NOTE: HPSCI TALKING POINTS
Originator: CIA
To: JOHN PEREIRA/BARRY HARRELSON. CSI
Document date: 04/09/1996
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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2023 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

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From the Desk of Linda C. Cipriani

NOTE FOR:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT:

John F. Pereira

J. Barry Harrelson

(Linda C. Cipriani

04/09/96 01:51:24 PM

HPSCI talking points

Thought you may be interested in seeing in advance an outline of what I plan to say at the HPSCI briefing. Of course, I will be ready to

alter this according to the circumstances of the meeting!

Talking Points

I. Statutory Authorities of the JFK Board

1.

The JFK Act states that all government records relating

to the JFK assassination should carry a presumption of immediate

disclosure and that all records will eventually be disclosed.

Although the Act allows for the postponement of release of

certain information, all records will be disclosed in full by

2017 unless the President certifies that protection is still

necessary.

2.

Under the JFK Act, the JFK Board determines what is an

"assassination record" and whether an assassination record

qualifies for postponement. The Board has the power to direct a

government agency to make available to it, not only assassination

records, but additional information which it believes is

necessary to fullfill its duties under the Act.

It has has the

power to request the Attorney General to subpoena private

persons; records and other information relevant to its

responsibilities under the Act.

II. Appeal Procedures set out in JFK Act

1.

Once Board has determined whether a record shall be

released or postponed, it must send a "Notification Letter" to

the head of the agency (DCI)

2.

Only recourse for an agency that disagrees with Board

determination is to appeal to the President.

The President has 30 days from the date of the

Notification Letter to reply to appeal

a..

White House asks that agencies submit any

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appeals within 7 days of receiving Notification Letter

4.

CIA has never before presented an appeal to the

President; FBI presented an appeal last year but the White House

told the parties to work out their difficulties.

III. February 8th Appeal

1.

In November and December of 1995, the JFK Board

notified DCI of the release of documents that would:

- implicate high-ranking Mexican officials in a joint

tel-tap operation against foreign embassies - Mexican liaison

(December 7)

- reveal station in Helsinki (December 27)

- identify sensitive unilateral source in the

Nicaraguan service (November 28)

2.

On February 8, DCI submitted an appeal to the President

on these issues.

a .

Admittedly, CIA did have problems getting appeal

out on time. The JFK staff was very understanding of our time

problems and arranged to give us more time. They too have

recognized that the time periods set out in the Act are too short

to bring an appeal.

b.

The reason for CIA's delay was simply because the

decision to appeal

a Board determination to the President of the

Us is very difficult one to make, both on a procedural and a

substantive level. As CIA never did an appeal before, it did not

have an efficient

system worked out.

C .

Today, the procedure is as follows: Once HRG is

notified of Board decisions, they immediately pass this on to OGC

and the DO. The appropriate components within DO are asked

whether the release would cause current damage to the national

security or intelligence operations or sources.

If so, they are

tasked to provide a written assessment of that damage.

d.

An appeal package is then prepared by OGC and the

DO .

This package must then be approved by GC, DDO, EXDIR, DDCI

and DCI.

Although CIA's

turn around time is improving, it

can take several weeks to task the appropriate people, have them

gather the information needed to prepare an appeal and then get

this up to the DCI:

Despite our time problems, the JFk Staff was

cooperative in the process of bringing this appeal to the

President:

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a.

copy of appeal to JFK Board's General Counsel with the idea that

to the Board during its session.

b.

Shortly after submitting the appeal to the

President, I spoke with White House Counsel and Counsel to JFK

Board.

We agreed to put the appeal on hold until the Board could

review CIA's submission to the White House and possibly

co to one done

reconsider its determinations in light of additional information

presented in the appeal.

C.

I talked with JFK Board's Counsel and Executive

Director regularly about the best way to handle the appeal.

arranged with them to have the General Counsel of CIA to come tc

'he Board's February meeting and present new information

regarding the issues on appeal.

d. On February 29, the General Counsel of CIA and I

met with the JFK Board and their staff.

We discussed issues on

appeal as well as 3 other stations recently released (Oslo

(Stockholm, Copenhagen)

Based on the information presented by CIA at this

meeting, the Board reconsidered and agreed to protect all of the

issues

on appeal as well as 3 other stations.

IV. Future appeal procedures

Both JFK Board and CIA agree that we should never have

to appeal something to the President and we should try to work

out difficult issues on our own.

2.

would aunt or

In the last 2 months, when CIA believed that a release

damage the national security, the Board has invited us to

the

their meetings to present additional evidence on the issue. In

some cases, they have reconsidered their decision and protected

the information.

3.

The Board

also recently released Tokyo station - we are

arranging to meet with them at the end of this month to present

stronger arguments for protecting this station.

4 .

The Board is now considering the release of names of

CIA employees who retired under cover.

It is very important for

CIA's mission that the names of its employees, especially those

who remain covert,

be protected even after retirement. In the

spirit of cooperation and in the hopes of getting the Board to

understand this, CIA helped arrange a meeting between the JFK

Board's General Counsel and a retired CIA covert employee

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currently living in Europe.

CIA hopes that after hearing from

the employee about his objections to having his name released and

the harm that may come to him, the Board will agree to protect

his name, and others like him, from release.

CC:

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