Expecting to release all remaining FBI and CIA files related to the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Donald Trump hopes to put to rest finally the controversy related to his death. Whether declassifying the remaining files shed light on the Kennedy assassination is anyone’s guess. Since the Sept. 24, 1964 Warren Commission report, the controversy over JFK’s death spiraled out of control with untold numbers of articles and books written on the subject. President Lyndon Johnson authorized the Nov. 29, 1963 Warren Commission Report, concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the “lone assassin” killing President John F. Kennedy, Dismissing conspiracy theorists insisting there was a carefully planned conspiracy with multiple assassins, the Warren Commission Report spawned 54-years of wild speculation.
Declassifying remaining FBI and CIA documents, Trump hopes to put to rest the unending 54-year-old controversy where numerous authors offered up everything but conclusions of the Warren Commission. “The President believes that these documents should be made available in the interests of full transparency unless agencies provided a compelling and clear national security or law enforcement justification otherwise,” said a White House statement. National Archives are expected to release 3,000 new documents and more that 30,000 with prior redactions of significant data. Congress mandated in 1992 that all remaining documents be released to the public in 25 years, the date rapidly approaching Oct. 26, 2017. Classifying the documents Nov. 22, 1963 caused numerous conspiracy theories speculating about Kennedy’s death.
If the Warren Commission were the final word, there was zero reason to classify the documents, forcing Congressional Committees, private civil rights groups to press the government to release all prior classified or redacted documents related to the JFK assassination. “Thank you. This is the correct decision. Please do not allow any exceptions for any agency of government,” tweeted JFK assassination buff, University of Virginia Political Scientist Larry Sabato. Sabato expressed interest in the remaining files, hoping to shed light on why Oswald traveled to Mexico City only weeks before the assassination, visiting the Cuban and Russian embassies. After Oliver Stone’s 1991 Film JFK, there were real questions about Oswald’s ties with Russia and Cuba, looking to retaliate after the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis, CIA assassination attempts on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Oswald’s history as an U.S. Marine marksman and travel to Russia led many conspiracy theorists to believe his actions were orchestrated by the Russian and Cuban governments. Oswald’s travel to the Cuban and Russian embassies in Mexico City was not reported by the Warren Commission or any other government agency, until Congress declassified troves of JFK documents after the 1992 JFK Records Act, amended in 1998 to release all JFK assassination records contained in the National Archives by Oct. 26, 2017. Whether or not anything new comes from the document dump is anyone’s guess. Most JFK experts think that any incriminating files from the FBI, CIA or any other government or law enforcement agency has been long destroyed. Documents released Oct. 26 are required by National Records and Archives Administration.
Releasing the remaining documents, Trump hopes to give JFK assassination scholars and conspiracy theorists more data from which to solve the 54-year-old mystery. Omitting Oswald’s trip to the Cuban and Russian embassies speaks volumes about the government’s cover-up, fearing, at the time of the assassination, disastrous political fallout. Roger Stone, Trump’s personal lawyer under FBI investigation for his alleged ties to Russia, wrote a book on the JFK assassination, essentially blaming President Lyndon Johnson for a CIA hit on the 45-year-old president. Other conspiracy theorists blame former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover whom Kennedy was rumored to fire. “Why? Because I believe that Oswald was trained, nurtured and put into place by the Central Intelligence Agency. It sheds very bad light on the Deep State,” said Stone, making his case to Trump for releasing all JFK documents.
Scratching heads to get to the bottom of the JFK assassination, Trump plans to go against advice of his CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Why Pompeo wants to withhold more ancient documents is anyone’s guess. While unlikely, it’s possible that new docs can help point to a more coherent explanation than Oswald as a lone assassin having a personal beef with Kennedy for whatever reason. Far more likely is the Russia-Cuban connection, targeting JFK for his botched Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis and numerous CIA hits to assassinate Fidel Castro. If you consider how close the U.S. came to nuclear war with Russia, it’s possible Lyndon Johnson ordered the cover-up to spare the world from nuclear war with the Soviet Union. If the U.S. public knew Russia and Cuba hired Oswald to murder Kennedy, Johnson would have been forced to retaliate.
