FOIA: CIA Did JFK

[grarpamp]

https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden-administration-releases-nearly-1500-secret-government-documents-on-jfks-assassination_4160244.html
https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/release2021


Biden Admin Releases Nearly 1,500 Secret Documents On JFK's Assassination

The National Archives on Dec. 15 released almost 1,500 previously
classified government documents on the 1963 assassination of President
John F. Kennedy, keeping in line with a deadline set by President Joe
Biden in October.

The 1,491 documents were released in keeping with a federal statute
that calls for the government to release the records in its possession
concerning the Kennedy assassination. They include secret CIA cables,
internal memos, and other documents linked to the Nov. 22, 1963,
assassination of Kennedy in Dallas, for which gunman Lee Harvey Oswald
was arrested. Oswald then died when he was shot about two days later,
killed by a nightclub owner and alleged mob associate Jack Ruby.

Many of the files shed light on Oswald’s Soviet and Cuban embassy
visits, and mention tensions between the United States and Cuba, and a
statement from leader Fidel Castro about possible danger to U.S.
leaders “if they helped in any attempt to do away with leaders of
Cuba.”

The documents also include discussion, in the days after the
assassination, of the potential for Cuban involvement in the killing
of Kennedy.

One CIA document marked “Secret” states that one individual that
Kennedy’s assassin spoke to was the Soviet embassy’s consul, who had
links to the KGB’s “assassination department.” The pair discussed the
gunman’s efforts to obtain a visa to visit the Soviet Union, according
to the documents.

On Oct. 3, 1963, more than one month before the assassination, Oswald
drove back into the United States through a crossing point at the
Texas border.

Another document details what it says were CIA plots to assassinate
Castro, including a 1960 scheme “that involved the use of the criminal
underworld with contacts inside Cuba.”

Also made public was a report that Australians in 1962 had received a
tip from a man who claimed there was a plot to kill Kennedy. The man
claimed he was a driver for Soviet diplomats. An investigation ensued
but officials concluded the lead was not credible.

The records were initially intended to be released on Oct. 26.
However, the Biden administration on Oct. 22 released a memo stating
that the deadline would be pushed back until Dec. 15 at the earliest,
but only for material deemed “appropriate for release to the public.”

The memo added that sensitive information pertaining to the
assassination will be released in December 2022. At least 10,000
documents remain partially redacted or withheld.

According to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA),
the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted certain agencies’
ability to review the remaining redactions in the documents. More than
90 percent of NARA’s collection on the assassination has been full
released to the public since the 1990s, including more than 250,000
records.

The U.S. government released further batches of secret documents to
the public throughout 2017 and 2018, although President Donald Trump
ultimately decided to push back the release of some records to October
2021 on request of the CIA and FBI over “identifiable national
security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns,” he said.

JFK researchers have expressed frustration over the latest release of
documents, with some saying that the records do not contain new
revelations that could radically reshape the public’s understanding of
the events surrounding Kennedy’s assassination.

“It’s always ‘the next time,'” the University of Virginia’s Larry
Sabato, a leading scholar of the assassination, told CNN, referring to
Biden’s October order stating that the remaining files won’t be
released until at least next fall.

Larry Schnapf, a lawyer and assassination researcher, said he plans to
file a lawsuit against the Biden administration for not releasing the
documents in full.

    “We will be seeking a court order instructing the President to
release the remaining records or to disclose the specific identifiable
harm posed by each document sought to be postponed and how such
alleged harm outweighs the strong public interest in the release of
these records, which were supposed to have been released by Oct. 26,
2017,” Schnapf told reporters in an email on Tuesday.

The Warren Commission in 1964 concluded that Oswald had been the lone
gunman, and another congressional probe in 1979 found no evidence to
support the theory that the CIA had been involved. But other
interpretations have persisted.