Posts
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Everyone Should Read This!
A very interesting article - THE JFK CASE: WHAT INFORMANTS ARE STILL OUT THERE?
Monday, November 23, 2009
Declassification trouble?
From Secrecy News:
NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER AIMS TO AVOID DECLASS DEADLINE
Development of a new executive order on classification of national security information is now proceeding at an accelerated pace in order to preempt a deadline that would require the declassification of millions of pages of historical records next month.
A revised draft executive order was circulated to executive branch agencies by the Office of Management and Budget on November 16, with agency comments due back today, November 23. A final order is likely to be issued by the end of this year.
There is an incentive to complete the development of the executive order before December 31, 2009 because of a deadline for declassification of historical records that falls on that date. Under the current Bush executive order, classified records that are at least 25 years old and that have been referred from one agency to another because they involve multiple agency interests are supposed to be automatically declassified at the end of this year. (See E.O. 13292, section 3.3(e)(3)).
But in order to meet this December deadline, several agencies would have to forgo a review of the affected historical records, which they are unwilling to do. And so it seems they will simply be excused from compliance. But in order to modify the deadline in the Bush order, it will be necessary to issue another executive order. If the comprehensive new Obama order on classification policy (which would assign processing of such records to a National Declassification Center that does not yet exist) is not ready for release by December 31, then another stand-alone order would have to be issued, canceling or extending the looming deadline. And officials are reluctant to issue such an order since they say it would be awkward for the avowedly pro-openness Obama Administration to relax or annul a declassification requirement that was imposed by the ultra-secret Bush Administration.
In fact, the whole process has become an awkward mix of exaggerated and deflated expectations. The failure of the Bush Administration's declassification deadline to take hold this year does not augur well for new, more ambitious efforts to advance classification reform. If the "automatic declassification" procedures that were prescribed in prior executive orders are not "automatic" after all, and if binding deadlines can be extended more or less at will, then any new declassification requirements in the Obama order will be similarly subject to doubt or defiance.
The latest draft executive order has not yet become publicly available, though officials said they expected it to leak, as did a previous draft dated August 4. "It includes some notable differences" from the earlier draft, said one official. But another official said "It's basically the same as the draft you already have." (See "Draft Order Would Set New Limits on Classification," Secrecy News, September 29, 2009.)
Ironically, today's classification system seems to function more effectively in preventing public access to aging archival records than it does with respect to certain present-day information.
Thus, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters on November 12, "I have been appalled by the amount of leaking that has been going on" about classified Administration deliberations on Afghanistan policy and other matters.
But from a different point of view, others may be appalled that Secretary Gates' own Department still retains classification restrictions on historical records dating back to the Korean War, and even from World War II, and that it otherwise resists modernization and correction of the cold war classification system.
Some general background on the national security classification system from the Congressional Research Service can be found in "Security Classification Policy and Procedure: E.O. 12958, as Amended" (pdf), November 3, 2009.
NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER AIMS TO AVOID DECLASS DEADLINE
Development of a new executive order on classification of national security information is now proceeding at an accelerated pace in order to preempt a deadline that would require the declassification of millions of pages of historical records next month.
A revised draft executive order was circulated to executive branch agencies by the Office of Management and Budget on November 16, with agency comments due back today, November 23. A final order is likely to be issued by the end of this year.
There is an incentive to complete the development of the executive order before December 31, 2009 because of a deadline for declassification of historical records that falls on that date. Under the current Bush executive order, classified records that are at least 25 years old and that have been referred from one agency to another because they involve multiple agency interests are supposed to be automatically declassified at the end of this year. (See E.O. 13292, section 3.3(e)(3)).
But in order to meet this December deadline, several agencies would have to forgo a review of the affected historical records, which they are unwilling to do. And so it seems they will simply be excused from compliance. But in order to modify the deadline in the Bush order, it will be necessary to issue another executive order. If the comprehensive new Obama order on classification policy (which would assign processing of such records to a National Declassification Center that does not yet exist) is not ready for release by December 31, then another stand-alone order would have to be issued, canceling or extending the looming deadline. And officials are reluctant to issue such an order since they say it would be awkward for the avowedly pro-openness Obama Administration to relax or annul a declassification requirement that was imposed by the ultra-secret Bush Administration.
In fact, the whole process has become an awkward mix of exaggerated and deflated expectations. The failure of the Bush Administration's declassification deadline to take hold this year does not augur well for new, more ambitious efforts to advance classification reform. If the "automatic declassification" procedures that were prescribed in prior executive orders are not "automatic" after all, and if binding deadlines can be extended more or less at will, then any new declassification requirements in the Obama order will be similarly subject to doubt or defiance.
The latest draft executive order has not yet become publicly available, though officials said they expected it to leak, as did a previous draft dated August 4. "It includes some notable differences" from the earlier draft, said one official. But another official said "It's basically the same as the draft you already have." (See "Draft Order Would Set New Limits on Classification," Secrecy News, September 29, 2009.)
Ironically, today's classification system seems to function more effectively in preventing public access to aging archival records than it does with respect to certain present-day information.
Thus, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters on November 12, "I have been appalled by the amount of leaking that has been going on" about classified Administration deliberations on Afghanistan policy and other matters.
But from a different point of view, others may be appalled that Secretary Gates' own Department still retains classification restrictions on historical records dating back to the Korean War, and even from World War II, and that it otherwise resists modernization and correction of the cold war classification system.
Some general background on the national security classification system from the Congressional Research Service can be found in "Security Classification Policy and Procedure: E.O. 12958, as Amended" (pdf), November 3, 2009.
Back from Dallas - JFK Lancer Conference News
Hello,
Well, it was a small rather intimate gathering this year. Not one of the best conferences, but not the worst by any means. The Adolphus Hotel had the conference in two small rooms which were around the back of the reception/registration area. There was no sign of any JFK conference going on in the hotel at all. And it stayed that way throughout, despite JFK Lancer, and COPA being there. I arrived on Thursday night and on Friday morning I went to rooms where the conference was held in the past. 9:30 a.m. came and went and there wasn't a sign of anyone. So, I went to reception and asked and then I found it.
Highlights for me were hearing Abraham Bolden, again. And Dr. Robert McClelland spoke. He gave his personal recollections of events relating to trying to save the lives of JFK and Oswald. I wish he had some photos as part of his presentation. He mentioned how he only really had two suits, one from Sears, which got a laugh, and how in trying to save JFK he had no time to put on any hospital gowns and he got soaked in blood. His wife insisted that the suit be cleaned, but he did not get his shirt cleaned. And he brought the shirt and showed it. It was in what I assume to be a vaccumm sealed see through plastic pouch. That brought a hushed silence from us all.
Best comedic moment goes to Brian Edwards and Casey Quinlan who examined the testimony given to the Warren Commission from eyewitnesses to the J.D. Tipitt killing, specifically, their descriptions of the suspect and the clothes he was wearing. One person being questioned by David Belin kept referring to Belin as looking like the suspect. So, Edwards and Quinlan photoshoped Belin's face onto Oswald, using he photo when Oswald is in handcuffs and in custody of the DPD walking down a hallway showing his handcuffs which some have called the Communist salute.
Well, it was a small rather intimate gathering this year. Not one of the best conferences, but not the worst by any means. The Adolphus Hotel had the conference in two small rooms which were around the back of the reception/registration area. There was no sign of any JFK conference going on in the hotel at all. And it stayed that way throughout, despite JFK Lancer, and COPA being there. I arrived on Thursday night and on Friday morning I went to rooms where the conference was held in the past. 9:30 a.m. came and went and there wasn't a sign of anyone. So, I went to reception and asked and then I found it.
Highlights for me were hearing Abraham Bolden, again. And Dr. Robert McClelland spoke. He gave his personal recollections of events relating to trying to save the lives of JFK and Oswald. I wish he had some photos as part of his presentation. He mentioned how he only really had two suits, one from Sears, which got a laugh, and how in trying to save JFK he had no time to put on any hospital gowns and he got soaked in blood. His wife insisted that the suit be cleaned, but he did not get his shirt cleaned. And he brought the shirt and showed it. It was in what I assume to be a vaccumm sealed see through plastic pouch. That brought a hushed silence from us all.
Best comedic moment goes to Brian Edwards and Casey Quinlan who examined the testimony given to the Warren Commission from eyewitnesses to the J.D. Tipitt killing, specifically, their descriptions of the suspect and the clothes he was wearing. One person being questioned by David Belin kept referring to Belin as looking like the suspect. So, Edwards and Quinlan photoshoped Belin's face onto Oswald, using he photo when Oswald is in handcuffs and in custody of the DPD walking down a hallway showing his handcuffs which some have called the Communist salute.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
I'm off to Dallas
Hi folks, I'm off to Dallas where I will speak at the JFK Lancer conference. I'm going to be talking about an old paperback book that should be in your collection of books on the JFK assassination. There are some interesting things in here. You can search websites that sell old books and find it fairly easily. It's cheap to get. You'll spend more on the postage. And please visit our friend Andy Winiarczyk's Last Hurrah Book Shop at - http://lasthurrahbookshop.net/ for books on the JFK assassinations and other political conspiracies.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Enter The Stupid
Book Publisher Calls for the Release of Secret JFK Assassination File
Oy. Here we go...
Tim Miller, of I wrote President Ford's memoir, the really good bits being the stuff Pres. Ford did not remember, and especially did not remember saying to Tim Miller, calls for,...wait for it...the release of THE JFK assassination file. The absolutely clueless Mr. Miller held a press conference calling for the release of THE file. This dufus thinks there is one and only one file on the assassination of JFK. And, get this, the Kennedy family has helped block its release to the public. Oh, would that some brave young journalist could hog tie this idiot the the back bumper of his own car and drive him over to Archives II and show him the millions and millions of pages of JFK assassination documents. There isn't just one with all the answers you idiot!
Oy. Here we go...
Tim Miller, of I wrote President Ford's memoir, the really good bits being the stuff Pres. Ford did not remember, and especially did not remember saying to Tim Miller, calls for,...wait for it...the release of THE JFK assassination file. The absolutely clueless Mr. Miller held a press conference calling for the release of THE file. This dufus thinks there is one and only one file on the assassination of JFK. And, get this, the Kennedy family has helped block its release to the public. Oh, would that some brave young journalist could hog tie this idiot the the back bumper of his own car and drive him over to Archives II and show him the millions and millions of pages of JFK assassination documents. There isn't just one with all the answers you idiot!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
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