CAPA Three Year Plan

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.

Summary:  A Proposed CAPA Three Year Plan

Year 1 - 2016

- a -  Pinpoint our allies - form Committees - Executive, Legal, Advisory, Media PR, Research and Fiscal-Membership, and Case Specific  Focus Groups - with assigned tasks and responsibilities;

- b – Discuss what commitments we want from the 2016 candidates - announce our arrival with a press conference, participate in the NYC Forum and create a series of FOIA civil suits against Secret Service, ONI, Air Force and WHCA; as well as events on June 4 for RFK, June 10 JFK at AU and MLK on June 12.

- c – Improve accessibility to the documents.  Post and publish a series of open letters to the chief Archivist (AOTUS) and former ARRB chair Judge Tunheim, Congress and others requesting enforcement of the JFK Act and to upgrade FOIA;

- d - Develop our PR/media strategy to achieve our objectives and implement it  - using a series of sequential staged events - now being put together.

Make open records and transparent government a campaign issue.

Year 2 - 2017

By October - Last JFK records released or withheld by President - whoever he or she may be - need teams of researchers with scanners and laptops to go to NARA and scan critical documents and post them online.

- Suing the government to locate and obtain the release of all assassination records - including the records of the CIA, Secret Service, ONI, NSA and WHCA. - Petitioning Congress and the National Archives to see to the enforcement of the JFK Act, holding public hearings on missing and destroyed records, and ensuring that the October 2017 date for release of the last records is met. - Making the release of the JFK records, secrecy and transparency a campaign issue in the coming presidential election and endorse and support agreeable candidates with a Super PAC fund - we want to become the NRA for those opposed to human hunters and government secrecy. - Holding Congressional Briefings on the current status of the JFK and MLK records and providing a platform for witnesses and whistle blowers who want to publicly testify about what they know. - Reviewing and analyzing the recently released records and pointing out their newsworthy significance. - Peacefully protesting the continued secrecy at selected sites and circumstances - - Working closely and directly with NARA and Congressional staff to facilitate the release of records.   Identifying specific documents for added scrutiny.  Ensuring all of the appropriate records are part of the JFK Collection at NARA and available to the public. - Developing a media strategy to make political assassinations and secret records regularly covered by the mainstream media in a respectful manner. - Responding to false and misleading news articles, books, radio and TV programs.  Expose propaganda and disinformation on the subjects of political assassination and secrecy. - Preparing for future political assassinations that have yet to occur.  Ensure proper investigation and that justice is served. - Evaluating the potential for a permanent Think Tank Center for the Study of Political Assassination and Secrecy in Washington DC that will carry on this work after 2017 Join us in our multi-faceted effort to correct history, free the files, prevent politically-motivated murders, and enforce the laws of the land.