Francesco/who-killed-jfk huggingface dataset:
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# Declaration of EDMUND COHEN4. The Central Intelligence Agency: (a) has made diligent records searches to locate and disclose to the JFK Assassination Records Review Board (the Board) all records in its possession relating to Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of President Kennedy; and (b) is aware of no other assassination-related records in its possession being withheld from the Board.5. With respect to the overall issues of search and review, and as explained in the attachments or otherwise included by reference, the CIA's Directorates of Intelligence (DI), Operations (DO), Science and Technology (DS&T), and Administration (DA) and the DCI Area Information Review Officer have certified to me that their respective offices or directorates have properly and fully responded to requests from the Board. In addition to these certifications, I have had briefings on the principal searches conducted and have had all of my questions answered to my satisfaction. Accordingly, I believe that the Central Intelligence Agency has worked diligently with the Board to locate and declassify, consistent with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, as amended, reprinted at 44 U.S.C. 2107 note, and other statutes, assassination-related records in its possession, in order to make such records available to the public.6. There are six attachments, numbered I through VI, to this declaration, which I incorporate herein by reference. Attachment I addresses the universe and scope of documents that have been the subject of CIA's review. Attachment II describes the methodology and types of the searches conducted. Attachment III describes, in general, the records declassified and released. Separate detailed indices will be provided when documents are released to the National Archives and Records Administration. Attachment IV addresses questions raised by the Board regarding perceived gaps in CIA's records, including possible loss or destruction of records. Attachment V discusses specific requests from the Board and incorporates specific CIA responses by reference. Attachment VI addresses commitments which this Agency makes with regard to provision to the National Archives and Records Administration of assassination-related documents, including any documents which may be newly discovered or created subsequent to the tenure of the Board.
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Declaration of EDMUND COHEN7. Based upon the foregoing and Attachments I through VI, I believe that the CIA is in full compliance with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.I DECLARE UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY THAT THE FOREGOING, INCLUDING ATTACHMENTS I THROUGH VI, ARE TRUE AND CORRECT.Executed this 2 day of September 1998.![Signature of Edmund Cohen]Edmund Cohen
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# Attachment I
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# Attachment I## Universe and Scope of CIA Documents## Addressed Related to the JFK Assassination**Summary.** This Attachment discusses CIA material examined in order to fulfill the requirements of the JFK Assassinations Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Act). It addresses the types of CIA documents found in the records of earlier investigations, including that of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and materials and files recovered in response to searches conducted in 1992 and thereafter. It discusses the process by which documents became "assassination-related records."**Discussion.** The Central Intelligence Agency has provided large numbers of documents and materials over the years in support of successive reviews and investigations related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. We estimate that the equivalent of roughly 320,000 pages comprise the "CIA collection" of documents associated with prior assassination reviews, including duplicates. In addition, we estimate that in responses to the JFK Act, CIA has reviewed over 100,000 pages of documents from the National Archives, the Ford, Johnson, and Kennedy Presidential Libraries and miscellaneous papers from the National Security Council, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), the Rockefeller Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States, and the Senate Select (Church) Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities.The documentation exists in many forms, from original contemporaneous material, such as field reporting from overseas or analytic reports, to material generated specifically as an Agency response to investigation questions. The largest "CIA collection," as such, is associated with the records of the House Select Committee on
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# Assassinations (HSCA).[^1]The HSCA brought together in one place in 1978 the principal documents retrieved over the course of years from earlier investigations, including the Warren Commission, the Rockefeller Commission, and the Church Committee.The Warren Commission in 1963 and 1964 was the first major review of the JFK Assassination. Existing records suggest that CIA provided roughly 4,000 pages of documentation to the Warren Commission review, plus testimony by Richard Helms and John McCone. The Warren Commission pursued matters related primarily to events and actions directly associated with the assassination event, including materials from CIA's Mexico City Station, which were considered relevant because of a visit to Mexico City by Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the assassination.The Rockefeller Commission in 1975 and Church Committee investigation in 1975 and 1976 were focused on allegations of wrongdoing by the CIA. Nonetheless, as a part of these investigations they yielded information which, to many, appeared to relate in some way to the assassination, such as an operational capability or willingness to consider assassination as an intelligence method.From 1976 through 1979 the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) pursued additional leads, generating still further documentation. The HSCA ultimately brought together within its broad scope of investigation many of the documents from the Warren Commission, the Rockefeller Commission and the Church Committee. This collection ultimately became the "HSCA sequestered collection," which altogether contains an equivalent of over 300,000 pages, in paper, photographs, tapes, and microfilm media, including duplicates. Because the myriad conspiracy theories included possible Soviet, Cuban, Mafia or right-wing American involvement, the scope of the HSCA investigation included anything or anyone that might appear to support those theories, including historical institutional behavior patterns. Further, although this sequestered collection was considered to be CIA's, it contains documents from other agencies, primarily the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and over 30,000 pages of HSCA originated material.[^1]: The HSCA sequestered collection reflects the major corpus of CIA material or information reviewed by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (or to which they had access) during the 1976-1979 time frame. The pulling together of this collection was coordinated by the Committee and they defined what it was to include. This Collection has been physically held by CIA since 1979, although CIA was not authorized access until 1992, when permission was given by Congress to review the material in preparation for responding to the JFK Act.
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The HSCA sequestered collection is contained in 64boxes of multimedia material, including paper, photographs,and microfilm which have been loosely organized into majorcategories of information. Boxes 1 through 34 are mostlymaterial collected by the CIA's Directorate of Operations,the FBI, and other Government agencies, including fieldreporting and handwritten notes. They also includenewspaper articles, name traces performed in response torequests by the HSCA staff, and copies of other documentssuch as the CIA Inspector General's 1967 report on CIA plotsagainst Castro and Richard Helms' executive sessiontestimony before the HSCA.Boxes 35 through 63 of this collection are largelyrecords of CIA's Legislative Counsel, Inspector General,General Counsel, Office of Security, and Directorate ofScience and Technology, as well as internal records of theHSCA staff. They consist of reports, memoranda,transcripts, cables, letters, newspaper clippings,photographs, and charts. Box 64 contains 72 reels ofmicrofilm-the equivalent of roughly 72 more boxes of paperdocuments. This material includes the file which theDirectorate of Operations maintained on Lee Harvey Oswald(the 201 file) as well as similar files on additionalindividuals. Many of the microfilm documents duplicateother documents in the other boxes.While not a part of the sequestered collection, aseparate "Oswald 201 File" has served as a CIA repositoryfor JFK assassination-related material over the years and toa large extent material in this file is duplicative ofmaterial in the sequestered collection. Only a fewdocuments were in the file at the time of the assassination.The bulk of the approximately 26,000 pages currently in thisfile consists of documents collected immediately after theassassination and during the Warren Commissioninvestigation. Included are a large number of third agencydocuments, primarily from the FBI. Other major additions tothe Oswald 201 file include relevant Mexico City Stationfiles and material generated by various FOIA requests andinvestigations, such as that of New Orleans DistrictAttorney, James Garrison.Assassination-related materials beyond the sequesteredcollection and the Oswald 201 file which have been locatedsince 1992 generally fall into three categories. First,there are new documents which have been generated since1978, such as defector reports that mention rumors orperceptions of conspiracies or newspaper or other open3
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source materials related to an individual associated withthe assassination. Second, in a number of cases targetedareas of inquiry or more precise definitions of areas ofinterest by the JFK Board have yielded more information andadded documents to the collection. And third, improvedsearch techniques have provided better access to those fileswhich are searchable electronically. Nonetheless, thematerial located since 1992 is quite small when compared tothe material in the sequestered collection and the overallset of material from CIA which has been designated as"assassination records" by the JFK Board.In accordance with the law, the Board has the authorityto designate records which it considers relevant to theassassination as "Assassination Records." These documentsare then subject to review for declassification or, asdeemed appropriate by the Board, held for declassificationin the year 2017. The Board has designated the entiresequestered collection as Assassination Records as well asselected material generated in the course of searchessubsequent to 1992. The entire set of these documents isthe equivalent of roughly 320,000 pages, includingduplicates.
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# Attachment II
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# ATTACHΜΕΝΤ ΙΙ.## Search Methodology and Types of Searches ConductedSummary. This Attachment discusses the methodologies used in conducting the searches, including what we know of the searches which were conducted on behalf of the earlier assassination investigations. It includes, in referenced tabs, documentation of selected taskings. It discusses the distributed nature of CIA's paper recordkeeping systems and electronic databases and the custom keyword searches that are used with electronic databases which CIA maintains.Discussion. The collection of CIA materials contained in the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) "sequestered collection" has existed as a discrete body of records since 1978. This material resulted from highly labor intensive and systematic searches by individuals familiar with the Agency's paper files and records systems in use in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, the sequestered collection comprises the great bulk of CIA-originated documents which can be associated with the JFK Assassination and related investigations.For most of its history, the Agency has had a system of records which has been shaped by the divergent requirements of the directorates in accordance with the wide variance of focus in their missions. These basic differences in the missions of the directorates, as well as the compartmental-ization-of-information procedures (the "need-to-know" concept), have resulted in each directorate keeping its own set of records in accordance with directorate-specific guidelines. This applies equally to paper records as well as to electronic databases.Since the late 1970s, the Agency has been in the process of converting to electronic databases, which allow for electronic searches for documents using keyword and[^2][^2]: Even within a single database, information may--in accordance with information compartmentalization requirements based on the need-to-know principle--be stored in separate files by several offices or divisions, each with its distinct recordkeeping criteria and access requirements. In order for a search to be thorough, a search for one term or a combination of terms must be conducted across all such files.
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other indexing tools which provide much more expedited and efficient searches. Because the most significant portion of JFK assassination-related material was generated prior to this conversion to electronic databases, searches of the sequestered collection or other contemporaneous CIA records have had to rely primarily upon labor intensive hand searches.Since 1992 and the passage of the JFK Act, CIA has, in responding to the requests of the Board, had to devise search methodologies and techniques to address both the hard copy and electronic versions of our databases. With respect to the hard copy material, Agency efforts have concentrated on those component records most likely to yield assassination-related documents. Short of a complete manual review of all documents in the Agency, the techniques used for searching hard copy materials include expert reviews of file series and folder names, including associations with known related topics, retrieving boxes of files from the Agency's Archives and Records Center, and manually reviewing those files identified as likely to contain the sought after materials.Electronic files searches can actually be more complex than manual searches, in major part because of the number of different electronic systems in use. The Directorate of Operations' electronic databases, for instance, include most cables since 1978 and they can be searched using single or multiple search terms against the full text of these cables. The Directorate of Intelligence's automated systems include original source material used for analytic assessments as well as the products themselves and can be searched through a variety of electronic techniques. The DCI Area (considered, for this purpose a directorate) maintains the Executive Registry files which are not normally retrievable through full text search, but by index searches. The Directorate of Administration maintains a large and diverse system of databases and files on employees and contractors that includes data on security issues, medical records, training, etc. The Directorate of Science and Technology and its subordinate components maintain other electronic databases unique to individual missions. Each of these systems requires a unique set of access criteria and search commands and must be searched by information management experts of the respective directorates.Where possible, automated systems were searched using key words such as JFK, Kennedy, assassination, executive action, Oswald, place names, and a large number of names, crypts, or pseudonyms identifying individuals known to have2
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been associated with countries, key installations, organizations, or operations that fell within the period deemed relevant to the history of the assassination.The following categories are examples of the guidelines for relevancy with which both manual and computerized searches were conducted. They include, but are not limited to, individuals, organizations, places, projects, and subjects which are considered central to the Oswald/JFK assassination history and the ensuing investigations.A. JFK Assassination Investigations:*   Warren Commission, 1963-64*   James Garrison, New Orleans District Attorney, 1966-68*   Rockefeller Commission, 1975 (JFK assassination & CIA anti-Cuban plots aspects only)*   Church Committee (Senate), 1975-76 (JFK assassination & CIA anti-Cuban plots aspects only)*   House Select Committee On Assassinations (HSCA), 1976-79B. Key Subjects:*   Moscow Station, Mexico City Station, and JMWAVE Station, as they related to Oswald's activities or to possible conspiracies.*   KGB interest in Oswald.*   CIA anti-Cuban operations 1960-64 if they involve JFK figures or subjects; most US anti-Castro activities in 1963 are considered relevant.*   Cuban exile anti-Castro activities, leaders, and organizations, 1960-64, if they involve JFK figures or subjects.*   Castro assassination activities (plans and attempts) without limit on time frame.*   Mafia, if related to Castro, JFK, or New Orleans during Oswald time frames.C. Key Figures: Material with the following terms was considered JFK assassination-relevant unless the context is clearly not related or the information is outside the appropriate time period:*   AMLASH*   AMMUG*   Maurice Bishop (any reference)*   Silvia Duran3
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* Richard Gibson and the Free Cuba Committee* Howard Hunt* Priscilla MacMillan Johnson* Valeriy Kostikov* Mr. & Mrs. George de Mohrenschildt* Yuri Nosenko* Michael & Ruth Paine* David A. Phillips* Richard Snyder* Win ScottPrior to enactment of the JFK Act, in early 1992, the Chief of the CIA History Staff, through various manual searches of shelf lists, located the "sequestered collection" of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (sixty-four record center size boxes). After obtaining the permission of the Congress, his staff surveyed these and other related holdings on the assassination. In addition, the History Staff located sixteen boxes of Lee Harvey Oswald's 201 file and a number of loose folders, mainly from Mexico City Station records that had been collected for the Warren Commission.In October 1993, following enactment of the JFK Act but prior to the President's appointment of the Board, CIA'S Historical Review Group (HRG) requested the directorates to conduct a name search on Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK assassination, and any related documents (Tab 1). This request resulted in a series of meetings and discussions with various Agency components and Information Release Officers. More than thirty-one additional boxes of materials were sent to HRG for review. Included in this material were nineteen boxes of JFK working files of Mr. Russ Holmes, a CIA employee who for many years was the Agency's focal point officer with responsibility for responding to questions related to our assassinated-related records. Also included were two boxes on Nosenko, seven boxes of Latin America Division documents, and three boxes from the Bay of Pigs project. Out of these thirty-one additional boxes provided to the Board staff, approximately twenty-two boxes of material were designated by the Board as assassination records. The preponderant volume of these records is duplicative of documents in the sequestered collection.In April 1995, after the Agency received the Board's first formal request, and in anticipation of "what are
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likely to be many requests from the Board for information..." the Agency Executive Director asked each directorate and the DCI Administrative Officer to appoint a focal point officer for the JFK Assassination review. (Tab 2)In the spring and summer of 1997, the Agency arranged for the Board staff to receive a series of briefings by representatives of each directorate on the files kept within the records systems of each directorate. These briefings covered aspects of the records systems, such as how the records are organized, maintained, searched and retrieved, as well as how they had been previously searched for assassination-related materials.The Board staff requested a number of additional searches, which have now been completed. These requests were both formal and informal and resulted in responses to the Board staff which included a wide range of additional material, some of which was judged relevant to the history of the assassination. This material includes the histories of various CIA operations and Agency components, files on specific individuals involved in either the Warren Commission or in HSCA investigations, and the results of CIA internal reviews of programs and operations. Although many requests from the Board and responses from the Agency were handled informally, the significant initial requests are listed in the table in Attachment V.Prompted in part by the surfacing of a small number of new relevant documents, the Board staff requested CIA in the summer of 1998 to: (a) perform an additional set of searches on certain specific topics; and (b) issue an Agency-wide notice reminding CIA employees of the requirements of the JFK Act.Specially tailored tasking was sent to the three Directorate of Operations components deemed most likely to possess records relevant to the JFK assassination of the kind of concern to the Board (See Tab 3). Among other considerations, this special tasking included a list of new or revised search terms, a request for clarification on the disposition of the James Angleton files, and the requirement to focus on potential new information from the debriefing of defectors in which any reference to Oswald or to the Kennedy assassination occurs.DCI Tenet issued an Agency-wide Employees Bulletin on 22 July 1998 directing all CIA personnel to "consider documents in their possession or with which they are5
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familiar that might have relevance to the Board's review..."(ΕΒ ΟΙΜ 98-02-See Tab 4).Finally, and in a separate tasking, all directorates were asked to assure that searches undertaken were sufficient to enable a directorate representative to provide a certification of compliance with the JFK Act, and that the DCI's Bulletin had been forwarded to all directorate employees. (See Tab 5).6
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CSI-0331/9325 October 1993MEMORANDUM FOR:DO/IRODI/IRODA/IRODS&T/IROFROM:John F. PereiraChief, Historical Review Group/CSISUBJECT:Request to Conduct Search forJFK Assassination Records1. In recent testimony before the HPSCI the Director indicated that a continuing search for JFK assassination- related documents was in progress. In order to assure that there are no oversights in this regard, we are requesting the following, by directorate:DO & DI: A name search on Lee Harvey Oswald for the period 1980 through 1993; a subject search on JFK assassination (Kennedy assassination, etc.), same period; all appropriate components be asked to forward to us any documents related to the assassination that were not provided earlier.DA & DS&T: All appropriate components be asked to forward to us any documents related to the assassination that were not provided earlier; a file search when an obvious need is recognized.2. Information responsive to this request should be forwarded to the Historical Review Group, 404 Ames Building. Questions may be directed to Frank Most, 30146.![signature of John F. Pereira]John F. Pereira