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+--- Thread: Protest at the National Archives (/thread-9862.html)
Protest at the National Archives - Bill Kelly - 25-09-2012
PRESS RELEASE
JFKcountercoup: Protest at the National Archives to Free the Files
JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RESEACHERS TO PICKET THENATIONAL ARCHIVES
Historical researchers will picket the National Archives onConstitution Avenue between Seventh and Ninth Streets, N.W. near the Visitor'sEntrance on Monday, October 8, 2012 between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 Noon anddistribute an open letter to David S. Ferriero, the Archivist of the UnitedStates.
The purpose of the picket will be to protest the decisionby the National Archives not to declassify documents related to the assassinationof President John Kennedy, a decision made at the request of the CentralIntelligence Agency.
The National Archives' decision is in violation ofPresident Barack Obama' executive order of Tuesday, December 29, 2009 that"no information may remain classified
indefinitely" as part of sweeping overhaul of the executive branch'ssystem protecting
classified national security information.
President Obama also established a new National Declassification Centerat the National Archives to speed the process of declassifying historicaldocuments by centralizing their review. The President set a four year deadlinefor processing a 400-million-page backlog of such records that originallyincluded the JFK assassination records to be released on the 50[SUP]th[/SUP]anniversary of Kennedy's death, but later reneged on that commitment.
The October 8[SUP]th[/SUP] picket is in protest thatdecision by the Archives and the continued withholding of JFK assassinationrecords past the 50[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary of the assassination.
50 YEARS IS LONG ENOUGH! FREETHE JFK ASSASSINATION RECORDS
Protest at the National Archives - Bill Kelly - 05-10-2012
VIEW THE THIRD NDC OPENPUBLIC FORUM
TheThird Annual National Declassification Center (NDC) Public Open Forum - YouTube
JFKcountercoup
JFKcountercoup: Open Letter to Ferriero
On August 29, 2012, the National Declassification Center hostedits third annual Public Open Forum at the William McGowan Theater at theNational Archives building. The forum featured a status report by NDC DirectorSheryl Shenberger,two interagency panels that addressed quality assurancemeasures and improved declassification processing, as well as a question andanswer session with members of the public.
Category: Education License: StandardYouTube License
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drn65y3a1M8
"The National Declassification Center (NDC)at the National Archives held a public forum on Aug. 29 to obtain public inputon declassification. The NDC istrying to address a 400 million page backlog of classified records at theArchives. During the public question period, journalist JeffMorley (formerly with the Washington Post) asked that NDCreconsider itsdecision earlier this year not to speed up processing of 1,171classified CIArecords related to the JFK assassination by the 50thanniversary in 2013 (otherwise they remain secret until at least 2017 andperhaps indefinitely beyond). The NDC/Archivesresponse to Morley's request was a flat no. The CIA representativeon the panel said, "My agency has nothing to say on thattopic". Another questioner, Jim Lesar, elicited the admission thatit would take approximately two months to process that quantity of complexdocuments. There were six public questions asked at the forum and threeof them were from people seeking declassification of the JFK assassinationrecords, the most commented topic. The flat negative response to theJFK rrecords issue cast a pall over the proceedings. There were 100plus people in attendance, many of them government employees."
SIGN PETITION
http://www.change.org/petitions/office-of-information-policy-and-regulatory-affairs-release-the-secret-jfk-assassination-records
JOIN OUR PROTEST - OCT. 8TH -
PRESS RELEASE
HISTORICAL RESEACHERS TO PICKET THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Historical researchers will picket the National Archives onConstitution Avenue between Seventh and Ninth Streets, N.W. near the Visitor'sEntrance on Monday, October 8, 2012 between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 Noon anddistribute an open letter to David S. Ferriero, the Archivist of the UnitedStates.
The purpose of the picket will be to protest the decisionby the National Archives not to declassify documents related to theassassination of President John Kennedy, a decision made at the request of theCentral Intelligence Agency.
The National Archives' decision is in violation ofPresident Barack Obama' executive order of Tuesday, December 29, 2009 that"no information may remain classified
indefinitely" as part of sweeping overhaul of the executive branch'ssystem protecting
classified national security information.
President Obama also established a new National Declassification Center atthe National Archives to speed the process of declassifying historicaldocuments by centralizing their review. The President set a four year deadlinefor processing a 400-million-page backlog of such records that originallyincluded the JFK assassination records to be released on the 50th anniversaryof Kennedy's death, but later reneged on that commitment.
The October 8th picket is in protest that decision bythe Archives and the continued withholding of JFK assassination records pastthe 50th anniversary of the assassination.
50 YEARS IS LONG ENOUGH! FREE THEJFK ASSASSINATION RECORDS IN OUR LIFTIME
http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2012/09/open-letter-to-ferriero.html[/FONT]
Protest at the National Archives - Bill Kelly - 08-10-2012
JFKcountercoup: PROTEST TO FREE THE FILES
NARAPROTEST
Paul Kuntsler, who called for the Monday, October 8th Columbus Day picket and protest at the National Archives (and Records Administration NARA), formerly owned the transcript service that handled much of the HSCA testimony. He is a long time activist who has previously taken full page ads out in the New York Times and Washington Post questioning their reporting on the assassination of President Kennedy. He has also sponsored a forum on the assassination at the Willard Hotel and has previously held protests at the CIA,FBI and Secret Service.
Security at the NARA have requested that no pickets on polls be used, but signs held by string around the neck are okay. We have also agreed not to disturb those people in line to get into the Archives.
Kuntsler believes, and others agree, that our purpose is not to harass NARA employees or the public, as most people, including many within the government agencies and departments, support our cause, and want to see all of the remaining assassination records released. Our purpose is to convince them that we are right and they too should support the release of these records.
Only a few high level administrators and agency heads want to keep these records withheld, not for reasons of national security or because they prove conspiracy, but because they are an embarrassment to their agencies and departments, and because they can keep them secret.
The Columbus Day protest at the NARA was instigated by the insolence of the NARA officials to cower and kow tow to the CIA and agree to exclude the remaining sealed JFK assassination records from the 2013 National Declassification Center review. The president did not say that no government record would remain sealed forever "except the JFK assassination recorded," and his executive order does not specifically exclude these records.
At the first open public hearing of the NDC two years ago, the assistant archivist said the JFK assassination records would be included,but that commitment was rescinded at the second public hearing, when they said the assistant archivist had "misspoke." That assistant archivist would retire after over 20 years in government service. Was he fired or forced to retire because of this issue?
Although the video of that first NDC public meeting is posted at their web site, neither the tape or a transcript of the second or third public meeting can be reviewed, and when I requested a video recording and transcript of the third meeting I was told there is no transcript. While upon request, I was supplied with a link to a Youtube videotape of the third meeting, but that tape is posted under a private section of Youtube that other people can't reach by a Google search, and it freezes near the very end,shortly before the public questions are asked, including answers to what we consider most significant.
While a NARA staff member has said that I would be provided with a corrected version, if I am not, then there is nothing else to conclude except that the glitch is intentional and there is information in that part of the tape that someone with significant power within NARA does not want publicly released.
This must be so because the auditorium where the public forum was held is set up for professional audio visual recording of all presentations, with cameras stationed behind glass and audio recording stations throughout the room. It is inconceivable that such an accidental technical glitch would occur at precisely the right place where the public question aspects of the proceedings are suddenly froze and inaccessible.
For the record, four of the six post-forum public questionsrelated to the JFK assassination records. Jeff Morley, Jim Lesar, Dan Alcornand John Judge all asked pertinent questions or made relevant statements.
Because the open public hearing was held on a weekday in the last week of August, shortly before the Labor Day holiday, it was clear that the NARA officials did not want a large public turnout.
The CIA representative who spoke said that much of the declassification concerns the identity of CIA agents, whose names they will not reveal. If I was there I would have asked him if that included Lee Harvey Oswald?
Jim Lesar asked the CIA man how long it would take the CIAto review and declassify the remaining withheld CIA records if they wererequired to do so, and the answer was four months.
They don't even know how many pages there are, and they're not about to count them if they don't have to. They contend they do not have to act on them until 2017, and claim they don't have the ability to declassify them at this time, even though they did accelerate the declassification of all the CIA records ordered released by 2010 in 2006, four years in advance. We are now requesting they do the same thing for the 2017 records and declassify them in 2013, certainly a reasonable request.
The insolence of the NARA officials to abide by the CIA instructions and ignore the law and intense public interest in these records has forced us to protest their actions, try to get the attention of the media and general public and convince them it is everyone's best interest to declassify and release these records now.
If you can't be there in person and participate in the protest, but would like to support this cause, you can write your own letter, sign our petition, get others to sign it and contribute to the Committee for an Open Archives (COA) Facebook paypal account that will be used for a full page ad in a Washington DC publication posting our petition and letters to the Archivist and Congress.
Donations
committeeforopenarchives.webs.com
Site for contributions to full pg ad by the Committee for Open Archives to build support and actions for an open archives and oversight of the JFK Act.
http://committeeforopenarchives.webs.com/apps/donations
Protest at the National Archives - Adele Edisen - 15-10-2012
http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2012/10/protesters-deliver-letter-to-archivist.html
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Protesters Deliver Letter to Archivist
PAUL KUNTZLER
103 G. Street, S.W.
Suite Number B-218
Washington D.C. 10024-4324
October 8, 2012
Mr. David JS. Ferriero
Archivist of the United States
The National Archives
700 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20408-0001
Dear Mr. Ferriero:
As American historical researchers, we are out here this morning to protest the decision of the National Archives not to declassify documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy, a decision made at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency.
On Wednesday, January 21, 2009, the day following his inauguration, President Obama declared that "no information may remain classified indefinitely" as part of a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch's system for protecting classifying national security information.
On Tuesday, June 26, 2012, I wrote to you requesting an explanation why the National Archives decided to violate President Obama's executive order. As you know, your office failed to respond to my letter. Other members of the research community also wrote to you about the JFK assassination records, including Jim Lesar, president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center.
As I did last June 26, I am attaching a copy of the New York Times story, "Obama Moves to Curb Secrecy with Order on Classified Documents" from Wednesday, December 30, 2009. In particular, President Obama "established a new National Declassification Center at the National Archives to speed the process of declassifying historical documents by centralizing their review, rather than sending them to different agencies." President Obama set a four-year deadline for processing a 400-million-page backlog of such records that originally included the JFK assassination records to be released during 2013, the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death, but later the National Archives reneged on that commitment.
As the Archivist of the United States, you are responsible for the preservation of our country's records and the documentation of our nation's history. Conducting an open and honest government is the goal of President Obama's administration. Our founding fathers recognized that a democracy required an informed electorate, one that has all the information and facts necessary to make decisions that effect the direction that the country will take in the future.
Over the course of American history, no single event has had such an impact on our national political system than the assassination of President Kennedy, largely because of the unresolved nature of the case both in legal and moral terms, particularly with the continued withholding of relevant records from the public.
Polls have consistently shown that the American public's confidence in their government began to decline shortly after the release of the Warren Report in 1964 and has continued to decline ever since. That confidence will never recover until all the government records on the JFK assassination are released to the public.
When the Warren Commission concluded its work, Chief Justice Earl Warren, in response to a question as to when all of its records would be released, responded by saying, "Not in your lifetime!"
Then when the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) disbanded, its records were sealed for a half-century. The second chief counsel to the HSCA said that he could live with the judgment of historians in fifty years.
But in response to Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK, Congress passed the John F. Kennedy Records Act of 1992. This act created the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB), which despite releasing over four million pages of records, failed to locate the complete Air Force One radio transmission tapes of November 22, 1963, the relevant documents of Office of Naval Intelligence Director Admiral Rufus Taylor, and numerous other records related to the JFK assassination.
Since agencies, especially the CIA, FBI and the Secret Service, knew that the ARRB was a temporary agency, they delayed responding to requests for records, and intentionally kept records from being reviewed and becoming part of the JFK assassination records collection.
Even among those records that were to be included, the CIA has withheld over a thousand documents. Many of these documents are now part of a major Freedom of Information Act court case which should be resolved in the public's interest.
Some agencies, such as the Department of Defense and the Secret Service, intentionally destroyed relevant records to keep them from becoming released to the public. Those individuals responsible for the destruction of these documents have never been questioned or reprimanded for their actions.
Thus Mr. Ferriero, why have you not, as the Archivist of the United States, requested that Congress to hold mandated oversight hearings on the JFK Records Act and schedule a special program at the National Archives for the upcoming 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's murder?
These records were created by public servants working for the federal government. They do not belong to those who created them, or the agencies they work for, or the Kennedy family. They belong to the people of the United States. These records are a record of our history. We want them now not in 2017 or 2029.
Fifty years ago there might have been some reason to keep some of these records secret, but now, it is a matter of our national security that the JFK assassination records be released to the public.
The provisions of the John F. Kennedy Records Act require the full disclosure of all unredacted copies of all related records immediately, when the reason for postponing release in each case is no longer relevant, and no later than 2013, the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination.
We want the National Archives to assume the role previously performed by the ARRB, as the law requires, continuing to fulfill the remaining work until it is done.
Since a copy of the Air Force One radio tapes was discovered in November 2011, the allegedly destroyed Secret Service documents were found among the effects of a former agent, and the records of the first chief counsel of the HSCA were not obtained by the ARRB, we want the National Archives to resume the search for all relevant JFK assassination records, including federal, state, local, foreign and personal files, secure them and make them part of the JFK Assassination Records Collection, open to the public.
Finally Mr. Ferriero, as the Archivist of the United States, do your sworn duty and fulfill the requirements of the JFK Records Act so that you can, as the law requires, report to Congress that the last JFK assassination record has been released to the public.
Sincerely
SIGNED
Paul Kuntzler
Protest at the National Archives - Adele Edisen - 15-10-2012
THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2009
Obama Moves to Curb Secrecy With Order on Classified Documents
By Charles Savage
WASHINGTON President Obama declared on Tuesday that "no information may remain classified indefinitely" as part of a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch's system for protecting classified national security information.
In an executive order and an accompanying residential memorandum to agency heads, Mr. Obama signaled that the government should try harder to make information public if possible, including by requiring agencies to regularly review what kinds of information they classify and to eliminate any obsolete secrecy requirements.
"Agency heads shall complete on a periodic basis a comprehensive review of the agency's classification guidance, particularly classification guides, to ensure the guidance reflects current circumstances and to identify classified information that no longer requires protection and can be declassified," Mr. Obama wrote in the order, released while he was vacationing in Hawaii.
He also established a new National Declassification Center at the National Archives to speed the process of declassifying historical documents by centralizing their review, rather than sending them in sequence to different agencies. He set a four-year deadline for processing a 400-million-page backlog of such records that includes archives related to military operations during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Moreover, Mr. Obama eliminated a rule put in place by former President George W. Bush in 2003 that allowed the leader of the intelligence community to veto decisions by an interagency panel to declassify information. Instead, spy agencies who object to such a decision will have to appeal to the president.
As a presidential candidates, Mr. Obama campaigned on a theme of making the government less secretive. But in office his record has been more ambiguous, drawing fire from advocates of open government by embracing Bush-era claims that certain lawsuits involving surveillance and torture must be shut down to protect state secrets.
Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, expressed cautious optimism about Mr. Obama's new order, saying it appeared to be "a major step forward" from the vantage point of those who believe the government is too secretive.
"Everything depends on the faithful implementation by the agencies," Mr. Aftergood said, "but there are some real innovations here."
Mr. Obama also suggested that his administration might undertake further changes, saying he looked forward to recommendations from a study that Gen. James L. Jones, the national security advisor, is leading "to design a more fundamental transformation of the security classification system."
From Bill Kelly's post:
http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2012/10/protesters-deliver-letter-to-archivist.html
Adele
Protest at the National Archives - Adele Edisen - 18-10-2012
October 11, 2012
THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION:
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
On October 8, an unusual protest was scheduled to take place outside the National Archives in Washington, D.C. A group of researchers into the Kennedy assassination planned to form a picket line at the Visitor's Entrance. They were there because the National Archives had announced it will not release 1,171 top-secret CIA documents in advance of the 50th anniversary next year of JFK's assassination.
According to the CIA - and the Archives seems to have bought the argument - "substantial logistical requirements" prevented these documents' disclosure, which were the subject of a specific request from the nonprofit Assassination Archives and Research Center. This is despite the fact that the 1992 JFK Records Act mandates the public release of all assassination-related files in the government's possession. Instead, these will remain withheld until at least 2017.
This also goes counter to a directive signed by President Obama on his first day in office, pledging a new commitment to openness and transparency, including the declassification of such records. These particular ones include over 600 pages about David Atlee Phillips, a deceased CIA officer involved with anti-Castro Cuban exiles during the early 1960s. One of those exiles, Antonio Veciana, told this writer (as well as a government investigator) in 1976 that Phillips - who used the cover name"Maurice Bishop" - brought Lee Harvey Oswald to a private meeting that Veciana attended in August 1963.
Altogether, an astounding 50,000-plus pages of government files related to the JFK assassination have yet to see the light of day. Thousands more documents have been partially withheld or released but blacked-out. All in the name of national security - a half-century after the fact!
Clearly, the CIA is still worried that information it possesses would point to a conspiracy instead of the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald was the "lone gunman." The Agency might also be concerned about something else - new evidence developed by Douglas P. Horne, formerly of the Assassination Records Review Board, that clearly shows a CIA laboratory to have altered the famous Zapruder film in the immediate aftermath of the assassination. The story is available here and interested readers might also check out my lengthy interview with Horne in my book, "On the Trail of the JFK Assassins."
But when the person in charge of the National Archives' Declassification Center (Sheryl Shenberger) was formerly employed by the CIA, perhaps we should expect no less than the current impasse. Before undertaking prior declassification chores for the Agency, Shenberger was a branch chief in the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center between 2001 and 2003.
For those of us who are convinced we've never been told the truth about the tragedy of November 22, 1963 - a day that changed the course of American history - it's time to make the government hear our voices loud-and-clear leading up to next year's 50th anniversary.
One place to start is by signing this petition demanding that release of the withheld CIA files. Click here: http://www.change.org/petitions/free-the-jfk-files (URL added by AE)
Dick Russell
http://www.dickrussell.org
Adele
Protest at the National Archives - Adele Edisen - 18-10-2012
Referenced by Dick Russell in his article: Article by Douglas Horne on Zapruder Film alteration:
"The Two NPIC Zapruder Film Events: Signposts Pointing to the Film's Alteration"
By Douglas P. Horne
http://lewrockwell.com/orig13/horne-d1.1.1.html
Adele