National Archives Releases JFK Assassination
Records
Press Release ·Thursday, October 26, 2017
Washington, DC/
President Orders Release of All Remaining Section 5
Records and More Precise Review for Remaining Redactions within Six Months
The National Archives today released 2,891 records
related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that are subject to
the President
John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK
Act). These records are available for download online.
The President has also ordered that all remaining
records governed by section 5 of the JFK Act be released, and thus additional
records will be released subject to redactions recommended by the executive
offices and agencies. NARA will process these records for release as soon
as possible on a rolling basis.
Based on requests from executive offices and
agencies the President has allowed the temporary withholding of certain
information that would harm national security, law enforcement, or foreign
affairs. The President also ordered agencies to re-review their proposed
redactions and only redact information in the rarest of circumstances
where its withholding “is made necessary by an identifiable harm to military
defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign
relations; and the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the
public interest in disclosure.” These instructions will allow the
National Archives to release as much information as possible by the end of the
temporary certification period on April 26, 2018.
The National Archives previously released 3,810
related records on July 24, 2017, including 441 records previously withheld in
their entirety and 3,369 records previously withheld in part. More information
about this release is available online.
In addition, the National Archives is also releasing
to the public the unclassified
electronic records of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB),
including 52,387 emails and 16,627 files from the ARRB drives.
The National Archives established the John F.
Kennedy Assassination Records Collection in November 1992, and it consists of
approximately five million pages of records. The vast majority of the
collection has been publicly available without any restrictions since the late
1990s.
Online Resources:
JFK Assassination Records Processing Project — Background and FAQs
The work of the Kennedy Assassination Records Collection
Bill: I thought you would be on top of this. Happy hunting.
ReplyDeleteJim L.