LETTER: THANK YOU FOR YOUR LETTER OF 28 OCTOBER
Agency: CIA
Originator: CIA
From: DR. T. JEREMY GUNN
To: DAVID W. CAREY
Document date: 11/21/1997
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM

IDENTIFICATION FORM

AGENCY INFORMATION

AGENCY : CIA

RECORD NUMBER

: 104-10330-10144

RECORD SERIES

AGENCY FILE NUMBER

PRO

PROJFILES - CORRESPONDENCE

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

AGENCY ORIGINATOR : CIA

FROM

TO

: DAVID W. CAREY

: DR. T.

JEREMY GUNN

TITLE

LETTER: THANK YOU FOR YOUR LETTER OF 28 OCTOBER

DATE

11/21/1997

PAGES

3

SUBJECTS : JFK ASSASSINATION

TUNHEIM

DOCUMENT TYPE

CLASSIFICATION

.

PAPER

: UNCLASSIFIED

RESTRICTIONS

1A

CURRENT STATUS: RELEASED IN PART PUBLIC - RELEASED WITH DELETIONS

DATE OF LAST REVIEW

: 03/11/03

COMMENTS

: JFK-M-15 : F4 .

: 2000.02.09.14:40:55:013035

Released under the John

F. Kennedy

assassination Recorde

Collection Act of 1992

144 USC 2107 Note!.

Case:NU 53217 Date:

06-22-2017

• ...

[R] - ITEM IS RESTRICTED

104-10330-10144

NW 53217

DocId: 32404128

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VEV

L.LII1

1. L

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

21 November 1997

CS1 97-536

DI. T. Jeremy Gunn

Executive Director

Assassination Records

Review Board

600 E Street, NW

Washington,

DC

20530

Dear DI. Gunn:

Thank you for your letter of 28 October in which you

outline the Asgassination Records Review Board's goals for

the coming year. I appreciate the complimentary remarks you

made about the "excellent cooperation" that CIA has been

providing to the Board.

You raised a concern that the Agency may not be able to

increase sufficiently the pace of the review process to meet

the 1 september 1998 deadline for completing the transfer of

records to the National Archives. You also expressed the

view that if any records are not reviewed by the deadline,

the Board will vote to release them in full and mandate that

custody be transferred to the National Archives.

You can be assured that we are committed to taking all

necessary steps to meet our statutory obligation to review

all of the Agency's assassination-related materials.

It is

important that a proper review of all relevant records be

done. This will allow us to recommend to the Board what

information warrants continued protection.

We appreciate the great responsibility that Congress

and the President have given to the Board to inform the

American people about the assassination.

We share the

Board's goal of declassifying and releasing the relevant

records to the fullest extent possible.

Please convey my regards to Chairman Tunheim and the

other Board members, and assure them of our continued

cooperation.

Sincerely,

David W. Carey

DCI

EXEC

REG

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SINATION

%

Assassination Records Review Board

600 E Street NW • 2nd Floor • Washington, DC 20530

(202) 724-0088-Fax: (202) 724-0457

October 28, 1997

Mr. David W. Carey

Executive Director

Central Intelligence Agency

Washington, DC 20505

Re:

Completing the Review of JEK Assassination Records

Dear Mr. Carey:

I would like to congratulate you on your new appointment at the Agency and wish you

the very best of success in the difficult challenges that lie ahead.

As you probably are aware, the Assassination Records Review Board has been

mandated by Congress and the President to oversee the declassification and transfer to

the National Archives of all records related to the assassination of President Kennedy.

During the past three years we have received excellent cooperation from CIA in regard

to the processing of the relevant Agency records. From our perspective, this is due in

significant part to the work of John Pereira, Chief of the Historical Review Group, and

J. Barry Harrelson, who has shouldered the extremely complicated, burdensome, and

frequently thankless task of overseeing the project. Both of them have proved to be

superb representatives of the Agency. We also very much appreciated receiving a

strong message of support from your predecessor, Nora Slatkin, who advised us in a

meeting on October 16, 1996, of her full support for the project and her willingness to

commit the necessary Agency resources to complete the project.

Because the Review Board is now in the final twelve months of its statutory tenure, I

thought it would be appropriate to advise you of our goals for the upcoming year. It is

our wish to be able to state in our Final Report to the President and to Congress that

CIA has made all reasonable attempts to locate, review, and declassify all available

records on the Kennedy assassination. We would like the Review Board to be able to

assure the American people that the Agency has been fully cooperative in this

enormous and difficult task, and that the Agency no longer retains any "secret" files on

the assassination. In addition, we are obligated to keep Congress informed, on a

montrly basis, of the status of our work and any difficulties that would interfere with

our ability to achieve our objective.

Although many important strides have been made to further our goals, we nevertheless

perceive that the pace of review and declassification of Agency records will need to be

BOARO MEMBERs: John R. Tunhoim, Chale • Henry F. Graff - Kermit b. Hall • William L. Joyce • Anna K. Nelson

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: David G. Marwell

53217 DocId:32404128 Page 3

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ir. David W. Carey

October 28, 1997

l'age: 2

accelerated in order for us to succeed. We must keep in mind that the goal includes

reviewing, processing, and transferring to the custody of the National Archives all

identified assassination records by September 1, 1998. (We do not perceive that

duplicate copies of such records need be transferred by September 1.) Many time-

consuming difficulties inherent in this project have been overcome, and we perceive

that the pace of review is accelerating. Nevertheless, we wanted to signal to you our

concern that, unless the pace of review increases further, we may not be on target to

satisfy what I hope to be our common objective.

It is our firm intention to complete our task within the congressionally mandated time

limit. If CIA is unable to pre-review and process its records consistent with completion

of this task, the Review Board will vote to release-in-full all relevant CIA records and

mandate that custody be transferred to the National Archives in a timely way. We

sincerely hope that it will not be necessary for the Board to make wholesale decisions on

unreviewed records and we will be pleased to work with the Agency to see that such a

step is unnecessary, But we are prepared to make such decisions to the extent they are

required to fulfill our own responsibilities. Although it is our perception that CIA may

wish to devote additional human resources to this project, we of course leave such

decisions to the sound judgment of knowledgeable CIA officials.

We therefore strongly urge the Agency to take all appropriate steps to complete its

review of records in ar orderly and systematic manner. To the extent that the Agency is

able to satisfy appropriate deadlines, there will be no need for us to resort to any

unfortunate -- but potentially necessary - measures to complete our own obligations to

Congress, the President, and the American people.

If you would find it helpful, the Review Board members and I would be pleased to

discuss these issues with you or others at the Agency,

Sincerely,

Executive Director

CC:

Assassination Records Review Board

NW 53217

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