Article: 698 of alt.conspiracy.jfk From: dave@sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe) Subject: new openDarchives bill--latest fallback [was "Archives to be Opened"] Keywords: elect government volk are SUPPOSED to be our employees--WE PAY THEM. Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc. Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1992 16:02:03 GMT Lines: 556 In article <1992Mar31.202151.26510@desktalk.desktalk.com> rlg@desktalk.com writes: >On a preview program for the Oscars the other night, Ebert (the heavyset one >of the 'Siskell and Ebert' movie critic team) mentioned that Congress has >voted to reopen the Archives on the Kennedy assassination, largely as a >result of the public reaction after seeing Oliver Stone's 'JFK' (which >Ebert picked as his movie of the year for 1991, BTW). > >I haven't seen or heard anything about this here, on TV or radio or in >the papers. Does anyone know anymore about it? Did a bill pass? Does Bush >have to sign it (good luck)? > >Richard off the AP from last week. traditionally lame next-step in the on-going cover-up strategy: | WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Virtually all the secret files on the 1963 |assassination of John F. Kennedy would be made public under legislation |proposed Thursday to make certain no documents contain new information |on the "most heinous and enigmatic crime of this century." | Rep. Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, who was chairman of the House |investigation of the Kennedy murder, and Sen. David Boren, D-Okla., |chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, jointly introduced a |resolution that would create a process for reviewing the material. | Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, a close friend of the late president, |commented that the disclosure has the support of the Kennedy family, |which had already given autopsy material to the National Archives. | At a well-attended news conference, Stokes said there was no |"smoking gun" in the more than 850 boxes of material sealed until the |year 2029 by the House Select Committee on Assassinations. | And Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a staff member of the Warren |Commission that first investigated the Kennedy assassination, said "I |doubt it" when asked if the public would learn anything new from the |volumes of files dealing with the killing in Dallas. | "I believe had there been a conspiracy, it would have come to light |long ago," Specter said. | The Warren Commission concluded that Kennedy was killed by a single |shot fired by Harvey Lee Oswald. The Stokes committee decided that there |had been a conspiracy but could not prove it, making the assassination a |continuing intrigue. | Boren said the recently released film "JFK" "has been very |provocative -- certainly it has heightened interest in the matter," but |added Congress would have pressed for disclosure even without it. ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ RIGHT. SURE. coming from "the CIA's BEST friend in the Senate" this is a marvelous case of pathetically lame backpedaling. | Under the proposal, all material from the official investigations and |from the CIA, FBI, Secret Service and other executive branch agencies |would be turned over to the executive director of a new independent ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |five-person review board. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Forget another official investigation. There's already been too many of those. Any new official investigation will merely monopolize the files for another ten years. Lets put all the cards on the table and let them fall where they may. No more secrets, no more lies, just open the archives, and let the people do their own research, and draw their own conclusions. Stop relegating the citizens of this country to an infantile status. | In the event the originating committee and the executive director |have no objection to making the material public, the material would be |automatically made public through the National Archives. | If objections are made to the release of any material, the Review |Board would make the decision that could be blocked only by the personal |intervention of the president. | Release of material could be postponed only if it identifies an |intelligence agent; an intelligence source or method still in use; any |matter currently relating to military defense, intelligencee operations |or conduct of foreign relations of such gravity that it outweighs public |interest in disclosure; if it constitutes the invasion of the privacy of |a living person; if it violates an understanding of confidentiality |between a government agent and a witness or a foreign government; |discloses a security procedure currently used by the Secret Service. anything that may point to government involvement will easily be kept under wraps with the above qualifications | Stokes said the resolution is intended to "promote releasing |everything that is releasable" and Boren said, "I would be surprised |if 99.9999 percent would not be released." | "The American people have asked for our leadership on this issue, |and we have complied," Stokes said. "I believe that this resolution |will enable Americans to gain access to all the facts and circumstances |surrounding this great American and further enable them to ascertain |fact from fiction surrounding the death of their president." | Boren said, "It is time to review these records, not in terms of the |old assumptions, but rather in light of the need for openness and to |encourage confidence in the government. We need to ensure ourselves of |the facts, that there is not information lurking somewhere in the |government that would shed new light on what remains perhaps the most |heinous and enigmatic crime of this century." always couching further "official review and control of information" in the most benign and "we know best" condescending terms. GIVE US A BREAK. just let the people decide themselves. you've already decided enough to last eternity over the past 28 years. the people do NOT trust their own government in matters pertaining to the assassination of political leaders since 1963. it's clear enuff for anyone to see EXCEPT the careerists in government who are addicted to the the power, prominence, fancy limos and all the rest. included below is the first newsletter of the Committee for an Open Archive. check out the text of the new bill written by them starting 233 lines below this one. then call up the senate switchboard (202/224-3207), ask to get piped thru to stokes' office, and ask someone there to send you a copy of the new bill stokes is proposing to "open the archives." compare it and then see what you think of the latest effort to maintain control on what the people will allowed to see while the pacifier continues to be gagged inside all our mouths. * * * * * * * * * Subject: "Prologue"#1, newsletter of The Committee for an Open Archive (COA) Keywords: the past is prologue. the future is what we will make of it. This is the first newsletter by the Committee for an Open Archive, founded in Washington D.C. in November, 1991 PROLOGUE The Newsletter of the Committee for an Open Archives The Committee for an Open Archives--P.O.Box 6008, Wash.D.C. 20050-0708 Volume 1 #1 "THE PAST IS PROLOGUE" January 1992 _______________________________________________________________ COMMITTEE FORMED TO RELEASE JFK DOCUMENTS Washington, D.C. The Committee for an Open Archives was formed in November, 1991 to help draft a bill to release the documents of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, see that it is introduced in Congress, to lobby for its passage and to disseminate the information once it is released. Although most of the Warren Commission and FBI documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released in censored form, there are some significant materials from the earliest investigations that are still being kept under raps. We are also attempting to get them released. The most important documents however, stem from the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which concluded its business in 1979. HSCA Chairman Louis Stokes, on March 27, 1979, officially wrote that, ". . . The Justice (sic) Department is in physical custody of a variety of materials originating from the Select Committee. It can be anticipated that your department will receive requests under the Freedom of Information Act for access to these materials." "The purpose of this letter is to request specifically that this congressional material and related information NOT be disclosed outside your department without written concurrence of the House of Representatives." "All government agencies are . . . to treat the records they compiled for the HSCA investigation in the same fashion as "congressional material" NOT TO BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC." House Rule XXXVI on the "Preservation and Availability of Noncurrent Records of the House" stipulates that such documents can only be made available if they have "been in existence for 50 years." The Committee for an Open Archives intends to see that a bill is introduced in this congress that will release these documents. Although Rep. Stokes and former HSCA chief counsel G. Robert Blakey are expected to try and block such an effort, there is strong public support for such action and a growing lobby effort to pass such legislation. It is believed that the bill, once introduced, will be assigned to the House Administration Committee before it is voted on by the complete House. * * * * * * * STONE'S "JFK" SPARKS DEBATE, FUELS MOVEMENT TO OPEN ARCHIVES By William E. Kelly There have been few major motion pictures to create as much controversy before their release than Oliver Stone's new movie, "JFK." Like Stone's other films, "JFK" is entertainment, not documentary or history. It's conspiratorial tone, however, has irked a few lawyers and journalists, whose reputations were made and are still threatened by this case. The film is significant for calling attention to the assassination of JFK, a black hole in American history, and for using the medium to reach and influence a new generation who weren't even born in November, 1963. While the debate rages over whether President Kennedy was killed by one man alone or by a sinister conspiracy, much of the truth lies locked away in the National Archives in Washington D.C. Stone's movie may inspire some people to call for an official investigation. That however, has already been done, and done over, by the Dallas Police, the FBI, the USMC, the Warren Commission, the New Orleans District Attorney's office, the Schweiker-Hart subcommittee of the Senate's Church Intelligence Committee and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). It was this last Congressional committee which compiled many important documents and took the testimony of many witnesses from 1977-1979. The HSCA issued a series of publications, its final report concluding, "there is evidence of conspiracy." The committee then dissolved, leaving its most significant evidence locked in the National Archives. Because these documents are classified as "congressional documents" they are subject to House Rule #36 which stipulates that they cannot be released to the public for 50 years. They are scheduled to be released in the year 2029. Nor can these documents be obtained by researchers through a Freedom of Information Act suit since Congress absolved itself from compliance when it approved the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, over-ridding a veto attempt by President Gerald Ford, who had served on the Warren Commission. Now it will take an act of Congress to release the files and the public support for such an act is increasing. Former chief counsel of the HSCA G. Robert Blakey said, "I'll rest on the judgment of historians in 2029." But we won't. We want the truth in our lifetime not in 2029. Committee for an Open Archives P.O. Box 6008, Washington D.C. 20005-0708 * * * * * * * Letter From The Publisher: The idea for the Committee for an Open Archives (COA) developed several years ago, but it only fermented into a workable concept last November shortly before the Assassination Symposium on Kennedy (ASK) in Dallas. I had suggested the idea to John Judge, who had first introduced me to the significance of the Kennedy assassination when we were both in college in the sixties, but the concept only percolated until just before we left for the ASK conference. I put together a leaflet for the COA that I distributed to the Symposium participants, and received a tremendous response from an unabashly biased audience. On my way home from the conference my train made a six hour stop over in Washington, during which time I visited my Congressman, William Hughes (D. 2nd, N.J.) and then walked over to the Archives, where I learned the exact law, House Rule #36, which has kept the House Select Committee on Assassinations documents locked away. I also visited lawyer James Lesar at the Assassination Information Archives and my college mate John Judge. While Judge took out the P.O. box in Washington, I put together this newsletter. I called it PROLOGUE a month before I saw Oliver Stone's film, "JFK," at the end of which he notes, "The Past Is Prologue"--the words that are inscribed on the side of the wall of the National Archives. I knew, at least we were on the same wavelength, but I never expected the movie to capture the public's imagination the way it did. I knew that we had to convince over 218 congressman, a clear majority, to change the Rules of the House to release the documents. I also knew that of the 15,000 bills introduced into Congress every year, approximately 1,000 make it into law, or 1/15th the number submitted. So I thought we were going to start out with at least a 1 in 15 chance of getting the bill through. Now however, and as long as the public maintains its interest to influence the people's representatives, the chances keep getting better. Once a bill is introduced, as a similar bill was in 1983 (HR# 160), it is sent to a committee. In this case it would normally be the House Administration Committee. The more committees it is sent to, and the longer it stays in committee, the less of a chance it has to make it to the house floor for a vote, and the less chance it has of becoming a law. Without the public interest, most bills lose out in committee, where they stay "on the shelf" until the year is out, and then they must be reintroduced to be considered again. We don't intend to let that happen. While Oliver Stone made our job plausible, when it was only possible a few weeks ago, Congress still must be urged to move, each congressman must be individually polled as to where they stand on this issue, the bill must be sponsored, co-sponsored and introduced to the House and assigned to a committee. The committee must hold hearings on the bill and then vote on its merits before the matter can be brought to the floor by the entire House of Representatives. The bill may even be included in a larger package of bills to be voted on. This is certainly an idea whose time has come. Not long ago we were just a few eccentric assassination and history buffs, but now we are mainstream America, with over 70% of the population supporting our cause. Neither Democrat nor Republican, liberal or conservative, leftwing or rightwing, nor even lone-nut vs. conspiracy theorists, we just want the facts, and we want them to be made available to the public. Forget another official investigation. There's already been too many of those. Any new official investigation will merely monopolize the files for another ten years. Lets put all the cards on the table and let them fall where they may. No more secrets, no more lies, just Open the Archives. William E. Kelly * * * * * * * House Rule #XXXVI PRESERVATION AND AVAILABILITY OF NONCURRENT RECORDS OF THE HOUSE 1. (a) At the end of each Congress, the chairman of each committee of the House shall transfer to the Clerk any noncurrent records of such committee, including the subcommittees thereof . . . 2. The Clerk shall deliver the records pursuant to clause 1. of the rule, together with any other noncurrent records of the House, to the Archivist of the United States for preservation at the National Archives and Records Administration. Records so delivered are the permanent property of the House and remain subject to this rule and the orders of the House . . . 3. . . . (b) . . . (2) Any investigative record that contains personal data relating to a specific individual (the disclosure of which would be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy), any administrative record with respect to personal, and any record with respect to a hearing closed pursuant to clause 2(g)(2) of rule XI shall be available if such records has been in existence for 50 years . . . 4. . . . (b) The Committee on House Administration may prescribe guidelines and regulations governing the applicability and implementation of this rule. (c) A committee may withdraw from the National Archives and Records Administration any record of the committee delivered to the Archivist of the United States under this rule. Such withdrawal shall be on a temporary basis and for official use of the committee. NEW BILL WRITTEN BY THE Committee For An Open Archives P.O. Box 6008, Washington D.C. 20005-0708 102nd CONGRESS 2nd Session H. Res. # ?- To provide for the immediate release of all records of the Select Committee on Assassinations. _________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY, 1992 1. 1 Resolved, That, the Clerk of the House is authorized and directed to 2 order the Administrator of the General Services to make available for 3 public use, in accordance with this resolution, all records of the House 4 Select Committee on Assassinations of the 94th and 95th Congress. 2. 1 Sec. 2. The guidelines governing disclosure of the records of 2 the Select Committee on Assassinations shall be the guidelines utilized 3 by the General Services Administration for the records of the 4 President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy and any 5 other official investigation, including those conducted by the FBI, CIA, 6 ONI, USMC, Dallas police and any other agency of the U.S. government. 3. 1 Sec. 3. It is the intent of the House that the General Services 2 Administration give priority to review and release of these records. * * * * * * * COMMITTEE FOR AN OPEN ARCHIVES --P.O. Box 6008, Washington, D.C. 20005-0708-- _________________________________________________________ -------------THE TRUTH IS OUR ONLY OBJECTIVE------------- - The Committee for an Open Archives is a non-profit organization established to draft, introduce and pass Congressional legislation to declassify and accelerate the release of documents and testimony related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The COA was founded by William E. Kelly and John Judge and is funded through donations and membership subscriptions. - The COA intends to pursue this goal through informing the public about what information is being withheld, creating a broad base of public-citizen support to open the Archives, and initiate an intense lobbying campaign in Congress to pass the necessary legislation to release the documents as soon as possible. - The COA is also pursuing Freedom of Information and Privacy Act requests for specific documents and will publish the most recently released information, as well as any new developments in the JFK assassination, in our newsletter -- PROLOGUE. We are also attempting to establish a nationwide team of independent researchers, disseminate the facts to be reviewed and indexed, and open a computerized network that will store, file and distribute the information as it becomes available. - Besides the censored Warren Commission documents that remain classified after nearly 30 years, there are the House Select Committee on Assassination (HSCA) files, transcripts and information in the National Archives, which are locked away, according to House Rule #36, until 50 years after the conclusion of the HSCA investigation, in 2029. - To support this effort to release the facts, please sign and distribute- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Send To: Committee For An Open Archives, P.O. Box 6008, Washington D.C. 20005-0708 Name_____________________________________________________________________ Address__________________________________________________________________ Phone #_________________________________ Level of Commitment: Sign On - ______ - Send Petition For Congress To Amend HR#36. Subscribe- ______ - Subscribe to Prologue-The COA Newsletter ($25 enclosed). Come In - ______ - Volunteer Your Time - Work In Your Community. Come On - ______ - Committeeman - ($100--Includes petitions, 4 subs to PROLOGUE, one for you, your Congressman and 2 friends as well as the latest Faxed updates from ReFormFacts. Reach In - ______ - Researcher ($200 includes 8 subs, 2 update's & " ). Tune In - ______ - Compunet Researcher. (When on line). Chip In - ______ - Donate financially (tax deductible check $______ included). Be On - ______ - Be a Benefactor and serve on the COA Board of Advisors. * * * * * * * IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROLOGUE LOOK FOR: - Oliver Stone Fires Back - the complete Wash. Press Club speech. - Report from the ASK Conference in Dallas. - Dallas For Beginners - A Tour De Force of the Scenes of the Crimes. - Tom Wilson's New Gray Scale Imaging of Photo Evidence. - The Press Release on the Houston Police Dept.'s Identification of the Tramps. - New Column by John Judge - Judge For Yourself. - New Books Previewed and Reviewed: Jean Hill, Mark Lane, John Newman et al. - What's in the Archives Anyway. Lists of documents we know about and want to see. - Organizing Your Community and Lobbying Your Congressman--How will your Representative vote? OTHER SOURCES: THE LAST HURRAH BOOKSHOP BOOKS ON POLITICAL ASSASSINATIONS CONSPIRACY AND THE KENNEDY FAMILY 937 MEMORIAL AVE. WILLIAMSPORT, PA., 17701 PHONE: (717) 327-9338 THE THIRD DECADE A JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON THE JFK ASSASSINATION JERRY ROSE, EDITOR STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE FREDONIA, NEW YORK, 14063 PREVAILING WINDS RESEARCH P.O. BOX 23511 SANTA BARBARA, CA. 93121 "It's not ironic, it's sad that people are still investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, . . . . . . it's sad that this crime was not properly investigated from the very beginning." - Kevin Costner "We don't dare confront the implications. I think we've all agreed there was a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy, and we just don't want to know the complete truth. It involves such powerful forces in what we call high places that if we do know, everything might fall apart." - Leonard Bernstein - 1980 "The very word `secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open public and we are as a people, inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it." - John F. Kennedy "There is always a tendency in government to confuse secrecy with security. Disclosure may be uncomfortable, but it is not the purpose of democracy to ensure the comfort of its leaders." - Robert F. Kennedy -- daveus rattus yer friendly neighborhood ratman KOYAANISQATSI ko.yan.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language) n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life out of balance. 4. life disintegrating. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.