Newly Declassified JFK Assassination Files Released: 10/26/17

[freezeblade]

I'm surprised there's no thread for this yet!

As of 10/26/17 Thousands of pages of newly declassified files got placed in the national archives, open to the public. Some were held back for further redaction or will never be released.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/us/p ... files.html

Here's a link to the actual files: https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/2017-release

Here is the faq page from the national archives showing what is and is not available, as well as some general information: https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/faqs.html

I figured here is as good of a place as any to talk about interesting things found in these files. I haven't gotten a chance to dive in all the way to them yet, however some interesting revelations so far:

- Confirmation that Oswald was at the Russian Embassy in Mexico city and met with “a case officer in an operation which is evidently sponsored by the KGB’s 13th Department (responsible for sabotage and assassination).”
- There was warnings given to the police by Government agencies about credible threats to kill Oswald, and that proper security should be provided to him. Proper security was obviously not provided. Hoover even mentioned this in one memo: “There are bound to be some [elements] of our society who will holler their heads off that his civil rights were violated — which they were.”
- Hoover also stressed a need (in internal memos) to “convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin.”
- High Level USSR Communist party actors believed that assassination was part of a well-organized conspiracy on the part of the ‘ultraright’ in the United States to effect a ‘coup.’
- Oswald was on the FBI radar about a month previous to the assassination, though a Cuban channel.

Any discussion on this cache of information?

[ObsessoMom]

I think Trump made such a big deal about releasing these assassination files because they fit right into his "don't believe the official story--the real truth is what I say it is" message.

[Chen]

I think Trump made such a big deal about releasing these assassination files because they fit right into his "don't believe the official story--the real truth is what I say it is" message.

I think it's more attempts at distraction. The date of release for the files was fixed. It was just whether or not whoever was President at the time released them. So he made a big news story to distract from the other problematic stories, because people like transparency. Now granted they didn't release all the files which tends to tarnish that whole transparency thing.

[freezeblade]

So he made a big news story to distract from the other problematic stories, because people like transparency. Now granted they didn't release all the files which tends to tarnish that whole transparency thing.

I do wonder what kind of information is deemed too sensitive to release. It likely implicates wrongdoing by the government or actors still present within the government.

[Soupspoon]

I do wonder what kind of information is deemed too sensitive to release. It likely implicates wrongdoing by the government or actors still present within the government.

Well, Reagan's dead, so's Shirley Temple. Schwarzenegger isn't Governor any more, Eastwood's not been mayor of Carmel for some time, Sony Bono/Jesse Ventura also on the sidelines... So maybe it's either Sheila Kuehl or this guy?

[Chen]

I do wonder what kind of information is deemed too sensitive to release. It likely implicates wrongdoing by the government or actors still present within the government.

Could also be a risk of compromising assets who are either still working or at the least still alive.

[dg61]

Or of compromising methods that are still in use-the information is outdated but how we got it would key someone into that we've got a specific design for bugs, eg.

[orthogon]

Or of compromising methods that are still in use-the information is outdated but how we got it would key someone into that we've got a specific design for bugs, eg.

Indeed - whilst modern bugs are smaller, harder to detect or intercept and have longer battery life, discerning agents prefer that warm, valve-y sound of a 1960s listening device.

[Soupspoon]

1940s bugging tech...