In April of 1994, three national, non-profit organizations, the Assassination Archives Research Center, the Citizens for Truth About the Kennedy Assassination, and the Committee for an Open Archives, and members of the assassination research community formed the Coalition on Political Assassinations in Washington, DC. The call for such a national organization, based in Washington, came from meetings held in Dallas, Texas on the 30th anniversary of the murder of John F. Kennedy.
The Coalition is united in the belief that no lone assassin was responsible for the death of President Kennedy, that serious questions remain in the murders of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., that the official investigations into these murders were flawed, and that all US and foreign government records relating to these murders should be made public immediately.
The inability of past and present government agencies to resolve public doubts and distrust concerning these murders requires full disclosure and public scrutiny of the history and events surrounding them, and has led to the creation of the JFK Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), a group of citizens responsible for locating, defining and facilitating release of these files, unless clear and convincing evidence of harm to current intelligence sources and methods, or harm to individuals outweighs the public right to access to the information in all government files.
Membership in our Coalition is nationwide and global, and our contacts have grown from the hundreds to the thousands since we began. The Coalition has intervened with Congress to extend the funding of the Review Board, and to support their efforts to release documents, which has been challenged by the FBI and CIA. We serve as a public watchdog in the ongoing process of release of files in the JFK case, and we work to make public new revelations based on those files. We work closely with the ARRB as well.
The Coalition has held four annual, national conferences in Washington, DC. Organized as public, semi-professional gatherings, these events allow scores of researchers to prsent the best and most recent evidence in these assassinations, following a call for papers and peer review by the many medical, legal, forensic and academic experts in the field. These conferences have revealed significant new information from the JFK Assassinaton Records Collection, and featured visits to Archives II, where the files are housed. The 1998 national conference will take place in Dallas, Texas from November 21-23, the 35th anniversary of the murder of John F. Kennedy.
At the conferences, the Coalition has presented the Silver [sic] Meager [sic] Lifetime Achievement Award to several researchers and supporters, including Bud Fensterwald, Esq., Mary Ferrell, Robert Groden, Penn Jones, James Lesar, Esq., Sarah McClendon, Dr. William Pepper, Esq., Peter Dale Scott, Ph.D., Josiah Thompson, JD. and Harold Weisberg. Our conferences have also featured presentations by former members of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, the last official investigation, current authors, and members of the JFK Assassination Records Review Board. The ARRB has held public meetings and hearings in conjunction with our conferences.
Open Secrets, the newsletter of the Coalition, covers the progress of the ARRB, reprints significant new documents, excerpts and reviews the latest books, films and computer research aids, and carries letters and articles from our members. Abstracts of our Conference presentations and videotapes of the events are also available.
The Governing and Advisory Boards of the Coalition include Cyril H. Wecht, MD, JD, Oliver Stone, Peter Dale Scott, Ph.D., John Newman, Ph.D., Philip Melanson, Ph.D., Gary Aguilar, MD, Walt Brown, Ph.D., Daniel S. Alcorn, Esq., James Lesar, Esq., Robert Tanenbaum, Esq., Jim DiEugenio, Janette Rainwater, Ph.D., and Josiah Thompson, JD, among others.