[104-10332-10023.pdf — page 75]
1. Barbara Blufer, declare and state based on my personal knowledge and the Information made available to me in my official capacity that:1. I am the Information Review Officer for (IRO) for the Directorate of Intelligence (DI) of the Central Intelligence Agency (Agency). I was appointed to this position on 6 October 1997 and have held various administrative and professional positions within the Agency since (1980). I em responsible for the review of records maintained by offices in the DI that may contain JFK Assassination records and may be responsive to Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) requests.2. Since assuming my present position, I have had limited contact with the ARRB. With respect to matters prior to 6 October 1997, this statement has been prepared with Inputs from my predecessor, Richard J. Flynn, who occupled my current position during the Di's principal contact with the Board.3. Mr. Flynn has reported that, to ensure that the ARRB staff understood the DI records system and search capabilities, the DMRO and the DI Information Management Officer, Ms. Diana Hastings, briefed the staff on 13 May 1997. Other DI participants at the meeting were Joyce Jump, Marie Menefee, and Ilse Harlman. These officers were at that time assigned to the DI Office of Information Resources. Ms. Hastings focused on the current Di records keeping system, and, as best we could, the system that existed in the 1980s. Di participants stressed that the Di'records keeping system has evolved over time and that the DI Is continuously striving to achieve greater consistency in our procedures. DI participants candidly informed the 'ARRB staff that none of them at the meeting had first hand knowledge of DI records keeping in the 1980s, and b) the system in place at that time was entirely paper-based and therefore could not ba considered as accurate as the present system. Members of the ARRB sald they understood this limitation4. Mr. Flynn further reported that based on his recollection, Mr. Flynn is aware of a Ilmited number of records searches the DI conducted in direct response to ARRB requests On 11 June 1997, Di personnel met with members of the ARRB. Mr. Flynn had arranged this? meeting earlier to give ARRB staffers, Michelle Combs and Bob Skwrlot, an even more det detalled briefing of Di's document search capabilities. The topics they asked the DI to search are noted in an attached memorandum to Barry Harrelson dated 17 June 1997.. The result of further searches (CIA-9) are summarized a 19 June 1997 memorandum a member of the DI/IRO's staff prepared for. Mr. Barry Harrelson, CIA's point of contact on the JFK assassination lasue. This memorandum is also attached.5. On 21 August, Mr. Harrelson contacted me for a further search of Di records, asking specifically that the Di follow up on a previously search by extending the timeframe covered in that original search. According to Mr. Harrelson, the ARRB requested a search for all documents conceming Mexico, Cuba, or the USSR for the period from 20 November 1983 to 6 Decembar 1963. On the basis of this request, a search was conducted 32 documents not belonging to the Di were located. The materials were tumed over to Mr. Harrelson.6. All employees of the Directorate of Intelligence have been furnished with a copy of DCI Tenet's 22 July 1998 directive to all employees requiring them to search records in their possession for Information related to the JFK assassination that might not have been found in the course of the searches conducted over the past 6 years.7. I declare under penalty of perjury that foregoing is true and correct.