Jefferson Morley Article in Today's Washington Post

[W. Niederhut]

I'm re-printing this for non-subscribers.

Thanks to the CIA, we might never know the full truth behind JFK’s assassination

By Jefferson Morley

October 31, 2023

 

 

Jefferson Morley is vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation and editor of the JFK Facts newsletter on Substack.

 

What does the Central Intelligence Agency know about the reasons for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that it won’t tell the American public?

 

As the 60th anniversary of JFK’s assassination approaches, the CIA has gained control of the historical record. As a result, the most important Kennedy files might never be seen, leaving unanswered the question of the exact nature of the agency’s interest in Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

Was the CIA merely incompetent in dealing with the itinerant Marxist Marine, or did it use him for some still-classified purpose? Or is there another explanation for its unwillingness to share all it knows? The clandestine service is no longer under any obligation to answer such questions. When it comes to the Kennedy assassination files, the CIA has won the battle over full disclosure.

 

The 1992 JFK Records Act was supposed to lay ongoing questions to rest by mandating the release of all government files related to the shooting of the president in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The law, passed by a unanimous Congress (including then-Sen. Joe Biden), created an independent civilian review panel that declassified almost 320,000 documents starting in the 1990s.

Although these documents did not yield proof of an assassination conspiracy, they detailed the CIA’s monitoring of Oswald between 1959 and 1963. They revealed that the CIA station in Miami did not believe Oswald acted alone. And they generated sworn testimony about Kennedy’s autopsy, all of which undermined the official story that a “lone gunman” killed the president for reasons known only to himself.

The released records showed that former CIA director Allen Dulles compromised the Warren Commission’s investigation by shielding the agency’s operations around Oswald from scrutiny. Counterintelligence chief James Angleton sought to “wait out” the commission by denying it key cables about the alleged assassin. And then-Deputy Director Richard Helms testified, falsely, that the agency had only “minimal information” about Oswald before Kennedy was killed.

 

In fact, the pre-assassination Oswald file, partially released in the 1990s — but not fully declassified until this past April — confirmed that the CIA’s information on him was extensive, detailed and up to date.

The agency opened a file on Oswald in November 1959 after he traveled to Moscow and declared his allegiance to communism. Counterintelligence officers intercepted and read his mail. When he moved to Minsk, in present-day Belarus, and married a Russian woman, they collected reports on his movements from the FBI, the State Department and the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Upon Oswald’s return to the United States in June 1962, the CIA’s interest deepened. The agency funded his enemies among anti-Castro Cuban student exiles. In September 1963, top officials at the agency’s headquarters in Langley were notified of Oswald’s arrest for fighting with CIA-sponsored students in New Orleans who had generated propaganda about the ex-defector’s pro-Castro activities. CIA surveillance teams in Mexico City took pictures of the Soviet Embassy, which Oswald visited in October 1963. By the time Kennedy left for Texas on Nov. 21, all this information was known to a small group of senior officers at Langley.

The agency has acknowledged that it engaged in a Kennedy coverup. In a partially declassified 2013 journal article, in-house historian David Robarge conceded that the CIA had concealed relevant information from the Warren Commission. Robarge insisted, however, that the deception should not call into question the “lone gunman” theory. In his Orwellian formulation, the CIA had merely engaged in a “benign coverup.”

 

In 2017, President Donald Trump let the JFK Records Act’s 25-year deadline for full disclosure slip. While proclaiming that the Kennedy files had been released, Trump acquiesced to the agency’s demand to keep portions of more than 11,000 documents secret.

 

In 2021, President Biden did the same, while giving the CIA another year to release additional information. The National Archives now says that all Kennedy assassination files have been released — with the exception of no fewer than 3,648 documents that still contain redactions.

 

No one knows when the American people will see these records, if ever. A CIA-authored Transparency Plan, approved by Biden in June, effectively guts the records act by eliminating presidential oversight, the only lever that has ever compelled the agency to obey the law.

The CIA has repeatedly concealed aspects of the Kennedy story. For example, in a June 1961 memo, presidential adviser Arthur Schlesinger made the case for reorganizing the clandestine service. Sixty-two years later, the agency asserts that this ancient policy proposal is a threat to national security today. The CIA has redacted more than a page of Schlesinger’s memo — and Republican and Democratic presidents have approved the censorship. That’s real power.

 

The agency has dodged accountability and fortified its position in the capital’s constellation of power. But this has come at a cost. As the plausibility of the “lone gunman” theory has deteriorated, suspicions of the CIA have increased. We don’t know whether the agency is maneuvering simply to prevent revelations of its own incompetence, or whether it’s concealing an undisclosed psychological warfare program to manipulate Oswald and discredit pro-Castro forces, or whether it’s merely acting out of some bureaucratic instinct for secrecy that is its own justification.

 

But as long as it fails to practice full disclosure on this story, public suspicion will endure. As former president Harry S. Truman wrote in The Post one month after Kennedy’s assassination, the agency’s actions have turned it into “a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue.” And they contribute to a broader mistrust of the federal government, which has grown steadily since the Warren Commission report was published in 1964. Doubts about the “lone gunman” theory have mutated into distrust of all aspects of government activity, including public health, voting and elections.

After 60 years, nothing does more to encourage the notion that a domestic “deep state” operates beyond the reach of democratic institutions than the CIA’s continuing stonewalling on the Kennedy assassination. Its “victory” on the full release of the assassination files is a loss for democratic self-government.

Edited November 1, 2023 by W. Niederhut

[Mike Aitken]

Thanks for sharing the article.  I’m surprised the Washington Post would publish an article like that.

[Benjamin Cole]

Nice article, but it not the CIA that is preventing the release of the JFK Records.

The authority to release the JFK Records lies with the President of the US, and curiously enough, also with the Vice President. 

Indeed, by executive action, the President or the Vice President can release any federal document at any time, by fiat. 

Oddly, Morley, or WaPo editors, are "buying in" to the concept the CIA has the authority to suppress federal records, through the bogus and Orwellian "Transparency Board." They do not. 

 

[Roger Odisio]

9 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Nice article, but it not the CIA that is preventing the release of the JFK Records.

The authority to release the JFK Records lies with the President of the US, and curiously enough, also with the Vice President. 

Indeed, by executive action, the President or the Vice President can release any federal document at any time, by fiat. 

Oddly, Morley, or WaPo editors, are "buying in" to the concept the CIA has the authority to suppress federal records, through the bogus and Orwellian "Transparency Board." They do not. 

 

The authority to decide when the job of releasing JFKA records is completed resides with the Archivist at NARA, per Section 12 (b) of the JFK Act:   "The remaining provisions of this Act [after the ARRB ceases to exist under Section 12 (a)] shall continue in effect until such time as the Archivist certifies to the President and Congress that all assassination records have been made available to the public in accordance with this Act."  Biden has no separate authority to implement the "Transparence Plan", which is designed to greatly limit or kill further record releases.  Nor has Congress, whose role in this has been ignored, been notified the job is done as required. 

But don't get too comfortable with this idea.  The record shows that Biden, Trump, and the CIA have intimidated NARA leadership to go along with their claim in the MFF lawsuit that, among other things, it (NARA) has no role to play finding and releasing further records. Despite NARA staff having told me they do have such a role in an email, which the lawsuit cites.

What role has the Archivist, Colleen Joy Shogan, appointed by Biden on May 17, 2023, played in this sorry episode?

I wonder if anyone has asked Ms Shogan about her 12 (b) responsibilities in light of NARA's position in the lawsuit and Biden's Orwellian named  "Transparency Plan". 

 

[Pat Speer]

10 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Nice article, but it not the CIA that is preventing the release of the JFK Records.

The authority to release the JFK Records lies with the President of the US, and curiously enough, also with the Vice President. 

Indeed, by executive action, the President or the Vice President can release any federal document at any time, by fiat. 

Oddly, Morley, or WaPo editors, are "buying in" to the concept the CIA has the authority to suppress federal records, through the bogus and Orwellian "Transparency Board." They do not. 

 

I don't think that's what's going on. Jeff is merely acknowledging the obvious: that both Trump and Biden abdicated their responsibility and handed it off to the CIA. 

[Michael Griffith]

13 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

I'm re-printing this for non-subscribers.

Thanks to the CIA, we might never know the full truth behind JFK’s assassination

By Jefferson Morley

October 31, 2023

 

 

Jefferson Morley is vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation and editor of the JFK Facts newsletter on Substack.

 

What does the Central Intelligence Agency know about the reasons for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that it won’t tell the American public?

 

As the 60th anniversary of JFK’s assassination approaches, the CIA has gained control of the historical record. As a result, the most important Kennedy files might never be seen, leaving unanswered the question of the exact nature of the agency’s interest in Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

Was the CIA merely incompetent in dealing with the itinerant Marxist Marine, or did it use him for some still-classified purpose? Or is there another explanation for its unwillingness to share all it knows? The clandestine service is no longer under any obligation to answer such questions. When it comes to the Kennedy assassination files, the CIA has won the battle over full disclosure.

 

The 1992 JFK Records Act was supposed to lay ongoing questions to rest by mandating the release of all government files related to the shooting of the president in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The law, passed by a unanimous Congress (including then-Sen. Joe Biden), created an independent civilian review panel that declassified almost 320,000 documents starting in the 1990s.

Although these documents did not yield proof of an assassination conspiracy, they detailed the CIA’s monitoring of Oswald between 1959 and 1963. They revealed that the CIA station in Miami did not believe Oswald acted alone. And they generated sworn testimony about Kennedy’s autopsy, all of which undermined the official story that a “lone gunman” killed the president for reasons known only to himself.

The released records showed that former CIA director Allen Dulles compromised the Warren Commission’s investigation by shielding the agency’s operations around Oswald from scrutiny. Counterintelligence chief James Angleton sought to “wait out” the commission by denying it key cables about the alleged assassin. And then-Deputy Director Richard Helms testified, falsely, that the agency had only “minimal information” about Oswald before Kennedy was killed.

 

In fact, the pre-assassination Oswald file, partially released in the 1990s — but not fully declassified until this past April — confirmed that the CIA’s information on him was extensive, detailed and up to date.

The agency opened a file on Oswald in November 1959 after he traveled to Moscow and declared his allegiance to communism. Counterintelligence officers intercepted and read his mail. When he moved to Minsk, in present-day Belarus, and married a Russian woman, they collected reports on his movements from the FBI, the State Department and the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Upon Oswald’s return to the United States in June 1962, the CIA’s interest deepened. The agency funded his enemies among anti-Castro Cuban student exiles. In September 1963, top officials at the agency’s headquarters in Langley were notified of Oswald’s arrest for fighting with CIA-sponsored students in New Orleans who had generated propaganda about the ex-defector’s pro-Castro activities. CIA surveillance teams in Mexico City took pictures of the Soviet Embassy, which Oswald visited in October 1963. By the time Kennedy left for Texas on Nov. 21, all this information was known to a small group of senior officers at Langley.

The agency has acknowledged that it engaged in a Kennedy coverup. In a partially declassified 2013 journal article, in-house historian David Robarge conceded that the CIA had concealed relevant information from the Warren Commission. Robarge insisted, however, that the deception should not call into question the “lone gunman” theory. In his Orwellian formulation, the CIA had merely engaged in a “benign coverup.”

 

In 2017, President Donald Trump let the JFK Records Act’s 25-year deadline for full disclosure slip. While proclaiming that the Kennedy files had been released, Trump acquiesced to the agency’s demand to keep portions of more than 11,000 documents secret.

 

In 2021, President Biden did the same, while giving the CIA another year to release additional information. The National Archives now says that all Kennedy assassination files have been released — with the exception of no fewer than 3,648 documents that still contain redactions.

 

No one knows when the American people will see these records, if ever. A CIA-authored Transparency Plan, approved by Biden in June, effectively guts the records act by eliminating presidential oversight, the only lever that has ever compelled the agency to obey the law.

The CIA has repeatedly concealed aspects of the Kennedy story. For example, in a June 1961 memo, presidential adviser Arthur Schlesinger made the case for reorganizing the clandestine service. Sixty-two years later, the agency asserts that this ancient policy proposal is a threat to national security today. The CIA has redacted more than a page of Schlesinger’s memo — and Republican and Democratic presidents have approved the censorship. That’s real power.

 

The agency has dodged accountability and fortified its position in the capital’s constellation of power. But this has come at a cost. As the plausibility of the “lone gunman” theory has deteriorated, suspicions of the CIA have increased. We don’t know whether the agency is maneuvering simply to prevent revelations of its own incompetence, or whether it’s concealing an undisclosed psychological warfare program to manipulate Oswald and discredit pro-Castro forces, or whether it’s merely acting out of some bureaucratic instinct for secrecy that is its own justification.

 

But as long as it fails to practice full disclosure on this story, public suspicion will endure. As former president Harry S. Truman wrote in The Post one month after Kennedy’s assassination, the agency’s actions have turned it into “a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue.” And they contribute to a broader mistrust of the federal government, which has grown steadily since the Warren Commission report was published in 1964. Doubts about the “lone gunman” theory have mutated into distrust of all aspects of government activity, including public health, voting and elections.

After 60 years, nothing does more to encourage the notion that a domestic “deep state” operates beyond the reach of democratic institutions than the CIA’s continuing stonewalling on the Kennedy assassination. Its “victory” on the full release of the assassination files is a loss for democratic self-government.

William, thank you for posting this. Very helpful. 

[Roger Odisio]

14 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

I'm re-printing this for non-subscribers.

Thanks to the CIA, we might never know the full truth behind JFK’s assassination

By Jefferson Morley

October 31, 2023

 

 

Jefferson Morley is vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation and editor of the JFK Facts newsletter on Substack.

 

What does the Central Intelligence Agency know about the reasons for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that it won’t tell the American public?

 

As the 60th anniversary of JFK’s assassination approaches, the CIA has gained control of the historical record. As a result, the most important Kennedy files might never be seen, leaving unanswered the question of the exact nature of the agency’s interest in Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

Was the CIA merely incompetent in dealing with the itinerant Marxist Marine, or did it use him for some still-classified purpose? Or is there another explanation for its unwillingness to share all it knows? The clandestine service is no longer under any obligation to answer such questions. When it comes to the Kennedy assassination files, the CIA has won the battle over full disclosure.

 

The 1992 JFK Records Act was supposed to lay ongoing questions to rest by mandating the release of all government files related to the shooting of the president in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The law, passed by a unanimous Congress (including then-Sen. Joe Biden), created an independent civilian review panel that declassified almost 320,000 documents starting in the 1990s.

Although these documents did not yield proof of an assassination conspiracy, they detailed the CIA’s monitoring of Oswald between 1959 and 1963. They revealed that the CIA station in Miami did not believe Oswald acted alone. And they generated sworn testimony about Kennedy’s autopsy, all of which undermined the official story that a “lone gunman” killed the president for reasons known only to himself.

The released records showed that former CIA director Allen Dulles compromised the Warren Commission’s investigation by shielding the agency’s operations around Oswald from scrutiny. Counterintelligence chief James Angleton sought to “wait out” the commission by denying it key cables about the alleged assassin. And then-Deputy Director Richard Helms testified, falsely, that the agency had only “minimal information” about Oswald before Kennedy was killed.

 

In fact, the pre-assassination Oswald file, partially released in the 1990s — but not fully declassified until this past April — confirmed that the CIA’s information on him was extensive, detailed and up to date.

The agency opened a file on Oswald in November 1959 after he traveled to Moscow and declared his allegiance to communism. Counterintelligence officers intercepted and read his mail. When he moved to Minsk, in present-day Belarus, and married a Russian woman, they collected reports on his movements from the FBI, the State Department and the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Upon Oswald’s return to the United States in June 1962, the CIA’s interest deepened. The agency funded his enemies among anti-Castro Cuban student exiles. In September 1963, top officials at the agency’s headquarters in Langley were notified of Oswald’s arrest for fighting with CIA-sponsored students in New Orleans who had generated propaganda about the ex-defector’s pro-Castro activities. CIA surveillance teams in Mexico City took pictures of the Soviet Embassy, which Oswald visited in October 1963. By the time Kennedy left for Texas on Nov. 21, all this information was known to a small group of senior officers at Langley.

The agency has acknowledged that it engaged in a Kennedy coverup. In a partially declassified 2013 journal article, in-house historian David Robarge conceded that the CIA had concealed relevant information from the Warren Commission. Robarge insisted, however, that the deception should not call into question the “lone gunman” theory. In his Orwellian formulation, the CIA had merely engaged in a “benign coverup.”

 

In 2017, President Donald Trump let the JFK Records Act’s 25-year deadline for full disclosure slip. While proclaiming that the Kennedy files had been released, Trump acquiesced to the agency’s demand to keep portions of more than 11,000 documents secret.

 

In 2021, President Biden did the same, while giving the CIA another year to release additional information. The National Archives now says that all Kennedy assassination files have been released — with the exception of no fewer than 3,648 documents that still contain redactions.

 

No one knows when the American people will see these records, if ever. A CIA-authored Transparency Plan, approved by Biden in June, effectively guts the records act by eliminating presidential oversight, the only lever that has ever compelled the agency to obey the law.

The CIA has repeatedly concealed aspects of the Kennedy story. For example, in a June 1961 memo, presidential adviser Arthur Schlesinger made the case for reorganizing the clandestine service. Sixty-two years later, the agency asserts that this ancient policy proposal is a threat to national security today. The CIA has redacted more than a page of Schlesinger’s memo — and Republican and Democratic presidents have approved the censorship. That’s real power.

 

The agency has dodged accountability and fortified its position in the capital’s constellation of power. But this has come at a cost. As the plausibility of the “lone gunman” theory has deteriorated, suspicions of the CIA have increased. We don’t know whether the agency is maneuvering simply to prevent revelations of its own incompetence, or whether it’s concealing an undisclosed psychological warfare program to manipulate Oswald and discredit pro-Castro forces, or whether it’s merely acting out of some bureaucratic instinct for secrecy that is its own justification.

 

But as long as it fails to practice full disclosure on this story, public suspicion will endure. As former president Harry S. Truman wrote in The Post one month after Kennedy’s assassination, the agency’s actions have turned it into “a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue.” And they contribute to a broader mistrust of the federal government, which has grown steadily since the Warren Commission report was published in 1964. Doubts about the “lone gunman” theory have mutated into distrust of all aspects of government activity, including public health, voting and elections.

After 60 years, nothing does more to encourage the notion that a domestic “deep state” operates beyond the reach of democratic institutions than the CIA’s continuing stonewalling on the Kennedy assassination. Its “victory” on the full release of the assassination files is a loss for democratic self-government.

Here is Jeff Morley's accounting of the possible "suspicions" of the CIA's role in the murder, as the plausibility of Oswald as the lone gunman has deteriorated:

 

" As the plausibility of the “lone gunman” theory has deteriorated, suspicions of the CIA have increased. We don’t know whether the agency is maneuvering simply to prevent revelations of its own incompetence, or whether it’s concealing an undisclosed psychological warfare program to manipulate Oswald and discredit pro-Castro forces, or whether it’s merely acting out of some bureaucratic instinct for secrecy that is its own justification."

 

Notice anything missing?  How about a suspicion that the top echelon of the CIA, together with the rest of the war machine it was in the process of creating, as planner and implementer of the murder.  What Morley has listed are simply some of the limited hangouts designed to divert attention from what they did.

 

[James DiEugenio]

That is the only way the Post would have printed it.

[Michaleen Kilroy]

I didn’t realize until now this was in Wapo. Pretty incredible. The MSM trusts Jeff.

To me, if I was a DC power player, the Heath memo would throw me for a loop. The CIA didn’t buy the LN sorry either?!?

Probably still won’t move the needle but does give validity to the conspiracy POV.

And Jim’s absolutely correct - Wapo would never have published the piece with a direct accusation against the agency. But if you read it carefully, it’s there between the lines.

[Benjamin Cole]

9 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

I don't think that's what's going on. Jeff is merely acknowledging the obvious: that both Trump and Biden abdicated their responsibility and handed it off to the CIA. 

Well...if so, should not that be the headline? Just change out "CIA" for "Biden, Trump."

Thanks to Biden, Trump, we might never know the full truth behind JFK’s assassination

Though, it should be noted, the Orwellian Transparency Board, which will evidently do the snuff job on JFK Records either in perpetuity or long past anyone cares anymore, was a creation of the Biden Administration. 

The Bidenites have 100 times the governance experience than the clueless Trump. They know to create bureaucratic road kill. 

Edited November 2, 2023 by Benjamin Cole

[Benjamin Cole]

9 hours ago, Roger Odisio said:

The authority to decide when the job of releasing JFKA records is completed resides with the Archivist at NARA, per Section 12 (b) of the JFK Act:   "The remaining provisions of this Act [after the ARRB ceases to exist under Section 12 (a)] shall continue in effect until such time as the Archivist certifies to the President and Congress that all assassination records have been made available to the public in accordance with this Act."  Biden has no separate authority to implement the "Transparence Plan", which is designed to greatly limit or kill further record releases.  Nor has Congress, whose role in this has been ignored, been notified the job is done as required. 

But don't get too comfortable with this idea.  The record shows that Biden, Trump, and the CIA have intimidated NARA leadership to go along with their claim in the MFF lawsuit that, among other things, it (NARA) has no role to play finding and releasing further records. Despite NARA staff having told me they do have such a role in an email, which the lawsuit cites.

What role has the Archivist, Colleen Joy Shogan, appointed by Biden on May 17, 2023, played in this sorry episode?

I wonder if anyone has asked Ms Shogan about her 12 (b) responsibilities in light of NARA's position in the lawsuit and Biden's Orwellian named  "Transparency Plan". 

 

RO--

Yes, and thanks for posting. 

But the Archivist is an executive branch office and reports to the President. This like absolving Biden (or Trump) for something the CIA does, an agency that also reports to the President.

Beyond that, the President and the Vice President each separately have unilateral power and authority to declassify and release any document held by the federal government at any time. Which is as it should be. 

The WaPo headline misdirects responsibility to the lack of JFK Records disclosure. 

Yes, yes, I blame Trump.

But the experienced Bidenites knew how to create bureaucratic roadkill. The Transparency Board will never release all the JFK Records, but appears to absolve Biden of responsibility.

You see, blame for the JFK Records snuff job lies hazily somewhere between the CIA and Transparency Board. Not with Biden! 

 

[Roger Odisio]

20 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

RO--

Yes, and thanks for posting. 

But the Archivist is an executive branch office and reports to the President. This like absolving Biden (or Trump) for something the CIA does, an agency that also reports to the President.

Beyond that, the President and the Vice President each separately have unilateral power and authority to declassify and release any document held by the federal government at any time. Which is as it should be. 

The WaPo headline misdirects responsibility to the lack of JFK Records disclosure. 

Yes, yes, I blame Trump.

But the experienced Bidenites knew how to create bureaucratic roadkill. The Transparency Board will never release all the JFK Records, but appears to absolve Biden of responsibility.

You see, blame for the JFK Records snuff job lies hazily somewhere between the CIA and Transparency Board. Not with Biden! 

 

Ben:  But the Archivist is an executive branch office and reports to the President. This like absolving Biden (or Trump) for something the CIA does, an agency that also reports to the President.

 

RO:  No, NARA's Archivist does not report to the President:   NARA was established as an independent agency in the executive branch on October 19, 1984 (44 U.S.C. 2101 et seq.), effective April 1, 1985. It is the nation's record keeper "that not only preserves documents and materials related to the United States but also makes sure people can access the information."  It is administered "under the supervision and direction of the Archivist."

 

The JFK Act Section 12(b) designated NARA's Archivist, not the President, to determine when *all* JFKA records have been released to the public, and so notify the President and Congress.

 

This is not what has been happening.  Section 12(b) is being ignored both by Biden with his transparency plan and the judge in the MFF lawsuit, who never mentioned the Archivist's under that section in his initial decision.  I think it was because it contradicts his core findings.

 

Instead Judge Seeborg claimed that that NARA was *not* the successor in function to the ARRB, but rather the ARRB and NARA  "are two distinct entities, separately referenced in the JFK Act and tasked with separate statutory functions."

 

NARA has "no specific, unequivocal command" from the Act to continue the ARRB's work, the judge says, and "n)either NARA nor any other executive agency can by its own ipse dixit, legally assume obligations so terminated by Congress" (by Section 12(a) of the Act).

 

Judge Seeborg can only claim this by ignoring Section 12(b), immediately following the Section 12(a) termination of the ARRB he cites.  Congress in fact did not terminate the *obligation* to seek and release JFK records at the time it ended the life of the ARRB, as the judge claims.  And it certainly did not leave the job remaining for the last 25 years without someone to do it, as the judge's formulation would have it. Nor did it intend to have the responsibility to release records revert back to the agencies that were guilty of submerging them in the first place.

 

Congress recognized that the job of releasing records would not be completed by 1998 when it mandated the ARRB to close its doors, so it established 2017 as the deadline for completion. They recognized that deadlines in Washington are often ignored, so they went a step further.  They designated the Archivist on behalf of NARA to notify the President and Congress when the job was actually done. 

 

Can the reader grasp how nonsensical the judge's position is?

 

The JFK Act was passed unanimously because of public outrage that so much information about the murder was being withheld and not reaching them.  To be withheld until 2037, under the plan at the time.

 

Congress generally abhors creating new, permanent agencies so it gave the ARRB what turned out to be three years to do their part of the job, from the time when the definition of what they were looking--a JFKA record--was finally determined in 1995. 

 

Congress understood the enormity of the task, the impediments to its completion and the need for the work to continue beyond the time the ARRB was operational.  That is why they set up a deadline 19 years in the future to complete the work, and supplemented it with the requirement that Archivist must determine when the job was finally done.

 

Seeborg's nonsensical formulation would leave no one one with the authority to add to NARA's JFK Collection the enormous amount of relevant information that has emerge in the last 25 years since the ARRB closed. Turning NARA's JFK Collection from a vibrant place to research the murder into a museum of some of what was known 25 years ago. The responsibility for releasing records still held by government agencies would revert back those agencies when the ARRB closed, according to the judge, which violates the fundamental  purpose that the JFK Act was designed to achieve.

 

And somehow NARA's Archivist is supposed to know when the job of releasing records is finished without the agency she directs being involved in the process.

 

I focus on the Archivist because she and NARA have an important job to do.  And is apparently not doing it.  Or perhaps more precisely, it seems apparent that she and her agency have not been allowed to do the job envisioned for them by the JFK Act by Trump, Biden, and the CIA.

 

I assume she signed off on the mischaracterizations of her's and NARA's job under the Act, contained in the Justice Department memos responding to the MFF suit and adopted by the judge.

 

I realize she was appointed by Biden and is unlikely to be the independent voice envisioned for her either by NARA's statute or the JFK Act. But she is at the heart of the current problem.

 

What do you suppose she makes of her Section 12(b) responsibilities and NARA's role in the process of releasing records and maintaining the JFK Collection so "the public can determine for themselves what happened that day" (from the ARRB Final Report)?

 

Surely she must know the judge's formulation is hogwash.

 

 

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, Roger Odisio said:

Ben:  But the Archivist is an executive branch office and reports to the President. This like absolving Biden (or Trump) for something the CIA does, an agency that also reports to the President.

 

RO:  No, NARA's Archivist does not report to the President:   NARA was established as an independent agency in the executive branch on October 19, 1984 (44 U.S.C. 2101 et seq.), effective April 1, 1985. It is the nation's record keeper "that not only preserves documents and materials related to the United States but also makes sure people can access the information."  It is administered "under the supervision and direction of the Archivist."

 

The JFK Act Section 12(b) designated NARA's Archivist, not the President, to determine when *all* JFKA records have been released to the public, and so notify the President and Congress.

 

This is not what has been happening.  Section 12(b) is being ignored both by Biden with his transparency plan and the judge in the MFF lawsuit, who never mentioned the Archivist's under that section in his initial decision.  I think it was because it contradicts his core findings.

 

Instead Judge Seeborg claimed that that NARA was *not* the successor in function to the ARRB, but rather the ARRB and NARA  "are two distinct entities, separately referenced in the JFK Act and tasked with separate statutory functions."

 

NARA has "no specific, unequivocal command" from the Act to continue the ARRB's work, the judge says, and "n)either NARA nor any other executive agency can by its own ipse dixit, legally assume obligations so terminated by Congress" (by Section 12(a) of the Act).

 

Judge Seeborg can only claim this by ignoring Section 12(b), immediately following the Section 12(a) termination of the ARRB he cites.  Congress in fact did not terminate the *obligation* to seek and release JFK records at the time it ended the life of the ARRB, as the judge claims.  And it certainly did not leave the job remaining for the last 25 years without someone to do it, as the judge's formulation would have it. Nor did it intend to have the responsibility to release records revert back to the agencies that were guilty of submerging them in the first place.

 

Congress recognized that the job of releasing records would not be completed by 1998 when it mandated the ARRB to close its doors, so it established 2017 as the deadline for completion. They recognized that deadlines in Washington are often ignored, so they went a step further.  They designated the Archivist on behalf of NARA to notify the President and Congress when the job was actually done. 

 

Can the reader grasp how nonsensical the judge's position is?

 

The JFK Act was passed unanimously because of public outrage that so much information about the murder was being withheld and not reaching them.  To be withheld until 2037, under the plan at the time.

 

Congress generally abhors creating new, permanent agencies so it gave the ARRB what turned out to be three years to do their part of the job, from the time when the definition of what they were looking--a JFKA record--was finally determined in 1995. 

 

Congress understood the enormity of the task, the impediments to its completion and the need for the work to continue beyond the time the ARRB was operational.  That is why they set up a deadline 19 years in the future to complete the work, and supplemented it with the requirement that Archivist must determine when the job was finally done.

 

Seeborg's nonsensical formulation would leave no one one with the authority to add to NARA's JFK Collection the enormous amount of relevant information that has emerge in the last 25 years since the ARRB closed. Turning NARA's JFK Collection from a vibrant place to research the murder into a museum of some of what was known 25 years ago. The responsibility for releasing records still held by government agencies would revert back those agencies when the ARRB closed, according to the judge, which violates the fundamental  purpose that the JFK Act was designed to achieve.

 

And somehow NARA's Archivist is supposed to know when the job of releasing records is finished without the agency she directs being involved in the process.

 

I focus on the Archivist because she and NARA have an important job to do.  And is apparently not doing it.  Or perhaps more precisely, it seems apparent that she and her agency have not been allowed to do the job envisioned for them by the JFK Act by Trump, Biden, and the CIA.

 

I assume she signed off on the mischaracterizations of her's and NARA's job under the Act, contained in the Justice Department memos responding to the MFF suit and adopted by the judge.

 

I realize she was appointed by Biden and is unlikely to be the independent voice envisioned for her either by NARA's statute or the JFK Act. But she is at the heart of the current problem.

 

What do you suppose she makes of her Section 12(b) responsibilities and NARA's role in the process of releasing records and maintaining the JFK Collection so "the public can determine for themselves what happened that day" (from the ARRB Final Report)?

 

Surely she must know the judge's formulation is hogwash.

 

 

RO--

Thanks for your clarification, that is, NARA is an independent agency (although needing a budget and with the Archivist appointed by the President. So how independent?). 

 And your excellent analysis of the Biden Administration's turning the JFK Records Act in bureaucratic roadkill. 

I stand by the statement that any President, or Vice President, can declassify any document in the federal government at will, by fiat. 

The WaPo, and others, by assigning blame to the CIA, absolves President Biden of his snuff job on the JFK Records Act. 

 

[Roger Odisio]

19 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

RO--

Thanks for your clarification, that is, NARA is an independent agency (although needing a budget and with the Archivist appointed by the President. So how independent?). 

 And your excellent analysis of the Biden Administration's turning the JFK Records Act in bureaucratic roadkill. 

I stand by the statement that any President, or Vice President, can declassify any document in the federal government at will, by fiat. 

The WaPo, and others, by assigning blame to the CIA, absolves President Biden of his snuff job on the JFK Records Act. 

 

Ben:  Thanks for your clarification, that is, NARA is an independent agency (although needing a budget and with the Archivist appointed by the President. So how independent?). 

 

RO:  The Presidential appointment of the Archivist must be confirmed by the Senate, like many other appointments.  In Colleen Shogan's case, she was barely confirmed, 52-46, in a mostly party line vote in the Senate, because her candidacy was caught up in the fight over records that were discovered in the possession of Trump, Biden, and others. Republicans thought she would protect Biden from any accounting for his actions.

 

There is, however a major difference between her appointment and, say, a Supreme Court nominee.  The President can also fire her, and is only required to give reasons for his decision. For all practical purposes, that's no protection for her. 

 

That, plus the fact she is a decidedly obscure figure who is new to the job having never worked at NARA before, makes it easier for her to be controlled by the White House.

 

Still, the JFK Act specifically requires her, and only her, to certify to the President and Congress when all JFKA records have been released for public viewing.  Biden has already signaled he wants the JFK Act requirements for record releases to be shut down.  As far as I know, at least publicly, Shogan has not been heard from, and NARA's responsibilities have been blatantly misrepresented in the MFF law suit by the lawyers representing NARA.  So far, the judge has adopted their claims.

 

Bill and Larry have raised Shogan's Section 12(b) responsibilities in their filings.  Since Judge Seeborg ignored that part of the JFK Act in his initial decision, presumably he will have to address their argument at some point.

 

You might argue that it should be easy for Biden to tell Shogan to send the certification of job done to Congress and him, but I don't think so.  There is too much publicly available information about what records are still out there (and not just records being withheld by government agencies), from documents to redactions in some of them that were released, for that to be credible.  In their briefs, Bill and Larry discuss some of that information, and if the suit makes it to hearing, they will add a lot more.

 

Whether Biden can get away with so blatantly violating the terms of the Act in his attempt to kill it, by usurping Shogan's role, is a major question.

 

 

[Pat Speer]

On 11/1/2023 at 3:34 PM, Michaleen Kilroy said:

I didn’t realize until now this was in Wapo. Pretty incredible. The MSM trusts Jeff.

To me, if I was a DC power player, the Heath memo would throw me for a loop. The CIA didn’t buy the LN sorry either?!?

Probably still won’t move the needle but does give validity to the conspiracy POV.

And Jim’s absolutely correct - Wapo would never have published the piece with a direct accusation against the agency. But if you read it carefully, it’s there between the lines.

You should know if you're not aware that Jeff was a WaPo reporter for many years and retains a number of contacts there. I believe as well that he's published articles and/or been interviewed on the assassination a number of times since his departure. But Jim D is correct in that these always focus on document releases and documents that are still missing, and steer clear of implicating CIA involvement in the killing itself. What's not so clear is whether or not this is because they won't let Jeff say as much or because he doesn't want to say as much. Heck, when I first met him 18 years or so ago, he was still refusing to say if he suspected a conspiracy or not...as he didn't want to be pigeon-holed as a CT/journalist.