Initial Request

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05868430
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: November 8, 2021
• Case Number: F-2015-00830
• Publication Date: July 3, 2012

Approved for Release: 2021/11/05 C05868430
JOURNALIST RUSSE
June 28, 2012
Susan Viscuso
Central Intelligence Agency
CAROLLO
Email:
Pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, I request
access to and copies of:
All communication since October 1998 related in any way to the release of
materials related to the JFK assassination. This requests includes, but is not
limited to, communication with the NARA, internal CIA communication,
communication with other agencies and all records of all discussions related in
any way to classifying records NBR (Not Believed Relevant).
This request also includes, but is not limited to, congressional correspondence
and FOIA request and response letters related in any way to the same subject.
I have attached a letter to assist in your search; however, the scope of my
request is in no way limited by this document.
Please justify each deletion separately by reference to specific exemptions of
the Act, and release all reasonably segregable portions of otherwise exempt
material.
Include information contained in the material that otherwise would be
considered non-responsive to the specific request.
I will only modify this request in writing -- not via telephone.
Notify me prior to incurring more than $200 of expenses.
I look forward to your reply within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Thanks for your assistance.
ma list
(b)(6)
(b)(6)
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Approved for Release: 2021/11/05 C05868430
NATIONAL
ARCHIVES
June 12,2012
Lesar, President
Assassination Archives and Research Center
1003 K Street, NW, Suite 640
Washington, DC 20001
By Email and First Class Mail
Dear Mr. Lesar
I wr te in response to the letter of January 20, 2012, from you and five colleagues to David S.
Eerier�, Archivist of the United States, requesting that the National Archives and Records
Administration review the remaining classified documents that were "postponed" from public
disclosure in accordance with the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of
1992 in time for the 50th anniversary of the assassination in November 2013.
We share your passion and commitment to providing access to IFIC assassination records as
quickly as possible. As your letter recounts, the JFK Act established a rigorous process for
declassification review and release that was administered by the Assassination Records Review
Board until 1998. For any assassination records that were not released by the ARRB, subsequent
release could be postponed until a date certain not to exceed 25 years from the enactment of the
JFK Act, i.e., no later than 2017.
The .1171( Act Collection consists of a total of approximately 5 million pages, and less than 1% of
the documents in the Collection are "postponed in full" until 2017. I note that your letter states
that in 2010, Assistant Archivist "Michael Kurtz revealed that the CIA continues to withhold
approximately 50,000 pages of JFK assassination-related records." 1 would like to clarify that
NARA has never counted, and thus does not know, the actual number of pages that are
postponed in full. Dr. Kurtz accurately stated that "less than one percent" of the total volume of
assassination records was still being withheld; he also provided our rough estimate that the
collection totals approximately five million pages. Thus, it appears that the 50,000 page number
in your letter may have been derived by incorrectly calculating a full one percent of five million
pages. All we do know is that the CIA withheld in full a total of 1,171 documents as national
security classified (there is a small number of other agency documents also postponed in full,
principally for law enforcement).
NATIONAL ARCHIVES and
RICORDS Apm IN ISTRATION
8601 AD EI H J RO A D
LUCE PARK MD 20740-0001
11'11,11' 41
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(b) 6
GARY M STERN
GENERAL COUNSEL
SUITE 3110
301 837 3026
geo .s 1 erte@na ra �goy
Approved for Release 2021/11/05 C05868430
Your letter asks NARA to submit these remaining 1171 documents "currently withheld by the
CIA" for declassification review as part of the National Declassification Center's (NDC) project
to complete the declassification of the "400 million page backlog" identified in the President's
December 29, 2009, Memorandum Implementing Executive Order 13526, by December 31,
2013. We recognize that, in a 2010 public forum, Dr. Kurtz stated that the postponed MC
assassination records would be included as part of the NDC project, However, as we have tried
to explain before, Dr. Kurtz misspoke. Rather, because the postponed JFK assassination records
have already been subject to a full and complete government-wide declassification review, they
are not part of the 400 million page backlog of records that have yet to receive a final review.
Because of the mandated December 31, 2013 deadline for our review and processing of the
extremely large set of backlogged records, the NDC must target its efforts exclusively on records
contained within that backlog. In addition, because we are limited in the resources we can assign
to these special reviews, we try to balance historical impact, public interest, and extent of other
government agency involvement in order to manage government-wide declassification resource
constraints as efficiently and effectively as possible.
As you know, the JFK Act authorized unprecedented powers for the ARAB, including the ability
to overturn an agency decision on declassification, with the President as the only appeal
authority. Although agencies did appeal ARRB decisions, President Clinton did not overturn
any access determinations on appeal. The power wielded by the ARRB meant that more records
were declassified and made available under the JFK Act than would have been released under
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or any currently applicable review provision of the prior
or current Executive Order on Classified National Security Information.
As previously mentioned, the 1171 remaining postponed documents will be released in 2017,
unless the President personally certifies on a document by document basis that continued
postponement is necessary and that the harm from disclosure is of such gravity that it outweighs
the public interest in disclosure. Moreover, as you point out, the JFK Act clearly intended for
periodic releases prior to the 2017 date. To date all of the periodic release dates have been met,
including in 2006, when the CIA made preemptory releases of all documents that were
postponed from release until 2010. Thus, the only documents in the Collection that are still
withheld in full for classification reasons are the 1171 CIA documents that the ARRB agreed
should not be released until 2017.
We recognize that the remaining records are of high public interest and historical value, and we
appreciate your stated desire not to have to wait five more years to obtain access to these records.
Given this public interest, we have been consulting with the CIA to see if it would be possible to
review and release any of these remaining documents in time for the 50th anniversary of
President Kennedy's assassination in 2013. Although the CIA shares NARA's interest in
wanting to he responsive to your request, they have concluded there are substantial logistical
requirements that must take place prior to the release of these remaining records and there is
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Approved for Release: 2021/11/05 C05868430
simply not sufficient time or resources to complete these tasks prior o 2017. Accordingly, we
will not be able to accommodate your request.
Thank you for your interest in this matter. Please share this letter with the co-signatories to your
letter, and let me know if you have any questions.
GARY M. STERN
General Counsel
3
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Approved for Release: 2021/11/05 C05868430
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