in full by consent release.
Army and Joint Chiefs of Staff Consent Releases
For the first time, as a result of Review Board initiatives, Army documents
and records from the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) will be available by
consent release. Twenty-one Army documents from the papers of Joseph
Califano will be open in full, in addition to 116 JCS documents covering
the 1961-1964 period.
Reconsidered Documents
The Review Board reconsidered a total of 79 documents that relate to CIA
employee and source names at this meeting. These documents are CIA records
and HSCA records with CIA equities. The Board made new formal
determinations and voted to release one CIA document in full, and 45 in
part. In addition, the Board voted to release 33 HSCA documents, three in
full and 30 in part.
Notification to the President and the Agencies
Notification of the Review Board's action on the above documents was sent
to the President of the United States and the agencies on October 28, 1997.
The President has 30 days to agree or disagree with the Review Board's
decisions.
Correction: In the advisory dated October 10, 1997, the HSCA document total for the July 9, 1997 Board meeting (page 2) reads, "The Review Board also voted to release 33 HSCA records in part." The total should be 27 documents open in full.
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