National Archives details plans for JFK disclosures in 2017

The National Archives is getting serious about a big JFK records data dump in October 2017, according to officials who spoke at a public meeting in Washington today.

At the 25:00 mark in this video Martha Murphy of the National Archives outlines plans for declassification of still-classified JFK files in 2017.

A JFK Facts reader was there and filed this report.

“The program consisted of two presentations and a panel. The second presenter was Martha Murphy whose topic was an update on how the Archives are handling JFK Assassination records. She said the JFK collection consists of approximately 5 million pages. During fiscal 2014 they analyzed the scope of the project to release withheld records in 2017. As of Oct. 2014 they have assigned four archivists to work on the project along with three technicians for scanning.

“The date Murphy posted for the effective date of the JFK Act was October 26, 1992, so presumably the release date is October 26, 2017, twenty-five years later. She used a slide that said 88 percent of the records in the collection were released in full; .01% were withheld in full; and 11% were partially withheld (I am assuming that 1% withheld in full is the correct number, otherwise it does not add to 100%).

“Murphy made it clear that in 2017 all withheld information will be released unless the President orders otherwise, whether withheld in full or partially withheld. She said they are currently perfecting the index because there are errors or missing information in the index as to the status of records. Also they are notifying agencies that information will be released in 2017 unless the President orders otherwise, i.e. that release is the default position.

“Murphy said their intention is to post the released information on the web and then integrate the newly released records into existing files.”

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