Tag: JFK Records Act

Three Congressmen seek White House meeting on JFK files

Rep. Jim McGovern
Rep, Jim McGovern (D-Mass) Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Expressing concern about the delay in the release of thousands of secret JFK assassination files, three Congressmen are seeking a meeting with “the appropriate Executive Branch official with knowledge and relevant information of the decision to postpone the release of the remaining records.”

Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and JIm McGovern (D-Mass.) signed a March 29 letter to President Biden saying it was “imperative that the remaining documents be released as soon as possible.”

Nothing in the JFK files? Take a look at Birch O’Neal.

Birch O'Neal
Birch O’Neal as a young man. A counterintelligence officer, O’Neal opened the CIA’s Oswald file in November 1959.

As for those 14,000+ JFK files that still contain redactions, some friends tell me, “There’s nothing in there of significance.” This is reassuring. But is it true?

We may find out later this year. President Biden has ordered all JFK files to released by December 15, 2022. I’m looking forward to seeing the unredacted files of those CIA officers most knowledgable about Lee Harvey Oswald before JFK was killed.

For example, Birch Dilworth O’Neal. O’Neal’s 224 page CIA personnel file, released in April 2018, still has scores of redactions.

Why is Birch O’Neal significant?

Oliver Stone explains how JFK’s assassination changed U.S. foreign policy

In this excellent interview Abby Martin actually lets Oliver Stone explain why the JFK assassination story is important today. What emerges is Stone’s earnest and wide-ranging intellect, a likable quality in a man so often slandered and libeled by critics fearful of his conviction that President Kennedy was killed by his enemies. His interpretation is succinct and, for some, too disturbing to believed: “The president is removed for political reasons.”

Lost in Silence

Jacobin magazine astutely assesses the JFK story in 2022, starting with Oliver Stone’s JFK Revisited.

While the original 1991 movie was met with a full-on media pushback at the time, the response in 2021 to the documentary has been far more fitting for our era: ignored or waved away as pure conspiracizing and fake news. For months after it came out, the closest thing to a politically minded legacy media outlet in the United States that actually reviewed the film was the Daily Beast; the country’s major establishment news outlets simply pretended it didn’t exist. It has fared better across the Atlantic, where it got positive reviews from the Financial Times and Telegraph, and negative ones from the Irish Times, Guardian, and the London Times.

Source: Oliver Stone’s JFK Assassination Documentary Shouldn’t Be Dismissed

Secret Document

JFK Most Wanted: ‘Little Historically Significant Material Is Being Withheld’

This commentary comes from Robert Reynolds, a professor at Chi Nan University in Taiwan, via Max Holland’s Washington Decoded site. Since Reynolds mentions my work in his commentary I thought I would introduce him and his work to readers of JFK Facts. Reynolds is part of a diverse listserve of JFK authors and researchers managed by emeritus researcher Paul Hoch. Reynold’s criticism, though I disagreed with it, forced me to clarify my thinking about the last of the JFK files. Here is how Reynolds introduced himself to our group, followed by some highlights of his Washington Decoded piece.

I have responded to Reynolds in a separate post, “JFK Most Wanted: Three Key CIA Files That Need to Be Declassified.”

Declassification of the CIA’s Oswald File Took 58 Years

“On December 15, came yet another revelation. Under an October 22 order from President Biden, the CIA released 953 documents in their entirety for the first time, including two cables about Oswald written six weeks before Kennedy was killed. For the first time in 58 years, these two messages were completely declassified.”

Source: JFK Revisited: Oliver Stone and the New JFK Fact Pattern – CounterPunch.org

The New JFK Documents Are Searchable at the Mary Ferrell Web Site.

The 1,491 newly-declassified but very old JFK documents released on December 15, 2021, can now be searched and downloaded at the Web site of the Mary Ferrell Foundation.

For a useful overview of these files, read this excellent summary from MFF president Rex Bradford.

MFF provides this invaluable research capacity as a public service. If you want to support the mission of full JFK disclosure work in 2022, click here.

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