Shayan Saldaliza
BBC verification
Reuters
John F. Kennedy was the last US president killed by an assassin
Enthusiasts have listened to thousands of newly released documents related to the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
As many experts have expected, this latest release by the Trump administration doesn’t answer all the lingering questions about the 1963 murder of Kennedy in Dallas, one of America’s historic turning points.
However, the most recent batch contains documents that are not currently or fully edited. They further reveal how much the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) observed the JFK murderers before the shooting.
A US government investigation in the 1960s concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, a castaway and former US Marine who had at one point fled the Soviet Union, acted alone when he shot Kennedy’s convoy from a nearby building.
However, this case still prompts questions, more than 60 years later, along with wild conspiracy theory. And the latest release is unlikely to change that. Here are some important points.
1) Details of Oswald – But there are no bombs
The document sheds further light on the strong surveillance of the CIA Oswald, said Jefferson Morley, a former Washington Post reporter and editor of the JFK Fact blog.
“He is a subject of deep interest to the CIA,” and Morley said, long before the assassination, and the scope of this has become clear over the past few years.
Many of the new documentation was released previously, but now a more complete version is available. The specialists are still rocking, but the story of shattering the earth has not surfaced.
Still, Morley calls it “the most exciting news about JFK Records since the 1990s.”
“Some very important documents are being published,” he said.
Therefore, experts praise this release as a step in transparency. In the past, hundreds of thousands of documents have been made available, but have been partially edited. Others were suppressed and authorities cited national security concerns.
Philip Shenon, who wrote the book on the 2013 assassination, told The Associated Press that previously released documents described Oswald’s trip to Mexico City in September 1963, months before the assassination.
According to the Associated Press, the CIA was keeping an eye on him at the time, he said. “There’s reason to believe he’s openly talking about killing Kennedy in Mexico City and that there’s a reason why people say they’ve heard him.”
In a memo in April 1975, the CIA downplayed what it had known about Oswald’s trip to Mexico City, the Associated Press reported. The CIA recorded three calls between Oswald and the guards at the Soviet embassy, but Oswald identified only one himself.
Reuters/Dallas Police Station
Lee Harvey Oswald has a rifle and a communist newspaper in undated photos released by the Dallas Police Department
2) Intelligence methods revealed
Many documents shed light on Kennedy’s relationship with the CIA prior to his death, as well as the techniques of intelligence gathering that will give a window into Cold War operations.
The newly unedited note reveals a more complete version of the note written by Kennedy’s aide Arthur Schlesinger.
Critical of its role in shaping the CIA and foreign policy, this memo shows the great presence of institutions in the US embassy, even in allies such as France.
In it, Schlesinger warns Kennedy about the institutional impact on American foreign policy. Though not directly related to the assassination, the memo details the rocky relationship between the president and the Intelligence Reporting Agency.
The CIA has traditionally opposed the release of operational or budget information, said David Barrett, a professor at Villanova University and an expert on the CIA and presidential forces.
“It is very good that the government still releases these documents.
One document details the use of fluoroscopy scans – using x-rays to display the image inside an object.
This technique was developed to detect hidden microphones that are likely used to steal CIA offices.
In another document, the CIA describes a system that secretly tages and identifies tapped public telephone boxes using paint that is visible only under ultraviolet light.
This memo is also worth noting in one of its names, James McCord. The intrusion began to unravel the scandal that overthrew President Richard Nixon.
Watch: Invisible Video Shows the moment after JFK assassination
3) Old theory has been revived
Several well-known online accounts claimed that recent documents reveal new details about the longstanding plot against Kennedy.
They include several virus posts about Gary Underhill, the military intelligence agency for World War II.
Underhill reportedly claimed that CIA agent Kabal was behind the assassination. This is a theory that was openly published in the left-wing magazine Ramparts in 1967, and Mr Underhill committed suicide in 1964, which the magazine also suspects.
The photo in the seven-page memo about Underhill went viral on Tuesday, but most of it is not new. His story has been discussed online for a long time, with the CIA memo being first released in 2017.
Only a few sentences on one page of the note were not newly edited in the latest release.
And, importantly, the theory is based on second-hand accounts published after Mr Underhill’s death, and does not include any harsh evidence.
However, this story was just one of many unfounded theories that circulate after the release of the file.
4) Is the file not fully edited?
The 1992 law required that all documents relating to the assassination be published within 25 years, but the law also included national security exceptions.
The push for increased transparency has led to more releases over time. President Biden released batches of documents, like in 2023 with President Trump in his first term.
Prior to the new release, President Trump said he asked staff to “don’t edit anything.”
It doesn’t seem to be entirely the case – there are still some edits in the new document. But experts have largely agreed that the latest release is a step forward for transparency.
JFK Files journalist Morley said there are more documents at the National Archives, which are not yet published, and other documents held by the CIA and FBI that have not yet been considered.
There may be more releases in the future, but there are also drops of promises about the murder of Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and Martin Luther King JR, but questions about the assassination of JFK are almost certainly continuing.
“Whenever there is an assassination, there is a debate and there is a certain conspiracy theory,” said Barrett, a historian at Villanova. “It will not be changed for these or other documents.”
