National Archives releases more than 13,000 classified files related to JFK’s assassination

The National Archives on Thursday released 13,173 raw documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, offering historians and conspiracy hunters a new trove of details.

It came shortly after President Joe Biden issued an executive order authorizing its release, while keeping thousands of other documents out of public view.

“According to my direction, the agencies have undertaken a comprehensive effort to review the complete set of nearly 16,000 records that had previously been published in redacted form and determined that more than 70 percent of those records can now be published in their entirety.” Biden said.

“This important disclosure reflects my administration’s commitment to transparency and will provide the American public with greater perspective and understanding of the government’s investigation into this tragic event in American history.”

President John F. Kennedy and the first lady smile at the crowds lining their motorcade route in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Minutes later, the president was assassinated.

On Thursday, the National Archives posted 13,173 unedited previously classified documents on its website. Hundreds more remain too sensitive to release

However, hundreds of other documents remain secret.

A CIA spokesman said 95 percent of the files had already been released in their entirety.

The little information that remains redacted in the CIA records in the Collection consists of intelligence sources and methods, some dating back to the 1990s, initially provided to provide the JFK Review Board with general context on the CIA, the publication of which would actually cause identifiable harm. to intelligence operations,’ he said.

The statement is the first since the Biden administration released 1,500 documents last year.

But don’t expect much ammunition for those who believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the assassin or that, far from acting alone, he was simply the trigger for a larger conspiracy.

Instead, officials said political The new information will help historians fill in some of the gaps about a turning point in American history and investigate why the government has been so reluctant to release all the documents.

Thursday’s release was expected to focus on Oswald’s 80-volume 201 ‘personality file’.

JFK and Jackie Kennedy in their car in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, moments before he was assassinated.

Many of the files focus on the activities of Lee Harvey Oswald in the weeks and years before he shot Kennedy to death, such as his visit to the Soviet embassy in Mexico City in September 1963.

Tourists walk around Grassy Knoll at Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas, the scene of the Kennedy assassination

The CIA has said that it was created in 1960, suggesting that the intelligence agency was concerned about Oswald long before the assassination.

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 mandated that the files be released within 25 years, by 2017. But it also allows presidents to use their discretion to keep the records sealed.

Much of it has already been published, but parts remain secret for national security reasons.

One of the newly released parts is in a document detailing Oswald’s visit to the Soviet embassy in Mexico City in September 1963, two months before the assassination.

It revealed that a wiretap that captured Oswald’s phone call was a joint operation with the Mexican presidency, a fact unknown to local intelligence agencies.

Flowers lie on a plaque with a quote from former President John F. Kennedy at the Grassy Knoll in Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas on Tuesday, November 23, 2021.

Kevin Carroll, a former CIA case officer, said it was an example of how redacted parties are likely to protect sources or relationships with foreign intelligence agencies.

After the operation, the agents would have checked with all their sources to see if they had any relevant information, he said.

“So I bet there are plenty of operations cables from late November 1963 from field officers reporting to Headquarters that ‘Source X’ had no details about the assassination or threats to other US officials,” he said. .

“That kind of ops cable is irrelevant to the Kennedy assassination, but it could reveal foreign officials spying for the United States 59 years ago.”