Public Protest National Archives and Records Administration

[William Kelly]

Paul Kuntsler, the Washington DC activist who took full page ads out in the New York Times and Washington Post to protest their policies on covering the JFK assassination, and has previously picketed the FBI, Secret Service and CIA, is coordinating a protest at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on Monday, October 8, 2012, Columbus Day, a national holiday.

He said he chose that day because school is out and some college students might join him.

The protest will be peaceful and include picketing and the distribution of an open letter to the archivist of the United States, and may include a teach-in if the NARA allows the use of an auditorium.

There will not be a debate on the assassination, as the issue is the release of the government records concerning the assassination of President Kennedy, and that is what will be discussed. - Bill Kely

JFKcountercoup: Protest at the National Archives to Free the Files

PRESS RELEASE

PAUL KUNTSLER

10 G. Street S.W.

Apartment No. B-218

Washington, D.C. 20024

PRESS RELEASE

JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RESEACHERS TO PICKET THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

John F. Kennedy assassination researchers will picket the National Archives on Constitution Avenue between Seventh and Ninth Streets, N.W. near the Visitor’s Entrance on Monday, October 8, 2012 between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 Noon and distribute an open letter to David S. Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States.

The purpose of the picket will be to protest the decision by the National Archives not to declassify documents related to the assassination of President John Kennedy, a decision made at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The National Archives' decision is in violation of President Barack Obama' executive order of Tuesday, December 29, 2009 that "no information may remain classified

indefinitely" as part of sweeping overhaul of the executive branch's system protecting

classified national security information.

President Obama also established a new National Declassification Center at the National Archives to speed the process of declassifying historical documents by centralizing their review. The President set a four year deadline for processing a 400-million-page backlog of such records that originally included the JFK assassination records to be released on the 50^th anniversary of Kennedy’s death, but later reneged on that commitment.

The October 8^th picket is in protest that decision by the Archives and the continued withholding of JFK assassination records past the 50^th anniversary of the assassination.

50 YEARS IS LONG ENOUGH! – FREE THE JFK ASSASSINATION RECORDS - "IN OUR LIFETIME"

Edited September 23, 2012 by William Kelly

[William Kelly]

NPC FORUM ON YOUTUBE -

VIEW THE THIRD NDC OPEN PUBLIC FORUM

On August 29, 2012, the National Declassification Center hosted its third annual Public Open Forum at the William McGowan Theater at the National Archives building. The forum featured a status report by NDC Director Sheryl Shenberger,two interagency panels that addressed quality assurance measures and improved declassification processing, as well as a question and answer session with members of the public.

“The National Declassification Center (NDC) at the National Archives held a public forum on Aug. 29 to obtain public input on declassification. The NDC is trying to address a 400 million page backlog of classified records at the Archives. During the public question period, journalist Jeff Morley (formerly with the Washington Post) asked that NDCreconsider its decision earlier this year not to speed up processing of 1,171 classified CIArecords related to the JFK assassination by the 50th anniversary in 2013 (otherwise they remain secret until at least 2017 and perhaps indefinitely beyond). The NDC/Archives response to Morley's request was a flat no. The CIA representative on the panel said, "My agency has nothing to say on that topic". Another questioner, Jim Lesar, elicited the admission that it would take approximately two months to process that quantity of complex documents. There were six public questions asked at the forum and three of them were from people seeking declassification of the JFK assassination records, the most commented topic. The flat negative response to the JFK rrecords issue cast a pall over the proceedings. There were 100 plus people in attendance, many of them government employees.”

SIGN PETITION

http://www.change.org/petitions/office-of-information-policy-and-regulatory-affairs-release-the-secret-jfk-assassination-records

JOIN OUR PROTEST - OCT. 8TH -

PRESS RELEASE

HISTORICAL RESEACHERS TO PICKET THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Historical researchers will picket the National Archives on Constitution Avenue between Seventh and Ninth Streets, N.W. near the Visitor’s Entrance on Monday, October 8, 2012 between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 Noon and distribute an open letter to David S. Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States.

The purpose of the picket will be to protest the decision by the National Archives not to declassify documents related to the assassination of President John Kennedy, a decision made at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The National Archives' decision is in violation of President Barack Obama' executive order of Tuesday, December 29, 2009 that "no information may remain classified indefinitely" as part of sweeping overhaul of the executive branch's system protecting

classified national security information.

President Obama also established a new National Declassification Center at the National Archives to speed the process of declassifying historical documents by centralizing their review. The President set a four year deadline for processing a 400-million-page backlog of such records that originally included the JFK assassination records to be released on the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s death, but later reneged on that commitment.

The October 8th picket is in protest that decision by the Archives and the continued withholding of JFK assassination records past the 50th anniversary of the assassination.

50 YEARS IS LONG ENOUGH! – FREE THE JFK ASSASSINATION RECORDS – IN OUR LIFTIME

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2012/09/open-letter-to-ferriero.html

[Bernice Moore]

Thanks Bill...for all that you do for the research community, it is very appreciated, even if not posted to you often enough, ....''The purpose of the picket will be to protest the decision by the National Archives not to declassify documents related to the assassination of President John Kennedy, a decision made at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency''.....whenever the government, no matter CIA or which division, does such, so foolishly imo, they only create another sense of further distrust within the population, each time, gathering peoples who perhaps did not know previously..and the old, that never goes away, ''what are they hiding, springs to the forefront, in huge letters...b.

[William Kelly]

thks b.

bk

[William Kelly]

JFKcountercoup: PROTEST TO FREE THE FILES

NARA PROTEST

Paul Kuntsler, who called for the Monday, October 8th Columbus Day picket and protest at the National Archives (and Records Administration NARA), formerly owned the transcript service that handled much of the HSCA testimony. He is a long time activist who has previously taken full page ads out in the New York Times and Washington Post questioning their reporting on the assassination of President Kennedy. He has also sponsored a forum on the assassination at the Willard Hotel and has previously held protests at the CIA, FBI and Secret Service.

Security at the NARA have requested that no pickets on polls be used, but signs held by string around the neck are okay. We have also agreed not to disturb those people in line to get into the Archives.

Kuntsler believes, and others agree, that our purpose is not to harass NARA employees or the public, as most people, including many within the government agencies and departments, support our cause, and want to see all of the remaining assassination records released. Our purpose is to convince them that we are right and they too should support the release of these records.

Only a few high level administrators and agency heads want to keep these records withheld, not for reasons of national security or because they prove conspiracy, but because they are an embarrassment to their agencies and departments, and because they can keep them secret.

The Columbus Day protest at the NARA was instigated by the insolence of the NARA officials to cower and kowtow to the CIA and agree to exclude the remaining sealed JFK assassination records from the 2013 National Declassification Center review. The president did not say that no government record would remain sealed forever “except the JFK assassination recorded,” and his executive order does not specifically exclude these records.

At the first open public hearing of the NDC two years ago, the assistant archivist said the JFK assassination records would be included, but that commitment was rescinded at the second public hearing, when they said the assistant archivist had “misspoke.” That assistant archivist would retire after over 20 years in government service. Was he fired or forced to retire because of this issue?

Although the video of that first NDC public meeting is posted at their web site, neither the tape or a transcript of the second or third public meeting can be reviewed, and when I requested a video recording and transcript of the third meeting I was told there is no transcript. While upon request, I was supplied with a link to a Youtube videotape of the third meeting, but that tape is posted under a private section of Youtube that other people can’t reach by a Google search, and it freezes near the very end, shortly before the public questions are asked, including answers to what we consider most significant.

While a NARA staff member has said that I would be provided with a corrected version, if I am not, then there is nothing else to conclude except that the glitch is intentional and there is information in that part of the tape that someone with significant power within NARA does not want publicly released.

This must be so because the auditorium where the public forum was held is set up for professional audio visual recording of all presentations, with cameras stationed behind glass and audio recording stations throughout the room. It is inconceivable that such an accidental technical glitch would occur at precisely the right place where the public question aspects of the proceedings are suddenly froze and inaccessible.

For the record, four of the six post-forum public questions related to the JFK assassination records. Jeff Morley, Jim Lesar, Dan Alcorn and John Judge all asked pertinent questions or made relevant statements.

Because the open public hearing was held on a weekday in the last week of August, shortly before the Labor Day holiday, it was clear that the NARA officials did not want a large public turnout.

The CIA representative who spoke said that much of the declassification concerns the identity of CIA agents, whose names they will not reveal. If I was there I would have asked him if that included Lee Harvey Oswald?

Jim Lesar asked the CIA man how long it would take the CIA to review and declassify the remaining withheld CIA records if they were required to do so, and the answer was – four months.

They don’t even know how many pages there are, and they’re not about to count them if they don’t have to. They contend they do not have to act on them until 2017, and claim they don’t have the ability to declassify them at this time, even though they did accelerate the declassification of all the CIA records ordered released by 2010 in 2006, four years in advance. We are now requesting they do the same thing for the 2017 records and declassify them in 2013, certainly a reasonable request.

The insolence of the NARA officials to abide by the CIA instructions and ignore the law and intense public interest in these records has forced us to protest their actions, try to get the attention of the media and general public and convince them it is everyone’s best interest to declassify and release these records now.

If you can’t be there in person and participate in the protest, but would like to support this cause, you can write your own letter, sign our petition, get others to sign it and contribute to the Committee for an Open Archives (COA) Facebook paypal account that will be used for a full page ad in a Washington DC publication posting our petition and letters to the Archivist and Congress.

Donations

committeeforopenarchives.webs.com

Site for contributions to full pg ad by the Committee for Open Archives to build support and actions for an open archives and oversight of the JFK Act.

http://committeeforopenarchives.webs.com/apps/donations

[William Kelly]

Dick Russell – Author and Environmental Journalist

JFKCountercoup2: Dick Russell - JFK - New Developments

THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION:

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

On October 8, an unusual protest was scheduled to take place outside the National Archives in Washington, D.C. A group of researchers into the Kennedy assassination planned to form a picket line at the Visitor's Entrance. They were there because the National Archives had announced it will not release 1,171 top-secret CIA documents in advance of the 50th anniversary next year of JFK's assassination.

According to the CIA - and the Archives seems to have bought the argument - "substantial logistical requirements" prevented these documents' disclosure, which were the subject of a specific request from the nonprofit Assassination Archives and Research Center. This is despite the fact that the 1992 JFK Records Act mandates the public release of all assassination-related files in the government's possession. Instead, these will remain withheld until at least 2017.

This also goes counter to a directive signed by President Obama on his first day in office, pledging a new commitment to openness and transparency, including the declassification of such records. These particular ones include over 600 pages about David Atlee Phillips, a deceased CIA officer involved with anti-Castro Cuban exiles during the early 1960s. One of those exiles, Antonio Veciana, told this writer (as well as a government investigator) in 1976 that Phillips - who used the cover name"Maurice Bishop" - brought Lee Harvey Oswald to a private meeting that Veciana attended in August 1963.

Altogether, an astounding 50,000-plus pages of government files related to the JFK assassination have yet to see the light of day. Thousands more documents have been partially withheld or released but blacked-out. All in the name of national security - a half-century after the fact!

Clearly, the CIA is still worried that information it possesses would point to a conspiracy instead of the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald was the "lone gunman." The Agency might also be concerned about something else - new evidence developed by Douglas P. Horne, formerly of the Assassination Records Review Board, that clearly shows a CIA laboratory to have altered the famous Zapruder film in the immediate aftermath of the assassination. The story is available here and interested readers might also check out my lengthy interview with Horne in my book, "On the Trail of the JFK Assassins."

But when the person in charge of the National Archives' Declassification Center (Sheryl Shenberger) was formerly employed by the CIA, perhaps we should expect no less than the current impasse. Before undertaking prior declassification chores for the Agency, Shenberger was a branch chief in the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center between 2001 and 2003.

For those of us who are convinced we've never been told the truth about the tragedy of November 22, 1963 - a day that changed the course of American history - it's time to make the government hear our voices loud-and-clear leading up to next year's 50th anniversary.

One place to start is by signing this petition demanding that release of the withheld CIA files.

Click here