This note takes up a very messy, boring subject, so I’ll try to keep it short and snappy. It helps that not much is at stake in these releases.
Before you read this note, take a look at part 3A. That gives an overview of FBI doc problems in 2025.…
This note surveys the 16 additional ARC pdfs posted by NARA on 26 March. This is the fourth set of pdfs NARA has posted, so call these “batch 4”. Short story: these are all FBI/NSA docs, all are released in full. No more redactions here. One is JFK related, the others are not.…
On March 26, NARA posted 16 more pdfs of previously redacted records at the ARC website. Thanks to Fred Litwin for the heads up!
Ack! The only way to get these pdfs is to download everything again. This seems a poor solution to the problem of updating a release. Post them to another directory so we can just download the latest from there, or something.…
This post reviews the 2025 releases from FBI records in the ARC. FBI records have some complicated problems, so this note cannot cover them as thoroughly as the last note covered CIA records. The note will also skip any discussion of the 100+ FBI records re-posted at NARA on March 20.…
This post reviews the 2025 releases from CIA records in the ARC. The short version: Every CIA doc that was posted at NARA this month was released in full. No redactions are left in those docs.
Here is a summary of what is in this post:
At the end of February 2025, I wrote that 1482 CIA records still had redactions.
[03-23 update: After the first version of this note went online, NARA released a third batch of pdfs on 03-20. I have revised the note to discuss this new batch]
This post is a survey of the March 18 and 20 releases from the JFK Assassination Records Collection. NARA posted pdfs for 2182 records on March 18 in two batches, then a third batch of 161 records on 3/20.…
The long awaited JFK ARC releases finally came on 18 March 2025. Unfortunately, they came with a price. Along with releasing all the names, places and details previously redacted in the collection, the Trump administration decided to release the social security numbers of hundreds of people still living. I have written about this issue on this blog more than once.…
President Trump announced yesterday (17 March 2025) that new ARC releases are forthcoming on March 18. He estimated the release page total at about 80,000 pages. I am not running a newspaper here, so I won’t post anything on the new releases until I’m good and ready.
I will note that this page total must mean that CIA is going to release the microfilm version of the Oswald 201 file.…
In my previous post, I promised a list of currently redacted records in the JFKARC, excluding CIA records. The “non-CIA” list is now available in my dropbox folder [temporarily removed!]
The list of currently redacted CIA records I put up last week is available here.
The lists includes record number, number of pages, doc date, number of redactions, and redaction category.…
This is the third and final post in a series looking at redacted records in the JFK ARC as of February 2025. This note tracks redacted records from agencies other than the CIA. There are about 1000 non-CIA records that still have some information held back.
Other major points in this note:
The overall takeaway for the series: the total number of redacted records in the ARC is one third less than usually claimed: ~2400, rather than ~3600.…