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Rockefeller Commission Files Still Classified



FORD PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY HOLDS 23
FEET OF STILL-CLASSIFIED CIA DOMESTIC
SURVEILLANCE FILES
by Michael Ravnitzky ,
mikerav@mindspring.com

The bulk of records of the President's
Commission on CIA Activities Within the
United States (i.e. The Rockefeller
Commission) are still classified and
unavailable for historical research.  In
addition, there exists two lists of the files in the
collection, both an internal draft list of files and
the official "Inventory of Files", are both
similarly classified and unavailable.  Some of
these records, the ones relating to the
Kennedy Assassination, and anti-Castro
activities, have been reviewed and generally
released.

According to the individual responsible for
declassification review of the "Inventory",
Steven D. Tilley, Chief of the JFK
Assassination Records Collection at the
National Archives (NARA), the CIA has recently
completed its review of the "Inventory" and FBI
staff will be invited to NARA in July or August to
conduct an FBI review.  At that point, the Ford
Library staff will redact the official Inventory
and make the remaining portions available to
the public.  There are no plans to release the
"internal" file list, but I plan to file a Mandatory
Declassification Review request for that
document.

The Ford Library is not subject to the Freedom
of Information Act, and Library staff decline to
process requests for Mandatory
Declassification Review (MDR) of documents
from the Rockefeller Commission collection
unless the requester can specify the
documents wanted.  Because no finding aids
are accessible, this makes the process quite
difficult.

Much of the material relates to domestic
surveillance activities unrelated to the
Kennedy Assassination or Castro, according
to Karen Holzhausen, the Ford Library
archivist tasked with national security and
Mandatory Declassification related functions.
She says that the best roadmap of these
materials is found in the Rockefeller
Commission report, and that the Ford Library
happens to have a few extra copies they
inherited years ago from the Commission.

Holzhausen says that these materials are
slated for systematic (planned)
declassification review under the 30-year
declassification rule in Executive Order 12958,
but that the agencies are doing their review in
chronological order and so these materials
will be done only after other presidential
material has been reviewed.  She adds that
much of the material has been optically
scanned and is ready to be shipped
electronically to the originating agencies for
review.  She says that the collection is
described in their holdings as occupying 41
linear feet of shelf space, but that the Ford
Library has 2 sets of the material, and thus the
material actually measures about 23 linear
feet.

The address for the archivist responsible for
processing of this collection at the Ford
Library, and who holds the "internal file listing"
is:
Gerald R. Ford Library
Attn:  Karen Holzhausen (extension 228)
1000 Beal Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Telephone:  734-741-2218
Fax:  734-741-2341
Her email is Karen.Holzhausen@nara.gov

The contact information for review of the
Inventory List at the National Archives is

Special Access and FOIA Staff, Room 6350
Attn:  Steven D. Tilley
National Archives at College Park
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Telephone:  301-837-3190

I also understand that the National Security
Archive
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
has looked into obtaining this collection.

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