Tag: LUNA COMMITTEE

  • Russian Ambassador Hands Over 350 Page File

    The Luna Committee is in receipt of a 350 page file from Moscow on the JFK case and Lee Harvey Oswald. They are translating it now. Read here.

  • Russian Ambassador Hands Over 350 Page File

    The Luna Committee is in receipt of a 350 page file from Moscow on the JFK case and Lee Harvey Oswald. They are translating it now. Read here.

  • Anna Luna and a Progress Report

    Congressowman Luna explains where her committee has gone and what still needs to be done. Read here.

  • Anna Luna and a Progress Report

    Congressowman Luna explains where her committee has gone and what still needs to be done. Read here.

  • Letter to Congresswoman Luna Concerning JFK Records Collection Act

    Letter to Congresswoman Luna Concerning JFK Records Collection Act

    How can the Luna Committee make a lasting impact in fulfilling the great promise of the JFK Records Collection Act and finally attain full disclosure on what happened to President Kennedy? This letter to Congresswoman Luna outlines what she can do in that regard.

    September 29, 2025

    Via Federal Express Overnight Courier & Email

    U.S. House Representative Anna Paulina Luna
    Florida’s Thirteenth Congressional District
    9200 113th St. N., Office Suite 305
    Seminole, Florida 33772

    U.S. House Representative Anna Paulina Luna
    226 Cannon House Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20515

    Re:   Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets (“Task Force”) – Compliance with JFK Records Act

    Dear Congresswoman Luna,

    We applaud the vital work of your Task Force on the Declassification of Government Secrets, especially the recent release of over 2,500 JFK records. While these are invaluable steps forward, we are writing to address critical issues of non-compliance with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (“the JFK Act” or “Act”). The issues discussed herein have festered and grown for almost 27 years due to actions and inactions by the National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”), the conduct of the Archivist of the United States (“Archivist”), along with a glaring lack of Congressional oversight. We believe it is essential for the final report of the Task Force (“Final Report”) to include recommendations designed in the public’s interest to reinvigorate compliance with the Act, and address requirements of the Act that have clearly been violated.

    The JFK Act was unanimously passed by Congress as a clear mandate from the people to create an “enforceable, independent, and accountable” process for public disclosure. We have prepared the following recap of the Act’s unique powers, followed by our observations and recommendations that we believe will correct almost three decades of improper administration and restore the integrity of the JFK Records Collection (“Collection”).

    I. Critical Elements of the Act That Seemingly Have Been Forgotten

    The JFK Act is a unique and powerful piece of legislation, purpose-built by Congress because traditional processes impinged by unguarded influence from agencies had been deemed by Congress to prevent transparency and the timely disclosure of assassination records. The JFK Act’s exceptional legal framework established a distinct status for this Collection that seems to have been forgotten. Key elements include:

    A Presumption of Full Disclosure: The Act reversed the standard government posture of secrecy, creating an immediate presumption that every assassination record would be released, except in the rarest of cases.

    Binding and Enforceable Orders: The Assassination Records Review Board (“ARRB”) was granted unprecedented declassification powers that resulted in the issuance of approximately 27,000 Final Determination Notifications (FDNs), which are final and legally binding and enforceable agency orders, not mere recommendations. FDNs are carefully crafted orders setting forth how each individual record in the Collection was to be released, and when. The ARRB staff, some thirty years ago and in consultation with agencies, crafted final disclosure decisions and disclosure criteria for each individual postponed record. This fact, along with the existence of the FDNs themselves, has seemingly been lost in recent discussions on the status of the Collection, and at a critical point in time. FDNs are assassination records and are thus mandated by the Act to be publicly disclosed in the Collection at NARA. As of today, virtually all of the FDNs are not publicly available, despite multiple FOIA requests. Increasing the concern and urgency is the fact that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recognized that, without the FDNs, the public has effectively been denied its right to judicial review of actions taken (or required to be taken) under the JFK Act.

    A Ministerial Duty for the Archivist: The Act stripped the Archivist of any discretionary power, assigning a purely “ministerial and nondiscretionary duty” limited to periodically reviewing and releasing records on the dates mandated by the ARRB under the stipulations set forth in the FDNs. This was a very important part of the Act.

    Supremacy Over Other Laws: The JFK Act was designed to reign supreme over all other statutes, court decisions and executive orders that would otherwise prohibit the transmission or disclosure of assassination records [See §11(a), JFK Act].

    With the above in mind:

    II. Ten Observations About the Current State of the JFK Records Act

    This section summarizes the critical problems preventing the JFK Act from functioning as Congress intended.

    1. The Act’s Core Principles Are Not Being Followed: The Act created a framework for an “enforceable, independent, and accountable” process. The lack of oversight since the ARRB ceased operations in 1998 has undermined these core tenets and led to unauthorized delays and a lack of transparency. Many examples of how these principles have been violated are self-evident, as noted throughout this document.

    2. Binding Legal Orders: Final Determination Notifications (FDNs) Are Critical and Almost Completely Hidden: The ARRB issued approximately 27,000 separate binding orders (FDNs) specifying when postponed records must be released. These FDNs are the legal backbone for enforcing the Act. Remarkably, NARA has made less than 2% of them public, making a full audit of compliance impossible and possibly complicating the identification of missing records.

    3. Congressional Oversight Has Been Absent: The JFK Act explicitly mandates that House and Senate committees have “continuing oversight jurisdiction”. [1] Despite this, in over 30 years, these committees have failed to hold a single hearing on the matter. As a result, failures of the Archivist to perform mandatory ministerial duties required by the Act have gone undetected and unchallenged, resulting in decades of disclosure delays and public mistrust.

    4. Recent Presidential Actions Are Insufficient Without the JFK Act: While President Trump’s Executive Order 14176 (January 23, 2025, the “Executive Order”) resulted in the release of over 2,500 records, it is not a complete solution. The Executive Order lacks the enforceable mechanisms of the JFK Act and cannot ensure full disclosure without a complete audit of the JFK Collection, which begins with locating and disclosing the ARRB’s FDNs and the mandatory creation of a searchable directory and index. Certain audit procedures would be highly beneficial and are further discussed below.

    5. A Complete, Searchable Directory and Index is Urgently Needed: One of the most critical failures to date, is the Archivist’s duty to publish a comprehensive, searchable directory and index of all assassination records ever transmitted to NARA. No such directory or index is known to exist, and if it does, it has not been publicly disclosed. This would reveal what has been released, what is withheld, and what may have been suppressed or buried for whatever reason. An audit should be conducted which reconciles a final comprehensive index of records produced by the ARRB–at the moment the ARRB handed its reviewed collection over to NARA–to a similar index maintained at NARA. This is a critical step in accounting for all known records and how they were handled. It most certainly would reveal records currently missing from the Collection that were present at the sunset of the ARRB, as well as detecting specific records that were withheld from ARRB review.

    6. Thousands of Records Were Never Reviewed by the Independent ARRB: Testimony from former ARRB Chairman Judge John Tunheim on May 20, 2025 reveals that many recently released records were never shown to the ARRB. Agencies appear to have transferred these records to NARA after the ARRB ceased operations in 1998, circumventing the independent review process mandated by Congress. We have identified assassination records with Record Identification Form (RIF) numbers and identification aids that corroborate Judge Tunheim’s important testimony. [2]

    7. Perceived Lack of Clarity on Enforcement of Remaining Withheld Records. Certain records in the Collection were never subject to a review by the ARRB. Many of these records are still being withheld by NARA. President Trump’s Executive Order has now declared that continued withholding of any Assassination Record is not in the public interest, and that full disclosure is long overdue. By virtue of their delivery to NARA, these records are deemed Assassination Records. Therefore, in our opinion, the current enforcement mechanisms of the JFK Act apply.

    8. The Archivist’s Role is Ministerial, Not Discretionary: The JFK Act bestows upon the Archivist a “ministerial and non-discretionary duty” to release records according to the dates and stipulations mandated in the ARRB’s FDNs. NARA’s authority under the JFK Act is limited to periodic review of the ARRB’s final release decisions as certified by President Clinton. NARA’s authority does not include handling postponement requests from agencies or negotiations with agencies regarding postponements.

    9. The JFK Act Reigns Supreme: The Act takes precedence over all other laws, court decisions and executive orders regarding the disclosure of assassination records. Presidential authority to override an ARRB determination expired 30 days after the ARRB issued an FDN, and President Clinton waived this right entirely. Under section 9(d)(1) of the Act, President Clinton was the only President with the time-limited authority to override an ARRB Final Determination and he did not do so.

    10. The Collection Cannot Be Certified as Complete: Until a full directory and index is created and all records are released according to the law, the Archivist of the United States cannot legally certify to the President and Congress under the JFK Act that all assassination records have been made available to the public. The Act must therefore remain in full force and effect. The failure to provide a full and complete directory and index of records makes such a certification legally impossible.

    III. Ten Recommendations for Action

    Based on these observations and findings, we respectfully request that the Final Report of the Task Force include the following recommendations to ensure that NARA achieves full compliance with the JFK Act.

    1. Publish All Final Determination Notifications (FDNs): Require the Archivist to comply with the law and to immediately locate and release digital copies of all FDNs issued by the ARRB (approximately 27,000). This is an essential first step for any audit of compliance.

    2. Create and Publish a Comprehensive, Searchable Directory and Index: Require the Archivist to comply with the law and produce and publish a complete, uniform digital directory and index of each assassination record ever transmitted to NARA. This is a mandatory and non-discretionary duty under the Act.

    3. Ensure the Directory and Index Accounts for All Record Groups: The directory and index must identify records transferred to NARA a) before the Act was passed; b) those reviewed during the ARRB’s operation; and c) those transferred to NARA after the ARRB terminated operations in 1998.

    4. Release a Full Directory and Index of All Identification Aids: Require the Archivist to comply with the law and release a complete digital directory and index of up-to-date Identification Aids for each record, which are face sheets containing important tracking and status elements.

    5. Cease Unauthorized Coordination with Agencies: Reaffirm that NARA’s role is ministerial and that it has no authority to collaborate or negotiate with originating agencies on postponements, a practice that violates the independent framework of the Act.

    6. Identify All Records That Were Never Reviewed by the ARRB: The comprehensive directory and index must clearly identify all records in the JFK Collection that circumvented the ARRB’s independent review.

    7. Establish a Framework for the Enforcement of Remaining Withheld Records: Records that were never seen by the ARRB must be brought under the enforcement mechanisms mandated by the JFK Act. This is one of the most important enforcement matters to be undertaken by the oversight committees and is in the spirit of President Trump’s Executive Order regarding full disclosure. As a reminder, Congress has special jurisdiction over its own records, and oversight committees should call for the immediate release of all congressional records specifically identified in the Act. [3] Going forward, any newly discovered records must be expeditiously transmitted to NARA, included in the Collection, and publicly disclosed as required by section 2(b)(2) of the Act.

    8. Enforce Congressional Oversight: Call on the designated House and Senate committees to finally exercise their “continuing oversight jurisdiction” as mandated in sections 4(e) and 7(l)(1) of the Act.

    9. Hold NARA Accountable: The Task Force should require the Archivist or senior NARA staff to testify and account for a) why the FDNs remain hidden and not fully enforced; and b) what steps are being taken to create the legally required public directory and index. Limited audit procedures should be applied to ensure that every Assassination Record handled by the ARRB is now present in the publicly available Collection housed at NARA.

    10. Withhold Final Certification: The Final Report must state clearly that the Archivist cannot certify the JFK Collection as complete and fully disclosed to the public under section 12(b) of the Act until all FDNs are released, a full public directory and index is published, and all records are made available in accordance with the law.

    We strongly urge the Task Force to address these fundamental problems in the operation of the JFK Act. The lack of oversight has already caused inexcusable harm. Your diligence in addressing these matters in the Final Report will greatly strengthen the endorsement and support from a broad coalition of influential researchers and the public.

    To ensure the Final Report achieves the full promise of the Act, we formally request a meeting to discuss these critical issues of statutory compliance and oversight. We are prepared to make ourselves available to collaborate in any way that would be helpful, as you prepare your final recommendations.

    Thank you for your historic work and your consideration of these vital matters.

    Sincerely,

    Jeff Crudele, Andrew Iler and Mark Adamczyk

    Cc (email only):
    U.S. Senator Rick Scott
    U.S. House Rep. James Comer
    The Honorable John R. Tunheim
    U.S. House Rep. Tim Burchett
    U.S. House Rep. Eric Burlison
    U.S. House Rep. Elijah Crane
    William Christian
    Jake Greenberg

    ————

    1. Sections 4(e) and 7(l)(1) specifically state the oversight jurisdiction of the House and Senate committees. These committees have jurisdiction over the JFK Collection as a whole, and also over the disposition of postponed records after the termination of the ARRB and records held or created by the ARRB.

    2. A February 10, 1992 CIA memo, titled “Survey of CIA’s Records from House Selection Committee on Assassinations Investigation”, further demonstrates an intention to circumvent an independent review and declassification process for sensitive records transmitted to NARA. This CIA memo can be viewed at the following link: https://test-ks-and-k.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/docid-32404131.pdf.

    3. This includes without limitation the records of the Church Committee, Pike Committee, and House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA).

    [Editor’s note: page footnotes convert to endnotes for web presentation]

  • Letter to Congresswoman Luna Concerning JFK Records Collection Act

    Letter to Congresswoman Luna Concerning JFK Records Collection Act

    How can the Luna Committee make a lasting impact in fulfilling the great promise of the JFK Records Collection Act and finally attain full disclosure on what happened to President Kennedy? This letter to Congresswoman Luna outlines what she can do in that regard.

    September 29, 2025

    Via Federal Express Overnight Courier & Email

    U.S. House Representative Anna Paulina Luna
    Florida’s Thirteenth Congressional District
    9200 113th St. N., Office Suite 305
    Seminole, Florida 33772

    U.S. House Representative Anna Paulina Luna
    226 Cannon House Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20515

    Re:   Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets (“Task Force”) – Compliance with JFK Records Act

    Dear Congresswoman Luna,

    We applaud the vital work of your Task Force on the Declassification of Government Secrets, especially the recent release of over 2,500 JFK records. While these are invaluable steps forward, we are writing to address critical issues of non-compliance with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (“the JFK Act” or “Act”). The issues discussed herein have festered and grown for almost 27 years due to actions and inactions by the National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”), the conduct of the Archivist of the United States (“Archivist”), along with a glaring lack of Congressional oversight. We believe it is essential for the final report of the Task Force (“Final Report”) to include recommendations designed in the public’s interest to reinvigorate compliance with the Act, and address requirements of the Act that have clearly been violated.

    The JFK Act was unanimously passed by Congress as a clear mandate from the people to create an “enforceable, independent, and accountable” process for public disclosure. We have prepared the following recap of the Act’s unique powers, followed by our observations and recommendations that we believe will correct almost three decades of improper administration and restore the integrity of the JFK Records Collection (“Collection”).

    I. Critical Elements of the Act That Seemingly Have Been Forgotten

    The JFK Act is a unique and powerful piece of legislation, purpose-built by Congress because traditional processes impinged by unguarded influence from agencies had been deemed by Congress to prevent transparency and the timely disclosure of assassination records. The JFK Act’s exceptional legal framework established a distinct status for this Collection that seems to have been forgotten. Key elements include:

    A Presumption of Full Disclosure: The Act reversed the standard government posture of secrecy, creating an immediate presumption that every assassination record would be released, except in the rarest of cases.

    Binding and Enforceable Orders: The Assassination Records Review Board (“ARRB”) was granted unprecedented declassification powers that resulted in the issuance of approximately 27,000 Final Determination Notifications (FDNs), which are final and legally binding and enforceable agency orders, not mere recommendations. FDNs are carefully crafted orders setting forth how each individual record in the Collection was to be released, and when. The ARRB staff, some thirty years ago and in consultation with agencies, crafted final disclosure decisions and disclosure criteria for each individual postponed record. This fact, along with the existence of the FDNs themselves, has seemingly been lost in recent discussions on the status of the Collection, and at a critical point in time. FDNs are assassination records and are thus mandated by the Act to be publicly disclosed in the Collection at NARA. As of today, virtually all of the FDNs are not publicly available, despite multiple FOIA requests. Increasing the concern and urgency is the fact that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recognized that, without the FDNs, the public has effectively been denied its right to judicial review of actions taken (or required to be taken) under the JFK Act.

    A Ministerial Duty for the Archivist: The Act stripped the Archivist of any discretionary power, assigning a purely “ministerial and nondiscretionary duty” limited to periodically reviewing and releasing records on the dates mandated by the ARRB under the stipulations set forth in the FDNs. This was a very important part of the Act.

    Supremacy Over Other Laws: The JFK Act was designed to reign supreme over all other statutes, court decisions and executive orders that would otherwise prohibit the transmission or disclosure of assassination records [See §11(a), JFK Act].

    With the above in mind:

    II. Ten Observations About the Current State of the JFK Records Act

    This section summarizes the critical problems preventing the JFK Act from functioning as Congress intended.

    1. The Act’s Core Principles Are Not Being Followed: The Act created a framework for an “enforceable, independent, and accountable” process. The lack of oversight since the ARRB ceased operations in 1998 has undermined these core tenets and led to unauthorized delays and a lack of transparency. Many examples of how these principles have been violated are self-evident, as noted throughout this document.

    2. Binding Legal Orders: Final Determination Notifications (FDNs) Are Critical and Almost Completely Hidden: The ARRB issued approximately 27,000 separate binding orders (FDNs) specifying when postponed records must be released. These FDNs are the legal backbone for enforcing the Act. Remarkably, NARA has made less than 2% of them public, making a full audit of compliance impossible and possibly complicating the identification of missing records.

    3. Congressional Oversight Has Been Absent: The JFK Act explicitly mandates that House and Senate committees have “continuing oversight jurisdiction”. [1] Despite this, in over 30 years, these committees have failed to hold a single hearing on the matter. As a result, failures of the Archivist to perform mandatory ministerial duties required by the Act have gone undetected and unchallenged, resulting in decades of disclosure delays and public mistrust.

    4. Recent Presidential Actions Are Insufficient Without the JFK Act: While President Trump’s Executive Order 14176 (January 23, 2025, the “Executive Order”) resulted in the release of over 2,500 records, it is not a complete solution. The Executive Order lacks the enforceable mechanisms of the JFK Act and cannot ensure full disclosure without a complete audit of the JFK Collection, which begins with locating and disclosing the ARRB’s FDNs and the mandatory creation of a searchable directory and index. Certain audit procedures would be highly beneficial and are further discussed below.

    5. A Complete, Searchable Directory and Index is Urgently Needed: One of the most critical failures to date, is the Archivist’s duty to publish a comprehensive, searchable directory and index of all assassination records ever transmitted to NARA. No such directory or index is known to exist, and if it does, it has not been publicly disclosed. This would reveal what has been released, what is withheld, and what may have been suppressed or buried for whatever reason. An audit should be conducted which reconciles a final comprehensive index of records produced by the ARRB–at the moment the ARRB handed its reviewed collection over to NARA–to a similar index maintained at NARA. This is a critical step in accounting for all known records and how they were handled. It most certainly would reveal records currently missing from the Collection that were present at the sunset of the ARRB, as well as detecting specific records that were withheld from ARRB review.

    6. Thousands of Records Were Never Reviewed by the Independent ARRB: Testimony from former ARRB Chairman Judge John Tunheim on May 20, 2025 reveals that many recently released records were never shown to the ARRB. Agencies appear to have transferred these records to NARA after the ARRB ceased operations in 1998, circumventing the independent review process mandated by Congress. We have identified assassination records with Record Identification Form (RIF) numbers and identification aids that corroborate Judge Tunheim’s important testimony. [2]

    7. Perceived Lack of Clarity on Enforcement of Remaining Withheld Records. Certain records in the Collection were never subject to a review by the ARRB. Many of these records are still being withheld by NARA. President Trump’s Executive Order has now declared that continued withholding of any Assassination Record is not in the public interest, and that full disclosure is long overdue. By virtue of their delivery to NARA, these records are deemed Assassination Records. Therefore, in our opinion, the current enforcement mechanisms of the JFK Act apply.

    8. The Archivist’s Role is Ministerial, Not Discretionary: The JFK Act bestows upon the Archivist a “ministerial and non-discretionary duty” to release records according to the dates and stipulations mandated in the ARRB’s FDNs. NARA’s authority under the JFK Act is limited to periodic review of the ARRB’s final release decisions as certified by President Clinton. NARA’s authority does not include handling postponement requests from agencies or negotiations with agencies regarding postponements.

    9. The JFK Act Reigns Supreme: The Act takes precedence over all other laws, court decisions and executive orders regarding the disclosure of assassination records. Presidential authority to override an ARRB determination expired 30 days after the ARRB issued an FDN, and President Clinton waived this right entirely. Under section 9(d)(1) of the Act, President Clinton was the only President with the time-limited authority to override an ARRB Final Determination and he did not do so.

    10. The Collection Cannot Be Certified as Complete: Until a full directory and index is created and all records are released according to the law, the Archivist of the United States cannot legally certify to the President and Congress under the JFK Act that all assassination records have been made available to the public. The Act must therefore remain in full force and effect. The failure to provide a full and complete directory and index of records makes such a certification legally impossible.

    III. Ten Recommendations for Action

    Based on these observations and findings, we respectfully request that the Final Report of the Task Force include the following recommendations to ensure that NARA achieves full compliance with the JFK Act.

    1. Publish All Final Determination Notifications (FDNs): Require the Archivist to comply with the law and to immediately locate and release digital copies of all FDNs issued by the ARRB (approximately 27,000). This is an essential first step for any audit of compliance.

    2. Create and Publish a Comprehensive, Searchable Directory and Index: Require the Archivist to comply with the law and produce and publish a complete, uniform digital directory and index of each assassination record ever transmitted to NARA. This is a mandatory and non-discretionary duty under the Act.

    3. Ensure the Directory and Index Accounts for All Record Groups: The directory and index must identify records transferred to NARA a) before the Act was passed; b) those reviewed during the ARRB’s operation; and c) those transferred to NARA after the ARRB terminated operations in 1998.

    4. Release a Full Directory and Index of All Identification Aids: Require the Archivist to comply with the law and release a complete digital directory and index of up-to-date Identification Aids for each record, which are face sheets containing important tracking and status elements.

    5. Cease Unauthorized Coordination with Agencies: Reaffirm that NARA’s role is ministerial and that it has no authority to collaborate or negotiate with originating agencies on postponements, a practice that violates the independent framework of the Act.

    6. Identify All Records That Were Never Reviewed by the ARRB: The comprehensive directory and index must clearly identify all records in the JFK Collection that circumvented the ARRB’s independent review.

    7. Establish a Framework for the Enforcement of Remaining Withheld Records: Records that were never seen by the ARRB must be brought under the enforcement mechanisms mandated by the JFK Act. This is one of the most important enforcement matters to be undertaken by the oversight committees and is in the spirit of President Trump’s Executive Order regarding full disclosure. As a reminder, Congress has special jurisdiction over its own records, and oversight committees should call for the immediate release of all congressional records specifically identified in the Act. [3] Going forward, any newly discovered records must be expeditiously transmitted to NARA, included in the Collection, and publicly disclosed as required by section 2(b)(2) of the Act.

    8. Enforce Congressional Oversight: Call on the designated House and Senate committees to finally exercise their “continuing oversight jurisdiction” as mandated in sections 4(e) and 7(l)(1) of the Act.

    9. Hold NARA Accountable: The Task Force should require the Archivist or senior NARA staff to testify and account for a) why the FDNs remain hidden and not fully enforced; and b) what steps are being taken to create the legally required public directory and index. Limited audit procedures should be applied to ensure that every Assassination Record handled by the ARRB is now present in the publicly available Collection housed at NARA.

    10. Withhold Final Certification: The Final Report must state clearly that the Archivist cannot certify the JFK Collection as complete and fully disclosed to the public under section 12(b) of the Act until all FDNs are released, a full public directory and index is published, and all records are made available in accordance with the law.

    We strongly urge the Task Force to address these fundamental problems in the operation of the JFK Act. The lack of oversight has already caused inexcusable harm. Your diligence in addressing these matters in the Final Report will greatly strengthen the endorsement and support from a broad coalition of influential researchers and the public.

    To ensure the Final Report achieves the full promise of the Act, we formally request a meeting to discuss these critical issues of statutory compliance and oversight. We are prepared to make ourselves available to collaborate in any way that would be helpful, as you prepare your final recommendations.

    Thank you for your historic work and your consideration of these vital matters.

    Sincerely,

    Jeff Crudele, Andrew Iler and Mark Adamczyk

    Cc (email only):
    U.S. Senator Rick Scott
    U.S. House Rep. James Comer
    The Honorable John R. Tunheim
    U.S. House Rep. Tim Burchett
    U.S. House Rep. Eric Burlison
    U.S. House Rep. Elijah Crane
    William Christian
    Jake Greenberg

    ————

    1. Sections 4(e) and 7(l)(1) specifically state the oversight jurisdiction of the House and Senate committees. These committees have jurisdiction over the JFK Collection as a whole, and also over the disposition of postponed records after the termination of the ARRB and records held or created by the ARRB.

    2. A February 10, 1992 CIA memo, titled “Survey of CIA’s Records from House Selection Committee on Assassinations Investigation”, further demonstrates an intention to circumvent an independent review and declassification process for sensitive records transmitted to NARA. This CIA memo can be viewed at the following link: https://test-ks-and-k.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/docid-32404131.pdf.

    3. This includes without limitation the records of the Church Committee, Pike Committee, and House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA).

    [Editor’s note: page footnotes convert to endnotes for web presentation]

  • Three Letters to Congresswoman Luna

    Doug Horne, the military records analyst for the Assassination Records Review Board and later an author, has penned three letters to the Luna Committee.  These concern the Final Determination Notices of the ARRB, and also missing medical records that he detected in his and Jeremy Gunn’s inquiry into the autopsy evidence for the Board.

    Letter 1 – Doug Horne to Anna Luna – Subject: Final Determination Orders

    Dear Congresswoman Luna,

    This is Douglas Horne again, one of the witnesses who testified before your Task Force on May 20, 2025.

    As a former senior staff member who worked for the ARRB, I am vitally concerned about the issues related to the mishandling of the ARRB’s JFK assassination records by the National Archives from the time the ARRB shut down, in September 1998, until early this year.

    Attorney Andrew Iler, perhaps the foremost living expert on the JFK Records Act, has detailed this year, in two long articles published by Jim DiEugenio at his website Kennedys and King, the apparent malfeasance of the Archivist of the United States with regard to the handling (or rather, mishandling) of the Review Board’s FINAL DETERMINATION ORDERS regarding each assassination record we turned over to the Archives.

    Approximately 27,000 of these forms were created by the ARRB, containing disposition instructions pertaining to periodic review requirements, and also specific instructions on when each document should have been released.   It appears that in many, many cases the Archivist of the United States failed to perform the ministerial duties required of that incumbent with regard to mandatory periodic review and/or early release, prior to 2017. 

    Most of the 27,000 Final Determination Orders created by the ARRB cannot be located by NARA, or so they say.  Many documents that were ordered released in 2006 or 2007, for example, were not fully declassified and released by NARA, as the ARRB ordered.  Attorney Andrew Iler has documented these facts in his two long articles published this year.

    Whether this malfeasance was due to incompetence and an uncaring attitude, or whether it can be attributed to NARA being a tool of the intelligence community that was continuing to resist release of these records, we do not yet know.

    But the American people deserve to know why the Archivist of the United States failed to perform his ministerial duties over a period of approximately 16-17 years.

    I sincerely hope that the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets will hold a public hearing in which the Archives, as an institution, is “taken to task” for its failures in this regard—and in which detailed explanations are provided to the Task Force about how this came about, and why.

    Andrew Iler spent years looking into this matter, and his findings have been well-documented, in writing.  He is a man of impeccable integrity.  He has communicated his findings in detail to Jake Greenberg, the Chief Counsel for Investigations for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  As I mentioned earlier, his two long articles about these issues have been published at the Kennedys and King blogsite.

    I am sure Andrew Iler (who is “copy to” on this email above) will readily answer any questions you may have about these issues.

    Thank you for your attention to this matter, for it is well within the scope of what your Task Force has been empowered to look into, on behalf of the American people.

    Sincerely,

    Douglas Horne

    Former Chief Analyst for Military Records, ARRB

    Letter 2 – Doug Horne to Jake Greenberg – Subject: List of Missing Medical Evidence (for Task Force Report)

    Dear Jake,

    Jefferson Morley, who apparently is very close to Chairwoman Luna, asked me yesterday for a list of missing JFK medical evidence, and asked me if I had been in touch with her staff to “follow up.”  I responded to him by providing a summary of this information, but now, one day later, I have taken the hint he dropped on me, and have decided to provide such a list to you directlyunfiltered by anyone else.

    Since I am currently the pre-eminent living expert on JFK’s autopsy (no false modesty here), I thought you should receive such a list directly from me, without having any third party possibly filter it, misunderstand the facts here, or water it down.

    So here is my definitive list of missing JFK medical evidence:

    1.  Eight sets of autopsy photographs are known to be missing, based on credible eyewitness testimony and recollections, and were never placed into the official record; most “sets” of autopsy photos known today consist of two black and white negatives, and two-to-four color positive transparencies, 4 x 5 inches in size, of the same view.  Autopsy photographs that I am confident are missing include:

    a. an overhead, wide-shot of JFK’s body taken from a stepladder;
    b. large bruise atop the right lung, taken inside the interior of the chest, after the lungs were removed;
    c. entrance wound in the lower right of the skull, with scalp reflected, taken from the outside of the skull;
    d. entrance wound in the lower right of the skull, taken from inside the
    cranium, after the brain was removed;
    e. condition of the back of the head, after embalming and reconstruction was completed, still showing an exit defect that could not be closed; [witness Saundra Spencer recalled in sworn testimony to the ARRB that this, and similar images, were recorded on color negatives, not color positive transparencies and B&W negatives, as were the remainder of the autopsy photos in the National Archives]
    f. negatives from a B&W film pack showing metal probes in JFK’s body; [these images were developed and seen by White House photographer Robert Knudsen, but were never placed in the National Archives]
    g. B&W prints showing a large exit defect in the rear of JFK’s head; [shown to USIA White House photographer by White House photographer and Navy Chief, Robert Knudsen]
    h. B&W prints (and at least one color positive transparency) showing a small entry wound high in the forehead above the corner of JFK’s right eye. [there are five credible witnesses who have seen such images]

    2.  Two JFK skull x-rays known to have been taken—both oblique views of the exit wound in the right rear of his head—have never been placed into the official record.  [witness: Jerrol Custer, Navy x-ray technician, to the ARRB]

    3.  Furthermore, since all three extant JFK skull x-rays in the National Archives are known to be copy films, and are not originals, the three originals of those x-rays are missing as well.  [specifically, one left lateral skull film, one right lateral skull film, and one A-P, or “anterior-posterior” skull film] 

    4.  The “Harper Fragment” of cranial bone from the occipital region of JFK’s skull, found in Dealey Plaza on November 23, 1963, has been missing since December of 1963.  It was last signed for by the President’s Military Physician, Rear Admiral George Burkley.  Its dimensions were approximately 2.75 inches in width and 2.5 inches high.  Photographs exist in the public record: it was photographed by the 3 pathologists who examined it at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, and also by the FBI, after it was sent to Washington. D.C.

    5.  Missing bullet fragments retrieved from JFK’s body at Bethesda Naval Hospital prior to the commencement of the “autopsy of record” at approximately 8:15 PM on November 22, 1963 include: 

    a. one vial containing about the ten tiny fragments removed from JFK’s brain; [witness: mortician Tom Robinson of Gawler’s Funeral Home, to both the HSCA and the ARRB]

    b. one bullet fragment removed from JFK’s back (from the intercostal tissue, between his ribs); [witnesses: Tom Robinson of Gawler’s to the HSCA; Navy corpsman Paul O’Connor to the HSCA; and Navy x-ray technician Jerrol Custer to the ARRB] 

    c. and finally, the four “large” bullet fragments for which Navy corpsman Dennis David typed a receipt (for a Federal Agent) the night of the autopsy.  [Witness: Navy corpsman Dennis David to the ARRB; he not only typed the receipt, but he also saw the fragments, and was also allowed by the Federal Agent to handle the fragments] 

    All of those fragments, seen by credible witnesses, remain missing today, and were never introduced into the official record.

    END OF LIST

    Jake, I would greatly appreciate it if you would acknowledge receipt of this important summary of missing JFK medical evidence, and if you would also forward it to Chairwoman LUNA and her staff. 

    I am assuming that you may find such a list useful when the Task Force Report is written.

    Sincerely,

    Douglas P. Horne

    Former Chief Analyst for Military Records, ARRB

    Letter 3 – Doug Horne to Anna Luna – Subject: List of Missing Medical Evidence (for Task Force Report)

    Dear Congresswoman Luna,

    I am Douglas Horne, the ARRB medical evidence witness who testified before your Task Force on May 20, 2025.

    I wanted to take this opportunity to forward, directly to you, a comprehensive list of missing JFK autopsy medical evidence which we definitely know today once existed, but which is now missing.

    I sent this list to Jake Greenberg some time ago (back on July 18th), in the hopes that it would find its way into the report your task Force will issue on the JFK records issues, but I never received an acknowledgment from him.

    Therefore, I am forwarding it directly to you and your chief of staff, in the hopes that it will be useful to you in writing your report (and in explaining why we should have no confidence in the Warren Report’s conclusions about a lone assassin).

    If a lone nut had killed the president in 1963, and it was a “simple murder” as some have claimed, there would have been no need to destroy and/or alter so any medical records related to the autopsy, or to dispose of bullet fragments from JFK’s body and a crucial bone fragment from his skull.

    I know from the news stories I am aware of that you are very busy this year, but I hope that you will find this list of missing medical evidence useful when writing the Task Force Report.

    Sincerely,

    Douglas Horne

    Former Chief Analyst for Military Records, ARRB

  • Impact of the Luna Hearings Growing?

    Are Congresswoman Luna’s hearings having a chain reaction effect? Perhaps they are according to this editorial.

    Read more.

  • The Washington Post’s Bomb on George Joannides

    Tom Jackman’s momentous story in The Washington Post has created a Rubicon moment that the MSM will find quite difficult to effectively reverse.

    The Washington Post’s Bomb on George Joannides

    Has the tide turned in mainstream media?

    By: Paul Bleau

    Jefferson Morley spoke with me two days before the story broke. He gave me a scoop. The Washington Post was about to publish an article about a subject he had been working on for years, namely, a story about a mysterious CIA officer named George Joannides. The Post was about to unmask him as an officer who oversaw a Cuban exile group that had direct contact with the alleged lone-nut assassin of JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald. This group, the DRE, had multiple interactions with Lee Harvey Oswald during the all-important summer that preceded the murder in 1963. Joannides would have had to have been informed about these suspicious incidents. This propaganda expert instructed DRE operatives to communicate Oswald’s pro-Castro bona fides to the FBI and media after the assassination. He would later be inserted by the CIA as their liaison for part of the HSCA 1976 investigation. He and the CIA had lied about his profile, and Joannides used his role to obstruct the efforts of HSCA investigators.

    Jeff asked for advice and my help in creating a buzz around this. So, I gladly did, not because Jeff and I are close collaborators, nor because I do not have concerns about the Washington Post and mainstream media as a whole when it comes to talking about their bête noire, nor that I do not have some misgivings about the current focus of the Luna task force on declassification. I helped because the Joannides story is newsworthy and helps tilt the playing field even more in favor of those fighting for the truth. I was convinced that the upcoming article would be a milestone because of the position that a world-leading mainstream media outlet would stake.

    Very simply, we gave a heads-up to key contacts about a scoop on what was about to break. The reactions were immediate: Jeff received many calls, and I was invited by local media for two interviews about the story. Feedback from researcher contacts varied between expressions of mistrust, interest, and offers to spread the news.

    Now that I have seen the article, gone through my interviews, and had a number of exchanges about the pros and cons of the coverage, it seems an opportune moment to discuss the article and the Luna task force’s work.

    The importance of the article

    This article is quite important, despite what anybody may say to attack it. No matter how much one feels disdain towards mainstream media complacency over sixty years, the fact that one of the U.S.’s most important media outlets on political affairs wrote what they did is nothing short of monumental. It is the suspicious mutism of sixty years on this tragedy by the fourth estate that renders what was written by the Washington Post so very compelling.

    Let’s be honest. Mainstream media should have denormalized the Warren Commission narrative of a lone nut assassin scenario still peddled by disinformation artists, history books, and many in the media decades ago. Some instance, in 1975 when the Zapruder film was shown to the world on Good Night America; or a few years later when the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded there was a probable conspiracy; or when declassified documents released by the Assassination Records Review Board the mid-nineties showed that there were a combined total of over 40 witnesses to wounds proving a frontal shot, at both Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where JFK was first treated after being hit, and at Bethesda Medical Center, where the autopsy was conducted; or later when the declassified Lopez Report confirmed that Oswald was impersonated in Mexico City shortly before the assassination and that CIA officials lied and obfuscated about this; and even just recently during the Luna task force congressional hearings where we heard important witnesses and Anna Luna herself decimate the Warren Commission findings with blistering statements…. Mainstream media has largely steered clear of these inconvenient truths.

    Researchers know all about Operation Mockingbird, the CIA’s program for manipulating the press and gaslighting the public, which likely lost some of its clout with the entry of the new Trump team. Currently, the media must be conflicted by the prospect of exposing their own weak performance on this issue over six decades. With the levy breaking and the traditional malarkey about JFK becoming a growing source of ridicule, the recently declassified Joannides document may have provided an opening to jump ship… Ha! This was not known until now, and it proves the (now defanged) CIA lied and hid stuffErgo, it is not our fault, and Luna and Tulsi will not turn on us for saying what is quickly becoming an official government narrative through Miss Luna herself! May as well be the first to spill the beans!

    Is this what is happening? Is the Washington Post showing courage or simply reading the writing on the wall? I don’t know! And I don’t care. A Rubicon of truth has been crossed and will be archived forever. The tables have turned. Now, the real whack jobs are the late Vince Bugliosi and his Keystone Cop disciples who are trying to spin this. They are flailing away. Front page news on the U.S.’s third-largest print media, with 130,000 subscribers to their paper edition and 2.5 million digital subscribers, is nothing to scoff at. Jeff Morley and Congresswoman Luna deserve kudos for bringing us to where we now are. The lone-nut apologists are marginalized, if not a laughingstock, and serious researchers who were a target of derision are vindicated.

    Unprecedented information quality from a news giant

    While the importance of the bearer of news cannot be understated, it is the impact of what was written that will echo far and wide, and hopefully for a long time.

    Some are telling me that while WaPo may have been the ones to break the Watergate story, they are also the ones who shielded the CIA from negative fallout by underplaying the significance of just who the burglars were and their ties to intelligence. My answer to them is that no matter what they may have done or omitted to do in the past, this clearly cannot be interpreted as a redux with what we have seen so far. We will ascertain whether this story has legs and where it may or may not go later. But I see no problem with the all-important first impressions.

    Consider: The title, subtitle and first paragraph are explosive!

    “The CIA reveals more of its connections to Lee Harvey Oswald

    New documents show an officer known only as Howard managed a Cuban group that interacted with Oswald in the months before the JFK assassination.

    For more than 60 years, the CIA claimed it had little or no knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald’s activities before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. That wasn’t true, new documents unearthed by a House task force prove.”

    The reader now knows for certain that Oswald was no lone nut and that he was on the CIA radar, and the CIA lied about this. The article goes on to explain the Joannides, aka Howard, affair described above. The quotes come from a variety of important sources, and they are damaging.

    Jefferson Morley, a longtime JFK researcher and former Washington Post reporter, who first sued the CIA for their assassination files in 2003: “The burden of proof has shifted. There’s a story here that’s been hidden and avoided, and now it needs to be explored. It’s up to the government to explain.” And, “At least 35 CIA employees handled reports on Oswald between 1959 and 1963, including a half dozen officers who reported personally to [counterintelligence chief James] Angleton or deputy director Richard Helms.”

    “Joannides began to change the way file access was handled,” committee staff member Dan Hardway testified before Luna’s task force in May. “The obstruction of our efforts by Joannides escalated over the summer [of 1978]. … It was clear that CIA had begun to carefully review files before delivering them to us for review.”

    Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former CIA counterintelligence officer who has delved deeply into the case, said, “This looks a hell of a lot like a CIA operation.” He said a plausible theory was rogue CIA officers created the conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy, unknown to the agency, and that “the CIA covered it up not because they were involved, but because they were trying to hide the secrets of that period.”

    “We are getting closer to the truth about Oswald and the CIA, but I do think there is more to come,” said Senior U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim of Minneapolis, who chaired the assassinations review board in the 1990s. “The Joannides disclosures are most important, I think.”

    And how about Congresswoman Luna for a grand finale: “There was a rogue element that operated within the CIA, outside the purview of Congress and the federal government, that knowingly engaged in a cover-up of the JFK assassination. I believe this rogue element intentionally turned a blind eye to the individuals that orchestrated it, to which they had direct connections. I think this rogue element within the CIA looked at JFK as a radical. They did not like his foreign policy, and that’s why they justified turning a blind eye to his assassination and those involved.”

    Of note: not one single voice still peddling the lone nut fairy tale is heard from in this article. Perhaps the Post did question some and found them to be lacking in credibility, or could not find a credible dissenting voice to come forward, or simply has come to the conclusion that there is no added value for their readers to hear from empty cans that make a lot of noise.

    If one has worked many years arguing that there was a conspiracy with slow progress being made, what more can one ask for? I ask the skeptics among us: Do you think punches were pulled so far on this particular story to spare the CIA? Has there ever been an article from mainstream media that has gone this far in discrediting the official narrative and their snake oil sales reps? Do you not prefer this coverage over the lopsided coverage lone scenario peddlers used to get? Who looks like foolish tale spinners now? Chalk this up as a win.

    Concluding remarks

    For all the reasons mentioned above and my personal experience with media questioning me about the significance of the Post article, I am convinced that this represents a real victory for our side. It reverses the tables on the disorganized opponents of the truth, and it puts pressure on the whole media industry to state their positions and dig deeper.

    I do have some concerns about where all this goes.

    The article says there is more to come and highlights what Joannides’ field reports on Oswald, the DRE, and the Fair Play for Cuba may reveal. When will we get these?

    Congresswoman Anna Luna is being attacked by the very same forces that many researchers believe are being backed by the CIA. We know the CIA devised a game plan to counter Warren Commission critics, and there are many signs that they still rear their ugly heads. Luna and those advising her need to take advantage of this singular moment in time to unravel these dirty tricks and hopefully reveal and critique the disinformation network. This will defend Luna’s reputation and agenda and pre-empt the sneaky character assassination attempts before they take hold.

    The current information release effort is impressive. Other voices need to be heard, including specialists respected for their knowledge and professionalism, and excluding loose-cannon know-it-alls as well as lone-nut water carriers. There is a legitimate fear, I believe, by some that the Luna task force endeavors are too centric on CIA misdirection and a couple of individuals rather than focused on the mechanics of the conspiracy. My analysis of files, including many recent ones, points in directions worthy of more exploration. They say a lot about the who, what, when and why of it all. Anna Luna needs guidance, and the gatekeepers, yes, this includes you Jeff, need to know what lanes to occupy and who should be brought in. It seems to me that people like Jim DiEugenio and Malcolm Blunt could be credible advisors who could enrich Luna’s sources of information.

    It would be an error to try to find a limited hangout to protect the image of the CIA. This will only prolong the pain. On the other hand, the marketer in me understands that perception is reality and reputational risk is high. However, there are more than enough examples of rebranding and new imaging efforts that have successfully saved products and organizations that were in a tailspin. Many have gone on to see these thrive. Old Spice did it, George Bush Junior was born again, and CIA 1963 no longer exists, just like those who created the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In this volatile world, CIA 2025 is needed more than ever.

    Finally, this murder is not solved. Investigations have been continuously sabotaged. Obstruction of justice in this case has been around for more than sixty years. There are still many stones that have been left unturned. A new investigation is in order, a genuine one. The Department of Justice right now has serious credibility issues due to the Epstein debacle. To lead one, I nominate Congresswoman Luna. Jefferson Morley needs to be complemented by a synergetic mind who excels in areas where Jeff is less at ease. Here, I would suggest Jim DiEugenio, who, through his research network, knows who the specialists are on the Secret Service, the Tippit assassination, Jack Ruby, the JFK Act, etc. What a formidable team this would be!

    (Tom Jackman’s Washington Post article may be viewed here, but you may have to create a free account to view)