MEMO: REVIEW OF JFK ASSASSINATION RECORDS
Agency: CIA
Originator: CIA
From: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
To: JOHN F. PEREIRA, CHIEF HRG/CSI
Document date: 4/2/93
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM

IDENTIFICATION FORM

AGENCY INFORMATION

AGENCY : CIA

RECORD NUMBER

:104-10331-10029

RECORD SERIES

JEK

AGENCY FILE NUMBER

PROJFILES-CORRESPONDENCE

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

Released under the John

F. Kennedy

Assassination Recorda

Collection Act of 1992

144 0SC 2107 Notel.

Case#:NW 53217 Date:

06-22-2017

AGENCY ORIGINATOR : CIA

FROM : JOHN F. PEREIRA, CHIEF HRG/CSI

TO

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

TITLE

MEMO: REVIEW OF JEK ASSASSINATION RECORDS

DATE

04/02/1993

PAGES

SUBJECTS : COORDINATION

OVERTIME

JEK ASSASSINATION

IDAIDS

DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER

CLASSIFICATION • ADMINISTRATIVE

RESTRICTIONS : 1A

CURRENT STATUS : RELEASED IN PART PUBLIC - RELEASED WITH DELETIONS

DATE DE LAST REVIEW: 04/23/03

COMMENTS

.JFK-M-16 : F2: 2000.02.08.08:33:17:560054

[R] - ITEM IS RESTRICTED

104-10331-10029

1H 53217

DocId: 32404159

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ADMINISTRATIVE

INTERNAL USE ONLY

CIA SPECIAD COLLECTIONS

RELEASEIN FULL

/2000

CSI-0048/93

2 April 1993

MEMORANDUM FOR:

VIA:

FROM:

SUBJECT:

REFERENCE:

Executive Director

Director

Center for the Study of Intelligence

John F. Pereira

Chief,

Historical Review Group/CSI

Review of JFK Assassination Records

Memorandum to you, dtd 1 Feb 93,

Same Subject

1.

The purpose of this memorandum is

twofold. First,

we summarize the current status of our review of the

Agency's JFK assassination records, and describe several

problems that CIA faces with respect to meeting the legal

deadline of 22 August 1993 for release of all the records to

the National Archives.

Second, we

propose several specific

actions to alleviate the problems.

2.

This section discusses the four basic phases of our

review of the JFK materials--first review, coordination,

final redaction, and identification aids.

a. First Review: As of 1 April, the Historical

Review Group (HRG) has completed the

first review and

preliminary redaction of approximately 114,000 pages

(of an estimated total of 250,000 pages) of the

assassination records.

We have taken steps to speed up

the process in an effort to reach a pace that permits

us to meet the deadline.

We probably can meet the

target date for the first phase if steps are taken to

speed up the other three phases.

b.

Coordination:

The process of coordinating our

review within CIA, which mainly involves the

Directorate of operations, has been very slow for two

apparent reasons.

One reason is the lack of resources

applied by the Do, although there has been improvement

lately. As of 1 April, the backlog yet to be processed

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by the DO to catch up with HRG was approximately 57,000

pages.

The second reason is the long time it takes to

reach

agreement with the Do on what information can be

released.

In

this regard, part of the problem is the

Do's generally rigid view

on protecting sources and

methods, even in the

face of the provisions in the JFK

law that allow for withholding of

information on

sources and methods only when there is "clear and

convincing evidence" that release "would demonstrably

impair" national security (see attached charts).

C.

Final Redaction: As mentioned above,

preliminary redaction of

the JFK documents is

accomplished during the first review phase.

But final

redaction cannot be performed until coordination with

the DO and other components is completed.

Therefore,

to the extent that the coordination process is delayed,

the final redaction phase is also delayed.

d.

Identification Aids and Index: The

requirement to prepare identification aids (computer

forms)

and an index presents

a potentially major

problem for reasons discussed below:

The JFK legislation requires that each document

released to the

National Archives

have attached to it a

form called an identification aid.

CIA and other

agencies were given software that is intended to

produce the

forms, using computers.

The software also

was intended to permit the creation of an electronic

index for all assassination records that are

transferred to the National Archives, which is also

required by the law.

Unfortunately, the newly acquired computers in the

Historical Review Group are not yet programmed to

perform the task.

This means that there is a growing

backlog of documents for which no identification aids

have been done.

Even when the software is fully

incorporated into our system, substantial time will be

required to complete this phase. We estimate there.

will be 92,000 documents for which aids will be

required, and at best it will take three minutes to key

in the data for each document. This means that we

would need six people working full time to finish the

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3. Proposed Action

To ensure that CIA meets the 22 August deadline, we

propose the following actions be taken (corresponding to the

four phases described above) :

a. First Review: Expand the hours worked by some

of the nine independent contractors now assigned to

URG. This would free up staff to devote more time to

the other three phases.

b.

Coordination: 1) Request the DO to devote

more resources to reviewing JFK documents, and 2)

Instruct the DO coordination officers to be more

responsive to the provisions of the JFK assassination

legislation that govern the release of information.

(draft attached) •

C.

Final Redaction: To the extent that the pace

of coordination is improved, the pace of redaction will

also increase.

However, we need to be prepared for a

possible last minute rush to complete the redactions,

which could entail overtime for staff officers and/or

further expanded hours for independent contractors.

a.

Identification Aids: It is clear that with

only five months remaining until the 22 August

deadline, HRG review officers will not have enough time

to complete the review, coordination, and redaction and

also prepare identification aids*

We propose that a

group of document analysts or comparable specialists be

detailed to HRG to input the information for the

identification aids.

We recommend that initially 20

such people be retained to work 10 hours of overtime

An HRG officer would supervise the group and

provide

quality control.

* The FBI has a similar problem, which it has addressed by

detailing 50 additional people to their JFK Reviewing Staff.

3

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The cost of overtime would be approximately

$3-4,000 weekly. There are some funds in CSI's

personnel services account, but these would soor

out, and we would need to seek help from the

We plan to send memoranda to the

directorates asking that they identify people willing

to work

the overtime.

John F. Pereira

Attachments:

A.

Draft memo to DO

B.

HRG charts

APPROVED:

P11. 1 buffetiter

5 Apse 93

Date

* Surgiet to licitation on CIS fred, for Ecs.

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DCI / CSI/HRG/JFPereira:hfs/X30335

Distribution:

Original -

Addressee

D/CSI

1

- C/HRG

- Executive Registry

1

- HRG file

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AONTNIERPARZVE ETERNAL VOR ONE*

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## Page 7

1 April 1993

A

B

Jun

28935

11950

4840

49125

23400

5660

Aug

Sep

59705 67773

30880

38865

18860

74989

43056

38702

RUNNING CUMULATIVE TOTALS

A. Pages reviewed by the Historical Review Group

B. Pages reviewed by the Directorates

C. Pages of material ready for National Archives

83117

44910

40374

96604 103865

44947

40374|

4 52858

Mar

112177

125738

61377

70418

51039

52718

• B

D. C

Lhhh

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

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P

age

1 April 1993

RUNNING CUMULATIVE TOTALS

A. Pages reviewed by the Historical Review Group

B. Pages reviewed by the Directorates

C. Pages of material ready for National Archives

BA

7. C

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

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