This note concludes my close look at the new versions of ARC records which NARA posted on 30 January 2026. This note covers FBI records.
There are major problems with some of the final FBI record releases in the ARC. I have discussed these problems elsewhere on this blog. Skipping the problematic records, I will instead give an overview of 85 of the 102 FBI pdfs posted on 30 January. I think this is not bad, considering the messy state of the records.
So what’s new in these records?
More social security numbers
I’ve written more than once on the incredibly bad decision to release social security numbers of living persons in the ARC. The January releases continue this wrong headed policy.
At least 14 records posted in January released nothing but social security numbers. I can say for sure that some of these numbers belong to people who are still alive. I have not done the detailed research needed to check all of them. That is something the government should have done, but did not.
These 14 FBI records feature only one or two SSNs apiece. Yet the total number of pages for all 14 is over 2000, so a major time burn looking for blanks that have no conceivable relevance to the JFK assassination or any other historically significant event.
These redacted SSNs have been lumped together with all the other redactions and cited as evidence of the federal government withholding important information. That is ridiculous. Most of these remaining SSNs belonged to staff of the Church Committee, the HSCA, and the ARRB. Posting their SSNs is an outrage, and still deserves the harshest condemnation.
Informants
The largest category of information released in January’s FBI files is informant names. The FBI divides informants into security informants and criminal informants. Before informants are fully confirmed as reliable sources, they are labeled “potential informants”, so we have SI, CI, PSI, and PCI.
Almost all of the informants identified in the new releases are either PCIs or PSIs. There are 47 records that release the names of PCIs and 4 that release the names of PSIs. Most of the PCIs are reporting on organized crime. The PSIs are all Cubans. These two groups account for over half of all the FBI records released this time around.
This is not to say that 51 separate names were released this time. One informant’s name appear in almost a dozen records. As far as I can tell, none of these informants knew anything about the JFK assassination. Many of these cases seem to be from years after JFK’s death.
I assume that these people are all deceased, but given the poor or careless decision making behind the release of social security numbers, I can’t be sure. There are also one or two names released that are not identified as either PCI or PSI, but look like informants of one kind or another.
NSA reports and Bureau Source 6
As we saw in a 2025 release (batch 4), there were a number of raw NSA reports in different FBI releases.
There are 9 more NSA reports, or docs with NSA info, in the January FBI pdfs. One of these, 124-90084-10090, a comint report, was extensively redacted, but is now open in full.
It is worth noting that a handwritten comment on the cover of this report identifies it as “Bureau Source 6.” Source 6 appears in a number of records. Based on the content, NSA was always a good bet for Source 6, but now we have an explicit identification.
In addition to these NSA docs, there are another four records with information from “Source 6”. Plus the 9 specifically credited to NSA, that makes 13 NSA records altogether.
FBI “methods”
Four records released information on FBI attempts to either recruit foreign embassy personnel for espionage, or to gain access to foreign embassy information. Access attempts ranged from breaking into the embassy offices to instituting mail covers. Some of these attempts apparently produced important intelligence and are worth a separate look. I will do this later.
CIA information
A couple of records release CIA information that was included in FBI records. One instance can be found in ARC 124-10271-10007 (2022 / 2026):
This FBI record is from the FBI liaison file with the Church Committee, and has zero relevance to the JFK assassination.
My two cents
None of the FBI records NARA posted in January 2026 are relevant to the JFK assassination. They are mostly HSCA liaison records related to the MLK assassination, or Church Committee liaison records that are irrelevant to both the MLK AND JFK assassinations.
Most of these records don’t really belong in the JFK Collection at all. The Church Committee liaison file is a particularly glaring example. In the near future, I will take a closer look at how this large chunk of records, over 50,000 pages, got into the collection.
That is not to say that these FBI records have no historical interest (except the SSNs of course). Some of the FBI/CIA intelligence records have considerable interest on their own. Shoving them into the JFK Collection, however, is a very poor way of handling them. This will also be a topic for a future post.
The FBI records still have other redactions of course. Tax info is not released. grand jury info is not released. But the largest set of unredacted pages, at least in this record set, are the MLK records. These were sealed in 1977, and there are perhaps a couple of hundred pages here which are completely redacted.
These pages are irrelevant to the JFK assassination, but it looks like their release is tied the release of JFK records. We will see what happens in the next couple of years, when the 50 year seal ends.