Releases continue from the JFK ARC at NARA. On May 11, 2023, redactons were released in 502 records from the JFK collection. This follows the release of redactions in 777 records during April 2023. That makes 1279 records released in full since the last big document dump in December 2022. This note looks at the 5/11 releases and takes stock of who released what and how much more information remains redacted.
Agencies releasing information
Here is a breakdown of the latest releases by agency name and number:
| agency number | agency name | count | pct |
|---|---|---|---|
| 104 | CIA | 455 | 89% |
| 157 | SSCIA | 13 | 3% |
| 176 | JFK Library | 7 | 1% |
| 177 | LBJ | 1 | <1% |
| 178 | Ford | 5 | 1% |
| 180 | HSCA | 22 | 4% |
| 197 | ACE/PTC | 1 | <1% |
| 198 | OSA | 2 | <1% |
| 202 | JCS | 6 | 1% |
How many redacted records are left?
All documents that had redactions released this time were released in full. This was also the case for the April releases, so that NARA has now released 777+502 = 1279 documents in full in April and May
In a previous post, we saw that after the December 20222 releases, there were still 4,342 “Section 5” documents in the ARC with redactions. (“Section 5” document was also explained in that post.)
Following the latest release, there are therefore 3063 redacted documents left in the JFKARC.
The previous post also discussed which agencies are responsible for the release of these documents. As we saw, the CIA was responsible for the large marjority of these documents. In December 2022, CIA was responsible for the future release of 3648 documents. This number comes from a pdf posted at NARA. As noted earlier, all the documents released in April were on this list. The latest 502 documents with releases are also all on this list. Currently, therefore, CIA is responsible for the release of 3648-1279 = 2369 documents.
As also previously noted, some of these documents were actually originated by other agencies, but include classified CIA information, hence CIA is responsible for its release. How many of these redacted documents were actually originated by the CIA? Remember that records that have numbers beginning with the prefix “104” were originated by the CIA.
On the CIA list linked to above, there are 2905 “104” docs. 373 of these were released in full on April 12, 308 were released on April 27, and on May 11, 445 were released, leaving 1779.
As I said in my last note, there are also a small number of “104” records which other agencies are responsible for releasing, including the DOD and the State Department. These are not included in my count.
My two cents
I am still reviewing the contents of the latest releases, so I’ll comment on that in my next note. Overall, releases are going at a good clip. Consulting the leaves in my teacup, We may hope for another release this month and a fifth release in June.
I remain convinced that redactions will continue in the JFKARC for some time. Before you spazz out, remember that about 400 of these are social security numbers of living people.