ARRB Updates

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: EILEEN SULLIVAN
MAY 18, 1998
(202) 724-0088, EXT. 253

The Assassination Records Review Board announced today that the United States Supreme Court agreed to let stand an order requiring the New Orleans District Attorney to deliver to the Review Board original records related to the assassination of President Kennedy. The Court rejected the petition by New Orleans District Attorney Harry Connick, Sr. to prevent the transfer of records. This ruling upholds the Fifth Circuit Court's decision to transfer original files of the investigation of Clay Shaw by the former District Attorney Jim Garrison. These records ultimately will be transferred to the JFK Collection at the National Archives and Records Administration.

"We are pleased by the action of the Supreme Court," said Judge John R. Tunheim, Chair of the Review Board. "We look forward to working with District Attorney Connick to transfer these records to the JFK Collection so that the American public can see more about this chapter of the assassination of President Kennedy."

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.

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ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD

 
Formal Determinations and Additional Releases

AGENCY: Assassination Records Review Board.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Assassination Records Review Board (Review Board) met in a 
closed meeting on April 13, 1998, and made formal determinations on the 
release of records under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination 
Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Act). By issuing this notice, the 
Review Board complies with the section of the JFK Act that requires the 
Review Board to publish the results of its decisions in the Federal 
Register within 14 days of the date of the decision.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Peter Voth, Assassination Records 
Review Board, Second Floor, Washington, D.C. 20530, (202) 724-0088, fax 
(202) 724-0457. The public may obtain an electronic copy of the 
complete document-by-document determinations by contacting 
.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice complies with the requirements 
of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act 
of 1992, 44 U.S.C. Sec. 2107.9(c)(4)(A) (1992). On April 13, 1998, the 
Review Board made formal determinations on records it reviewed under 
the JFK Act.

Notice of Formal Determinations:

1 Carter Library Document: Postponed in Part until 10/2017
9 CIA Documents: Postponed in Part until 05/2001
689 CIA Documents: Postponed in Part until 10/2017
1 DIA Document: Postponed in Part until 10/2017
2 Eisenhower Library Documents: Postponed in Part until 10/2017
1198 FBI Documents: Postponed in Part until 10/2017
1 Ford Library Document: Postponed in Part until 10/2017
6 HSCA Documents: Open in Full
1 HSCA Document: Postponed in Part until 05/2001
29 HSCA Documents: Postponed in Part until 10/2017
25 JFK Library Documents: Postponed in Part until 10/2017
16 NARA Documents: Open in Full
4 NARA Documents: Postponed in Part until 05/2001
7 NARA Documents: Postponed in Part until 10/2017
92 US ARMY Documents: Postponed in Part until 10/2017

Notice of Other Releases

    After consultation with appropriate Federal agencies, the Review 
Board announces that documents from the following agencies are now 
being opened in full: 4 Carter Library documents; 26 DIA documents; 1 
Eisenhower Library document; 643 FBI documents; 181 HSCA documents; 53 
JFK Library documents; 92 LBJ Library documents; 242 Warren Commission 
documents; 62 U.S. Army documents.
    The Review Board has noted sealed Federal Grand Jury information in 
409 documents. This information is not believed to be relevant to 
understanding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the 
Review Board has decided not to petition the relevant court to unseal 
this information.

Dated: April 27, 1998.
T. Jeremy Gunn,
Executive Director.
[FR Doc. 98-11496 Filed 4-29-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6118-01-P

Attention All JFK Researchers:

The Assassination Records Review Board will no longer publish their decisions relating to documents in The Federal Register. You can now only get this list from the Review Board directly. You can get it in hard copy, which I strongly recommend, or via email. The one I got is 100 pages long. It lists the documents and the decisions the Board took on them. It has one column of documents per page as opposed to three in The Federal Register. It's much neater than what gets published in The Federal Register. I recommend getting it in hard copy given the problems the ARRB has had, with me at least, and some of you, with their email notices getting chopped off. Also, people have differing email systems and sometimes file attachments don't work perfectly.

As I'm sure there will be at least one more, if not two or three or more "batches" you will certainly need these lists.

Also, another ARRB update, the official transcript of the "Hearing before the Subcommittee on National Security, International Affairs, and Criminal Justice of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight ... on H. R. 1553. The reauthorization of the ARRB is now avaiable from the GPO. It's serial number is 105-85. It was about $3.50 ISBN 0-16-056313-5

Joe

Hello all,

Eileen Sullivan told me that the Board is conducting a brief open meeting (approx. one hour) to discuss the final report on Tuesday, May 12, 1998 at 3:00pm.

This will be at their offices at 600 E. St. NW in Washington, D.C.

Yours Truly will be there. I hope some of you can make it.

Joe

Dear Interested Parties:

I am pleased to have this opportunity to provide you with an update on the activities of the Review Board. As you are all aware, we have six months remaining to fulfill our mandate, and I am proud to report that we are on schedule. The Board looks forward to completing successfully our mission and submitting our final report to the Congress, the President, and the American people.

To date the Review Board has processed for release over 37,000 assassination-related records. After streamlining the review process, the Board continues to release larger volumes of records at each meeting.

We continue to dedicate our resources to completing the review of the "sequestered collections" held by the CIA and the FBI. The ARRB tackled difficult issues early on in our tenure, paving the way for the automatic release of documents with the same issues later on. Both the CIA and the FBI have been advised that it is our firm intention to complete our task within the congressionally mandated time limit. This goal includes reviewing, processing, and transferring to the custody of the National Archives all identified assassination records by September 30, 1998. The Board members are confident that the cooperative relationship that we have established with the agencies will form the foundation for a successful completion of our mandate.

This year we have also focused our efforts on releasing military records related to the assassination. The Board has held successful joint declassification sessions with agencies including the Department of the Army, the State Department, National Security Council, Join Staff Secretariat, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense to declassify thousands of military records in which these agencies have equities. Many of these records, although not directly related to the assassination of President Kennedy have enhanced the historical record surrounding the assassination. The Board's broad definition of an "assassination record" has helped ensure that the record is as complete as possible.

On July 3, 1997, President Clinton signed a bill (H.R. 1553) into law that extended the authorization of the Review Board until September 30, 1998. With this extension, the Board will be able to submit a more complete final report and ensure federal agency compliance. We are in the process of obtaining from all relevant agencies their declarations, made under penalty of perjury, certifying that they have made diligent efforts to search for and identify any assassination related records within their custody. It is then ultimately left to the discretion of the Review Board to determine if an agency has in fact complied with the JFK Act.

At the end of 1997, the Board received from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence the unredacted Church Committee records that had previously been forwarded to NARA in redacted form. Receipt of these records is the result of a long-standing request from the Review Board and will require intense staff work to process them for Board review and public release.

In the past year, we have received important donations to the JFK Collection from private citizens. As you may recall, the Collection was enhanced by the inclusion of Clay Shaw's personal papers, the papers of former Warren Commission General Counsel J. Lee Rankin, the notes allegedly taken by J. W. "Will" Fritz during his interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the AP wire copy of the events of November 22 through November 26, 1963. We are pleased to have these valuable additions to the ever-growing JFK Collection, and we are grateful to the donors who responded to our call for records.

I would like to thank the members of the research community for their continued support over the years. We have always appreciated the input and suggestions you have provided to the Board. Frequent contact with members of the public has been an important component of our efforts.

Your input will be evident in the final product --- a more complete JFK Assassination Records Collection. The Review Board has spend the last few years meeting on a frequent basis to release documents, while at the same time working to achieve the proper balance between the statute presumption favoring the disclosure and the protection of national security interests. We have attempted to diligently follow the Congressional mandate in the JFK Act. It is our hope that, in the meantime, the Review Board has made an important contribution to a restoration of public confidence in government.

Sincerely,
(signed)
John R. Tunheim
Chair

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