Upcoming and Recent Political Assassination Research Events
Note: A listing below does not mean that CAPA helped organize an event or endorses any views presented
2018
November 15, 2018
CAPA EVENT
“THE LAST WITNESSES – REVEALING THE TRUTH”
NOVEMBER 15, 2018
12 NOON – 9 PM
THE OLD RED MUSEUM, DALLAS, TEXAS
HISTORIC FORMER COURTHOUSE OVERLOOKING DEALEY PLAZA
Previous 2018 Events:
May 2018
Of Kennedys and Kings
Reinvestigating the RFK and MLK Assassinations at 50
The 17th Annual Forensic Science and Law Symposium
May 3 – 4, 2018
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, PA
A three-day national symposium reinvestigating the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the occasion of the upcoming 50th anniversaries of those history-altering events will be held from May 3-4 at Duquesne University.
The conference organized by the university-affiliated Cyril H. Wecht Institute for Forensic Science and Law will feature the noted forensic pathologist Dr. Wecht (shown at right) along with many other experts on the assassinations.
Confirmed speakers include:
Thomas N. Noguchi, M.D. (shown at right)
Former Chief Medical Examiner, Los Angeles County
Autopsist of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
William F. Pepper, Esq., Ed.D.
Appellate Attorney for Sirhan Sirhan
Former Attorney for James Earl Ray
Paul Schrade (shown at right of his friend Robert F. Kennedy)
Former RFK Presidential Campaign Aide
Shooting Victim and Witness
Philip Van Praag (shown above with the cover his book on the case and an excerpt of his views)
Acoustic Evidence Expert
Co-Author, An Open & Shut Case
Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D. (shown at right in his lab)
Forensic Pathologist, Author and Educator
Interested in adding yourself or someone you know to this list?
See our CALL for ABSTRACTS.
ONLINE REGISTRATION is NOW OPEN, click here to register!
Justice Integrity Project, Historic Conference May 3-4 To Document MLK, RFK Murder Evidence Cover-ups, Andrew Kreig (shown at right), April 30, 2018. On the unique occasion of the 50th anniversary this spring of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, an unprecedented array of scientific, legal and historical experts will convene at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh from May 3 to 4 to describe the shocking shortcomings by law enforcers and the media in reporting on the deaths.
The conference will feature, among others, experts who will describe their belief that those convicted of the killings, James Earl Ray for MLK’s death and Sirhan Sirhan for RFK’s, were patsies who, according to scientific and witness evidence, could not possibly have killed the iconic 1960s leaders in the separate shootings. The 17th annual forensics conference is organized by the Cyril Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law, based at the university.
Advance registration for in-person and remote audiences for the conference is here. Advance registration closes at noon Wednesday, May 2. But registration later is available on a walk-in basis if space is available at the university hall.
The institute’s namesake, the eminent forensic pathologist and longtime Allegheny County Coroner Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D., has for decades provided medical evidence regarding deaths. In a photo by Noel St. John, Wecht is shown at right during a news conference last year at the National Press Club where Wecht described the public interest in disclosure of suppressed records regarding the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.
March
March 9-11
The Big Event 2018
New Revelations in the JFK Assassination and the Forces Behind JFK’s Death
WHEN: March 9-10-11, 2018 (Starts at 3pm ET)
WHERE: Sterling, VA Holiday Inn Dulles Intl. Airport
Regarding the Archive Files: It’s More About What’s NOT There
The JFK Historical Group and Conscious Community Events will present a conference highlighting the information released in the “JFK Assassination Documents” from the National Archives and present speakers who have conducted extensive research into the sinister forces behind the murder of our 35th President.
Featured Speakers Include:
- Dr. Cyril H. Wecht
- Roger Stone
- Ed Tatro
The JFK Historical Group, The Big Event: New Revelations in the JFK Assassination, Brad Bennett, Jan. 18, 2018. The JFK Historical Group will hold its 2nd conference from March 9-10-11, 2018 in Sterling, Virginia (near Dulles International Airport). The conference title is: The Big Event: New Revelations in the JFK Assassination and the Forces Behind His Death.
The conference will take place at the Holiday Inn Dulles Airport – 45425 Holiday Drive, Sterling, Virginia, 20166. To purchase tickets and make hotel reservations visit: JFKconferenceDC.com.
Conference Keynote Speakers are: Cyril Wecht, medical examiner and forensics expert; Roger Stone, author of 2 bestselling books on the assassination and who he believes is responsible; and Edward Tatro, who attended the Jim Garrison trial of Clay Shaw and an advisor on several films, including Oliver Stones’s JFK, about the assassination.
The other 19 seasoned JFK researchers and assassination witnesses are: Judyth Vary Baker, Richard Bartholomew, Gregory Burnham, Hubert Clark, David Denton, Brian Edwards, Gary Fannin, Gordon Ferrie, Dr. James Fetzer, Victoria Hawes-Sulzer, Saint John Hunt, James Jenkins, Kris Millegan, Phil Nelson, Steve Osborn, Casey J. Quinlan, Larry Rivera, Rick Russo and Ralph Thomas. Our MC’s are Lorien Fenton, podcast radio talk show host, and Andrew Kreig, public affairs officer for Justice Integrity Project.
As the title suggests, there are two major objectives to this conference; the first is to give researchers a forum to reveal and highlight any new information derived from the National Archive release of JFK documents in 2017, and to focus on the substantive research work our speakers have done – some for over 40 years – on JFK’s murder.
Tickets are $135 through Wednesday March 7th, with online sales ending at 12:01 am on Thursday March 8th. Details here.
WOULD YOU LIKE A DISCOUNT? Visit the site link to “answer the question” for $15 off. ALSO an important DEADLINE FOR HOTEL ROOMS at a Discount is February 10th (one month before the conference). Please visit the Hotel Page and book your room as soon as possible (remember, you can always cancel).
January
Jan. 31
National Press Club, A Conversation on the 2017 John F. Kennedy Centennial & the Relevance of his Legacy, 6 p.m., Jan. 31, 2018. Registration. The National Press Club’s History and Heritage Committee, in conjunction with the John F. Kennedy Centennial Commission and the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, sponsor a cocktail reception and conversation on the 2017 John F. Kennedy Centennial and the relevance of his legacy. This event will take place in the Club’s Holeman Lounge on Wednesday, January 31, with the reception beginning at 6:00 p.m., followed by the presentation at 6:30 p.m and q&a.
Presenters will include:
- Kenneth R. Feinberg, Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Centennial Commission
- Steven M. Rothstein, Executive Director of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation
- Frank Islam, Chairman & CEO of FI Investment Group and a member of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation’s Board of Advisors
- Gilbert Klein, Former National Press Club President & Chairman of the Club’s History & Heritage Committee.
Read below for previous events and also those relevant plays and films that are performed on an ongoing basis.
2017 Events
Major CAPA Event: November
Nov. 16-17, Houston, TX
CAPA and South Texas College of Law-Houston, co-sponsors, “Two-day mock trial State of Texas v. Lee Harvey Oswald,” Nov. 16 and 17, at the South Texas College of Law-Houston Houston, TX. Register here for this unique event! Book your Marriott hotel room at a discounted group rate here by the Oct. 30 deadline!
Building on what has been learned from the Innocence Project and the 2009 National Academy of Sciences report on forensic evidence, the CAPA mock trial will apply 21st Century techniques to examine the physical evidence used by the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) to identify Lee Harvey Oswald as the alleged sole assassin of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.
The HSCA concluded that a shot from the grassy knoll by an unknown person missed Kennedy. Oswald is shown in a New Orleans police mug shot taken in August, 1963 during a street disturbance and separately below in a file photo.
Regarding the mock trial: A senior judge from the Harris County Criminal Court will preside over the event with the jury selected from the Harris County jury pool.
Alec Baldwin (shown in a photo from a Cannes Film Festival) will be the keynote speaker for the Nov. 16th dinner following the first day of the mock trial. He will also participate in a book signing for registrants prior to dinner for his new book Nevertheless: A Memoir.
November, 2017
JFK Lancer Productions and Publications, 21st Annual 2017 November In Dallas Conference, Adolphus Hotel, Nov. 17-18, 2017, 1321 Commerce St., Dallas, TX. Produced by Debra Conway and JFK Lancer Productions.
Welcome. The perennial question of JFK research is, ”When will they release the rest of the JFK documents”? A great many people have anticipated that when the withheld documents in the governments JFK records collection are finally released, the quest will be over. Some even seem to expect that the release will actually confirm that the government was aware of a conspiracy at the heart of the assassination and that the knowledge will finally be revealed. Others truly do not understand that literally millions of pages of records have already been released to the public domain, and that decades of Freedom of Information Work by researchers has already added substantially to that body of information.
The official story of the event, that three shots fired by an emotionally unstable lone nut, an isolated young man with no connections to other individuals or groups, someone totally unknown and off the radar of law enforcement and national intelligence, is simply false. We know that now and we have the evidentiary records and documents to prove that assertion. To stress that point, the theme for this years overall conference will be that of ”Disconnection”, the disconnection of the official story from the historical reality.
We will be offering a variety of presentations which focus on that theme, the inherent disconnections embedded in the picture offered to the public by the Warren Commission report of 1964. Disconnects now thoroughly exposed by what can be documented as both legal and scientific issues with the evidence which it used to build its case, as well as the picture it painted of Lee Harvey Oswald. A picture intentionally falsified due to certain very real intelligence and security concerns, part of reactive effort which began to obscure the true history of the event within hours of the shots being fired.
It is time for the final records releases but its also time to expose the historical farce which became the official dogma of the event. Join us in Dallas in November as we continue to do just that.
2017 Conference Speakers include: Mary Ann Moorman Khramer, Gary Shaw, Michael Mercades, Alan Dale, John Newman, Stu Wexler, Larry Hancock, Bill Simpich, Gary Murr, Carmine Savastano, Brian Edwards, Casey Quinlin, Chris Gallop. More to come! More details here.
JFK Conferences, Fifth Annual 2017 JFK Assassination Conference, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Nov. 17-19, 2017, 1015 Elm Street, Dallas, TX. Produced by Judyth Vary Baker (below at left) and JFK Conferences.
Welcome to the 5th annual JFK Assassination Conference! This fast-growing conference will bring you info on the latest secret records released, opportunities to hear and meet important witnesses, authors and researchers in the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations, as well as honest and reliable information necessary to understand and prepare for a world that was created by murdering a great President – an act of treason that changed our government and country forever.
This is a priceless opportunity to meet first-hand witnesses and noted researchers of the first generation, who will not be with us much longer! Hear from their own lips what really happened – not what the government or schoolbooks tell you. This conference sold out last year! More details here.
Nov. 22, Dallas, TX
JFK Remembrance, Dealey Plaza, Noon, Nov. 22, 2017, Dallas, TX. Speakers and audiences plan to gather in honor the murdered President Kennedy at the scene of his fatal shooting in 1963.
Previous Events in 2017 (Reverse chronological order)
July
July 20
Justice Integrity Project, Petition To OAS: Sirhan wrongfully convicted in 1968 RFK Murder, Thursday, 10 a.m., July 20, 2017 at the National Press Club, Washington, DC. Andrew Kreig, July 17, 2017. Famed attorney, noted author, and human rights advocate Dr. William F. Pepper announced July 17 that he is filing a petition to the Organization of American States (OAS) seeking justice for his imprisoned client Sirhan B. Sirhan.
The filing describes Sirhan (shown upon his arrest) as wrongfully convicted of the 1968 assassination of Pepper’s friend, Robert F. Kennedy, the late New York U.S. senator and Democratic presidential candidate. Pepper presents his evidence and arguments at the news conference, located at 529 14th St., NW, Washington, DC.
July 19
Justice Integrity Project, RFK, MLK Friend To Speak July 19 In DC Media Failures, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., July 19, 2017 at the National Press Club, Washington, DC. Dr. William F. Pepper, the noted human rights lawyer, author, and attorney who has defended the convicted killers of his friends Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will speak July 19 at the National Press Club about the central responsibility of news organizations to report the news fairly and without self-censorship.
Pepper, shown with King in a 1967 photo conferring at a conference, will describe how the media have repeatedly failed to inform the public of the ongoing injustice in the Sirhan case, among others. Without a free, independent press, Pepper says, “the rule of law and an informed public cannot function” in a democratic society.
Pepper is filing a 200-page petition this week to the Organization of American States (OAS) accusing the California and U.S. governments of violating the due process rights of accused Kennedy killer Sirhan Sirhan, shown in a prison system photo after being held without parole since the killing on June 5, 1968.
Pepper is delivering a 7 p.m. lecture to the Sarah McClendon speaker society located at the club for more than a quarter of a century. The society is named after the pioneering and blunt-speaking White House correspondent from Texas, Sarah McClendon, who died in 2003.
His lecture and a book signing are open to the press and public, and is preceded by an optional no-host, Dutch-treat dinner beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the club, which is located at 529 14th St., NW near the corner of F Street in downtown Washington, DC.
Pepper is an American lawyer and English barrister. A 1960’s friend of Kennedy and King, he believes that their accused killers were wrongly accused for political reasons.
June
June 3
Future of Freedom Foundation, The National Security State and JFK, Saturday, 8:15 a.m.-6:15 p.m., June 3, 2017, at the Washington Dulles Airport Marriott, 45020 Aviation Drive, Dulles, Virginia. The conference examines the nature, origins, and consequences of America as a national security state since the end of World War II, including such programs as regime-change operations, invasions, occupations, coups, support of dictatorships, assassination, torture, indefinite detention, rendition, and kidnappings.
The conference also focuses on President John F. Kennedy’s turn toward peace and friendly relations with the Soviet Union, and Cuba and his resulting war against the U.S. national-security establishment.
Speakers include: Oliver Stone, Ron Paul, Jeffrey Sachs, Michael Glennon, Stephen Kinzer, Douglas Horne, Peter Janney, Jefferson Morley, David Talbot, and Jacob Hornberger. Details. C-SPAN provided coverage, with the broadcast date TBA.
May
May 31
I Killed JFK is the title of a documentary that premieres May 31 in four Washington, DC-area theaters that include the Regal Cinema on Seventh Street NW in the heart of the city’s downtown.
“A former Mafia insider, recently released from prison after 50 years, claims HE shot JFK from the infamous Grassy Knoll,” according to the announcement by producer Barry Katz regarded 
purported confessed triggerman James Files. “On the anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s 100th birthday, the conspiracy theories still rage on as to how and why he was killed. Was it Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone? The Mob? The CIA? The FBI? The Cuban Government led by Fidel Castro? The Russians? LBJ? Was it a government cover-up? Now, for the first time, I Killed JFK reveals the untold story of the only living person in history who has ever confessed to killing Kennedy, featuring never before seen, recently found, rare footage and in-depth testimony from 20 different respected experts and historians.”
“Hear the bone-chilling account of how it all went down, who was behind the “hit,” and the “proof” that he was not only there…he was the one who pulled the trigger.”
The announcement described also a filmed panel discussion that will be shown featuring those described as: Judyth Vary Baker (Oswald’s lover/author of the best-selling book Me and Lee), Gordon Ferrie (US government, intelligence and national security expert), Barr McClellan (best-selling author of Blood, Money & Power), Zack Shelton (Retired FBI Special Agent), and Jim Marrs (1963 Dallas Journalist and author of the NY Times best seller Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, which inspired Oliver Stone’s film JFK).
May 29
JFK Documentary Film Releases
Two recent documentaries have impressive producers and treatments. One is John Barbour’s latest installment of his 
documentary on the JFK assassination, The American Media: The 2nd Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Barbour, a producer and actor regarded as the godfather of reality television because of his 1970s hit show Real People, is the narrator and Myra Bronstein is the producer of this serious documentary.
The other is The Searchers, produced by award-winning independent filmmaker Randolph Benson, a film instructor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. The film’s poster is at left.
Barbour will launch the latest installment of his documentary on the JFK assassination on May 26 at the Beverly Hills Music Hall in Beverly Hills, California. Another screening will be on June 9 for a week at Cinema Village in Manhattan in New York City. A trailer for the film can be seen here.
Barbour’s JFK documentary film work has lasted more than a quarter century. Drawing on his high-level knowledge of the media, Barbour’s film making has focused heavily on the smear by major news organizations that continues to today against the late New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, whose team investigated evidence of high-level conspiracy to murder the president and cover-up the crime.
Benson’s film, available on DVD, portrays courageous searchers for truth about the assassination, both experts and scholars, who have long been ignored by the media. The film was recently awarded the Orson Welles Prize at the 16th Tiburon International Film Festival. Upcoming screenings include the Dealey Plaza UK Conference in Canterbury in the United Kingdom on April 29, the Freethought International Film Festival in Orlando on May 6, the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill, NC on May 18, and Tsunami Books in Eugene, OR on June 9.
Fans of the producer and film are seeking a venue for a screening in the Washington, DC area timed close to the June 8 anniversary of late president’s iconic speech at American University in the nation’s capital advocating for peace. Some experts regard his forceful and eloquent remarks during the Cold War era as helping foster animosities that led to his murder.
Benson filmed (and was one of the expert speakers) at a CAPA conference March 16 convening leading experts on the JFK assassination at the National Press Club. The conference is summarized in Speaker Program For March 16 Forum On Secret JFK Records and in related stories.
JFK 100th Birthday (May 29) Anniversary Events
JFK Vigil, Peaceably Assemble for Truth: JFK to 9/11, noon to 3 p.m., May 29, 2017, North Public Terrace/Plaza, the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St., NW, Washington, DC. “JFK Vigil” organizer Karl Golovin, author of the recent OpEdNews column, Liberty Lives in the Light, encourages attendees separately to purchase tickets ($25) to the Kennedy Center’s official JFK Centennial Celebration that follows (4-6 p.m.).
He has acquired 30 tickets to provide as gifts for the first 30 “JFK Vigil” participants who arrive (on time, beginning at noon) and continue for the full three hours so that a “group photo” may be taken of those wearing “JFK Buttons” (shown in photo) before entry to the official JFK Centennial Celebration.
Two views of the Kennedy Center on the Potomac River in Washington, DC (photos via Wikimedia)
Kennedy Center, JFK Centennial Celebration, 4 to 6 p.m., May 29, 2017, 2700 F St., NW, Washington, 
DC. One hundred years after the birth of one of our nation’s most visionary and inspiring presidents, the “living memorial” created in his honor pays loving tribute to the galvanizing spirit of President John F. Kennedy. In this special program, artists and audience members–from those whose lives he touched to younger people yet to discover his legacy–will come together to celebrate his words and pioneering vision.
The center wrote: “Be part of an evening of readings and musical performances featuring some of America’s finest artists, as well as glimpses of rare video footage. Taken together, they will remind us of the enduring power of one man’s imagination and courage, and his unwavering belief in justice and peace for all people. Participating artists and program details to be announced at a later date.”
See also related treatment: May 29th: Peaceably Assemble for Truth: JFK to 9/11 (in Washington, DC), Staff report, May 18, 2017. Your participation will invaluably heighten the impact of this timely event, which joins the struggles for truth about 9/11 (15+ years) and JFK’s assassination (50+ years) in a high-visibility location and important context.
October of this year (2017) is the statutory deadline for still-withheld JFK assassination records to be released; yet whether that occurs is by no means certain – some “agencies” will likely pressure President Trump to keep hiding crucial secrets, disclosure of which is essential for public understanding and action. A well-attended “Peaceable assembly” on the occasion of “JFK 100” (100th anniversary of JFK’s birth) on the north/public terrace of The Kennedy Center will convey, by our physical presence (rather than merely in-print or online) our “petition, for redress” of the grievance that information the public requires has been too-long withheld. This pressure will provide both political cover and strong encouragement for President Trump to do the right thing: shine a bright light upon what has been hidden too long in darkness.
Success in obtaining full-disclosure of the JFK records will further the case for hastening release of withheld 9/11 records, such as NIST’s WTC-7 modeling data. While the number of activists still intently focused on the JFK records release may have declined in these 50 years, the groundswell of advocacy for truth about 9/11 is strong and applying that strength – by turning out in large numbers for this May 29th “JFK Vigil” – is of tremendous potential value.
The designated location for this event, available public terraces of The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. is of strategic importance, serving as essentially a “safe zone” from which activists who have “peaceably assembled” may similarly disperse and peaceably re-assemble elsewhere in the Washington area; joining together on this spot May 29th will provide a valuable opportunity for together assessing and envisioning the merit of initiating peaceable assemblies here in even greater numbers this coming September 11th, then November 22nd (a month after the JFK records-release deadline), and thereafter as necessary.
For an analysis of historical parallels between JFK’s assassination and 9/11, please read the article by Karl Golovin, “Liberty Lives in the Light: Illuminate + End ‘False-Flag’ Terrorism,” published in the newsletter this month.
Karl has forwarded the domain www.JFKvigil.com to an Eventbrite page to provide further details; registering for this event will facilitate your receiving updates via email as the date approaches.
JFK Presidential Library and Museum, JFK100: Centennial Celebration, Staff report, May 18, 2017. Over Memorial Day weekend, the Kennedy Library will host a series of events and activities highlighting peace, public service, science and innovation. On Monday, May 29, join us for free admission to our Museum, and a cake cutting ceremony to celebrate President Kennedy’s 100th birthday. There’s cake for 1,000 visitors.
May 8
Newseum, Celebrating the Centennial of John F. Kennedy, May 8, 2017. Washington, DC. To commemorate the centennial of President John F. Kennedy’s birth, some of the nation’s leading historians discuss the life and legacy of the nation’s 35th president. The program will also focus on the book, JFK: A Vision for America, a compendium of Kennedy’s most important speeches, with commentary by leading American and international figures. 
Stephen Kennedy Smith, Kennedy’s nephew, and Douglas Brinkley co-wrote the book (Smith and the book cover are shown at right). The program features:
— Robert Dallek, former professor of history at Boston University and author of An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
— Fredrik Logevall, professor of history and international affairs at Harvard University
— Stephen Kennedy Smith, lecturer at the Sloan School of Management at MIT and co-author of JFK: A Vision for America
— Ted Widmer, director of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress
May 15
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, JFK: A Vision for America, 6 – 7:30 p.m., May 15, 2017. Columbia Point, Boston, Massachusetts. Stephen Kennedy Smith and Douglas Brinkley, co-editors of JFK: A Vision for America, discuss President Kennedy’s legacy with Harvard University professor Frederik Logevall. The event is part of series of “Kennedy Library Forums,” with details on other events available here.
April
April 11
Sixth floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, A Case for Conspiracy with Dr. Cyril Wecht, 7 to 9 p.m., April 11, 2017, Dallas, TX ($15 admission). 
Join renowned forensic pathologist, consultant and author Dr. Cyril H. Wecht (CAPA’s chairman, shown at the National Press Club March 16 in a photo by Noel St. John) in a discussion about his remarkable career and longtime study of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In a multi-media presentation on key areas of the Warren Commission’s 1964 investigation, Dr. Wecht will address President Kennedy’s autopsy and the controversial single bullet theory.
March, 2017
CAPA, At CAPA Forum, JFK Experts See Need, Momentum For Assassination Records Release, Staff report, March 22, 2017. Federal Judge John Tunheim, former chair of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), headlined an expert faculty March 16 in the nation’s capital advocating for compliance with the JFK Assassination Records Act’s deadline of release of President Kennedy’s death records.
The law, approved unanimously by Congress in 1992, mandates the release by Oct. 26 of all U.S. government records related to President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
Experts at the forum at the National Press Club organized by Citizens Against Political Assassinations (CAPA) estimated that some 3,600 documents remain secret, largely because of objections, obstruction or confusion by various agencies.
Judge Tunheim, now chief federal judge for Minnesota, keynoted a news conference at the forum’s beginning by outlining the challenges his presidentially appointed commission overcame in reviewing and releasing some four million pages of assassination-related material in the 1990s.
The complete conference aside from the opening welcome by CAPA’s Andrew Kreig, the event organizer, is available on a video by independent film maker Randy Benson, producer/director also “The Searchers” and a speaker at the forum.
Part I (1:31:44) is here. That segment showed Forum and CAPA Chairman Dr. Cyril H. Wecht introducing the Tunheim and followed by the remarks of historian and author Dr. John M. Newman, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigant and journalist Jefferson Morley and his attorney, James H. Lesar, president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC).
Dr. Wecht (shown in a file photo), a longtime coroner, medical school professor, attorney and author, then delivered a forensic tutorial on the scientific impossibility of the Warren Commission’s “single bullet theory” that blames Lee Harvey Oswald exclusively for the killing.
Part II of the Benson film (here, at 1:38:340) began with “Next Steps in Fact-Finding” by speakers Lawrence Schnapf, a New York-based attorney and co-chair of the CAPA legal committee, and Lesar. Schnapf described how current events reflect the JFK assassination’s relevance today in ways, he said, are frequently missed by what he described as a timid news media reluctant to admit the long cover-up of relevant hard evidence disputing the Warren Report’s findings. He described also progress in organizing a CAPA event next Nov. 20-21 in Houston at the Southwestern School of Law entitled “The People v. Lee Oswald: A 21st Century examination of the forensic evidence in the assassination of President John Kennedy.”
Lesar, the AARC president, advocated for further investigations by Congress, particularly regarding new evidence that the CIA impeded during the 1970s congressional probe.
The final panel was “Open Government In 2017: Researchers’ Guide To Documents, Witnesses & Freedom of Information.”
Kreig, an author, historian and journalist, moderated the session heavily focused on practical solutions to document research on topics beyond JFK research.
The first panelist was Nate Jones, Director of the Freedom of Information Act Project at the National Security Archive, George Washington University and author of the new book, Able Archer 83: The Secret History of the NATO Exercise That Almost Triggered Nuclear War. Jones showed the audience a long National Archives printout identifying the 3,603 documents identified as “withheld in full” pertaining to the JFK assassination, as of February 2016.
The second panelist was Adam A. Marshall, the Knight Foundation Litigation Attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP).
Finally, the award-winning film maker Benson, an instructor in Film & Video at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, returned the discussion squarely to JFK research. Benson described the gratifications and challenges of making The Searchers, which chronicled courageous JFK assassination researchers and witnesses.
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Dr. Wecht closed the event with an overview of the session’s highlights and importance before attendees convened at a special reception for speakers and CAPA members in another room at the press club.
CAPA (www.capa-hq.com) organized the news conference (which attracted at least two White House reporters) and forum. The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) founded Sunshine Week to foster open government via events like this throughout the nation.
CAPA, ‘Sunshine Week’: NARA Progress In Releasing Final JFK Assassination Papers By October, 2017 Deadline, March 16, 2017, National Press Club, 529 14th St., NW, Washington, DC. Leaders in the JFK research community will convene during the news industry’s annual “Sunshine Week” to underscore the historical importance of the scheduled release next October by the National Archives of the final batch of declassified documents about the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy.
Keynote: The Hon. John R. Tunheim, J.D., Chief U.S. District Judge, Minnesota, and former chairman, Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB)
Discussants include:
Cyril H. Wecht, J.D., M.D., forensic pathologist, medical school professor, leader or former leader of multiple professional societies, author or co-author of nearly 50 books, CAPA chairman, and former Allegheny County coroner for 20 years;
James H. Lesar, J.D., FOIA expert, attorney, and president, Assassination Archives & Research Center (AARC);
John M. Newman, Ph.D., author of Oswald and the CIA and other books, former Army intelligence officer and assistant to the National Security Agency director, and former University of Maryland professor;
Jefferson Morley, author of “Our Man In Mexico City” and other books, AlterNet Washington correspondent, JFKFacts.org editor, litigant of many JFK FOIA cases, and former Washington Post reporter;
Lawrence Schnapf, Esq., attorney and CAPA board member; and
Andrew Kreig, Esq., Justice Integrity Project director, author, attorney, and member of CAPA board, National Press Club and American Society of News Editors (ASNE).
Other speakers and program details are here: Speakers Announced For March 16 Forum. Sunshine Week was created by ASNE and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) to foster open government. Detailed coverage below:
Justice Integrity Project, Top Experts To Assess JFK Murder Records, Revelations March 16 In DC, Andrew Kreig, March 8, 2017. Federal judge John Tunheim, former chair of the congressionally appointed Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), will speak March 16 at a unique Sunshine Week press conference organized by CAPA to focus on this year’s deadline for disclosure of secret records about President Kennedy’s 1963 assassination. Tunheim, currently chief U.S. District Judge in Minnesota, is shown in an official photo.
The JFK Records Act, approved unanimously by Congress in 1992, mandates the release by Oct. 26 of all U.S. government records related to the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Under Judge Tunheim’s leadership, the ARRB reviewed and released some four million pages of assassination-related material in the 1990s.
The judge will address the problem of secrecy in a democracy at the news conference, which begins a high-level forum on the topic in Washington, DC.
In a 2013 Boston Globe column, he and former ARRB deputy chair Thomas E. Samoluk wrote that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deceived House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) investigators by not disclosing the role of deceased CIA officer George Joannides in the events of 1963.
“It really was an example of treachery,” Judge Tunheim said in an interview. “If [the CIA] fooled us on that, they may have fooled us on other things.”
After the press conference leading experts in history, intelligence, law and science will discuss the relevance of the still-withheld records to the JFK assassination story and to current issues, including the credibility of officials and media outlets, as measured by polls.
Justice Integrity Project, Speakers Announced For March 16 Forum On Secret JFK Records Due For Release, Andrew Kreig, 
March 8, 2017. To mark the 100th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s birth this spring, leaders in the JFK research community are convening at the National Press Club during “Sunshine Week” March 16.
Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, the noted forensic pathologist, medical school professor, author and CAPA chairman (shown at right), will open the news conference. Also, he will deliver a medical/scientific tutorial showing media attendees why that accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald could not have killed the president acting alone.
Justice Integrity Project, JFK Experts Seek Compliance With Records Release Deadline, Andrew Kreig, March 8, 2017. Leading former government officials and other JFK experts are among those who have called for full release by the National Archives of still-classified records regarding the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.