Francesco/who-killed-jfk huggingface dataset:
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 69]
SECRETHPSCI BRIEFING - JFK DECLASSIFICATION                                   10 April 19961.  Nature of the records--Oswald 201, Sequestered    - Other records: Minutes of DCI morning meetings; working files    - Third Agency documents: FBI, SSCI, Presidential libraries2.  Pages released (227,000)    - Percentage of pages redacted; 70 %3.  Process of declassification    - Former senior officers in HRG review    - Coordination with OGC, DO (DO team detailed to HRG)4.  Standards for review in JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, 1992    - Records related to the assassination or investigation into the assassination    - Law provides grounds for postponement of disclosure of records        - “Clear and convincing evidence” must be pre-          sented to the Board            - E.g., Identity of agent currently requiring protection            - Source or method currently utilized            - Foreign government relationship currently requiring protection5.  Board has authority to release records unless it agrees there is “clear and convincing evidence” to support a postponement    - Board then has to justify on the record each redaction with which it agrees    - Once a determination is made, Board must publish it in Federal Register within 14 days
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- Options available: substitute language e.g., “Northern European station”- Also, summary of a record- Board has access to every document in full6. Issues raised by Board's decisions:- Problem: Board has difficulty in linking disclosure of information that is 30 years old with *damage* to current intelligence operations- Identification of stations e.g., Helsinki- Names of former Agency employees who retired under cover- Board guidelines: Protect person if retired under cover and now residing overseas, but not if in US- Liaison, joint operations in Mexico- Briefing of the Board by Dave Edger, Jeff Smith, Central Cover, DO desk officers, others- Problem of accumulative effect of releases--eroding cover, ability to conduct operations7. Provision for appeal to the White House if we disagree with Board's determination- President has sole authority to require postponement of a record or information--President required to advise the Board within 30 days of the Board's determination-- This is published in the Federal Register8. Current appeal (now resolved)- Issues: identification of Agency asset  liaison relationship  identification of station- Potential appeal: Tokyo station9. Additional requests of Board to review other records e.g., history of Mexico City station, Intelligence Community Staff records
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 71]
13-00000ADMINISTRATIVE - INTERNAL USE ONLYCSI 1997-55210 December 1997NOTE FOR:Director, Center for the Studyof IntelligenceDeputy DirectorOffice of Congressional AffairsFROM:John PereiraChief, Historical Review GroupSUBJECT:JFK/Possible Letter fromCongressman Burton to EXDIRJeremy Gunn, Executive Director of the JFK Board, toldHRG yesterday that Congressman Dan Burton may well write aletter to the EXDIR expressing concern about whether CIAwill be able to meet the deadline for declassification ofassassination-related records. Burton chairs the GovernmentReform and Oversight Committee which has cognizance over theJFK Board.Gunn said that he briefed members of Burton's stafflast week and told them he was concerned that the Agency maynot have enough resources dedicated to JFK to finish thereview of documents by 1 September 1998. Gunn showed thestaffers the recent exchange of letters between the Boardand the EXDIR on the same issue. According to the staffers,Burton has a strong personal interest in the release of theassassination records. The staffers gave Gunn theimpression that Burton's strong interest will prompt him towrite to the Agency.During our discussion with Gunn, we reviewed with himthe Agency's clear commitment to declassifying allassassination records. We also explained that we haveshifted four additional contractors to the JFK project, andwill shift more if necessary, even at the cost of slowingdown or stopping other declassification efforts.![Signature of John Pereira]John Pereira![handwritten notes: Eileen, Fax'd Dickham 12/10, I circulated JFK]ADMINISTRATIVE - INTERNAL USE ONLY
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# CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCYWASHINGTON, D.C. 20505EXECUTIVE DIRECTOROCA 97-19698 January 1998CIA SPECIAL COLLECTIONSRELEASE IN FULL2000The Honorable Dan BurtonChairmanCommittee on Government Reformand OversightHouse of RepresentativesWashington, D.C. 20515Dear Mr. Chairman:Thank you for your letter of December 16, 1997 in which you expressed interest in the status of Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) processing of records related to President John F. Kennedy's assassination.You referred to the Assassination Records Review Board's concern that CIA may not be processing records at a pace sufficient to complete the work on time. I want to assure you, as I did to the Review Board's Executive Director in the enclosed November 21, 1997 letter, that the Agency is committed to taking all necessary steps to meet the statutory deadline of September 30, 1998 for reviewing all of the Agency's assassination-related materials. As the Review Board has noted, we are cooperating fully with the Board and its staff in this effort.We share the Review Board's goal of declassifying and releasing the relevant records to the fullest extent possible. As you are aware, it is important that there be a proper review of all the records so that still sensitive information that might warrant continued protection can be identified to the Board. For the past several years a team of experienced reviewers has been dedicated to the task of declassifying the assassination records. Recently we shifted several additional personnel to the team in order to accelerate the processing of documents and assure the prompt transfer to the Review Board and ultimately to the National Archives.
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 74]
13-00000The Honorable Dan BurtonI understand the importance that the Congress and the President have placed on disclosing to the American people all available information about the assassination. To this end, we have released more than 200,000 pages of material and are working diligently to complete our review of the remaining records.If you or your staff require any further information or would like a briefing on our declassification program, please have your staff contact Mr. Jim Meehan, Office of Congressional Affairs, at (703) 482-8796.Sincerely,![Signature of David W. Carey]David W. CareyEnclosure2
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 75]
13-00000The Honorable Dan BurtonDCI/OCA/Liaison Grp/JPMeehan:dms/37976 (29 Dec 97 INTERIM)OCA 97-1969 (FN:wdata/action/liaison/burton.doc)Revised from INTERIM LTR (never sent) to FINAL LTR (6 Jan 97)Distribution:Original - The Honorable Dan Burton, HGR&OC1 - EXDIR/CIA (Follow-up to SCI-97-536)1 - DCI1 - DDCI1 - ER (ACTION ITEM: ER 97-5851)1 - DCI/OGC1 - DCI/CSI1 - DDO1 - DO/IMS1 - DA/OIM1 - DA/OIM/IRG1 - DA/MS1 - D/OCA1 - AO/OCA1 - OCA Records (ACTION ITEM: A/97-05697)1 - JPMeehan Chrono3
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 76]
CIA SPECIAL COLLECTIONSRELEASE IN FULL2000Mr. Chairman, I am here today at your request to provide my views on Senate Joint Resolution 282, "The Assassination Materials Disclosure Act of 1992," and to describe the nature of documents held by the CIA that relate to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I very much appreciate the opportunity to speak on this important matter.Let me begin by stating that I am in complete agreement with the purpose underlying the joint resolution--that efforts should be made to declassify and make available to the public as quickly as possible government documents relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. We hope that opening up and giving journalists, historians and, most importantly, the public access to governmental files will help to resolve questions that still linger over 28 years after the assassination. Further, I believe that maximum disclosure will discredit the theory that CIA had anything to do with the murder of John F. Kennedy.Even before introduction of this joint resolution, I recognized the need for greater public access to CIA documents of historical importance. Two months ago, I announced the establishment of a new unit within CIA that will be responsible for declassifying as many historical documents as possible consistent with the protection of intelligence sources and
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 77]
methods. This new unit, the Historical Review Group, in the Agency's Center for the Study of Intelligence, will review for declassification documents 30 years old or older, and national intelligence estimates on the former Soviet Union that are 10 years old or older. In addition to the systematic review of 30-year-old documents, I have directed the History Staff in the Center for the Study of Intelligence to assemble CIA records focusing on particular events of historical importance, including the assassination of President Kennedy. The Historical Review Group will then examine the documents for the purpose of declassifying the records.Because of high interest in the JFK papers, I am not waiting for legislation or other agencies to start declassifying documents belonging to CIA. The Historical Review Group, at my direction, already has begun its review of the documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy, and I am glad to report that the first group of these records, including all CIA documents on Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination, has been declassified with quite minimal deletions and is being transferred to the National Archives for release to the public. This is, I acknowledge, a small fraction of what we have, but it is an earnest of my commitment to begin review for declassification immediately of this material. And, indeed, as I speak, the reviewers are going through a substantial number of documents, and I anticipate that many of these will be released shortly.2
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As we carry out our program to declassify Kennedy assassination documents, our goal will be to release as many documents as possible. In fact, I recently approved new CIA declassification guidelines for our Historical Review Program which specifically direct a presumption in favor of declassification. I believe we can be very forward leaning in making these documents available to the public, and I have instructed the Historical Review Group to take this attitude to heart.To understand the magnitude of the effort involved in reviewing these documents for declassification, it is important to place them in some context. The CIA's collection of documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy consists of approximately 250,000-300,000 pages of material. This includes 64 boxes of copies and originals of information provided to the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations and 17 boxes of material on Lee Harvey Oswald accumulated after President Kennedy's assassination.Unfortunately, and for reasons I do not know, what we are dealing with is a mass of material that is not indexed, is uncatalogued, and is highly disorganized--all of which makes the review process more difficult. The material contains everything from the most sensitive intelligence sources to the most mundane news clippings.3
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 79]
These records include documents that CIA had in its files before the assassination, a large number of records that CIA received later as routine disseminations from other agencies, as well as the reports, correspondence, and other papers that CIA prepared in the course of the assassination investigations. I should emphasize that these records were assembled into the present collection as a result of specific inquiries received from the Warren Commission or the House Select Committee on Assassinations. I have prepared a chart that illustrates this point.As you can see, prior to President Kennedy's assassination CIA held only a small file on Lee Harvey Oswald that consisted of 33 documents (approximately 110 pages), some of which originated with the FBI, State Department, the Navy, and newspaper clippings. Only 11 documents originated with the CIA. I have brought along a copy of Oswald's file as it existed before the assassination so that you can see first-hand how slender it was at the time. As I have already noted, we have declassified the CIA documents in this file with quite minimal deletions, and we are providing them to the National Archives. The records in this file dealt with Oswald's defection to the Soviet Union in 1959 and his activities after his return in 1961. By contrast, it was only after the assassination that CIA accumulated the rest of the material on Oswald--some 33,000 pages--most of which CIA received from other agencies after November 22, 1963.
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 80]
You have asked about documents in our possession generated by other agencies.[^1] In fact, much of the material held by CIA originated with other agencies or departments. For example, in the 17 boxes of Oswald records, approximately 40% of the documents originated with the FBI, and about 20% originated from the State Department or elsewhere. Our staff is still going through the material compiled at the request of the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which includes 63 boxes of paper records and one box that contains 72 reels of microfilm. The microfilms in part overlap material in other parts of the collection. We estimate that within the 63 boxes of paper records, approximately 27% of the documents originated with a variety of other U.S. government agencies, private organizations, and foreign and American press.Although our holdings do include many documents from other agencies, we nonetheless have a substantial collection of CIA documents that will require a considerable effort to review and, as I said earlier, at my direction, this review for declassification is now underway. A preliminary survey of these files has provided us some indications of what they contain. Although the records cover a wide variety of topics, they principally focus on CIA activities concerning Cuba and Castro, Oswald's defection to the Soviet Union, and Oswald's subsequent activities in Mexico City and New Orleans. They also include a large number of name traces requested by the staff of the House5[^1]: (3)
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Select Committee on Assassinations, as well as material relating to the Garrison investigation and Cuban exile activities.The CIA cannot release a number of documents unilaterally because of the limits in the Privacy Act (which protects the names of American citizens against unauthorized disclosure), the sequestration of many documents by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and the fact that many of the documents belong to agencies other than the CIA. However, we have already taken the necessary steps to lift the sequestration, coordinate with other agencies and begin the process of declassification. If necessary, I will ask the House for a resolution permitting CIA to release the results of the declassification effort on the sequestered documents.While I expect a large amount of material can be declassified under our program, I assume that there still will be information that cannot be released to the public for a variety of reasons, including privacy concerns or the exposure of intelligence sources and methods. Let me take a moment to give examples of this type of material. During the investigation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, I understand that security and personnel files were requested on a number of Agency employees. These files contain fitness reports (performance evaluations), medical evaluations and credit checks on individual CIA officers. Although irrelevant to the question of who killed President Kennedy, these and other personal6
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documents ultimately ended up in the sequestered collection of documents. I do not believe that the benefit to the public of disclosure of this information outweighs the clear privacy interest of the individuals in keeping this information confidential. Similar privacy concerns exist with documents containing derogatory information on particular individuals where the information is based on gossip or rumor. Our files also contain names of individuals who provided us intelligence information on a promise of confidentiality. We would not disclose their names in breach of such a promise. Where we cannot disclose such information to the public, the Agency will make redactions and summarize the information in order to ensure that the maximum amount of information is released while still protecting the identity of an agent or the privacy of an individual.If legislation is not passed by Congress and signed by the President regarding the JFK papers, to enhance public confidence and provide reassurance that CIA has not held back any information relevant to the assassination, I will appoint a panel of distinguished Americans from outside of government to examine whatever documents we have redacted or kept classified. They would then issue an unclassified public report on their findings.The effort required to declassify the documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy will be daunting. However, it is an important program, and I am personally committed to making it work. Even in this time of diminishing
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 83]
13-00000resources within the Intelligence Community, I have directed theallocation of 15 full-time positions to expand the History Staffand to form the Historical Review Group that will review the JFKdocuments and other documents of historical interest.I believe these actions attest to the seriousness of our intentto get these papers declassified and released, and to open whatremains classified to outside, non-governmental review. It isagainst this background that, in response to this Committee'srequest, I cite our technical reservations about the mechanismestablished by the joint resolution to achieve this same result. Iintend to address only Intelligence Community concerns; I willdefer to the Department of Justice on any additional problemsposed by the joint resolution.First, vesting in an outside body the determination as towhether CIA materials related to the assassination can be releasedto the public is inconsistent with my statutory responsibility toprotect intelligence sources and methods.Second, I am concerned that the joint resolution contains noprovision requiring security clearances or secure documenthandling by the Assassination Materials Review Board or its staff.Third, I am concerned that the joint resolution does notprovide the Agency with the opportunity to object to the releaseof CIA information contained in documents originated by8
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 84]
Congress or the Warren Commission. Under the joint resolution, documents originated by these entities can be released directly by the Executive Director of the Assassination Materials Review Board without any review by the President or other Executive Branch agencies.Fourth, the joint resolution provision for a 30-day period for agencies or departments to appeal decisions by the Executive Director to release information may not provide sufficient time for meaningful review of what could prove to be a large volume of material at one time.Fifth and finally, section 6 of the joint resolution, which outlines the grounds for postponement of public release of a document, makes no provision for postponing release of documents that may contain Executive privilege or deliberative process, attorney-client, or attorney work-product information. While such privileges could be waived in the public interest and are not likely to arise with respect to factual information directly related to the JFK assassination, they would be unavailable under the joint resolution in the rare case that they might be needed.These are technical problems that I believe can be solved in ways that will, in fact, expedite the release of documents bearing on the assassination of President Kennedy.
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But, again, whatever the future course of the legislation, CIA is proceeding even now to review for declassification the relevant documents under its control. Further, we will cooperate with any mechanism established by the Congress and the President to declassify all of this material.Added comment on personal reaction at the time.Determined personally to make available every sex of her.10
[104-10337-10001.pdf — page 86]
# CIA SPECIAL COLLECTIONSRELEAE IN FULL 4 May 1992TABULATION OF PAGES IN THE OSWALD PRE-ASSASSINATION FILE:Pages Date Description.1 6 Mar 64 Note-slip on DECLASSIFIED version held in NARA4 30 Jan 76 CIA transmittal sheet, with NARA's query of 15 Jan 75 on deleting #s.1 6 Mar 64 DD/P transm sheet, re NARA's holding.4 6 Mar 64 Helms Memo to Rankin, describing file contents.5 6 Mar 64 Copy of above, with Helms note to Rankin.1 31 Oct 59 State Cable from Moscow to SecState.1 " Redacted copy of same.1 1 Nov 59 Press clipping1 2 & 4 Nov Notes on Oswald & Papich (FBI) query3 2 Nov 59 Fon Sv Despatch, fr Moscow to Dept1 9 Nov 59 State Cable, Moscow to SecState1 " Redacted copy of same1 9 Nov 59 State Cable, Tokyo to SecState1 " Redacted copy of same1 16 Nov 59 Press clipping1 26 Nov 59" Press clipping1 25 May 60 Cover Memo fr Dir Hoover, FBI, to Helms7 12 May 60 Attachment to above2 12 May 60 FBI report, fr Dallas2 25 Oct 60 State (Cumming) to Helm, listing US defectors2 " Redacted copy of same1 3 Nov 60--DD/P Bissell to State (Cumming)1 " Redacted copy of same1 18 Nov 60-Cover Memo (internal) to DD/P, to accompany draft reply to Cumming1 undated --Handwritten descrip of letter cited above2 21 Nov 60--Cover letter, Bissell to Cumming, on US defectors1 " Declassified version of Oswald info from ff7 " List of US defectors attached to Bissell letter1 18 Nov 60 Memo fr Horton, acting C/CIS, to Bissell9 21 Nov 60 Second copy of Bissell letter and list, above2 9 Dec 60 2 copies of redacted request to set up Oswald 2013 11 Jul 61 Fon Sv Despatch, Moscow to Dept4 26 May 61 2 copies of Fon Sv Despatch, Moscow to Dept1 13 Apr 61 Dept State Instruction on Oswald citizenship. and passport (signed Rusk)1 26 Jan 61 State MemCon re Oswald1 " Redacted copy of same14 13 Jul 61 Cover letter to Helms fr Hoover, plus several FBI reports, much of which is illegible1 28 Sep 61 Short bio of Marina (redacted), for inclusion in Oswald 2014 13 Oct 61 Fon Sv Despatch, Moscow to Dept, covering copies of four Oswald letters to Embassy Moscow1 7 Dec 61 Form fr INS to DD/P, asking for any derog info on OswaldSECRET
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SECRET1 3 Mar 62 Note saying Navy message of this date is missing from CD 692 sent from Archives5 26 Apr 62 Collection of Navy Memo to Hoover/FBI plus Navy, USMC, and press items9 7 Sep 62 Hoover to Helms, plus report fr SAC/Dallas2 " Redacted pages from above7 10 Sep 63 FBI field report on Oswald from Dallas3 24 Sep 63 FBI field report on Oswald from New Orleans3 10 Sep 63 FBI field report on Oswald from Dallas (apparently different from above)2 8 Nov 63 Hoover to Helms, with page from New Orleans report20 7 Nov 63 Hoover to Helms, with a lot of bio data on Oswald, plus Fair-Play-for-Cuba stuff20 25 Oct 63 FBI to INS, New Orleans, with much of material above14 31 Jan 64 Report, not really contemprary with this file, entitled: "Information Developed by CIA on the Activity of ...Oswald in Mexico City...", 28 Sep--3 Oct 6314 " Redacted copy of sameSECRET