New US Congress

William Kelly · February 27, 2008

Well of course the (alleged) use of steroids is a far more important issue than determining why the Secret Service destroyed possible assassination-related records while the ARRB was functioning.
But is the failure ours (I mean those who are not "cognitively impaired" (LOL) for not getting the message out to the public?

I want to take a minute to applaud the efforts of Mr. Jesus in getting all the important clips to You Tube. One would hope they might have some impact.

Hi Tim,

Good to see you're still around.

The drugs in baseball hearing really hurt the Waxman committee, and shows that such hearings are not the place to investigate certain things, especailly baseball.

The White House email hearings this week were a little better, though the bi-partisan nature of the beast comes out.

As for Gil and the clips on U tube, I would hope he got Dallas DA Craig Watkinss Press Conference.

BK

William Kelly · June 4, 2008

Waxman's at it again. As soon as an issue makes the front pages - he makes headlines too. BK

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...id=sec-politics

William Kelly · June 9, 2008

Note, letter and memo from Jim Lesar asking that we all write to Waxman and urge him to hold oversight hearings on the JFK Act. - BK

Dear All,

Attached are copies of two letters I mailed on June 7th to Rep. Henry A. Waxman and Sen. Joseph Lieberman requesting that their committees hold oversight hearings on the JFK Act. Please spread the work and encourage people to write concise letters in support of this. Jim Lesar

Mr. Henry A.Waxman

Chairman

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

2204 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 205 15

June 6.2008

Dear Mr. Chairman:

I write in my capacity as president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center, a non-profit organization that aims to inform the public about political assassinations. I write, too, as one who in the early 1990s testified before congressional committees in support of the 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act (the "JFK Records Act"). This was the most sweeping disclosure legislation ever passed into law, yet Congress has never reviewed either its accomplishments - or, very important, its failures. Your committee, which has oversight responsibility under the Act, has held no hearings on the subject for over a decade. Congressional oversight is necessary, as just two examples make glaringly evident.

1. Congress promised that, under the Act, virtually all Kennedy assassination records would promptly be made public. It emerged just recently, though, that the CIA is withholding 1,100 JFK assassination-related documents until at least 201 7. A second cause for disquiet is the Agency's response to a recent order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Told to search for operational files on the late George Joannides, who in 1963 was case officer for the DRE, a CIA-funded Cuban exile group that had pre-assassination contacts with alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, the Agency claimed that it could find no such records. This raises troubling questions as to whether case officer Joannides' operations were completely off-the-books, with no records created or preserved, or whether such records have been destroyed in violation of the JFK Records Act - or other federal laws. Alternatively, the CIA may be interpreting the request in line with some in-house formula that enables it to avoid searching for records even though they are plainly within the scope of the request - thus circumventing the Freedom of Information Act.

2. There is, too, the recent disclosure by the current Dallas District Attorney that his office has uncovered 12 boxes of records related to the Kennedy case - records that should long since have been released pursuant to the JFK Act. With the JFK Act's enforcement arm, the Assassination Records Review Board ("Review Board"), no longerin existence, what can be done to ensure that such records are placed where they belong in the JFK Records Collection at the National Archives?

More important than these individual examples, historians and researchers arenow unable to get to pertinent information on President Kennedy's assassination. This is due in large part to the fact that the Review Board wound up its work in 1998. There is no effective way for researchers to obtain prompt disclosure of records not already deposited in the JFK Records Act Collection. Moreover, researchers experience problems even when seeking access to what is already there.

I ask that you do now hold hearings to assess the working of the JFK Records Act.

Also that your committee address the need to modify and update it, or enact newlegislation, to resolve the sort of problems I have described.

The hearings should address the following issues, at a minimum:

1. The fact that the JFK Records Act's mandate, which requires full and prompt of all JFK assassination-related records, is no longer being fulfilled.

2. The perceived need for fresh legislation to deal with developments that were not foreseen when the JFK Records Act was passed.

3. The way the Justice Department has handled leads Congress asked it to investigate. These include the acoustics evidence, a key basis for the House SelectCommittee on Assassinations' finding that there probably was a conspiracy to assassinatePresident Kennedy, and whether and how new tests should be undertaken to resolvemportant evidentiary questions: and

4. The way the Central Intelligence Agency undermined the House Assassinations Committee's probe of President Kennedy's murder - highly disquieting information that has come to light thanks to work stimulated by the JFK Records Act.

I attach a memorandum addressing these and other matters at greater length.

Sincerely yours,

I/ PresidentAssassination Archives and Research Center

cc: Rep. William Lacy Clay

MEMORANDUM REGARDING JFK ACT OVERSIGHT HEARINGS

From: Jim Lesar President, Assassination Archives and Research Center

To: Chairman Henry A. Waxman

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Date: JUNE 6, 2008

In a cover letter, I have given an overview of why my organization, the Assassination Archives and Research Center ("AARC"), requests that you hold oversight hearings on the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records CoIlection Act of 1992 ("JFK Records Act"), 44 U.S.C. rj 2107. The fact that it is almost 45 years since President Kennedy's assassination increases rather than diminishes the need for urgent action.

The Justice Department has in recent years reopened a number of seemingly ancient cases horrific racial slayings of the 1950s and 1960s - and in some cases has obtained convictions. It has been conspicuously inactive, however, on the murder of President Kennedy, a crime of enormous importance to the nation. This even though much about the case remains in doubt, and though significant evidence has emerged pointing to the possibility that there was a conspiracy.

The government's faiIure to address the doubts and confront such evidence has had a lasting, profoundly negative impact on our democracy. It is no coincidence that the steep and continuing decline in trust and respect for American leaders and institutions began after the assassination and the Warren Commission's finding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the President. Questions remain as to whether - to cite more common suspicions, not least those expressed by the House Select Committee on Assassinations - there was a conspiracy involving organized crime, or a foreign power, or even "the military industrial complex" of which President Dwight Eisenhower warned in his farewell address. Only by being seen to have made every last effort to resolve such suspicions, and by achieving total transparency in terms of public disclosure. can we begin to restore confidence in our democratic system and our national institutions.

Congress implicitly acknowledged this when it passed the JFK Records Act.

It recognized that the American people have the right to know their own history, and that to know it they must have access to the facts - to the fullest possible record. As a direct result of the Act, a huge volume of previously secret documents were rapidly released.

Those disclosures, coupled to ongoing research, produced stunning revelations. One such, of which we would otherwise have remained ignorant, is the existence of Operation Northwoods, the 1962 plan by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that called for mounting violent "terrorist" attacks in Washington D.C., phony hijackings of commercial airplanes, and the framing of innocent people as "bombers" - all of which would be blamed on Castro and used to justify an invasion of Cuba.

Most relevantly, we now know that the 1976-1 978 probe by the House Select Committee on Assassinations ("HSCA") was corrupted by the CIA. This occurred when the HSCA sought to learn what contacts alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had had before the assassination with members of the DRE, a CIA-funded Cuban exile organization. The Committee asked the Agency to identify the group's case officer and provide it with relevant records. The CIA never did this. Instead it brought the former case officer, George Joannides, out of retirement to act as the CIA liaison handling the HSCA's inquiries on this and other matters. The CIA withheld from the HSCA7s chief counsel and his staff the fact that they were relying for information on the very officer who had handled the matter they were investigating! Congress never was given the information it needed for this part of its investigation.

The HSCA's former chief counsel, Professor G. Robert Blakey, has stressed the gravity of this in a sworn affidavit. "By concealing his role in the events of 1963, Joannides effectively frustrated the Committee's investigation into one of the central issues in the investigation of the President's assassination and the performance of the agencies that President Lyndon Baines Johnson had tasked with the investigation of President Kennedy's assassination: the role, if any, of the Agency with those who had a hand in the death of the President."

The HSCA's work in this area was potentially crucial because:

(1) it was as a result of Oswald's confrontations with DRE members in August 1963in New Orleans that he gained a high public profile as a Soviet defector and pro- Castro sympathizer, and

(2) it was DRE leaders who within hours of the assassination disseminated this information on Oswald's background to the press. It was they who ensured that the next day's headlines painted Oswald as an active pro-Castro Soviet defector.

By covertly using Joannides to deal with the HSCA, the CIA undermined the House investigation. The last official investigation of the Kennedy assassination was thus subverted by the very agency long suspected by some scholars and researchers of having at least covered up something substantive - and perhaps of having even been somehow involved in the assassination. This subversion made a mockery of the democratic accountability intrinsic to congressional investigation.

The AARC calls upon Congress to investigate this CIA malfeasance and require a thorough, fresh probe of Oswald's pre-assassination contacts with the DRE and other Cuban exile organizations. For Congress not to respond with firm action would be unacceptable in our democracy.

Please note, moreover, that the CIA has disclosed that it is withholding 1,100 JFK assassination-related documents, and intends to block their release at least until 2017.

This alone violates the assurance Congress gave that the public would have prompt access to all relevant records. At least some of these withheld documents may relate to Joannides, the CIA case officer for the DRE at the time Oswald had contact with the group. Should that be the case, the CIA concealed salient information from the Warren Commission, the Senate Intelligence ["Church] Committee, the HSCA, and the citizen body that oversaw the operation of the JFK Act - until it ceased its work in 1998 - theAssassination Records Review Board (the "Review Board").

In light of the above, the AARC calls upon Congress to enact new legislation that brings the date for full disclosure of all JFK assassination records forward to 2009.

The JFK Records Act requires remedial action in other areas.

Some examples:

* The Review Board ordered that many records or portions of records that were initially withheld be disclosed at dates prior to 2008. A good deal of such information, however, is still withheld. The National Archives and Records Administration ("NARA"), which has a duty to disclose such materials once the postponement date is reached, does not always do so.

* While the Review Board was in existence, many records containing third agency information were referred to third agencies for action. Those agencies have in many cases failed to process the referred materials in timely fashion, and NARA - which maintains the JFK Records Act Collection, has failed to follow through by obtaining it.

* It has become clear in recent years that records pertinent to the study of the JFK assassination are not in the JFK Collection - either because they were overlooked by government agencies and the Review Board or because new areas of inquiry have opened up that were previously not perceived as relevant or significant by agencies or the Review Board. In some instances agencies have concealed or destroyed relevant records. Many Church Committee records that should be in the JFK Records Collection are not. The CIA'S file on Eladio del Valle, a significant Cuban exile long suspected of involvement in the assassination, is missing. The Collection does not have the audiotapes of communications between the White House and Air Force One after the assassination. The Review Board failed, for its part, to obtain the records of President Kennedy's personal physician, Admiral George Burkley. Burkley was the only doctor present both at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where the President died, and at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where the autopsy took place. Disclosures under the JFK Act have drawn attention to a CIA operation codenamed AMIWORLD, which some researchers suspect is key to a putative plot to kill Kennedy. Few AMIWORLD records have thus far been released, however.

* In flagrant violation of the JFK Records Act, the Secret Service destroyed records after the Review Board ruled that they were assassination-related. Congress should conduct a full investigation into why this was done and on whose instructions.

* CBS Television agreed to donate film outtakes of Kennedy assassination materials to the JFK Collection. Yet, researchers contend, only part of its collection has so far been deposited.

* Kennedy aide Walter Sheridan investigated the President's assassination on behalf of Robert F. Kennedy and worked to discredit the probe by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. After Sheridan's death. the Review Board's negotiation with his family to obtain his papers was frustrated by NBC Television. Sheridan had worked for the network, and NBC - claiming ownership -took possession of the papers. NBC has not to date turned them over to theNational Archives.

* Mexican television recently reported that the CIA had an agreement with Mexican intelligence that surveillance data gathered on Mexican territory would be shared with the Mexican government. We know that there is or was such material relating to alleged assassin Oswald's visit to Mexico shortly before the assassination - a visit that has long been a subject of controversy. Former HSCA chief counsel Professor Blakey advises that the State Department is currently negotiating with Mexico in an attempt to obtain this surveillance material. It is important that Congress have the State Department report on its progress, or otherwise, on the matter.

* The CIA entered into an agreement with the Review Board to continue processing any and all JFK assassination records after the Review Board ceased to function. It has not honored that agreement. The result - and this applies not only to the CIA but also to other agencies - is that persons requesting assassination records not already a part of the Collection must proceed under the Freedom of lnformation Act ("FOIA") - which is far more restrictive than the JFK Records Act. It was the inadequacy of the FOIA, indeed, that led Congress to pass the JFK Act in the first place. In a real sense. requesters thus find themselves back to Square One. Congress should hold hearings on the need for new legislation to ensure that researchers have access to materials mandated for release under the JFK Records Act.

The House Assassinations Committee concluded in 1979 that, contrary to the Warren Commission's lone assassin finding, "President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." Leads the Committee passed to the Justice

Department for further investigation included, importantly, studies by two distinguishedpanels of acoustical experts. These studies found that at least four shots had been fired at the President, from two different directions, pointing to more than one shooter and thus to a conspiracy.

Congress has conducted no oversight hearings to determine whether the Justice Department adequately pursued these leads, or whether new evidence has emerged on the acoustics issue.

New evidence has indeed emerged:

(1) Scientists from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory have discredited the last remaining basis for the "Single Bullet Theory," which was relied on both by the Warren Commission and the House Assassinations Committee. The Single Bullet Theory posits the notion that President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally were both struck by a single bullet fired from Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. The Theory is the

sine qua non for the belief that only one assassin was involved. The Livermore Laboratory scientists now say, however, that scientific advances make the Single Bullet Theory inapplicable. They assert, moreover, that bullet fragments tested by the FBI could have come from one - or as many as five - bullets, and could have been fired from a Remington rifle or another weapon other than Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano.

(2) In the HSCA's probe, each panel of acoustical experts supported the other's findings that the acoustics evidence indicated four or more shots fired from at least two different directions. These studies have now been reaffirmed and strengthened by a peerreviewed study conducted by an American government scientist, Dr. Don Thomas. If his study is correct, the assassination of President Kennedy indeed remains unsolved.

Other assassination researchers argue, meanwhile, that analysis of the Dallas police tapes and Dealey Plaza photographic evidence fails to support the HSCA's finding that the sounds of the gunfire in Dealey Plaza were captured by an open microphone mounted on the motorcycle of a police officer in the President's motorcade. This police tapes photographic evidence should also be investigated.

I am advised that further tests and studies, undertaken by appropriate experts, could clarify whether the acoustical findings relied on by the House Committee are valid or not. In addition to requesting that you hold public hearings on the overall functioning of the JFK Records Act, therefore. we also call upon your Committee to hold oversight hearings on the state of the acoustical evidence, and on what can be done to resolve the issues outlined.

It is essential that Congress use its muscle to ensure that the JFK Records Act again operates as the lawmakers intended and that government agencies, the CIA included, comply with all its requirements. Congress should also ensure that, notwithstanding the passing of the years, fresh evidence is studied and given a thorough hearing.

To fail to take such action, in a way that is absolutely clear and transparent, would be to invite further erosion of the public trust. A democratic nation lost its elected leader, in circumstances never satisfactorily explained, and requires nothing less of its elected representatives.

Edited June 9, 2008 by William Kelly

William Kelly · June 9, 2008

I've also posted Jim Lesar's letter at my JFK Blog:

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/

It should be up soon at Mary Ferrell and COPA web sites and if everybody would spread it around and actually sit down and write a letter to Waxman, maybe he'll even be moved enough to hold JFK Act Oversight hearings.

BK

William Kelly · June 20, 2008

I've also posted Jim Lesar's letter at my JFK Blog:

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/

It should be up soon at Mary Ferrell and COPA web sites and if everybody would spread it around and actually sit down and write a letter to Waxman, maybe he'll even be moved enough to hold JFK Act Oversight hearings.

BK

j

Now I think we have a Bonified Movement going here.

http://jfkfiles.blogspot.com/2008/06/cia-r...ayed-again.html

From Dale Myers' Blog:

The CIA now has until July 2, 2008 to respond in writing to the appellate court's 2007 ruling.

Meanwhile, a group of independent assassination researchers organized by New York attorney Charles J. Sanders have sent a joint letter to Congressman Henry A. Waxman, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asking the representative to establish oversight hearings regarding implementation and enforcement of the JFK Records Act.Posted by Dale K. Myers

William Kelly · August 15, 2008

The last public oversight hearing on the JFK Act took plcae on June 4, 1997, when the relevant subcommittee of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee held a session that heard the testimony of Judge Tunheim, Anna Nelson, Max Holland and Bruce Hitchcock, an Indiana High School teacher who made the best pitch of all to extend the JFK Act for one year.

Mr. HASTERT. I thank the gentleman. And now, Mr. Hitchcock, I’d like to welcome you especially. The gentleman from Ohio asked me a little while ago if I was an attorney. Indeed, I was not an attorney. I happened to be a history teacher for 16 years before I ever got into politics. So it’s certainly a noble trade. And I’m happy that you are here. I know that the chairman wanted to introduce you personally, but he couldn’t make it this afternoon. You contributed students, I understand, to clerk for this Commission and have been involved in it to a very high degree. So we welcome you and will listen to your testimony.

Mr. HITCHCOCK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I, too, would ask that my written statement be entered into the record. And I will briefly summarize.

Mr. HASTERT. Without objection, all written statements will be entered into the record.

Mr. HITCHCOCK. Thank you. My name is Bruce Hitchcock, and I am a teacher at Noblesville High School, located in Noblesville, IN, which is a community approximately 20 miles north of Indianapolis. I am currently completing my 28th year in secondary education. My teaching assignment has primarily been in the areas of U.S. history, American government, and international relations. And I want to express my appreciation to the committee for affording me the honor and privilege of being here today and permitting me to make some brief remarks about which I have very strong convictions, not only as a citizen but as an educator.

In the spring of 1994 I assigned my honors U.S. history class a project studying the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This project culminated in the students placing the Warren Commission Report on trial. Half of the class represented the prosecution and half of the class defended the Warren Commission Report.

The class became quite interested in and many would say obsessed with this subject.The project resulted in a trial which became quite intense and divisive, so much so that the class had to have a party at the end of the semester to rekindle friendships. They became so fascinated with the subject of the assassination that they requested an opportunity to travel to Washington, DC during the summer following their graduation to do additional research.

From that modest class assignment developed an internship opportunity with the JFK Assassination Records Review Board. To date, four student groups from Noblesville High School have interned with the Review Board, with the fifth scheduled for the week of June 16th of this year. When this group completes its work, a total of 56 of our students will have participated in this unique and truly educational opportunity. I might add that except for the first group, succeeding groups have studied, researched, and prepared for their internship on their own time, outside normal class meetings.

The most recent group to participate did so over spring break.

The fact that students wanted to spend their vacation working with government records reflects the interest that the JFK assassination has for students. In my 28 years of teaching I have never had a topic create as much interest as the assassination of President

Kennedy. It is a mystery, and it provides an excellent research opportunity as well as a chance for students to be actively involved in learning.

Since November 22, 1963, there have been many who have believed and still believe the government did conceal, continues to conceal, and will continue to conceal the truth. If the Review Board is permitted time to complete its work, it will assist in defusing the last two charges. We cannot prevent the speculation that someone did conceal the truth. But the argument that a cover-up continues and will continue can at least be defused or discouraged.

What has been lost cannot be replaced. However, what still exists can be made public. We should have access, and our students should have access to the information and documents still in existence.

This is an opportunity for the U.S. Government to provide a credible response to public interest. The Review Board established by the Congress is actually a group of citizens telling the government what to do and what to release.

An opportunity exists in this era of skepticism to restore some credibility and trust in the government. In his recent book, ‘‘TheApproaching Fury,’’ author Stephen B. Oates quotes John Ferling as saying, ‘‘Events by themselves are unimportant. It is the perception of events that is crucial.’’

Perhaps in 1997 the most important aspect concerning the assassination of President Kennedy is the perception shared by many of a conspiracy involving individuals and agencies of the U.S. Government.

Do we not owe our young people the opportunity to form the most accurate perception possible? Do we not owe them the chance to see as much of the truth intact as can be assembled?

It seems to me that we owe this generation and all succeeding generations the opportunity to question, to study and to form opinions on the basis of information they can view independently without solely relying on the opinions of others.

Often times while I’m in the classroom, I observe students who have opinions but little to substantiate them.

Congress has a chance before it in some small way or maybe in some large way to at least provide them with some more information so that they may have their turn in determining what the JFK assassination means.

We have been affected by this event. For 34 years we have been affected. The 56 students from Noblesville High School have, as have countless others, been affected by the events of November 22, 1963.

The study of this event has the public’s interest. It is an event to which the public and students can relate. It touches people. As an aside, last week an article was published in the Indianapolis Star—I have a copy with me today—regarding our school’s ongoing JFK assassination project. Within a day of its publication I had received phone calls from a gentleman offering 500 pages of documents for our use and from a former teacher calling me with information regarding some scholarship opportunities.

I also received a call from ABC News Nightline, and yesterday, before leaving Noblesville High School, received a call from Atlanta, GA offering information. The subject of the call from Nightline was seeking information as to what Noblesville High School students were doing with regard to the study of the assassination.

Together I think these calls reflect continued local and national interest in continuing to probe into what happened in Dallas. Congress has the opportunity to lay the facts before the American public and permit a more reasoned, rational and fact-based account and discussion of the assassination. I would hope that the committee would take into consideration the fact that the Review Board had a 1-year delay before truly becoming operational, that it is making a one time request for an extension, that the Review Board has been on task and on budget, that the Review Board has conducted its business in a professional and non-partisan manner, and in 1992, when the act was passed by this Congress and signed by President Bush, the enormity of the task was not and could not be fully appreciated.

An opportunity exists to complete a task which I believe is overwhelmingly supported by the American public. And it is important that this mission and mandate authorized by Congress be completed.

I would like to end with just a couple of quotes, one from former Senator Bob Dole, who said in a different context, ‘‘This is not about only who we are, it is about have we made a difference.’’ This is a chance to make a difference.

And as former President Reagan often said, ‘‘If not us, who, and if not now, when?’’

After 34 years, it is time to let the public know the facts that remain.

To do less would be a tragedy and a travesty.

As an educator I believe that our most important task is to provide our young people the complete story of who we are and why we are who we are.

We have the opportunity to work toward the accomplishment of that goal. It is an opportunity I believe we cannot afford to miss.

In his last speech in Fort Worth on November 22, 1963 President Kennedy said, ‘‘We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.’’ History can only be served by permitting the public to see the evidence.

Mr. Chairman, as a further aside, if I might just have a few seconds.

Reflective of our students’ interest in this event, I have my honors government classes perform the project of a model Congress.

And one of the students this year—they could write a bill on whatever subject they wished—and one student who worked with the Review Board last year introduced House Concurrent Resolution 1 in support of the Review Board, and concludes, after all the whereases, ‘‘The Congress of the United States firmly supports the Assassination Records Review Board in all endeavors leading to the collection, review and release of the documents regarding the assassination of President Kennedy, and supports the extension of the life of the AARB for an additional fiscal year.’’

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HASTERT. Thank you very much. Mr. Hitchcock, I wanted to ask you. As bringing students into the real realm of research and learning in that respect, how important is it that records like this be made available to the public so that folks like yourself can have the availability of them for students?

Mr. HITCHCOCK. I think, Mr. Chairman, it’s extremely important for not only teachers of history and historians, but also for students and future generations that the—one of the things so special about our relationship with the Review Board: it has not only been an opportunity for students to travel to Washington—they pay their own way, and they do their own research on their own time—but it has helped change opinions in many cases by students about not only the assassination but about government, politics, agencies and people who work for the government.

I cannot overstate the importance it has had for the 43 thus far and soon to be 56 students from Noblesville High School that have had this research opportunity, that have been able actually to see, handle original documents, to work with documents, to see first hand the evidence that exists. And to have that opportunity is something that no teacher, no classroom, no film, no laser disk, nothing in the classroom can simulate or stimulate such interest and focus as a trip to Washington, DC, the review of documents, the working with people that we’ve had an opportunity to be with at the Review Board on a firsthand basis.

It is just something that cannot be duplicated or, as I said, simulated in any classroom anywhere in the country. And it’s just been a fantastic opportunity and will provide students in the future with a place to go to find those records, to look at the records, to look at the documents, and be at least assured that as much as available and is in existence, can now be made available to them as ordinary citizens of this country, whether they be students at a university, students in high school, or in their just curiosity and interest as an American citizen.

So I don’t think it can be overstated. The impact that this will have in helping bridge that gap of skepticism—if this is the correct way to say it. I just cannot imagine what the many conspiracy theorists would think if the Review Board has to finish its stay without completing its work.

William Kelly · August 17, 2008

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/

JFK ACT OVERSIGHT HEARINGS - Deep Background - By William Kelly

"The (ARR) Board and its staff….hope that release of these records will shed new evidentiary light on the assassination of President Kennedy, enrich the historical understanding of that tragic moment in American history, and help restore public confidence in the government's handling of the assassination and its aftermath." - September 30, 1998 ARRB Final Report

The last Congressional hearing on the JFK Act was held on June 4, 1997, a one day session to officially ratify a one year extension to the deadline set to dissolve the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) and allow them time to complete their work.

That hearing included a few, carefully selected witnesses, including Review Board member Sarah Nelson, Warren Commission appologist Max Holland and Bruce Hitchcock, an Indiana high school teacher whose students were inspired to work on the declassification of the JFK assassination records. [Note #1 JFK Act Extension Hearing]

Rep. Henry Waxman (D. Calf.), now Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, was one of the Congressmen who co-sponsored the bill (H.R. 1553) with then Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R. Ind.) to extend the JFK Act by one year. One stipulation to the extention required that the Review Board submit monthly reports to Waxman in order to ensure that the law was being carried out. [Note #2 ARRB Reports to Oversight Committee]

While the ARRB did release an astonishing 6 million records releated to the assassination, which they said would take researchers ten years to read, they also withheld many important and specifically requested records, most for reasons of national security. The last officially with held record related to the assassination of President Kennedy is slated to be released in full by 2017, ten years earlier than if there were no special law to accelerate the process.

It has now been over a ten years, a full decade, since the section of the JFK Act related to the work of the ARRB terminated the board's existence. The remaining aspects of the JFK Act remain in force however. The JFK Act will remain a living law until the last record is released and the Archivist of the United States declares that the last JFK assassination record has been released to the public. [Note #3 - JFK Act Remains In Effect]

That declaration may be ten years or so away, but it has already been more than a decade since the JFK Act was enacted, and it is now time to have a full and thorough overview of the law with public Oversight Hearings in Congress.

The Constitution holds Congress responsible for oversight of such matters, specifically the House Reform and Oversight Committee (aka the Waxman Committee), [Note #4 Waxman Profile] and its subcommittee on Census, Information Policy and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), (aka the Clay Subcommitee after Subcommittee chairman, William L. Clay (D. Mo.). [Note #5 Clay Profile]

Rep. Clay's district includes the U.S. Military Records Center in St. Louis, and he is responsible for calling hearings on issues that come under his subcommitte's jurisdiction, a responsiblilty he shares with full Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, and the Chairwomen of the House (Ms. Pulosi, D. Calf.). Together they decide whether to hold hearings, when to hold them, on what issues, and how they are to be conducted. Dan Burton (R. Indiana), the former Committe chair, is now on the National Security Subcommittee. [Note #6 Burton Profile]

When the Republicans held a majority, and called the shots, except for the hearing to extend the Act, no hearings were held and they conducted no oversight of the JFK Act at all. That was suppose to change when the Democratics became the majority party and assumed committee chairs. Of all the House committees, the House Reform and Oversight Committee, under Waxman, has been the most active, with quick and sometimes effectual hearings on hot issues, including voting maching fraud, the Walter Reed Hospital scandle, Guantamano abuses and the Valarie Plame affair.

Holding Oversight hearings on the JFK Act is not something they want to do, and it may take more newsworthy events to make the JFK Act an issue Congress realizes the public is interested in. Even though it is a non-partisan (as opposed to bi-partisan) issue that both parties can embrace, and work together on, they may have to be instigated, or embarrssed to hold the mandated oversight hearings on the JFK Act. Fortunately there is no shortage of ammunition because the JFK Act is a fine example of how the government really works and who controls what power.

All you have to do is review the lists of records they acknowledge were destroyed and no longer exist, and then check out the records that are missing though everyone acknowledges once existed, but they just don't know what happened to them. Then there are the records that are still being officially withheld, legally or otherwise. (See Outsdanding Issue - Records).

After more than ten years of inaction, now is the time for the Clay Subcommittee of the Waxman Committee to conduct public oversight hearings of the JFK Act. Now is the time to properly review the circumstances of the destruction of certain records, what became of the missing records, and why there are still some being wrongfully and possibly illegally withheld.

The goverment administrators responsible for the destruction of records should be identified, subpoened and questioned under oath, and there should be at least an attempt made to locate the missing records or determine what became of them.

The responsible subcommittee should also recommend that Congress approve the ARRB recomendations contained in their final report, and consider a formal extension of the JFK Act to ensure that the NANA and the Committee have enough resources to properly oversee and enforce the law.

When the 9/11 Commission was officially dissolved, they continued to meet together privately, and they organized a non-profit group that continued to promote the recommendations of the Commission, and effetively did so.

The Assassination Records Review Board also made many recommendations before it dissolved, including the formation of a liason group representing the historian and archivists assocations who recommended the members of the Review Board, and that this ad hoc liason group continue to oversee the enforcement of the remaining statutes of the JFK Act. [Note #7 ARRB Recommendations]

No such ad hoc liason group ever met, and no such independent, non-profit organization has continued to actively try to oversee the continued function of the JFK Act, other than the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC), the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA) and the Committee for an Open Archives (COA).

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the National Security Archives (NSA), generally involved in open government legislation, shy away from anything to do with the assassination of President Kennedy and political assassination in general. It has been reported that Charles Sanders, Esq. and Mark Zaid, Esq. have written a letter to the Waxman Committee requesting JFK Act oversight hearings, but a public copy of this letter has not yet been made available.

While full scale investigative hearings are unlikely, they are possible, and getting at least one oversight hearing and consideration for a new extension is certainly doable.

James Lesar, Esq. took the lead when he wrote Waxman that "…. my organization, the Assassination Archives and Research Center ('AARC') requests that you hold Oversight hearings on the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 ('JFK Records Act'), 44 U.S.C. rj 2107. The fact that it is almost 45 years since President Kennedy's assassination increases rather than diminishes the need for urgent action."

"The Justice Department has in recent years reopened a number of seemingly ancient cases, horrific racial slayings of the 1950s and 1960s and in some cases has obtained convictions. It has been conspicuously inactive, however, on the murder of President Kennedy, a crime of enormous importance to the nation. This is so even though much about the case remains in doubt, and though significant evidence has emerged pointing to the possibility that there was a conspiracy."

"The government's failure to address the doubts and confront such evidence has had a lasting, profoundly negative impact on our democracy. It is no coincidence that the steep and continuing decline in trust and respect for American leaders and institutions began after the assassination and the Warren Commission's finding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the President. Questions remain as to whether to cite more common suspicions, not least those expressed by the House Select Committee on Assassinations there was a conspiracy involving organized crime, or a foreign power, or even "the military industrial complex" of which President Dwight Eisenhower warned in his farewell address. Only by being seen to have made every last effort to resolve such suspicions, and by achieving total transparency in terms of public disclosure can we begin to restore confidence in our democratic system and our national institutions."

Lesar notes that, "Congress implicitly acknowledged this when it passed the JFK Records Act. It recognized that the American people have the right to know their own history, and that to know it they must have access to the facts to the fullest possible record. As a direct result of the Act, a huge volume of previously secret documents were rapidly released. Those disclosures, coupled to ongoing research, produced stunning revelations." (See List: Northwoods, Joannidies, ….et al. ).

[To read James Lesar's complete letter to Waxman : http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1245944348321146643&postID=6046845850431762562 ].

Lesar calls upon Congress to enact new legislation "that brings the date for full disclosure of all JFK assassination records forward to 2009……It is essential that Congress use its muscle to ensure that the JFK Records Act again operates as the lawmakers intended and that government agencies, the CIA included, comply with all its requirements. Congress should also ensure that, notwithstanding the passing of the years, fresh evidence is studied and given a thorough hearing."

Lesar concldues that, "To fail to take such action, in a way that is absolutely clear and transparent, would be to invite further erosion of the public trust. A democratic nation lost its elected leader, in circumstances never satisfactorily explained, and requires nothing less of its elected representatives."

Who Are these elected representatives?

Only Committee Chairman can call a hearing, and only does so with the acknowledgement of the Speaker of the House. In this case, the subcommittee chair, Rep. W. L. Clay (D. Mo.) and the full committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D. Calf.) would have to get the okay to hold JFK Act hearings from Rep. Pulosi (D. Calf.), all of whom should be agreeable if it is timed right.

Subcommitee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives

http://informationpolicy.oversight.house.gov/

Information Policy, Census, and National Archives

Jurisdiction includes public information and records laws such as the Freedom of Information Act, the Presidential Records Act, and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Census Bureau, and the National Archives and Records Administration.

Majority

Wm. Lacy Clay, Chairman

Paul E. Kanjorski, Pennsylvania

Carolyn B. Maloney, New York

John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky

Paul W. Hodes, New Hampshire

Minority

Michael Turner, Ranking Member, Ohio

Chris Cannon, Utah

Bill Sali, Idaho

If any of these Congressmen are your representative, as a constituent, they will pay more attention to you than to someone from out of their district and doesn't vote, so you can make a difference by writing them a letter expresing your views and asking them to take an interest in this issue. (See Letters to Waxman).

While we would like to begin a series of public hearings on the JFK Act in particular and open government records in general, hearings that would explore all of the relevant issues and be held routinely and continuously until the JFK Act is complete (circa 2017), i't's highly unlikely that will happen.

It is more than likely that only one hearing will be held over the course of one day, not unlike the hearing held to get the extension of the JFK Act. That was a very successful hearing, briskly taking the testimony of a few key witnesses for the record, and then recommending an extension of the ARRB for an additional year, with Congress giving its unopposed general consent.

If the Clay subcommittee of the Waxman Oversight Committee is going to hold even one hearing on the JFK Act, then it must be presented with not only recommendations, but a request for new legislation, a new law that must be prescribed by those of us who want it, or they will write it themselves, however they want it, or more likely, not at all

Without re-establishing a review a board, this new legislation should be an Extension of the JFK Act, an amendment that could give the original law some enforcement teeth, if not jaws, and try to resolve the outstanding issues outlined by Lesar in his letter, and as elaborated on by others.

[Note #8 Oversight Committee Rules and Procedures for hearings and reports.]

Which brings us back to the original JFK Act extension hearing as an example of what we would like to accomplish, and if we only get one shot, it must be a really good one.

Official Report on the Hearing: http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/hearings/105h/90483.pdf

Joe Backes was there: http://spot.acorn.net/JFKplace/09/fp.back_issues/17th_Issue/arrb_ext.html

While the June, 1997 JFK Act Extension hearing only addressed the need for continuing the Review Board, many other issues related to the legislation have been raised, and the specific issues related to the content of the records have yet to be addressed in a public hearing.

As Dennis Bartholomew, Esq, has points out, "Section 12 thereby indicates that the receipt of assassination related documents by the National Archives and the release of such documents to the public shall continue until all assassination documents are made available to the public."

"However, today, years after the Assassination Records Review Board was terminated, there are still a number of documents that have not yet been released to the public, there is evidence that the CIA has assassination related documents that it has not turned over to the National Archives, and there is reason to believe that other assassination related documents still exist that are unknown to both the National Archives and JFK assassination researchers. It is therefore clear that Congress needs to take some simple steps to ensure that the work mandated by the JFK Assassination Records Act is completed."

As Lesar wrote to Waxman, "I ask that you do now hold hearings to assess the working of the JFK Records Act. Also that your committee address the need to modify and update it, or enact newlegislation, to resolve the sort of problems I have described....It is essential that Congress use its muscle to ensure that the JFK Records Act again operates as the lawmakers intended and that government agencies, the CIA included, comply with all its requirements. Congress should also ensure that, notwithstanding the passing of the years, fresh evidence is studied and given a thorough hearing. To fail to take such action, in a way that is absolutely clear and transparent, would be to invite further erosion of the public trust."

In the course of attempting to get Congress to pass a new extension to the JFK Act, it is necessary to make the new law comprehensive, yet feasible, and one they will consider, consider appropriate and pass by general consent and with no opposition. Therefore it must also be realistic.

The JFK CONTINUATION ACT

We recommend that Congress enact a continuation to the JFK Assassination Records Act (JFK Continuation Act) to do the following:

As recommended by the Board itself, Congress should recognize a liaison board composed of individuals from Assassination Archives and Research Center, Coalition on Political Assassination, Committee for an Open Archives, American Federation of Scientists, National Security Archives, the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists and the American Bar Association to oversee continued implementation of the provisions of the JFK Act.

As recommended by the Board, Congress should provide necessary funding for the National Archives to maintain the JFK Records collection and complete its release of JFK documents to the public, and add interns, researchers and investigators to the Clay Subcommittee so they can do a responsible job, including the use of subpoena powers to obtain documents and witnesses tesimony.

The JFK Continuation Act should give members of the public a private right of action to identify additional assassination related records and to require the entity holding those documents submit them to the National Archives as specified in the JFK Act. Where the public citizen and the entity holding the documents differ on whether the document is assassination related, NARA, under the guidance of the liaison board should make that determination.

The National Archives, under the oversight of the liaison board, will continue to release documents to the public as their postponement dates are reached, and will released all remaining documents, unredacted, in the year 2017, as mandated by the JKF Records Act.

The JFK Continuation Act will specifically provide notice to the public, through some reasonable means to communication, that all persons or entities outside the government who have assassination related documents or related disclosures are encouraged to submit them to the National Archives, as contemplated in Section 5 (a) (4) of the JFK Records Act. It will be made clear that the JFK Act and the JFK Continuation Act take precedence over all other law or judicial decision, as provided in section 11 of the JFK Act, which would otherwise prohibit such transmission or disclosure. It will also be made clear that the JFK Continuation Act will take precedence over any secrecy oath taken by the private citizen that would otherwise prohibit such transmission or disclosure.

The JFK Continuation Act will provide the relevant sub-committee with additional staff, including researchers, investigators and attorneys to continue to search for the relevant, missing and reputedly destroyed records, and liason with Department of Justice to prosecute those responsible for the illegal destruction of historic and evidentiary records related to the assassination.

The JFK Continuation Act will maintain in force and properly funded until the JFK Act is deemed satisfied by the release to the public of the last remaining official government record related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The JFK Continuation Act will ensure that the outsanding evidence collected by other government agencies and commissions will be properly evalauted for its evidentary value, including the acoustical eviddence, ballistics, DNA and other standard testings, and require the Department of Justice to act in accordance with its mandate.

The JFK Continuation Act will ....Other a, b, c...
..To Be Continued.

Edited August 17, 2008 by William Kelly

William Kelly · August 20, 2008

I cleaned it up a bit and added a final report.

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/

I'd like to hear some responses from people who have read it.

Especially if you have something to add.

Thanks,

BK

William Kelly · November 19, 2008

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/
Since the November elections, the Democrats have not only taken over the Executive Branch of government, but now hold a commanding control over Congress, in both the House and the Senate.

Committees and Subcommittee staffs are already putting the agendas together for hearings that will be held in the next session of Congress, and hearings on the proposed MLK Act is set to be held by the Clay subcommittee of the Waxman Committee in mid-March, probably coinciding with Sunshine Week. Hearings on the JFK Act will then be held as part of the MLK Act sessions, and hopefully will continue on their own.

They have also promised hearings on reform of the FOIA and Open Government in general, reversing the trend for more secrecy and overclassificaiton of records.

They are also talking about holding Church Committe style hearings into intelligence failures and the revamping of the FBI, CIA, etc.

But it doesn't appear that they will wait for hearings.

Immediately after the swearing in of the new President on January 20th, as his first official act, Obama says that he will issue a number of new Executive Orders, on issues that have been the subject of speculation.

One issue that they have promised to immediately tackle is to issue a new Ex Order to counter Bush's Ex Order on Presidential Papers.

In the same, expected Jan. 20, 2009 Executive Order that the new president uses to reverse the Ex Order on Presidential Papers, he can also make radical changes to overall classification policy, release the MLK records of the HSCA, and order the release of the remaining JFK Act records that are not scheduled for release for another decade.

One full swoop and the MLK Act and JFK Act hearings won't even be necessary.

A lot can happen between now and January 20th however.

BK

JFK ACT OVERSIGHT HEARINGS - Deep Background - By William Kelly

"The (ARR) Board and its staff….hope that release of these records will shed new evidentiary light on the assassination of President Kennedy, enrich the historical understanding of that tragic moment in American history, and help restore public confidence in the government's handling of the assassination and its aftermath." - September 30, 1998 ARRB Final Report

The last Congressional hearing on the JFK Act was held on June 4, 1997, a one day session to officially ratify a one year extension to the deadline set to dissolve the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) and allow them time to complete their work.

That hearing included a few, carefully selected witnesses, including Review Board member Sarah Nelson, Warren Commission appologist Max Holland and Bruce Hitchcock, an Indiana high school teacher whose students were inspired to work on the declassification of the JFK assassination records. [Note #1 JFK Act Extension Hearing]

Rep. Henry Waxman (D. Calf.), now Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, was one of the Congressmen who co-sponsored the bill (H.R. 1553) with then Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R. Ind.) to extend the JFK Act by one year. One stipulation to the extention required that the Review Board submit monthly reports to Waxman in order to ensure that the law was being carried out. [Note #2 ARRB Reports to Oversight Committee]

While the ARRB did release an astonishing 6 million records releated to the assassination, which they said would take researchers ten years to read, they also withheld many important and specifically requested records, most for reasons of national security. The last officially with held record related to the assassination of President Kennedy is slated to be released in full by 2017, ten years earlier than if there were no special law to accelerate the process.

It has now been over a ten years, a full decade, since the section of the JFK Act related to the work of the ARRB terminated the board's existence. The remaining aspects of the JFK Act remain in force however. The JFK Act will remain a living law until the last record is released and the Archivist of the United States declares that the last JFK assassination record has been released to the public. [Note #3 - JFK Act Remains In Effect]

That declaration may be ten years or so away, but it has already been more than a decade since the JFK Act was enacted, and it is now time to have a full and thorough overview of the law with public Oversight Hearings in Congress.

The Constitution holds Congress responsible for oversight of such matters, specifically the House Reform and Oversight Committee (aka the Waxman Committee), [Note #4 Waxman Profile] and its subcommittee on Census, Information Policy and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), (aka the Clay Subcommitee after Subcommittee chairman, William L. Clay (D. Mo.). [Note #5 Clay Profile]

Rep. Clay's district includes the U.S. Military Records Center in St. Louis, and he is responsible for calling hearings on issues that come under his subcommitte's jurisdiction, a responsiblilty he shares with full Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, and the Chairwomen of the House (Ms. Pulosi, D. Calf.). Together they decide whether to hold hearings, when to hold them, on what issues, and how they are to be conducted. Dan Burton (R. Indiana), the former Committe chair, is now on the National Security Subcommittee. [Note #6 Burton Profile]

When the Republicans held a majority, and called the shots, except for the hearing to extend the Act, no hearings were held and they conducted no oversight of the JFK Act at all. That was suppose to change when the Democratics became the majority party and assumed committee chairs. Of all the House committees, the House Reform and Oversight Committee, under Waxman, has been the most active, with quick and sometimes effectual hearings on hot issues, including voting maching fraud, the Walter Reed Hospital scandle, Guantamano abuses and the Valarie Plame affair.

Holding Oversight hearings on the JFK Act is not something they want to do, and it may take more newsworthy events to make the JFK Act an issue Congress realizes the public is interested in. Even though it is a non-partisan (as opposed to bi-partisan) issue that both parties can embrace, and work together on, they may have to be instigated, or embarrssed to hold the mandated oversight hearings on the JFK Act. Fortunately there is no shortage of ammunition because the JFK Act is a fine example of how the government really works and who controls what power.

All you have to do is review the lists of records they acknowledge were destroyed and no longer exist, and then check out the records that are missing though everyone acknowledges once existed, but they just don't know what happened to them. Then there are the records that are still being officially withheld, legally or otherwise. (See Outsdanding Issue - Records).

After more than ten years of inaction, now is the time for the Clay Subcommittee of the Waxman Committee to conduct public oversight hearings of the JFK Act. Now is the time to properly review the circumstances of the destruction of certain records, what became of the missing records, and why there are still some being wrongfully and possibly illegally withheld.

The goverment administrators responsible for the destruction of records should be identified, subpoened and questioned under oath, and there should be at least an attempt made to locate the missing records or determine what became of them.

The responsible subcommittee should also recommend that Congress approve the ARRB recomendations contained in their final report, and consider a formal extension of the JFK Act to ensure that the NANA and the Committee have enough resources to properly oversee and enforce the law.

When the 9/11 Commission was officially dissolved, they continued to meet together privately, and they organized a non-profit group that continued to promote the recommendations of the Commission, and effetively did so.

The Assassination Records Review Board also made many recommendations before it dissolved, including the formation of a liason group representing the historian and archivists assocations who recommended the members of the Review Board, and that this ad hoc liason group continue to oversee the enforcement of the remaining statutes of the JFK Act. [Note #7 ARRB Recommendations]

No such ad hoc liason group ever met, and no such independent, non-profit organization has continued to actively try to oversee the continued function of the JFK Act, other than the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC), the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA) and the Committee for an Open Archives (COA).

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the National Security Archives (NSA), generally involved in open government legislation, shy away from anything to do with the assassination of President Kennedy and political assassination in general. It has been reported that Charles Sanders, Esq. and Mark Zaid, Esq. have written a letter to the Waxman Committee requesting JFK Act oversight hearings, but a public copy of this letter has not yet been made available.

While full scale investigative hearings are unlikely, they are possible, and getting at least one oversight hearing and consideration for a new extension is certainly doable.

James Lesar, Esq. took the lead when he wrote Waxman that "…. my organization, the Assassination Archives and Research Center ('AARC') requests that you hold Oversight hearings on the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 ('JFK Records Act'), 44 U.S.C. rj 2107. The fact that it is almost 45 years since President Kennedy's assassination increases rather than diminishes the need for urgent action."

"The Justice Department has in recent years reopened a number of seemingly ancient cases, horrific racial slayings of the 1950s and 1960s and in some cases has obtained convictions. It has been conspicuously inactive, however, on the murder of President Kennedy, a crime of enormous importance to the nation. This is so even though much about the case remains in doubt, and though significant evidence has emerged pointing to the possibility that there was a conspiracy."

"The government's failure to address the doubts and confront such evidence has had a lasting, profoundly negative impact on our democracy. It is no coincidence that the steep and continuing decline in trust and respect for American leaders and institutions began after the assassination and the Warren Commission's finding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the President. Questions remain as to whether to cite more common suspicions, not least those expressed by the House Select Committee on Assassinations there was a conspiracy involving organized crime, or a foreign power, or even "the military industrial complex" of which President Dwight Eisenhower warned in his farewell address. Only by being seen to have made every last effort to resolve such suspicions, and by achieving total transparency in terms of public disclosure can we begin to restore confidence in our democratic system and our national institutions."

Lesar notes that, "Congress implicitly acknowledged this when it passed the JFK Records Act. It recognized that the American people have the right to know their own history, and that to know it they must have access to the facts to the fullest possible record. As a direct result of the Act, a huge volume of previously secret documents were rapidly released. Those disclosures, coupled to ongoing research, produced stunning revelations." (See List: Northwoods, Joannidies, ….et al. ).

[To read James Lesar's complete letter to Waxman : http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1245944348321146643&postID=6046845850431762562 ].

Lesar calls upon Congress to enact new legislation "that brings the date for full disclosure of all JFK assassination records forward to 2009……It is essential that Congress use its muscle to ensure that the JFK Records Act again operates as the lawmakers intended and that government agencies, the CIA included, comply with all its requirements. Congress should also ensure that, notwithstanding the passing of the years, fresh evidence is studied and given a thorough hearing."

Lesar concldues that, "To fail to take such action, in a way that is absolutely clear and transparent, would be to invite further erosion of the public trust. A democratic nation lost its elected leader, in circumstances never satisfactorily explained, and requires nothing less of its elected representatives."

Who Are these elected representatives?

Only Committee Chairman can call a hearing, and only does so with the acknowledgement of the Speaker of the House. In this case, the subcommittee chair, Rep. W. L. Clay (D. Mo.) and the full committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D. Calf.) would have to get the okay to hold JFK Act hearings from Rep. Pulosi (D. Calf.), all of whom should be agreeable if it is timed right.

Subcommitee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives

http://informationpolicy.oversight.house.gov/

Information Policy, Census, and National Archives

Jurisdiction includes public information and records laws such as the Freedom of Information Act, the Presidential Records Act, and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Census Bureau, and the National Archives and Records Administration.

Majority

Wm. Lacy Clay, Chairman

Paul E. Kanjorski, Pennsylvania

Carolyn B. Maloney, New York

John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky

Paul W. Hodes, New Hampshire

Minority

Michael Turner, Ranking Member, Ohio

Chris Cannon, Utah

Bill Sali, Idaho

If any of these Congressmen are your representative, as a constituent, they will pay more attention to you than to someone from out of their district and doesn't vote, so you can make a difference by writing them a letter expresing your views and asking them to take an interest in this issue. (See Letters to Waxman).

While we would like to begin a series of public hearings on the JFK Act in particular and open government records in general, hearings that would explore all of the relevant issues and be held routinely and continuously until the JFK Act is complete (circa 2017), i't's highly unlikely that will happen.

It is more than likely that only one hearing will be held over the course of one day, not unlike the hearing held to get the extension of the JFK Act. That was a very successful hearing, briskly taking the testimony of a few key witnesses for the record, and then recommending an extension of the ARRB for an additional year, with Congress giving its unopposed general consent.

If the Clay subcommittee of the Waxman Oversight Committee is going to hold even one hearing on the JFK Act, then it must be presented with not only recommendations, but a request for new legislation, a new law that must be prescribed by those of us who want it, or they will write it themselves, however they want it, or more likely, not at all

Without re-establishing a review a board, this new legislation should be an Extension of the JFK Act, an amendment that could give the original law some enforcement teeth, if not jaws, and try to resolve the outstanding issues outlined by Lesar in his letter, and as elaborated on by others.

[Note #8 Oversight Committee Rules and Procedures for hearings and reports.]

Which brings us back to the original JFK Act extension hearing as an example of what we would like to accomplish, and if we only get one shot, it must be a really good one.

Official Report on the Hearing: http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/hearings/105h/90483.pdf

Joe Backes was there: http://spot.acorn.net/JFKplace/09/fp.back_issues/17th_Issue/arrb_ext.html

While the June, 1997 JFK Act Extension hearing only addressed the need for continuing the Review Board, many other issues related to the legislation have been raised, and the specific issues related to the content of the records have yet to be addressed in a public hearing.

As Dennis Bartholomew, Esq, has points out, "Section 12 thereby indicates that the receipt of assassination related documents by the National Archives and the release of such documents to the public shall continue until all assassination documents are made available to the public."

"However, today, years after the Assassination Records Review Board was terminated, there are still a number of documents that have not yet been released to the public, there is evidence that the CIA has assassination related documents that it has not turned over to the National Archives, and there is reason to believe that other assassination related documents still exist that are unknown to both the National Archives and JFK assassination researchers. It is therefore clear that Congress needs to take some simple steps to ensure that the work mandated by the JFK Assassination Records Act is completed."

As Lesar wrote to Waxman, "I ask that you do now hold hearings to assess the working of the JFK Records Act. Also that your committee address the need to modify and update it, or enact newlegislation, to resolve the sort of problems I have described....It is essential that Congress use its muscle to ensure that the JFK Records Act again operates as the lawmakers intended and that government agencies, the CIA included, comply with all its requirements. Congress should also ensure that, notwithstanding the passing of the years, fresh evidence is studied and given a thorough hearing. To fail to take such action, in a way that is absolutely clear and transparent, would be to invite further erosion of the public trust."

In the course of attempting to get Congress to pass a new extension to the JFK Act, it is necessary to make the new law comprehensive, yet feasible, and one they will consider, consider appropriate and pass by general consent and with no opposition. Therefore it must also be realistic.

The JFK CONTINUATION ACT

We recommend that Congress enact a continuation to the JFK Assassination Records Act (JFK Continuation Act) to do the following:

As recommended by the Board itself, Congress should recognize a liaison board composed of individuals from Assassination Archives and Research Center, Coalition on Political Assassination, Committee for an Open Archives, American Federation of Scientists, National Security Archives, the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists and the American Bar Association to oversee continued implementation of the provisions of the JFK Act.

As recommended by the Board, Congress should provide necessary funding for the National Archives to maintain the JFK Records collection and complete its release of JFK documents to the public, and add interns, researchers and investigators to the Clay Subcommittee so they can do a responsible job, including the use of subpoena powers to obtain documents and witnesses tesimony.

The JFK Continuation Act should give members of the public a private right of action to identify additional assassination related records and to require the entity holding those documents submit them to the National Archives as specified in the JFK Act. Where the public citizen and the entity holding the documents differ on whether the document is assassination related, NARA, under the guidance of the liaison board should make that determination.

The National Archives, under the oversight of the liaison board, will continue to release documents to the public as their postponement dates are reached, and will released all remaining documents, unredacted, in the year 2017, as mandated by the JKF Records Act.

The JFK Continuation Act will specifically provide notice to the public, through some reasonable means to communication, that all persons or entities outside the government who have assassination related documents or related disclosures are encouraged to submit them to the National Archives, as contemplated in Section 5 (a) (4) of the JFK Records Act. It will be made clear that the JFK Act and the JFK Continuation Act take precedence over all other law or judicial decision, as provided in section 11 of the JFK Act, which would otherwise prohibit such transmission or disclosure. It will also be made clear that the JFK Continuation Act will take precedence over any secrecy oath taken by the private citizen that would otherwise prohibit such transmission or disclosure.

The JFK Continuation Act will provide the relevant sub-committee with additional staff, including researchers, investigators and attorneys to continue to search for the relevant, missing and reputedly destroyed records, and liason with Department of Justice to prosecute those responsible for the illegal destruction of historic and evidentiary records related to the assassination.

The JFK Continuation Act will maintain in force and properly funded until the JFK Act is deemed satisfied by the release to the public of the last remaining official government record related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The JFK Continuation Act will ensure that the outsanding evidence collected by other government agencies and commissions will be properly evalauted for its evidentary value, including the acoustical eviddence, ballistics, DNA and other standard testings, and require the Department of Justice to act in accordance with its mandate.

The JFK Continuation Act will ....Other a, b, c...

..To Be Continued.

William Kelly · November 19, 2008

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/
Since the November elections, the Democrats have not only taken over the Executive Branch of government, but now hold a commanding control over Congress, in both the House and the Senate.

Committees and Subcommittee staffs are already putting the agendas together for hearings that will be held in the next session of Congress, and hearings on the proposed MLK Act is set to be held by the Clay subcommittee of the Waxman Committee in mid-March, probably coinciding with Sunshine Week. Hearings on the JFK Act will then be held as part of the MLK Act sessions, and hopefully will continue on their own.

They have also promised hearings on reform of the FOIA and Open Government in general, reversing the trend for more secrecy and overclassificaiton of records.

They are also talking about holding Church Committe style hearings into intelligence failures and the revamping of the FBI, CIA, etc.

But it doesn't appear that they will wait for hearings.

Immediately after the swearing in of the new President on January 20th, as his first official act, Obama says that he will issue a number of new Executive Orders, on issues that have been the subject of speculation.

One issue that they have promised to immediately tackle is to issue a new Ex Order to counter Bush's Ex Order on Presidential Papers.

In the same, expected Jan. 20, 2009 Executive Order that the new president uses to reverse the Ex Order on Presidential Papers, he can also make radical changes to overall classification policy, release the MLK records of the HSCA, and order the release of the remaining JFK Act records that are not scheduled for release for another decade.

One full swoop and the MLK Act and JFK Act hearings won't even be necessary.

A lot can happen between now and January 20th however.

BK

JFK ACT OVERSIGHT HEARINGS - Deep Background - By William Kelly

"The (ARR) Board and its staff….hope that release of these records will shed new evidentiary light on the assassination of President Kennedy, enrich the historical understanding of that tragic moment in American history, and help restore public confidence in the government's handling of the assassination and its aftermath." - September 30, 1998 ARRB Final Report

The last Congressional hearing on the JFK Act was held on June 4, 1997, a one day session to officially ratify a one year extension to the deadline set to dissolve the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) and allow them time to complete their work.

That hearing included a few, carefully selected witnesses, including Review Board member Sarah Nelson, Warren Commission appologist Max Holland and Bruce Hitchcock, an Indiana high school teacher whose students were inspired to work on the declassification of the JFK assassination records. [Note #1 JFK Act Extension Hearing]

Rep. Henry Waxman (D. Calf.), now Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, was one of the Congressmen who co-sponsored the bill (H.R. 1553) with then Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R. Ind.) to extend the JFK Act by one year. One stipulation to the extention required that the Review Board submit monthly reports to Waxman in order to ensure that the law was being carried out. [Note #2 ARRB Reports to Oversight Committee]

While the ARRB did release an astonishing 6 million records releated to the assassination, which they said would take researchers ten years to read, they also withheld many important and specifically requested records, most for reasons of national security. The last officially with held record related to the assassination of President Kennedy is slated to be released in full by 2017, ten years earlier than if there were no special law to accelerate the process.

It has now been over a ten years, a full decade, since the section of the JFK Act related to the work of the ARRB terminated the board's existence. The remaining aspects of the JFK Act remain in force however. The JFK Act will remain a living law until the last record is released and the Archivist of the United States declares that the last JFK assassination record has been released to the public. [Note #3 - JFK Act Remains In Effect]

That declaration may be ten years or so away, but it has already been more than a decade since the JFK Act was enacted, and it is now time to have a full and thorough overview of the law with public Oversight Hearings in Congress.

The Constitution holds Congress responsible for oversight of such matters, specifically the House Reform and Oversight Committee (aka the Waxman Committee), [Note #4 Waxman Profile] and its subcommittee on Census, Information Policy and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), (aka the Clay Subcommitee after Subcommittee chairman, William L. Clay (D. Mo.). [Note #5 Clay Profile]

Rep. Clay's district includes the U.S. Military Records Center in St. Louis, and he is responsible for calling hearings on issues that come under his subcommitte's jurisdiction, a responsiblilty he shares with full Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, and the Chairwomen of the House (Ms. Pulosi, D. Calf.). Together they decide whether to hold hearings, when to hold them, on what issues, and how they are to be conducted. Dan Burton (R. Indiana), the former Committe chair, is now on the National Security Subcommittee. [Note #6 Burton Profile]

When the Republicans held a majority, and called the shots, except for the hearing to extend the Act, no hearings were held and they conducted no oversight of the JFK Act at all. That was suppose to change when the Democratics became the majority party and assumed committee chairs. Of all the House committees, the House Reform and Oversight Committee, under Waxman, has been the most active, with quick and sometimes effectual hearings on hot issues, including voting maching fraud, the Walter Reed Hospital scandle, Guantamano abuses and the Valarie Plame affair.

Holding Oversight hearings on the JFK Act is not something they want to do, and it may take more newsworthy events to make the JFK Act an issue Congress realizes the public is interested in. Even though it is a non-partisan (as opposed to bi-partisan) issue that both parties can embrace, and work together on, they may have to be instigated, or embarrssed to hold the mandated oversight hearings on the JFK Act. Fortunately there is no shortage of ammunition because the JFK Act is a fine example of how the government really works and who controls what power.

All you have to do is review the lists of records they acknowledge were destroyed and no longer exist, and then check out the records that are missing though everyone acknowledges once existed, but they just don't know what happened to them. Then there are the records that are still being officially withheld, legally or otherwise. (See Outsdanding Issue - Records).

After more than ten years of inaction, now is the time for the Clay Subcommittee of the Waxman Committee to conduct public oversight hearings of the JFK Act. Now is the time to properly review the circumstances of the destruction of certain records, what became of the missing records, and why there are still some being wrongfully and possibly illegally withheld.

The goverment administrators responsible for the destruction of records should be identified, subpoened and questioned under oath, and there should be at least an attempt made to locate the missing records or determine what became of them.

The responsible subcommittee should also recommend that Congress approve the ARRB recomendations contained in their final report, and consider a formal extension of the JFK Act to ensure that the NANA and the Committee have enough resources to properly oversee and enforce the law.

When the 9/11 Commission was officially dissolved, they continued to meet together privately, and they organized a non-profit group that continued to promote the recommendations of the Commission, and effetively did so.

The Assassination Records Review Board also made many recommendations before it dissolved, including the formation of a liason group representing the historian and archivists assocations who recommended the members of the Review Board, and that this ad hoc liason group continue to oversee the enforcement of the remaining statutes of the JFK Act. [Note #7 ARRB Recommendations]

No such ad hoc liason group ever met, and no such independent, non-profit organization has continued to actively try to oversee the continued function of the JFK Act, other than the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC), the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA) and the Committee for an Open Archives (COA).

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the National Security Archives (NSA), generally involved in open government legislation, shy away from anything to do with the assassination of President Kennedy and political assassination in general. It has been reported that Charles Sanders, Esq. and Mark Zaid, Esq. have written a letter to the Waxman Committee requesting JFK Act oversight hearings, but a public copy of this letter has not yet been made available.

While full scale investigative hearings are unlikely, they are possible, and getting at least one oversight hearing and consideration for a new extension is certainly doable.

James Lesar, Esq. took the lead when he wrote Waxman that "…. my organization, the Assassination Archives and Research Center ('AARC') requests that you hold Oversight hearings on the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 ('JFK Records Act'), 44 U.S.C. rj 2107. The fact that it is almost 45 years since President Kennedy's assassination increases rather than diminishes the need for urgent action."

"The Justice Department has in recent years reopened a number of seemingly ancient cases, horrific racial slayings of the 1950s and 1960s and in some cases has obtained convictions. It has been conspicuously inactive, however, on the murder of President Kennedy, a crime of enormous importance to the nation. This is so even though much about the case remains in doubt, and though significant evidence has emerged pointing to the possibility that there was a conspiracy."

"The government's failure to address the doubts and confront such evidence has had a lasting, profoundly negative impact on our democracy. It is no coincidence that the steep and continuing decline in trust and respect for American leaders and institutions began after the assassination and the Warren Commission's finding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the President. Questions remain as to whether to cite more common suspicions, not least those expressed by the House Select Committee on Assassinations there was a conspiracy involving organized crime, or a foreign power, or even "the military industrial complex" of which President Dwight Eisenhower warned in his farewell address. Only by being seen to have made every last effort to resolve such suspicions, and by achieving total transparency in terms of public disclosure can we begin to restore confidence in our democratic system and our national institutions."

Lesar notes that, "Congress implicitly acknowledged this when it passed the JFK Records Act. It recognized that the American people have the right to know their own history, and that to know it they must have access to the facts to the fullest possible record. As a direct result of the Act, a huge volume of previously secret documents were rapidly released. Those disclosures, coupled to ongoing research, produced stunning revelations." (See List: Northwoods, Joannidies, ….et al. ).

[To read James Lesar's complete letter to Waxman : http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1245944348321146643&postID=6046845850431762562 ].

Lesar calls upon Congress to enact new legislation "that brings the date for full disclosure of all JFK assassination records forward to 2009……It is essential that Congress use its muscle to ensure that the JFK Records Act again operates as the lawmakers intended and that government agencies, the CIA included, comply with all its requirements. Congress should also ensure that, notwithstanding the passing of the years, fresh evidence is studied and given a thorough hearing."

Lesar concldues that, "To fail to take such action, in a way that is absolutely clear and transparent, would be to invite further erosion of the public trust. A democratic nation lost its elected leader, in circumstances never satisfactorily explained, and requires nothing less of its elected representatives."

Who Are these elected representatives?

Only Committee Chairman can call a hearing, and only does so with the acknowledgement of the Speaker of the House. In this case, the subcommittee chair, Rep. W. L. Clay (D. Mo.) and the full committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D. Calf.) would have to get the okay to hold JFK Act hearings from Rep. Pulosi (D. Calf.), all of whom should be agreeable if it is timed right.

Subcommitee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives

http://informationpolicy.oversight.house.gov/

Information Policy, Census, and National Archives

Jurisdiction includes public information and records laws such as the Freedom of Information Act, the Presidential Records Act, and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Census Bureau, and the National Archives and Records Administration.

Majority

Wm. Lacy Clay, Chairman

Paul E. Kanjorski, Pennsylvania

Carolyn B. Maloney, New York

John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky

Paul W. Hodes, New Hampshire

Minority

Michael Turner, Ranking Member, Ohio

Chris Cannon, Utah

Bill Sali, Idaho

If any of these Congressmen are your representative, as a constituent, they will pay more attention to you than to someone from out of their district and doesn't vote, so you can make a difference by writing them a letter expresing your views and asking them to take an interest in this issue. (See Letters to Waxman).

While we would like to begin a series of public hearings on the JFK Act in particular and open government records in general, hearings that would explore all of the relevant issues and be held routinely and continuously until the JFK Act is complete (circa 2017), i't's highly unlikely that will happen.

It is more than likely that only one hearing will be held over the course of one day, not unlike the hearing held to get the extension of the JFK Act. That was a very successful hearing, briskly taking the testimony of a few key witnesses for the record, and then recommending an extension of the ARRB for an additional year, with Congress giving its unopposed general consent.

If the Clay subcommittee of the Waxman Oversight Committee is going to hold even one hearing on the JFK Act, then it must be presented with not only recommendations, but a request for new legislation, a new law that must be prescribed by those of us who want it, or they will write it themselves, however they want it, or more likely, not at all

Without re-establishing a review a board, this new legislation should be an Extension of the JFK Act, an amendment that could give the original law some enforcement teeth, if not jaws, and try to resolve the outstanding issues outlined by Lesar in his letter, and as elaborated on by others.

[Note #8 Oversight Committee Rules and Procedures for hearings and reports.]

Which brings us back to the original JFK Act extension hearing as an example of what we would like to accomplish, and if we only get one shot, it must be a really good one.

Official Report on the Hearing: http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/hearings/105h/90483.pdf

Joe Backes was there: http://spot.acorn.net/JFKplace/09/fp.back_issues/17th_Issue/arrb_ext.html

While the June, 1997 JFK Act Extension hearing only addressed the need for continuing the Review Board, many other issues related to the legislation have been raised, and the specific issues related to the content of the records have yet to be addressed in a public hearing.

As Dennis Bartholomew, Esq, has points out, "Section 12 thereby indicates that the receipt of assassination related documents by the National Archives and the release of such documents to the public shall continue until all assassination documents are made available to the public."

"However, today, years after the Assassination Records Review Board was terminated, there are still a number of documents that have not yet been released to the public, there is evidence that the CIA has assassination related documents that it has not turned over to the National Archives, and there is reason to believe that other assassination related documents still exist that are unknown to both the National Archives and JFK assassination researchers. It is therefore clear that Congress needs to take some simple steps to ensure that the work mandated by the JFK Assassination Records Act is completed."

As Lesar wrote to Waxman, "I ask that you do now hold hearings to assess the working of the JFK Records Act. Also that your committee address the need to modify and update it, or enact newlegislation, to resolve the sort of problems I have described....It is essential that Congress use its muscle to ensure that the JFK Records Act again operates as the lawmakers intended and that government agencies, the CIA included, comply with all its requirements. Congress should also ensure that, notwithstanding the passing of the years, fresh evidence is studied and given a thorough hearing. To fail to take such action, in a way that is absolutely clear and transparent, would be to invite further erosion of the public trust."

In the course of attempting to get Congress to pass a new extension to the JFK Act, it is necessary to make the new law comprehensive, yet feasible, and one they will consider, consider appropriate and pass by general consent and with no opposition. Therefore it must also be realistic.

The JFK CONTINUATION ACT

We recommend that Congress enact a continuation to the JFK Assassination Records Act (JFK Continuation Act) to do the following:

As recommended by the Board itself, Congress should recognize a liaison board composed of individuals from Assassination Archives and Research Center, Coalition on Political Assassination, Committee for an Open Archives, American Federation of Scientists, National Security Archives, the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists and the American Bar Association to oversee continued implementation of the provisions of the JFK Act.

As recommended by the Board, Congress should provide necessary funding for the National Archives to maintain the JFK Records collection and complete its release of JFK documents to the public, and add interns, researchers and investigators to the Clay Subcommittee so they can do a responsible job, including the use of subpoena powers to obtain documents and witnesses tesimony.

The JFK Continuation Act should give members of the public a private right of action to identify additional assassination related records and to require the entity holding those documents submit them to the National Archives as specified in the JFK Act. Where the public citizen and the entity holding the documents differ on whether the document is assassination related, NARA, under the guidance of the liaison board should make that determination.

The National Archives, under the oversight of the liaison board, will continue to release documents to the public as their postponement dates are reached, and will released all remaining documents, unredacted, in the year 2017, as mandated by the JKF Records Act.

The JFK Continuation Act will specifically provide notice to the public, through some reasonable means to communication, that all persons or entities outside the government who have assassination related documents or related disclosures are encouraged to submit them to the National Archives, as contemplated in Section 5 (a) (4) of the JFK Records Act. It will be made clear that the JFK Act and the JFK Continuation Act take precedence over all other law or judicial decision, as provided in section 11 of the JFK Act, which would otherwise prohibit such transmission or disclosure. It will also be made clear that the JFK Continuation Act will take precedence over any secrecy oath taken by the private citizen that would otherwise prohibit such transmission or disclosure.

The JFK Continuation Act will provide the relevant sub-committee with additional staff, including researchers, investigators and attorneys to continue to search for the relevant, missing and reputedly destroyed records, and liason with Department of Justice to prosecute those responsible for the illegal destruction of historic and evidentiary records related to the assassination.

The JFK Continuation Act will maintain in force and properly funded until the JFK Act is deemed satisfied by the release to the public of the last remaining official government record related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The JFK Continuation Act will ensure that the outsanding evidence collected by other government agencies and commissions will be properly evalauted for its evidentary value, including the acoustical eviddence, ballistics, DNA and other standard testings, and require the Department of Justice to act in accordance with its mandate.

The JFK Continuation Act will ....Other a, b, c...

..To Be Continued.

William Kelly · November 20, 2008

New Report on recomendations and proposals for Open Government and Declassification Issues.

http://www.ombwatch.org/21strtkrecs.pdf

Edited November 20, 2008 by William Kelly

William Kelly · January 14, 2009

New Report on recomendations and proposals for Open Government and Declassification Issues.
http://www.ombwatch.org/21strtkrecs.pdf

Those who thought that a new Democratic controlled Congress and a new administration in the White House will redirect Congress and the Courts towards such important issues as the release of JFK and MLK assassination records and a Federal Grand Jury into the assassination and the destruction of records will be disapointed.

A Federal Grand Jury has been conviened, to consider the prosection of a baseball player for perjury in his testimony of the use of steroids, and the new chairman of the House Reform and Oversight Committee, responsible for FOIA and JFK Act enforcement has made his priorities clear.

With Henry Waxman moving on to chair another committee, the House Oversight and Reform committee will now be chaired by Rep. Edolphus Towns (D.NY), who has said that he intends to hold hearings on the most important issue in the world today - a national playoff for NCAA college football.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/foo...-hearings_N.htm

So much for the new government reforms.

BK

Christopher Hall · January 14, 2009

New Report on recomendations and proposals for Open Government and Declassification Issues.
http://www.ombwatch.org/21strtkrecs.pdf

Those who thought that a new Democratic controlled Congress and a new administration in the White House will redirect Congress and the Courts towards such important issues as the release of JFK and MLK assassination records and a Federal Grand Jury into the assassination and the destruction of records will be disapointed.

A Federal Grand Jury has been conviened, to consider the prosection of a baseball player for perjury in his testimony of the use of steroids, and the new chairman of the House Reform and Oversight Committee, responsible for FOIA and JFK Act enforcement has made his priorities clear.

With Henry Waxman moving on to chair another committee, the House Oversight and Reform committee will now be chaired by Rep. Edolphus Towns (D.NY), who has said that he intends to hold hearings on the most important issue in the world today - a national playoff for NCAA college football.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/foo...-hearings_N.htm

So much for the new government reforms.

BK

Well, I can certainly say that MY expectations have been met.

John Dolva · January 15, 2009

New Report on recomendations and proposals for Open Government and Declassification Issues.
http://www.ombwatch.org/21strtkrecs.pdf

Those who thought that a new Democratic controlled Congress and a new administration in the White House will redirect Congress and the Courts towards such important issues as the release of JFK and MLK assassination records and a Federal Grand Jury into the assassination and the destruction of records will be disapointed.

A Federal Grand Jury has been conviened, to consider the prosection of a baseball player for perjury in his testimony of the use of steroids, and the new chairman of the House Reform and Oversight Committee, responsible for FOIA and JFK Act enforcement has made his priorities clear.

With Henry Waxman moving on to chair another committee, the House Oversight and Reform committee will now be chaired by Rep. Edolphus Towns (D.NY), who has said that he intends to hold hearings on the most important issue in the world today - a national playoff for NCAA college football.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/foo...-hearings_N.htm

So much for the new government reforms.

BK

Well, I can certainly say that MY expectations have been met.

Johnson told a gathering of Black leaders that "the time of waiting is over" pre 1960 election.("wait" was the usual response to demands since Lincoln).

JFK, (who'd gone to the help of MLK pre election), in mid 63 reiterated this. (in a couple of hours Medgar Evers was dead (called /first modern political assassination) and RFK flew to his brothers side and they became firm friends until RFK was murdered. JFK had been steadily working towards a civil rights bill ( which was in many ways scuttled by Johnson post assassination, under pressure from such as the MSC funded through JP Morgan by Draper and others.) when he was assassinated.

Surely a snippet from a rag, (that probably has an agenda as the media often does), as being the whole truth and nothing but the truth is somewhat presumptive.

Edited January 15, 2009 by John Dolva

William Kelly · January 20, 2009

Court Rules that Vice President's records not part of Executive branch but as part of the Senate and thus Congressional records that are not subject to FOIA or Presidential Records Act and he can trash them if he wants to.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/19...retion-records/

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge ruled Monday that Vice President Dick Cheney has broad discretion in determining what records created during his eight-year tenure must be preserved.

Absent any evidence that Cheney's office is failing to safeguard records, it is up to the vice president to determine how he deals with material, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled.

"Congress drastically limited the scope of outside inquiries related to the vice president's handling of his own records during his term in office," the judge said in a 63-page opinion.

The Presidential Records Act "provides only narrow areas of oversight," the ruling added.

At issue is whether Cheney had impermissibly limited the scope of the Presidential Records Act, a law aimed at protecting White House records.

Cheney has taken the legal position that his office is not part of the executive branch of government, triggering a lawsuit by several groups including three organizations of historians and archivists concerned that the record of Cheney's time in office might not be adequately safeguarded.

Last summer, Cheney chief of staff David Addington told Congress the vice president belongs to neither the executive nor legislative branch of government, but rather is attached by the Constitution to Congress. The vice president presides over the Senate.

The lawsuit alleges that the Bush administration's actions over the past eight years call into question whether the White House will turn over to the National Archives a complete record of the activities of Cheney and his staff.

The ruling means that there is little room for the courts or the U.S. archivist to ensure that records are being protected.

"This is a huge loophole in the Presidential Records Act and Congress needs to address it immediately," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that was one of the plaintiffs in the case.

CREW tried but failed to get permission from the judge to question Addington about Cheney's record-keeping practices.

New US Congress

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