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2017/2018 Document Releases

View the 2017/2018 Releases Here on MFF

View 2017/2018 JFK Document Releases

NOTE: As of September 16, 2018, all of the JFK records released between July 24, 1017 and April 26, 2018 have been uploaded into the MFF Document Archive.

Essays and Interviews About the Releases

What Happened Thursday with the JFK Records? - MFF President Rex Bradford's reaction to the October 26 announcement of further postponement and review.

Open Letter to US Archivist, March 11 2018 - Signed by the board members of the Mary Ferrell Foundation.

Trump Orders Release of JFK Assassination Files - But Many Redactions Remain - WhoWhatWhy's Jimmy Falls reacts to the April 26, 2018 announcement of further postponement.

2017 & 2018 JFK Releases: Progress, Issues, Recommendations - Rex Bradford reviews the history of the several recent file releases, and discusses the errors, anomalies, and mysteries in the process.

Analyzing the New JFK Revelations: Review of New CIA and FBI Documents That Change Cold War History - Bill Simpich on the "big picture" of what's in these records and why they are important.

NARA Resources

Useful links to important pages at the National Archives:

JFK Assassination Records Processing Project at National Archives (NARA) website. Describes the history of the project and its current state.

JFK Assassination Records page at NARA website. This is the official online repository of these documents, and is the source of the files online here at MFF.

Inspector General's Special Report on Compliance. NARA's Inspector General in March 2018 reported on NARA's compliance with the JFK Records Act.

Current State of the Releases

The partial release of records on October 26, 2017 was followed by additional document releases in November and December. Then, pursuant to the 6-month review process created by President Trump, another release (the 7th in all) of about 19,000 documents occurred on April 26, 2018.

Is the JFK Records Act declassification process now complete? In a word, no:

In general, released documents feature fewer redactions than has been the case thus far, though many redactions remain.

According to the National Archives' ' 15,834 documents remain redacted. These are intended to be re-reviewed for possible full release at the future date of October 26, 2021.

Some documents scheduled for release could not be located by NARA. These include 9 Rockefeller Commission audio files could not be located and 79 RIF record numbers could not be resolved to actual found documents.

520 documents fall under sections 10 and 11 of the JFK Records Act - these are IRS documents and documents provided under a "deed of gift" - and will not be released

For details, the National Archive's project page and MFF President Rex Bradford's discussion of the state of the releases.

The Mary Ferrell Foundation has been tracking these releases and is still investigating errors and anomalies in the online data, documents which seem to have "fallen through the cracks," and other issues. Watch this page and this website for ongoing updates.

What's in the New Documents?

Bill Simpich has a great "big picture" article on the hunt for new findings in the released records:



7/26/2018 - Analyzing the New JFK Revelations: Review of New CIA and FBI Documents That Change Cold War History.

Here are more links to news articles and essays (ordered by recency) which discuss what is being learned from these documents:

7/23/2018 - Top Ten JFK Assassination Records by Bill Kelly. Kelly discusses the "Higgens Memo".

5/16/2018 - What the curious case of Richard Gibson tells us about Lee Harvey Oswald by Jefferson Morley. In the new records is CIA's file on its informant Richard Gibson, head of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.

5/15/2018 - Mystery solved: Gunnar Beckman, the Mexico City covert operator by Jefferson Morley. An alert reader of JFK Facts supplies the document id'ing the officer in this important role.

5/9/2018 JFK Files Reveal US Biological Warfare Plans Against Cuba by Jimmy Falls. Project SQUARE DANCE in 1964 proposed destruction of the Cuban economy via a sugar cane parasite, spreading hoof-and-mouth disease, and more.

12/19/2017 - From the JFK files, a spymaster's dictum on national security by Jefferson Morley. A Church Committee interview of CIA counter-intelligence chief James Angleton has finally been made public.

11/13/2017 - The JFK Files: New Light on Oswald and Mexico City by Dick Russell. Discusses new details in the files relatd to Oswald's Mexico City caper.

11/3/2017 - Top CIA official was told Oswald contacted KGB officer in Mexico City, new JFK file shows by Jefferson Morley. The lifting of a small redaction - LCIMPROVE - adds meaning to the October 8 1963 cable reporting Oswald's contact with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City.

9/12/2017 - Top 4 Revelations From the New JFK Files by Jefferson Morley. Surveys the new revelations regarding Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell, Soviet defector Yuri Nosenko, and ongoing debate on behavior of the CIA and the Warren Commission.

8/31/2017 - Missing from the new JFK files: a batch of CIA records on Lee Harvey Oswald by Jefferson Morley. Discusses researcher Malcolm Blunt's discovery that volume 5 of a 7-volume CIA Office of Security file on Lee Harvey Oswald is missing.

8/15/2017 - What CIA Hid From the Rockefeller Committee by Doug Vaughan and Jimmy Falls. Discusses a particular newly-lifted redaction in an internal Rockefeller Commission memo, discussing CIA's use of a State Department diplomatic pouch to smuggle weapons into the Dominican Republic for use in assassinating Rafael Trujillo.

8/11/2017 - New Files Confirm the JFK Investigation Was Controlled by the CIA - Not 'Botched' as Some Pretended by Jefferson Morley. Morley disputes Shenon and Sabato's interpretation of the newly-released Helms memo (see below), arguing that the CIA controlled, rather than botched, crucial aspects of the Warren Commissions investigation.

8/3/2017 - How the CIA Came to Doubt the Official Story of JFK's Murder by Philip Shenon and Larry J. Sabato. Provides a charitable interpretation of how the CIA "failed to pursue clues" about Oswald's contacts with Cubans and Soviets. It is based on primarily on a 27-page memo prepared for Richard Helms for his Congressional testimony.

8/3/2017 - 2017 JFK Document Release Shows Former Intelligence Analyst Got it Right by Alan Dale. Discusses some of what author and JFK expert John Newman is finding in the new records, including confirmation of many of the cryptonym decodings he made in Countdown to Darkness and for the MFF's CIA Cryptonym Project.

8/2/2017 - Dallas Mayor During JFK Assassination Was CIA Asset, by WhoWhatWhy staff. Reports on author John Newman's discovery of new documents showing that the former Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell, whose brother was CIA Deputy Director until fired by Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs, was a CIA asset.

7/29/2017 - Kelly's Top Ten Newly Released Records by Bill Kelly. Bill Kelly's first look at some of the documents.

Sites Discussing the New Records

These sites are good places to learn more about what's in these records.

JFK Facts. Jeff Morley's blog is a great place for news and articles by Morley himself.

Who.What.Why. Russ Baker's investigative news site includes stories on the JFK assassination and the new records.

CounterCoup2. Bill Kelly is also reporting intensively on the new records.

Related Information on MFF

See these MFF resources for investigative tools, context, and additional information:

JFK Database Explorer. This tool lets you explore, filter, and search the metadata of the entire JFK Collection. Note that the NARA database has not been updated since 2008, and so does not provide proper status of the new records.

CIA Cryptonym Project. The new records are unredacting new cryptonyms, which will be aided to the MFF's ongoing project to decode these using public records.

Missing Church Committee Transcripts. This essay by Rex Bradford discusses the problem of documents which are known to have existed but have "gone missing." This problem is particularly acute with records of the Church Committee.

The 2017/2018 Releases: By the Numbers