Category Archives: Agency issues

Issues with records from specific agencies (NSA, CIA, etc)

Untangling FBI multi-record pdfs, part I

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.…

A note on CIA record management

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.

The MORI system

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.…

FBI multi-record pdfs and the MFF collection

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.

What is a multi-record pdf?

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.…

Corrections to “Formal and final in the JFK Act”

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.…

A note on ARRB “final determination forms”

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.…

The McDonald survey and memo

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.…

Box 16 folders

This note provides the documentation I promised in my last post (available here). Better read that first, or the following won’t make much sense.

A folder list for box 16

As I mentioned in my last post, I checked RIF comments for records from box 16 (you have to read the last note to understand this!),…