New US Congress

[Myra Bronstein]

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree after all,

BK

I'll try to bark with you Bill.

John

Thanks John,

I know you've been there and know how frustrating it can be.

I am quite confident that if we hit up the Sub Committee members they will hold hearings on the JFK Act and sturr up the pot, and put those who destroyed files on the hot seat, subpoena those who failed to comply with the Act and pry loose some records that have been wrongfully with held.

Maybe there's more foreigners interested than Americans.

BK

Hey, I'm interested.

I'm just so soft-spoken that I rarely express myself.

Any guidance on how to channel that interest, aside from the general "write your congress person"?

[William Kelly]

[quote

Hey, I'm interested.

I'm just so soft-spoken that I rarely express myself.

Any guidance on how to channel that interest, aside from the general "write your congress person"?

Hi Myra,

And you'd be surprised how much impact a simple letter to your Congressman can have.

Where do you live?

If you are represented by any of the Congressmen on the Committee then they certainly would listen to you, as a constituent and voter, than me or somebody from Ireland.

If you are represented by one of those on the Info Policy, Census and National Archives Sub committee, you hit the JFK Act Jackpot, and could help convince them to hold the mandated JFK Act oversight hearings.

The main problem is that there are so many other things that need oversight, having been ignored by the previous Republican controlled Congress, that the JFK Act will most certainly take a back seat to other more important issues.

But Open Government, strengthing the FOIA, and the JFK Act, as well as re-introducing the MLK Act, are all on the eventual agenda.

March 11-17 is Sunshine Week - an annual affair where newspapers, magazines and other media professionals call attention for the need for open government and declassification issues. An FOIA Conference is planned for March 16 at the National Press Club.

We are planning on a big push that week, to make oversight of the JFK Act an issue.

I haven't sent my letter yet, because I'm trying to write it so others can sign on to it - simply requesting Rep. Waxman and Clay to notify me when the JFK Act oversight hearings are scheduled. If a few hundred people send them the same type of letter, requesting to be notified when the JFK Act oversight hearings are held, they might get the idea. Such an effort will also give us the contact info for hundreds of people who are interested in this issue.

Believe me, if we can get the oversight hearings we seek, we can shake loose many more significant records, locate suposidly missing records and obtain the sworn testimony of many unwilling officials who have destroyed records or failed to follow the law.

Obtaining the JFK Oversight Hearings in Congress is also almost a prerequsite before we can get a prosecutor to begin a grand jury investigation.

Sometimes a softly written single page letter is all that's needed to convince a Congressman to do something, and this issue is especially intriguing to them because it is NON-Partisan - meaning it is not a matter of party lines - both Democrats and Repubicans support Open Government and Declassificaton of records.

One good argument is the public trust in government, which opinion poles indicate has been in decline since the assassination of JFK, and which the JFK Act was suppose to address by releasing the government records. All the records have not yet been released and the public confidence in the government has not yet been restored, and won't be until this issue is addressed in full.

Kenn Thomas, who is away at the wake of Robert Aton Wilson in California, is a constituent of and has a friend who knows Sub-Committee Chair Wm. Clay, and will be approaching him at home in St. Louis while Congress is in recess next week.

Your Congessman will be home as well, and it will be a good time to visit him at this office and ask him to request Waxman and Clay to hold the required hearings on the JFK Act oversight.

It's their responsiblilty; we are only asking them to do their job.

Thanks for your interest,

Bill Kelly

bkjfk3@yahoo.com

Edited February 22, 2007 by William Kelly

[John Geraghty]

I would agree with Bill in saying that a simple letter to your congressman/woman can have a lot of effect.

I know this because I sorted the mail for the legislative staff in D.C. last year.

A letter regarding the JFK assassination, if phrased eloquently, is always going to attract attention. Multiple letters will let the letter sorter know that there is more support for this in their constituency than previously thought.

The legislative aid on foreign policy and military affaris is the one most likely to be given any letters of this kind. Usually a phone call to follow up on the letter always helps.

It is usually the interns or the secretary that answer the phones, if they notice a significant amount of calls and letters on one topic, they will bring it to the attention of the legislative assistant.

It is important to keep the calls relatively short and not stray too far from the poit that all you want is a review of the records, do not cite evidence. Offices do not like long winded phone calls of this nature.

In short the best course of action for an individual is to write a short, well phrased and sussinct letter. Follow up the letter with a short phone call to make it known that you sent the letter and ask that it be given to the relevant legislative assistant.

I think it may help if we get some kind of structure together whereby people can sign a petition online that allows organisers to print off individual messages and hand deliver them to congress. I would be in a position to do this during the summer.

I can't put too much emphasis on the need not to overload people with assassination factoids, all you need to do is to let them know of your interest.

Perhaps sending a book might be a good idea. Although the representatives don't necessarily always read them, assistants sometimes do, and it is they that shape a lot of policy.

I hope this helps and perhaps we can get a bit of momentum going.

All the best,

John Geraghty

[William Kelly]

Myra and John,

It's not that you have to convince 400 + Congressman and 100 Senators to do it, only Waxman and Clay set agendas for their committee and sub-committee, so that narrows it down a lot and increases the odds. It's also possible a sub-committee member would champion our cause within the committee.

Both Waxman and Clay are open minded liberal Democrats who have been rejected by previous committee chairman when they requested hearings on important issues, so now they will let their frustrations out now they have the power to do it without asking permission.

While Jim Lesar and John Judge are much closer to the committee than I am, they are trying to get a new review board and a re-introducton of the MLK Act, both of which will be advanced with JFK Act hearings. The Morley v. CIA case will also be one of the topics that could be addressed by JFK Act hearings.

The hearings are mandated so they eventually will be held, it is only a matter of when - and to generate public interest in them when they are held. Of course it will be important that the proper witnesses be called and the right documents subpoened, but we can work on that once a hearing is on the agenda.

I have written a letter to Waxman and Clay noting their responsiblity to oversee the NARA and requesting that they notify me when hearings are scheduled for hearings on the JFK Act.

I have also taken out a new email address: COACOPA@yahoo.com (Committee for an Open Archive/Coalition On Political Assassinations), which will be used to compile a list of those who also want to be notified when such hearings are to take place. We will keep track of the proceedings and also notify those who sign on when the hearings will be held - live on streaming video from the hearing room, and on CSPAN.

I will write the one page form letter that others can sign on to, sending one copy to the Committee office addressed to Waxman/Clay, and the other to the COACOPA@yahoo.com address which will be used as a contact hub.

It would not be wise to flood the leaders or committees with letters, emails or phone calls, one will do, but we need a few hundred people to do it.

A one page note, with perhaps a pet question that the writer would like answered, or a suggestion of a possible witness the committee could call to testify, or specific record you want that is stll classified - and cite it. If we get the interest of the committee members, maybe they'll want to know the answers to our questions themselves.

They certainly will get mad when they learn that the law of Congress has been totally ignored by some agencies and departments.

While these things do move slow, (we can't wait till next summer John), I'm looking more towards jumping on the Sunshine Week (March 11-17) and DC FOIA Conference (March 16) as a time to focus some action on.

Check out Sunshine Week web sites for some activities, and where they ask for open record projects - mention our own - JFK Act hearings on the hill.

I've already registered for the FOIA conference and will ask Lesar, Judge, Alcorn, Newman, Scott, et al. to possibly work on a separate JFK Act Oversight Briefing at the National Press Club at the same time as the FOIA conference in order to network with other orgs and pros of similar interests.

Some of the pols who you'd think would oppose this won't, because it is a non-Partisan issue, it is one in which the republicans and democats can and will work together on. Hell, even Posner wants the files freed.

So that's the Playbook, and any holes in it can be plugged, but it's right there for everyone to see, including the opposition, and we'll just have to see how it plays out.

Any additional help, hits or adivce would be appreciated.

BK

[William Kelly]

While the New Congress is in recess until early September, it's possible that JFK Act Oversight Hearings will be held in late September or November.

They will be scheduled by Rep. Henry Waxman (D. LA Cal) at the request of Rep. Clay of St. Louis, Mo., head of the NARA subcommittee.

Both of these guys will have to be pestered by nagging constituents and citizens before they are convinced that this is an imporant issue.

Thanks for taking time to write a letter, make a phone call or send a fax or email to all congressmen about this issue

.

BK

[Myra Bronstein]

While the New Congress is in recess until early September, it's possible that JFK Act Oversight Hearings will be held in late September or November.

They will be scheduled by Rep. Henry Waxman (D. LA Cal) at the request of Rep. Clay of St. Louis, Mo., head of the NARA subcommittee.

Both of these guys will have to be pestered by nagging constituents and citizens before they are convinced that this is an imporant issue.

Thanks for taking time to write a letter, make a phone call or send a fax or email to all congressmen about this issue

.

BK

I want to keep this thread visible to give people a chance to write, as Bill suggested.

Let's not miss this opportunity...

I'll report back here once I've written.

[William Kelly]

While the New Congress is in recess until early September, it's possible that JFK Act Oversight Hearings will be held in late September or November.

They will be scheduled by Rep. Henry Waxman (D. LA Cal) at the request of Rep. Clay of St. Louis, Mo., head of the NARA subcommittee.

Both of these guys will have to be pestered by nagging constituents and citizens before they are convinced that this is an imporant issue.

Thanks for taking time to write a letter, make a phone call or send a fax or email to all congressmen about this issue

.

BK

I want to keep this thread visible to give people a chance to write, as Bill suggested.

Let's not miss this opportunity...

I'll report back here once I've written.

Thanks Myra,

Those in USA who want to see Congressional oversight hearings on the JFK Act should contact your Congressman, especially if they serve on the appropriate committees- specifically the Congressional Oversight Committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman - of LA Calf., and NARA -sub-committee chairman Rep. Clay from St. Louis.

Robert Tannenbaum of HSCA and cop fiction fame, is a former mayor of Beverly Hills and should know Waxman - so if anybody is pals with Tannenbaum be sure to ask him to bug Waxman, and that pull may carry more weight than you or me.

Kenn Thomas of Steamshovel Press (All Conspiracy No Theory) is based in St. Louis and promised to hit up Clay.

Since Congress is not in session at the moment, everybody is either at home or on vacation, and it's a good time to drop by your representative's home office and ask him about requesting JFK Act Oversight Hearings, as they are required by law and have never been enforced.

We are thinking of using the Full Page Ad attack in early September, but in The Hill or Congressional Report - challenging the Oversight Committee members to hold the hearings they are required to hold, giving examples of the JFK assassination records destroyed, missing and illegally with held today.

So far the Waxman committee has held oversight hearings on the administration's response to Global Warming, the Guantamano prisons, the CIA leak, the Walter Reed hospital scandle and Henry Tilman's friendly fire murder, all instigated by sensationalist news stories in the New York Times or Washington Post.

Within weeks, sometimes days of a news breaking scandal of that sort they hold a hearing to show that they are on top of things and doing their jobs, but when the JFK Act is totally ignored by almost every government agency Congress desides to ignor the problem too.

We might have to sturr up a big news story, like a Northwoods instigator, to light a fire under Waxman and Clay, who are the only ones who have the authority -as committee and sub committee chairman, to set a date for hearings.

Any ideas?

BK

[Greg Parker]

While the New Congress is in recess until early September, it's possible that JFK Act Oversight Hearings will be held in late September or November.

They will be scheduled by Rep. Henry Waxman (D. LA Cal) at the request of Rep. Clay of St. Louis, Mo., head of the NARA subcommittee.

Both of these guys will have to be pestered by nagging constituents and citizens before they are convinced that this is an imporant issue.

Thanks for taking time to write a letter, make a phone call or send a fax or email to all congressmen about this issue

.

BK

I want to keep this thread visible to give people a chance to write, as Bill suggested.

Let's not miss this opportunity...

I'll report back here once I've written.

Thanks Myra,

Those in USA who want to see Congressional oversight hearings on the JFK Act should contact your Congressman, especially if they serve on the appropriate committees- specifically the Congressional Oversight Committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman - of LA Calf., and NARA -sub-committee chairman Rep. Clay from St. Louis.

Robert Tannenbaum of HSCA and cop fiction fame, is a former mayor of Beverly Hills and should know Waxman - so if anybody is pals with Tannenbaum be sure to ask him to bug Waxman, and that pull may carry more weight than you or me.

Kenn Thomas of Steamshovel Press (All Conspiracy No Theory) is based in St. Louis and promised to hit up Clay.

Since Congress is not in session at the moment, everybody is either at home or on vacation, and it's a good time to drop by your representative's home office and ask him about requesting JFK Act Oversight Hearings, as they are required by law and have never been enforced.

We are thinking of using the Full Page Ad attack in early September, but in The Hill or Congressional Report - challenging the Oversight Committee members to hold the hearings they are required to hold, giving examples of the JFK assassination records destroyed, missing and illegally with held today.

So far the Waxman committee has held oversight hearings on the administration's response to Global Warming, the Guantamano prisons, the CIA leak, the Walter Reed hospital scandle and Henry Tilman's friendly fire murder, all instigated by sensationalist news stories in the New York Times or Washington Post.

Within weeks, sometimes days of a news breaking scandal of that sort they hold a hearing to show that they are on top of things and doing their jobs, but when the JFK Act is totally ignored by almost every government agency Congress desides to ignor the problem too.

We might have to sturr up a big news story, like a Northwoods instigator, to light a fire under Waxman and Clay, who are the only ones who have the authority -as committee and sub committee chairman, to set a date for hearings.

Any ideas?

BK

Bill, what if someone could place a CIA agent (as opposed to an officer) in the room where LHO is trying to "defect"?

Stand by.

[Tim Gratz]

You may not like to hear this, but if some diligent LN advocate copied some of the nuttier posts on this very Forum and sent them to the members of Congress, I believe the support for a new inquiry would be greatly eroded. What Congressperson would want to ally with a group that argues, with minimal or no evidence, that the assassination was planned by a large group of high-ranking members of the United States government?

My SINCERE suggestion is if you REALLY want a new investigation, moderate your rhetoric. What good does it do you anyway to "preach to the choir" about a myriad of possibilities, none supported by evidence?

There is the story about Wheaton's claims about statements made by Carl Jenkins. I think a new inquiry is necessary, in part, to determine the truth of those allegations. And of course the new "confession" by Hunt, but Hunt's assertions might be hard to investigate because I believe that not only Hunt but everybody he named is dead.

[William Kelly]

You may not like to hear this, but if some diligent LN advocate copied some of the nuttier posts on this very Forum and sent them to the members of Congress, I believe the support for a new inquiry would be greatly eroded. What Congressperson would want to ally with a group that argues, with minimal or no evidence, that the assassination was planned by a large group of high-ranking members of the United States government?

My SINCERE suggestion is if you REALLY want a new investigation, moderate your rhetoric. What good does it do you anyway to "preach to the choir" about a myriad of possibilities, none supported by evidence?

There is the story about Wheaton's claims about statements made by Carl Jenkins. I think a new inquiry is necessary, in part, to determine the truth of those allegations. And of course the new "confession" by Hunt, but Hunt's assertions might be hard to investigate because I believe that not only Hunt but everybody he named is dead.

Tim,

You got it all wrong. Not asking for a new Congressional investigation into the assassination, asking for mandated oversight hearings on the JFK Act of 1992.

These hearings will be dealing strictly with the law, the records and the response of the various agencies and departments to the JFK Act.

And there's no shortage of smoking records.

Congress already investigated the assassination, and as Richard Sprage the prosecutor said, "Congress is no place to investigate a homicide."

We're not asking them to find out who killed the President, we're just asking them to enforce the law they passed releasing the JFK assassinaton records.

We'd like to find out who in the Secret Service destroyed the advance records for the Texas trip AFTER the JFK Act was passed by Congress and signed by the President.

What happened to the AF1 radio transmission tapes? Transcripts? Kennedy's brain? The real pictures of the brain?

Why does the CIA release thousands of documents but refuse to release the JM/WAVE records that are directly related to the assassination of the President?

Why was a separate log kept for Andrews AFB and used only twice, when the bodies of JFK and RFK were flown there? And who ordered this log trashed?

Why are previously released records now withdrawn and withheld?

If there are Congressional oversight hearings on the JFK Act and these issues are addressed honestly and openly, then other great things can happen.

But don't confuse, or try to confuse the need for hearings on the government records with solving the crime.

BK

[Tim Gratz]

Bill, it is difficult for me to believe that there are documents that would reveal who killed JFK. Why would any such document be even created in the first place? If you think it was an internal coup, do you suppose the plotters appointed a secretary to keep records of their plotting? Not bloody likely.

The only thing I can see happening is that there may de documents yet extant which would provide clues or avenues for investigation--but not an investigation to be accomplished by "amateur sleuths".

You wrote:

Congress already investigated the assassination, and as Richard Sprage [sic] the prosecutor said, "Congress is no place to investigate a homicide."

Well, many people think Sprauge and Tanenbaum might have been able to get to the bottom of it. Why not either a Special Prosecutor with an adequate budget and total political independence, or a "truth commission" with statutory authority to grant immunity?

You also wrote:

We're not asking them to find out who killed the President, we're just asking them to enforce the law they passed releasing the JFK assassinaton records.

I thought the whole purpose was to find out who "done" it.

You wrote:

If there are Congressional oversight hearings on the JFK Act and these issues are addressed honestly and openly, then other great things can happen.

But why a two-step process? Doesn't that just add delay and increase the possibility that any still living with actual knowledge might die? Wouldn't a special prosecutor or a truth commission round up all the documents AND be able to use legal process to compel testimony of any living person named in such documents, or who was revealed to have destroyed any relevant documents?

[William Kelly]

Bill, it is difficult for me to believe that there are documents that would reveal who killed JFK. Why would any such document be even created in the first place? If you think it was an internal coup, do you suppose the plotters appointed a secretary to keep records of their plotting? Not bloody likely.

The only thing I can see happening is that there may de documents yet extant which would provide clues or avenues for investigation--but not an investigation to be accomplished by "amateur sleuths".

You wrote:

Congress already investigated the assassination, and as Richard Sprage [sic] the prosecutor said, "Congress is no place to investigate a homicide."

Well, many people think Sprauge and Tanenbaum might have been able to get to the bottom of it. Why not either a Special Prosecutor with an adequate budget and total political independence, or a "truth commission" with statutory authority to grant immunity?

You also wrote:

We're not asking them to find out who killed the President, we're just asking them to enforce the law they passed releasing the JFK assassinaton records.

I thought the whole purpose was to find out who "done" it.

You wrote:

If there are Congressional oversight hearings on the JFK Act and these issues are addressed honestly and openly, then other great things can happen.

But why a two-step process? Doesn't that just add delay and increase the possibility that any still living with actual knowledge might die? Wouldn't a special prosecutor or a truth commission round up all the documents AND be able to use legal process to compel testimony of any living person named in such documents, or who was revealed to have destroyed any relevant documents?

Tim,

If you want a special prosecutor or a truth commission, you ask for it.

All I'm doing is requesting Congress to do what it suppose to do - and that is to conduct their mandated oversight hearings into the law they passed fifteen years ago.

Now that's doable.

You ask for the sky, I'll eat dirt.

BK

[Tim Gratz]

If the only issue is the political feasability of Congress authorizing a Special Prosecutor, there may be ways to accomplish that.

Again, my concern is that witnesses (even new witnesses whose relevance may be revealed only in still-classified documents) may die if it is a two-step process. Time may be of the essence here.

[William Kelly]

If the only issue is the political feasability of Congress authorizing a Special Prosecutor, there may be ways to accomplish that.

Again, my concern is that witnesses (even new witnesses whose relevance may be revealed only in still-classified documents) may die if it is a two-step process. Time may be of the essence here.

I don't know that Congress has the power to authorize a special prosecutor. I think that falls under the Dept. of Justice.

The attrition of witnesses is a major factor.

I didn't set up the political process.

The Congressional hearings will have to take place before other things can happen.

BK

[Tim Gratz]

Bill, there was a Special Prosecutor Law created by Congress which authorized the appointment of special prosectors by a panel of judges from the D.C. Court of Appeals. That law expired in 1999.

Currently there are provisions in the Code of Federal Regulations authorizing the appointment of a special prosecutor by the Attorney General or his Deputy.

Clearly I think Congress has the authority to create a law for special prosectors. Presumably a constitutional lawyer could determine if a special prosecutor could be appointed for one specific case.

The fact that so many believe the CIA, part of the Executive Branch, was involved in the assassination, and the fact that the CIA thwarted the work of the HSCA through the appointment of George Joannides as its liason to the HSCA, is, I submit, adequate and specific grounds for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

The question I have is whether a SP could charge anyone in connection with the assassination since in 1963, as you know, the murder of the president was not a federal crime and might not even fit the constitutional definition of treason. But arguably a SP could use the federal civil rights law to charge any person with conspring to deprive JFK of his civil rights.

I think the attrition of witnesses and maybe even suspects is an important consideration. Consider for instance the ages of the Paines, Irving Davidson, Gene Wheaton, Carl Jenkins, Sylvia Odio, and other potential witnesses.

I also think that if the new NAA challenge successfully refutes the conclusion that the fragments from Connally came from CE399, then the clear statements of Tomlinson that he found CE399 on a stretcher not related to the assassination is rather clear evidence of a conspiracy. The SP could be charged with re-examing CE399 as a possible proof of conspiracy.

Want to bet a dollar that at minimum many many members of Congress know nothing of the Joannides case and no nothing of the importance of the new challenge to the NAA?