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What might a three year strategy
for CAPA look like?
By Bill
Simpich, Esq.
On the
evening before the first CAPA Board meeting conference
call I ran into David Talbot while we were both walking our dogs in the
park. We both enthusiastically agreed
that CAPA has great potential.
To be successful needs a comprehensive media strategy as well as a 3 year plan.
If we
don't firm up our historical memory of the response to prior assassinations
and their impact on society, important aspects of our history will slip away
from us. My understanding is that
CAPA’s priorities will be to free the JFK files by 2017, the release of the
MLK HSCA files, and to reopen the RFK case.
We will have to work on cases "other than JFK" - including
present-day cases as they arise - in order to maintain our momentum.
If the
goal of CAPA is to free the files and resolve the JFK case and other
hotly-contested cases like it, the best strategy to achieve that goal is to
wage a political campaign designed to make sure that 1) the files are freed
with no redactions by October 2017; 2) to free as many additional files as
possible; and 3) to promote a climate that combats secrecy and promotes
transparency.
What tactics will advance that strategy?
I would suggest that our tactics should be informed by some good news from Martha Murphy at NARA.
Murphy
announced that a team was formed last year to assure that the estimated 3500
documents withheld in full and the 35,000 withheld in part will be released
by 2017. My understanding is that these documents will be scanned and posted
online.
Murphy
said that the default position will be to release the documents, as only the
President of the United States can authorize continued withholding of
documents and any redactions.
Given
that information, putting pressure on the next President is an important
ingredient in the mix. I would propose tactics that will propel our strategy
- something like this:
Late May-June 2016: Coming-out party for CAPA.
Announce our action plan, seek members.
July-August 2016:
If we get the next four items right, we are off to a great start.
Pinpoint who our natural allies are. For starters, I would urge
outreach and establishing a working relationships with the National Security
Archive, the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC), the Hidden
History Museum, the Mott House, Center for Democracy and Technology and the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. I assume that several of us have worked with
these groups in the past.
What commitments do we want from the 2016 candidates?
We should encourage internal dialogue within CAPA to define the
specific questions that should be asked to the 2016 presidential candidates,
since the next President will be the final arbiter of what is redacted from
the 2017 JFK records release.
The all-important PR/media plan? We already have a strong team of
people at work on this, crafting and vetting a PR/media plan which is
essential to our success. Stories on lost and destroyed records are often
newsworthy, as well as narratives that have been revealed by documents
released pursuant to the JFK Records Act. The CAPA newsletter and
website-information can be powerful tools. We are already seeing the value of
social media in the JFK case on a daily basis - how can CAPA advance its
goals in that arena?
How to improve the accessibility of
documents? We can engage the NARA
staff to find out if and how the release of the records can be expedited.
There is no reason for them to wait until the October 2017 deadline. They can
start the rollout right now by posting the non-controversial requested
documents on line as they have promised, to update their public index and
make their private index available to researchers. It sounds like they may
also be scanning earlier-released documents at some point- if they do, these
documents should be put online as well.
In general, NARA should work more efficiently with researchers and to see
that Congress properly oversees the JFK Act so that it is properly enforced.
NARA never published a guide to the JFK Collection as the JFK Act specifically
mandates and never engaged with the FBI and CIA as agreed in a Memorandum of
Understanding back in the 1990s. Congress never engaged in its oversight
function under the JFK Records Act.
NARA should join researchers in pushing them to change that.
September-December 2016: Begin a new Super PAC to accept
donations to be used to promote our issues in the media during the election.
Roll out
a media campaign designed to ensure the documents are released in full by
October 2017 as mandated in the JFK Records Act.
Make
political assassinations and secret records a campaign issue and seriously
and regularly covered by the mainstream media.
Public
relations and media advocacy is shaping up in our discussions as the number
one priority. The 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination made clear the
location of the battleground.
The media campaign should include "bird dog" teams that follow the
presidential candidates at every whistle stop in the build-up to the
election, asking them to commit to full enforcement of the JFK Records Act,
to combat secrecy, and to promote transparency. We can broaden this campaign
in later months if we make a heavy impact in those initial two
primaries.
I am no
fan of Bill Clinton, but he sided with the ARRB in favor of more openness in
every instance when the intelligence agencies appealed to him. Under the JFK Records Act, the President is
the final arbiter when NARA and the agencies don’t agree on a classification
issue.
Also
useful for media impact would be public hearings. One option would be to hold
congressional briefings on the current status of the JFK and MLK
records. Such briefings would provide
a platform for witnesses and whistle blowers as well as analysts reporting on
documents lost, destroyed, or newly-discovered.
We want
the relevant Congressional committees to conduct proper oversight of the JFK
Act, as they are required to do but haven’t done. In the fall, when Congress
resumes after the summer holiday, we should hold a Congressional briefing
where we decide who testifies. We want
to make sure that Congress and NARA and their staff as well as the mainstream
media listen to these witnesses.
One hot issue is the dawning realization that informant files have been held
back by the FBI in the JFK case, defying the ARRB and other bodies that
ordered production of all relevant documents. Very few informant files have ever been released by
the FBI. It usually requires a criminal trial.
Yet another aspect of this campaign should be to work close and directly with
NARA and specific Congressional staff members to facilitate the release of
records, identify specific documents and ensure all of the appropriate
records are part of the JFK Collection at NARA and available to the public.
And,
when necessary, we might include a specially-targeted site to protest the
continued secrecy for maximum media impact.
We
should also keep in mind the impact of new books such as David Talbot’s
Devil’s Chessboard, Peter Dale Scott’s new Deep Politics tome, John Newman’s Where Angels Tread Lightly, and Jeff
Morley’s book on George Joannides. I
personally believe that David Talbot's explosive biography of Allen Dulles
will result in pitched conflict. We
should be prepared at a moment’s notice to support David and other
responsible researchers and writers.
This
coming period is a time when all of us will need to stand and fight.These authors not only attack some of the
central myths that Americans like to have about themselves, but challenge
very powerful figures in a very public way.
2016: After coordinating with groups
such as the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC), CAPA will
assist other researchers in filing FOIA requests and lawsuits against the
government to locate and obtain the release of all assassination records - including
records of the CIA, Secret Service, ONI, NSA and WHCA.
I would
also suggest expanding the bird-dogging campaign to include candidates on the
congressional level, while ensuring that every presidential candidate commits
to maximum transparency on the 2017 JFK records and other secrecy issues.
By this
point, we should be considering joint projects within the membership of
CAPA. One project might be to analyze
blocks of documents in small groups.
Another project might be to scan large quantities of documents with
laptops at the College Park site and then provide them to MFF and/or other
entities.
2017: We should consider creating a
permanent Think Tank Center for the Study of Political Assassinations and
Secrecy based in Washington DC that can carry on this work after 2017. This
would be a tax-deductible not-for-profit enterprise dedicated to research and
education. After the election would
be a good time to evaluate the potential for such a center
A new
Congress will provide a better chance for either a new JFK Act or revision of
the old act. The Act allows NARA to certify on or after October 2017 that all
assassination-related records have been provided. Our actions should make it
clear that any such declaration would be premature until a new or revised act
makes its way through Congress and is signed by the President.
The
activities laid out for September 2016-December 2016 should be accelerated,
leading up to a crescendo of October 2017. The emphasis should be that we
want a rollout of the documents - not a document dump.
After
October 2017, if we do our work right, we will be in a far more favorable
environment for reaching resolution of the JFK case and other cases. All the more reason to form or strengthen
teams of researchers in the months ahead.
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