National Archives releases first batch of 2017 JFK documents

[Anthony Thorne]

The Scribd site is a good place to post PDF's once they've been downloaded. You can post links and read the whole document in your browser.

Some guy at the Education Forum downloaded one of the smaller files, but I haven't read of many others having much luck. Jeff Morley is posting at JFKFacts that the servers are crashing due to demand and he's been approached by national news media to comment. And no, I don't think this is deliberate interference by any of the letter agencies to stop us reading the material. The documents will be circulated eventually, and suppression just makes the agencies look more guilty and encourages others to be curious. My guess is demand is swamping their system. Arrow Video (UK) had their upgraded webstore crash a week ago when many thousands of customers tried to order their limited edition of John Carpenter's THE THING. In this instance, there would be fewer people trying to access, but each person is trying to download a multi Gigabyte file. You just need once part of the system to not be as robust as the others with download traffic and things will screw up.

The first three download volumes of the series are full of what I guess are PDF files. The final six appear to be audio of the Nosenko interviews. Looking again through the Excel summaries of what's in there, the first - previously redacted, now uncensored - zip volume appears to be of strong interest. The topic headings touch lots of familiar names and events. Once we get to look at them, we'll see whether there are issues with the 'new' releases just presenting the previously redacted parts out of context, which would require some work to reconstruct what the documents were like in their entirety.

First volume - previously redacted, now complete, some entries at random -

INITIATING SEARCH FOR SUITABLE SAFEHOUSE PACY CITY AREA. (September 1963
ACTIVITIES OF MANUEL ARTIME. (Feb 1964)
MEMO:MEETING WITH ASSET IN B'S CAR FROM 2200 HOURS TO 2345 HOURS, ON 4 NOV. (memo from Lawrence Barker - which 'asset', and why so sensitive?)
ALLEGED CUBAN PLANS TO SURFACE CIA AGENT, "CONTE". (Feb 1975)
ON 5 NOVEMBER 1963, HENRY P REBROLTZ RECEIVED A TELEPHONE CALL. (November 1963)
APPRECIATE COOPERATION. (JMWAVE memo August 1963. Cooperation with what?)
HANDWRITTEN NOTE FILES ALL CUBANS, VICTOR EPINOSA HERNANDEZ. (January 1964)
MEMO: GARRISON AND THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION GUY PERSAC JOHNSON (201-207873) (January 1968)
ALFREDO MIRABAL DIAZ. MET UNDER CLANDESTINE CIRCUMSTANCES. (January 1964, Mexico City to Director)
SHEET OF SUMMARY INFO ON MORALES. (CIA)
PER REF C, THERE NO GREAT INTEREST IN DOING MORE THAN ESTABLISHING CABRERA PLANS. (September 1963, Director to Paris)
FIGUERES PROBABLY WOULD WORK WITH MANOLO RAY. (1962)
QJWIN HAS CULTIVATED PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH IDEN A WHO AGREED TO SMUGGLE INDUSTRIAL DIAMONDS FOR HIM TO ITALY. (Leopoldville to Director, August 1960)
DISPATACH: OPERATIONAL- - PASSPORT OF CZECH NATIONAL (October 1963, Chief of Station, Mexico City)
DISPATCH: OPERATIONAL / AMELBOW-1 (November 21st 1963, the day before the assassination - Chief of Station, Mexico City to Chief, SAS
CABLE: ARRIVAL OF ASSET FROM PARIS (29 October 1963, Mexico City to Director - which 'asset', and what was he arriving to do?)
CABLE: ASYLUM FOR CUBAN AND WIFE (November 19 1963, four days before assassination - Mexico to Director)
CABLE-CONCUR ANY ATTEMPT ASSIST SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS. (October 31 1963 - Director to Mexico City)
INVESTIGATION CONCERNING NOTEBOOK FOUND IN ROOM 2422, SHERATON-DALLAS HOTEL, DALLAS, TEXAS, CONTAINING HANDWRITTEN NOTES IN ENGLISH REGARDING OSWALD AND ASSASSINATION OF JFK. (FBI, four days after assassination)
NOTES RE: PROJECT ZRRIFLE (1975)
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM K. HAREY (sic, 1975 - what was censored before now?)
CABLE CONCERNING ALEX DES FONTAINES STORY THAT "THEY" WERE PLOTTING AGAINST PRESIDENT KENNEDY AND THAT "SOMETHING" WOULD HAPPEN IN TEXAS. (three days after assassination)
CIA COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT REPORT ON DEMOHRENSCHILDT. (1979)
CABLE: AMLASH/1 WAS MET IN PARIS FOR LAST TIME ON 22 NOV 63. (CIA, December 1963)
CABLE RE DISCUSSIONS.
CABLE RE ARRIVAL PLANS.
CABLE RE RECEIPT OF ENVELOPES.
CABLE RE OPERATIONAL MATTERS.
CABLE RE VISA ARRANGEMENTS.
CABLE:SUGGEST HQS CONTACT LINOZZLE AT PENTAGON FOR ASSESSMENT (all previous six cables are CIA, Mexico City to Director, late October 1963, through same period, suggesting that a group in October undertook discussions, made plans to arrive somewhere, were given envelopes prior to participating in an 'operation', and had arrangements made for Visas to travel elsewhere after the above)
PLS ADVISE AGENT TO BE ALERT, IN PAST FEW WEEKS ALL ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES AND MANY ARREST MADE. (two weeks before assassination, CIA Director to Mexico City)
JMWAVE CABLE RE "MSG 44." (day before assassination)
DISPATCH:MEXICANS IN THE SOVIET UNION FOR TRAINING (six days before assassination, CIA)

Etc etc. Remembering that each document has material that was assessed as too problematic or suggestive or damning for earlier release, I would like to read a few of these.

[Anthony Thorne]

Update. I have successfully downloaded the first volume of documents. All the documents I quoted in bold in the post above are part of it. I'll update further later and attempt to post some documents on Scribd when I can.

[Anthony Thorne]

From interview with Fletcher Prouty, 1975, original document at Mary Ferrell site here -

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html...1&tab=page

The original has some redactions. Full version in the first zip file. Page 7 at Mary Ferrell site has a section blanked out. Unredacted version makes it clear Prouty says "General Eisenhower had made it very clear to all of us who were operating overflights that nothing was to be done." Eisenhower's name is redacted in the version on the Mary Ferrell site.

Then, on page 17 (of 19) at the Mary Ferrell site, the redacted version with blacked out lines states

"I think one that is pretty clear is that over a period of time the Agency worked rather diligently with [REDACTED] when he made his move. [REDACTED] So there was no assassination, he took over."

Unredacted version reads -

"I think one that is pretty clear is that over a period of time the Agency worked rather diligently with General Rene Barrientos in Bolivia when he made his move. Dr. Victor Paz Estenssoro, who was President of Bolivia left. So there was no assassination, he took over."

[Anthony Thorne]

Redactions on second page of JMWAVE biographical data remove a code name. 'A[01] - 4' is 'AMWEE-4'.

http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?...2&tab=page

[Anthony Thorne]

Page 2 of CIA cable to Mexico 'Re Passing Info to Warren Commission'

Redacted version at Mary Ferrell site is here, redactions on page 2.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html...2&tab=page

First sentence of redacted version reads

1. OUR PRESENT PLAN IN PASSING INFO TO WARREN COMMISSION IS TO ELIMINATE MENTION OF [REDACTED].

The uncensored version reads

1. OUR PRESENT PLAN IN PASSING INFO TO WARREN COMMISSION IS TO ELIMINATE MENTION OF TELEPHONE TAPS, IN ORDER TO PROTECT YOUR CONTINUING OPS.

The other deletions on the page are code-names, no names are mentioned.

[Anthony Thorne]

From the Mary Ferrell site - MEMO NO. 9 - GARRISON AND THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION

http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?...5&tab=page

Page 5 is redacted.

"Martin was a [redacted] when he was a Director of International Relations and World Trade of International House in New Orleans"

The uncensored version reads

"Martin was a DCS contact and source in 1964 and 1965 when he was a Director of International Relations and World Trade of International House in New Orleans"

[Anthony Thorne]

QJWIN document. Codename of person who approached QJWIN, previously redacted, is 'Nightingale'.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html...2&tab=page

That's enough for now. There are a few thousand documents in that first batch. If anyone sees any specific ones they want me to dig up, please mention the Excel doc number as listed down the left side of the Excel doc. Even better, if anyone Googles any of the listed documents (as I just did now) and sees specific redactions that they want me to compare the uncensored one to, just let me know. I'll dip in and out and have a look.

[Peter Lemkin]

A little disappointed that most of this dump are Nosenko interrogation tapes. While the Nosenko matter is interesting, this is hours and hours and hours of interrogations to wade through. Somewhere, there must be documents that are summaries. Thanks for your notes Anthony.

[Anthony Thorne]

The first couple of zip files have many thousands of documents covering stuff unrelated to Nosenko. I'll be pleased if we get more, broader material though.

From Mary Ferrell site, JMWave cable.

Page two has redacted name, 'Oleg is [redacted].

http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?...2&tab=page

Complete version, 'Oleg is Jose Ramon Garcia Perez'.

William Kelly article on a released document -

New Collins Radio Document Released

http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com.au

Comment by John Newman -

The NARA release site has become a huge mess. We can only hope it can be cleaned up soon. Here is what I know. For a few who were lucky enough to start downloading at 8 AM eastern, they were able to get the first zip file on the former partially released docs. There are over 3000 docs in that zip. I was too late. For the newly released docs I was able to download 1 of 9, 2 of 9 and 4 of nine. I understand that this is true for many of my contacts.

Understand that although the XLS spreadsheets can be downloaded, they are of little use unless you can download the associated zip file with all of the PDFs. The information in the spreadsheets is minimal, and this is a big problem when one "document" is really 60 pages with forty documents in reality.

Once I get things rolling, with Alan Dale's help we will share with others, including CAPA, Lancer et al, to make available on the AARC website and my 2017 JFK site and others, the zip files or some other alternatives that work. In the absence of NARA fixing the situation quickly, this may be the best option we have.

Additional note re the Excel document summaries.

When you open the Excel document, you get the following info at the left hand side of the document

Documents listed
1
2
3
4

etc. This is just a count of the number of documents in the download.

The second column is the file name of the document, i.e

104-10162-10011
104-10162-10131
104-10162-10145
104-10162-10147

These are the references to the actual PDF's. When you're scrolling through the folder of PDF files, you can get a sense of where the document that you're after is by referring to the numbers as they get higher. These are also listed in a later 'Record Number' column. If you Google these numbers and add the word 'JFK' to the Google search you'll typically get the Mary Ferrell page linking to the censored document. Open the original in one browser and the Mary Ferrell page in another and you can sit and do a comparison.

[Jim DiEugenio]

I am still trying to figure out why the Nosenko stuff was classified.

He was not an agent in place or part of an ongoing operation since the CIA officially cleared him of that.

Why did the ARRB let them get away with this?

Nice job Anthony. Please let us know when you have this up and we will link to you.