Just a brief note today on the MLK files recently posted at the Mary Ferrell Foundation website (MFF). I previously did a post on NARA’s release of these files in July 2025 (available here).
MFF’s versions of these files are thoroughly re-arranged and re-indexed, and should be consulted in most cases where anyone is interested in MLK-FBI issues.…
This is the first of a series of notes that try to straighten out some of the confusion around FBI multi-record pdfs. Multi-record pdfs are an FBI release format which combines multiple ARC records in a single pdf. This note discusses a simple, yet messy case: docid-32989711.pdf.
For a general description of multi-record pdfs released by the FBI through NARA, see here.…
This note takes a brief look at the system CIA is now using for JFK records declassification. I am posting this note since declassification is one of my interests; I also hope this note will help clarify some ARC release issues.
This section is based mostly on a document from the National Archives titled “Records Management in the Central Intelligence Agency”, available from the Federal of American Scientists website here.…
This is a brief note on an issue related to FBI multi-record pdfs (see here for an introduction to this troublesome topic). A much longer, more substantial note on these pdfs is coming up.
The point of this post is that there is a bad link in the 2017 ARC pdfs posted at NARA.…
I’m posting this note for my own reference. Feel free to ignore this if you are not trying to understand the ins and outs of the FBI multi-record releases.
A multi-record pdf is a pdf which includes more than one ARC record. There is nothing special about this, you can make your own, like I do, if you have the right software.…
[updated 18 September 2025]
After looking at ARRB’s “Final determination forms” (here), I am back poking around in the ARRB’s record notices for information I might have overlooked. This note describes what I found.
Caveat lector! This note is pure bean counting, and will be deathly boring for most readers.…
This note corrects a major error in my recent comment “Formal and final in the JFK Act”. In that note, I incorrectly stated that there were less than one hundred instances of the ARRB’s “Final determination form” (FDF) in the ARC. In fact there are over seven hundred. After looking at all these instances, I have also changed my views on the use of these forms in the ARC.…
This note continues my recent look at Andrew Iler’s articles on ARRB’s “Final Determination Form” (FDF). If there were indeed over 26,000 of these forms printed and all of them are now AWOL, what does this mean for the integrity of the ARC? Iler suggests it opens the door for major doubts.…
The ARRB created a special form, which it called a “final determination form” (FDF), to record its decisions to release or postpone text in ARC documents. This form has recently become the subject of discussion among several assassination researchers, some of whom attach much importance to it.
I’m still looking at the arguments for this, so I don’t have anything general to say.…
This note discusses a recent claim about the ARC, a claim based on a memo written by CIA Chief Historian J. Kenneth McDonald. I spent some time working on this memo last year (see here for a blog note), so I was naturally interested in this new claim.
The claim comes from attorney Mark Adamczyk.…