13-00000 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD : "Washington, D.C. “August 6, 1996 ©
13-00000 cm RHH ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD PUBLIC BOARD MEETING ' JOHN R. TUNHEIM, CHAIRMAN Tuesday, August 6, 1996 1:00 p.m. 600 E Street, N.W. Room 206 Washington, D.C. MILLER REPORTING CO., INC. 507 C STREET, N.E. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20002 _ (202) 546-6666
13-00000 cm 21. CHAIRMAN TUNHEIM: Thank you very much, Mr. Tilley. We appreciate your continued help... MR. TILLEY: My pleasure, Mr. Chairman. CHAIRMAN TUNHEIM: Next, we have two representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency here today, to provide factual testimony for the board on the mature of the sequestered. collection, Mr. John Pereira and Mr. Barry : Harrelson. And because this is primarily a factual presentation, we decided that we should put each of you under oath. So, if you would, raise your right hand and repeat after me. (John Pereira and Barry Harrelson sworn. ] - -CHATRMAN TUNHEIM: . Thank you for joining MR. PEREIRA: A pleasure. We're pleased ‘to try to help and provide information that might | help the board understand the sequestered Poottection. I thought, if the time allows, I might give some background to put the sequestered a a collection. in context for the board. MILLER REPORTING CO., INC. _ $07 C STREET, N.E. -WASHINGTON, D.C. 20002 " - (202) S46-6666
13-00000 cm 22 CHAIRMAN TUNHEIM: That would be very helpful. -——. | | MR. PEREIRA: In the. spring of 1992, prior to the enactment of the Assassination Records Act, the then-Director of Central Intelligence, Robert Gates, issued instructions to begin reviewing for declassification all records related to the assassination. | . The CIA history staff was charged with identifying the relevant records, which they did. “And -once that happened, our group that we | represent, the historical review group, took custody of the records and immediately began. reviewing them for declassification for release to the National Archives. Oiice the Records Act was passed, our goal became to release as many records as possible by ‘the 22 August 1993 deadline established by the Act. And approximately 125,000 pages were transferred to the National Archives by that date. ; | with subsequent releases, the Agency has ra . now declassified and transferred some 227,000 pages MILLER REPORTING CO., INC. 507 C STREET, N.E. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20002 (202) 546-6666
13-00000 om . 23 to the National archives. And based on discussions with the Board, we’re trying to release additional information that had been redacted earlier: The remaining records are in various stages of review. Some require review by other agencies. Some is congressional material. And final decisions on other records are awaiting discussion with the board, as you know. | The Kennedy assassination records in the CIA consist of two major groups of files. One group consista of the documents in the Lee Harvey Oswald file, sometimes referred to as the Oswald 201 file. These consist mainly of documents that were collected after the assassination and during the Warren Commission investigation. And there are about 26,000 pages of material in this file. All but a handful have been declassified and sent to the National Archives. The second group is one of major interest to you today, 1 think. it‘s comprised of the sequestered collection. These are records that were made, available to the House Select Committee MILLER REPORTING CO., INC. 507 C STREET, N.E. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20002 (202) 546-6666
13-00000 cm 24 Fad ; on Assassination and which the committee asked CIA u a ‘to hold in -safekeeping upon the completion of the. committee’s investigation. And there are certain additional records, including 400 excerpts from the minutes of the director of Central Intelligence morning meetings and some working files that have been added since 1992. But that’s pretty much the landscape of the records we have. | | By going directly to the sequestered collection, I’d like to say that, first of all, every document in the sequestered collection was available to the board for review. | Every document is available in full to the board without redactions. A portion of the documents that were * |lcreated specifically in response to requests from the House Assassination Committee are in the record. Other records were already in existence |/prior to the creation of the committee. And still other documents were created by the committee itself. For example, there are notes of interviews MILLER REPORTING CO., INC. 507 C STREET, N.E. _ WASHINGTON, D.C. 20002 (202) 546-6666