Take for example the 2018 release of documents here:
https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/release?page=1
And lets take one sample document, that of Soviet Russian Chief David Murphy. The list shows his HSCA testimony on row 92. Does this mean that none of David Murphys HSCA testimony was ever released until 2018 or does it mean some of it had been released previously but had parts redacted? And now in 2018 is the most complete version of his HSCA testimony to date?
Any insights would be much appreciated as these lists of documents are important, yet confusing for someone, like me, not used to them.
Excerpts of Murphy's testimony were released with the HSCA report in 1978. Most of his testimony was about verifying the authenticity of Nosenko, how they questioned/handled him, his treatment, et cetera.
The excerpts are here:
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=84#relPageId=535&search=David_MurphyI imagine that more of his testimony was later released after review by the CIA and the collapse of the USSR. Since he was involved in trying to verify Nosenko's bona fides I imagine the CIA had information about the KGB that they used to question Nosenko about. And they didn't want the KGB to find out about information. After the collapse of the USSR it was unnecessary to withhold this material.
I think that's true for all of this material that was withheld. Sources, methods, et cetera.
Nosenko's credibility is difficult to judge. The CIA asked him some basic questions such as how a KGB agent wrote a cable, what was the layout of KGB headquarters, where was the cafeteria located, et cetera. Supposedly he couldn't answer these rudimentary questions. Simple things tripped him up. The CIA later cleared him but I can see why people thought he was a fake defector. Still do.
