JFK, the sequel.

OLD conspiracies never die, they simply snowball. In JFK Oliver Stone went whole hog: it wasn't just a little cabal of men who plotted to kill the President, it was the entire government of the United States. Even the liberals found it hard to believe that government could operate so efficiently, and Stone was skewered for his fantasies.

Inside the Beltway, alas, fantasies all too often have political consequences, and sure enough there was Oliver Stone testifying the other day about opening the JFK assassination files. This has attracted the support even of folks who don't think the entire United States was behind Lee Harvey Oswald. Before we start opening our secret files, it's probably worth knowing what those files are.

Most of them are statements taken by FBI agents. Every time an FBI agent interviews a witness, he fills out what's called an SD-302 form. Essentially it is a blank piece of paper on which the agent records the interviewee's name, address, etc.--and then the FBI agent's summary of what he has been told. The witness neither swears to nor signs the statement; only the agent's name appears.

As might be imagined, witnesses vary in credibility, and they offer information that might be true, false, or fantastic. Making it public would often hurt innocent people, an act of irresponsibility akin to publishing a reportor's notes without checking their accuracy. It will also guarantee that in the future agents will put nothing of importance in their files.

In the old days, we got around this problem by allowing the people's elected representatives on special committees to review all the secret files--in full context, and that's important-to make sure nothing was amiss. But then some members of these committees started to take it upon themselves to release highly confidential information. This in no small part contributed to the debacle of Vietnam and its aftermath. If Mr. Stone really wants a juicy scandal to put on the silver screen, there's one just waiting for him: Congress.