Author Archives: Robert

Review of Kill the Messenger

Posted on June 12, 2018 by Robert

Schou, Nick. Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb. Nation Books, 2006. When Gary Webb’s series “Dark Alliance” was published in the San Jose Mercury News in 1996, it set off what was easily the … Continue reading →

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Bill Kelly on the ARCA

Posted on May 28, 2018 by Robert

[Revised May 29] The JFK Assassination Records Collection Act (ARCA) is the law that established the massive JFK Assassination Records Collection (ARC) at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). As federal law, the record of its enactment is about … Continue reading →

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ARRB resource page added

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Robert

I have finally put together a webpage to hold all of the lists and links I have been using in my posts on the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB). In addition, I have also started to add material from other … Continue reading →

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NARA 18 errata corrections

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Robert

This is a minor book-keeping note on NARA 18 (the excel file that NARA released on 26 April 2018). I had previously found 20 record number errors in NARA 17 (the excel file that NARA released on 15 December 2017), … Continue reading →

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The new NARA 18 and the last ARC WIF docs

Posted on May 5, 2018 by Robert

This is my second post on the National Archive’s 4-26 release of documents from the JFK Assassination Records Collection (ARC). In this post I will look at the ultimate resolution of the ‘Withheld in full’ (WIF) documents. The summary: The … Continue reading →

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ARC agency numbers

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Robert

[Post script added 2018/5/9] For those not in the know, most (but not all) records in the JFK Assassination Records Collection at NARA have finding aids called Reader Information Forms (RIFs) Each RIF has a unique 13 digit number that … Continue reading →

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“Missing” RIFs at NARA

Posted on April 28, 2018 by Robert

It was difficult to come up with a snappy title for this post. Scare quotes around the word missing are a compromise. Otherwise it was something like “RIF forms that were completed but not included in NARA’s on-line database of … Continue reading →

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The April 26 ARC releases

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Robert

NARA has come through with a new release of 19,045 ARC documents. There are many things to be said about this release, but for now I will simply put up a very important link to NARA’s JFK Assassination Records Processing … Continue reading →

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ARRB notices: additions and revisions

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Robert

I have added some new material to my ARRB lists and revised some of the record counts. This post is a short note on what changed. Meeting list: new transcripts I have added another set of meeting and hearing transcripts … Continue reading →

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ARRB record notices

Posted on April 21, 2018 by Robert

This is the third in a series of posts on the Assassination Record Review Board and the notices it published in the Federal Register. This post introduces the 50 record notices the ARRB published over its four years of existence. … Continue reading →

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