Trump to release JFK files, subject to 'further information'

By David Brunnstrom

 

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (not pictured) for a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that, subject to receipt of further information, he planned to allow the opening of long-secret files on the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy due for release next week.

 

Politico magazine earlier quoted Trump administration and other U.S. government officials as saying the president would almost certainly block the release of information from some of the thousands of classified files, which the U.S. National Archives is scheduled to make public by an Oct. 26 deadline. (http://politi.co/2yGjMtr)

 

"Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened," Trump said in a tweet.

 

"The president believes that these documents should be made available in the interests of full transparency unless agencies provide a compelling and clear national security or law enforcement justification otherwise," a White House official said.

 

The Nov. 22 1963 assassination cut short "Camelot," as the 1,000 days of the Kennedy presidency became known. Kennedy was 46 and remains one of the most admired U.S. presidents.

 

Thousands of books, articles, TV shows, movies and documentaries have been produced about the assassination and surveys have shown a majority of Americans still distrust official evidence pointing to Lee Harvey Oswald as the sole killer.

 

Despite serious questions about the official inquest, and theories purporting that organized crime, Cuba or a cabal of U.S. security agents was involved, conspiracy theorists have yet to produce conclusive proof Oswald acted in consort with anyone.

 

Over the years, the National Archives has released most documents related to the case, but a final batch, amounting to tens of thousands of pages, remains and only Trump has the authority to decide whether some should continue to be withheld or released in redacted form.

 

The Washington Post and other media have quoted officials as saying that government agencies have lobbied Trump to withhold some of the documents, arguing that they could expose relatively recent intelligence and law enforcement operations.

 

Philip Shenon, the author of the Politico article and of a book on the assassination, said he did not think the last batch of papers contained any major bombshells, but may shed light on the activities of Oswald while he was traveling in Mexico City in late September 1963, and courting Cuban and Soviet spies."From the record we already have, we know he met there with Soviet spies and Cuban spies and other people who might have wanted to see Kennedy dead," Shenon said.

 

"It’s going to be very interesting to see what else the government knew about the threat Oswald might pose – how much more they learned about his trip in Mexico City and whether or not they bungled evidence to suggest he was a threat."

 

Shenon said it would be interesting, too, to see if there was anything in the documents to substantiate comments Trump made during his election campaign linking Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz's father to Oswald.

 

"It's the president's favorite conspiracy theory about the Kennedy assassination ... but I don't think there is," Shenon said.

 

Cruz's father Rafael has called Trump's allegations that he was pictured with Oswald in New Orleans before the assassination "ludicrous."

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-22

10 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Despite serious questions about the official inquest, and theories purporting that organized crime, Cuba or a cabal of U.S. security agents was involved, conspiracy theorists have yet to produce conclusive proof Oswald acted in consort with anyone.

 

Nor has the government produced any conclusive evidence of Oswald's guilt.

29 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

The Washington Post and other media have quoted officials as saying that government agencies have lobbied Trump to withhold some of the documents, arguing that they could expose relatively recent intelligence and law enforcement operations.

 

While it is possible that there are historical ties to an intelligence operation that is still active today, what possible law enforcement actions could still be valid after 50+ years?

 

It is truly astounding that after so much time there are still valid (in my view) questions regarding what exactly happened that day in Dallas. And perhaps more astounding, that there really haven't been clear, widely accepted answers to one of the most sensational crimes of the twentieth century.

 

I hope that the release of documents goes forwards and that it clears up all remaining questions.

 

But, I doubt it will...

 

Edited October 21, 20178 yr by Samui Bodoh

This will be interesting. But our grandchildren will be going through the same conversation with Trump FOIA, oh, 70 years later, too!

Ted Cruz must be worried.

 

Some nonsensical troll posts have been removed. 

all over the world , powerful people murder to get what they want.

They hide there actions in safes and just wait until everybody forgot about it .

Nothing new ,and still  happens today.....  

This will be interesting. But our grandchildren will be going through the same conversation with Trump FOIA, oh, 70 years later, too![emoji106]

With the exception that Trump wasn't one of the most popular president

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

"Fake" 

A post containing an intentional aberrant misspelling of the President's name has been removed. 

Donny boy has to get in there & do something radical. This may be his only legacy & it will probably backfire on him.