When it comes to expediting the release of JFK assassination records in time for the 50th anniverary of JFK’s death later this year, the Obama administration is failing.
The continuing secrecy surrounding 1,100 CIA records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy goes unmentioned in the latest bi-annual report of the National Declassification Center (NDC).
The NDC is spearheading the Obama administration’s effort, which is supposed to expedite the public release of unnecessarily secret government documents.
In a section on “public comment,” the six-page report cites the NDC’s public hearing in Washington on August 25, 2012, but does not mention the extended discussion that took place there about the CIA records, which were first identified by the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB).
At the hearing, National Archives general counsel Gary Stern said the CIA lacked the “time and resources” to review the material, which the CIA says will be released in 2017, at the earliest. (You can view video of the event here. Stern speaks around 1:35:00.)
The NDC, meanwhile, has found the time and resources to make public an Air Force document on how to build a flying saucer.