[[ this was posted on alt.conspiracy.jfk April, '96
    by joebackes@aol.com - Joe Backes ]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Hello, and welcome to another installment of reviewing the Review Board.
I'm your host Joseph Backes. The Board gave a small presentation to the
Organization of American Historians in Chicago on March 28, 1996 at the
lovely Palmer House Hilton hotel.  This is a priliminary report, I am
working on a lengthier article.
     Guess which floor it was on?  That's right the sixth.
      Drs. Hall, Nelson, and Joyce were present.  I was glad to see new
faces representing the research community.  John Judge had a small table
set up.  This is a welcome improvement since the Review Board's
presentation in Atlanta to the American Historical Association and
hopefully speaks to the kind of impact I want to have on the research
community.  Since I wrote of the Board's presentation at the American
Historical Association there has not been one open meeting of the Board.
These presentations to these two historical associations represent the
only opportunity to learn from the Board members what they have been up
to.
     Dr. Hall mentioned that the Board is debating whether to have any
more Public Hearings at all.  They are rather intensely reviewing
documents at the moment and Public Hearings are time consuming and costly.
 While I can see and even support his viewpoint I fell that at the very
least an open meeting of the Board is long overdue.  I would love to hear
an update on the collection from Mr. Steve Tilley and an update from the
Board members on the many jobs they are currently undertaking.  Another
open meeting similar to the October 23, 1996 one wherein the staff of the
Board gave briefings on the progress to find and locate records would be
very welcomed by this writer.
     I would love to hear from the newly created subdivision of the
Board's staff on the quest for military records.  I want to hear about the
subpoena's that have been issued and are about to be issued.  I want to
learn as much as possible of the deposing of Drs. Humes and Boswell.  I
want to read the ARRB's annual report.  I want to know more about the
Secret Service destroying assassination records in 1995 relating to
President Kennedy's travels.  This is most distressing news and in clear
and open violation of the JFK statute.  I want to know more about the
Board's court battle with D.A. Connick.  This is an intensely active
period for the Board right now.
     I don't know about you but I had a cross between an orgasm and a
religious experience when I heard that the ARRB deposed Humes and Boswell.
 This is major news.  This is a first in the history of the case.  I
recall vividly when I went to Harold Weisberg's house  shortly after the
C.O.P.A. conference and he was dismissive of the Board in general and of
the then most recent release of assassination records.  He asked me, "Do
you know what they could do to Humes and Boswell?"   Mr. Weisberg
suggested that if they ever talk to them the first question should be, "Do
you know what perjury means doctor?"  Well, miracle of miracles they
deposed them!
     None other than Dr. Hall, who served as moderator for the Board,
pointed out that they, the Board, were aware of notes being taken at the
time of the autopsy by Humes, Boswell and Finck.  This is amazing stuff.
I point this out for those in the research community who have been
knocking Dr. Hall for being pro-Warren Commission.  I do not feel that
that is a correct characterization.
     More later.-JOE