This is a follow up to my last note. There are indeed problems with a set of documents originated by the HSCA. As a result, several of the new releases from NARA redact text that was put online as long as 15 years ago. These redactions should be re-reviewed and officially re-released as early as possible.…

Almost all of my work on the latest JFKARC releases has been on CIA records. This is because they have by far the lion’s share of redactions, and redaction/declassification is my main interest.

The last couple of days, however, I have been looking at record releases from the HSCA, and naturally these records, like the CIA records, have their fair share of issues, including those blood-chilling archival spooks: zombie redactions!…

I recently posted a note about the 2022 releases in the CIA Office of Security file on James Walton Moore.

Moore, who was chief of the Dallas field office for the CIA’s Domestic Contact Division during 1962-63, is suspected by conspiracy minded researchers to be a link between the CIA and Lee Oswald via George De Mohrenschildt, a Russian born geologist who was both a domestic contact for Moore and an acquaintance of Oswald.…

Several people have drawn attention in recent months to CIA records on James Walton Moore, both before and after the 12/15/22 releases. This note and a second one, also now posted, take a look at Moore’s records to see what is newly released in 2022 and what is still redacted.

Who was J.

[This note was updated on 2024-08-30 to fix a bad link and to correct the description of one record.]
NARA is still looking for some ARC records that are listed in the JFK database, but NARA can’t find on the shelves. This is a subject I last visited in this note.…

An important issue in publishing security classified documents is whether to release the names of former intelligence officers. This is an important reason for continued redaction of JFKARC documents. Based on the CIA’s own index, it is probably the single largest reason for CIA redactions.

Unfortunately, because of the “chicken and egg” nature of the problem, we very seldom hear from the affected officers themselves.…

In a post I did a little more than a week before the 12-15-2022 releases, I profiled several CIA docs as samples of “heavy redaction”. Now the new releases are out. How did these documents fare? Behold!

The CI staff “not me” list

The doc is self-explanatory. Here is a link to the 2018 version that I posted last time:

104-10130-10282

Here is the same doc this time around:

104-10130-10282

This time the list is released in full.…

Earlier this year, I tried to summarize the state of CIA files on Lee Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy (the note is here). The new releases are up, so another update is in order. Unfortunately, this will not be the last update I do on this subject!

CIA Oswald files pre-2021-22

There are multiple CIA files on Oswald.…

If this title perplexes you, read this note first.

The curse of the zombie redactions revisited

Did you read the note? If not, don’t complain that you’re lost. Anyway, as I observed last week, “A zombie redaction is a redaction in copy X of a document which has already been released in copy Y of the same document, tucked away in some other file or folder or microfilm reel.”…

As NARA’s press release informs us, after the December 2022 redaction releases, fewer than 4,400 records have “Section 5” redactions left in them. Good to know, but where and what are these redactions? What are the justifications for continuing to hold back the information the little rectangular boxes conceal?

There is now some new documentation for the curious, as mandated by President Biden’s 2021 memo, and posted at NARA.…