Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503290029
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Boston Globe
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium
John Tunheim, chairman of the Assassination Records Review Board, predicted at a State House hearing Friday that by the time the board completes its work in October 1997, more than 2 million documents relating to the assassination would be available for review at the National Archives, in addition to the 2 million already there.
Despite the avalanche of material, panel members said the doubts that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone probably would continue to linger.
Even so, Tunheim defended the effort. ``I think we are a very cost-effective way of doing this [when compared with] the cost of agencies responding to Freedom of Information requests and defending themselves in lawsuits from people who want to get at this information,'' he said. ``I think there are issues for the American public that do need to be resolved.''
Panel member Kermit Hall, who noted that controversy continues to swirl over whether John Wilkes Booth killed President Lincoln more than a century ago, said, ``Basically the conspiracy theorist will always be able to find questions to ask that cannot be immediately answered.''
A half-dozen academics, authors and researchers - whose theses ranged from Lee Harvey Oswald was framed to Oswald did not act alone in the assassination - spent three hours suggesting to the board what documents they should look for, where and why, the latter question not always clear.
Philip H. Melanson, political science professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and author of ``Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence,'' asked the board to release U.S. military intelligence records on Oswald.
Other witnesses urged the five-member board to pursue reports that the windshield of the convertible in which Kennedy was riding was switched after being pierced by a bullet and that his gunshot wounds were altered as part of a cover-up.
Momentum for creating the board came following the release of Oliver Stone's 1991 film ``JFK,'' which suggested that responsibility for the Kennedy assassination lies with a broadbased conspiracy involving the FBI, CIA and military intelligence.
According to Hall, surveys showed that before the film came out, 80 percent of American people believed the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald acted alone in the assassination. Following the film's release, 80 percent believed there was a conspiracy.
The session at the State House was part of a series of meetings with conspiracy buffs and academics, held so far in Washington and Dallas.
Public outcry provided the impetus for Congress to pass the 1992 law calling for the release of relevant information.
Tunheim said most of the 50,000 documents that U.S. agencies still want to keep secret would be released soon.
by CNB