I like the fact that people come to JFK Facts to talk and learn about the assassination. Nonetheless, I plan to temporarily turn off the comments feature on the site on Wednesday, Feb 21.
Why?
…‘Will President Biden release the last of the JFK files in 2021?’
When this question in November, I received some pessimistic replies. Since I’ve thinking about how the JFK research community might campaign to for public release of the 15,834 assassination-related files that remain out of public view, I felt a little discouraged.
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You will recall that President Trump caved to CIA director Mike Pompeo and FBI director Christopher Wray in October 2017. The two agencies were allowed to drop a veil of bizarre and suspicious secrecy over the full record of JFK’s assassination.
The clock is ticking, notes Brendan Cole in Newsweek. Will President Biden do the right thing?
In a presidential memo, Trump said the move was “to protect against identifiable harm to national security, law enforcement, or foreign affairs.” According to the National Archives, some 15,834 of the files still contain redactions and 520 remain unreleased in full.In April 2018, it said that a decision about the material must be reviewed again before October 26, 2021 “to determine whether continued withholding from disclosure is necessary.” This means that their fate will fall within the purview of the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden.
This letter was released in conjunction with the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, January 21, 2019. It was signed by 50 people, including members of the Kennedy and King families as well as doctors, lawyers, activists, and scholars across the political spectrum (names attached.
…A Joint Statement on the Kennedy, King and Malcolm X Assassinations and Ongoing Cover-upsRead More »
Earlier this year documentary film maker Randy Benson makes a important point about the JFK file releases of 2018–which left more than 15,000 assassination-related records beyond public view.
President Trump is responsible.
I have no doubt that Trump personally wanted to release all the JFK files. But after tweeting, inaccurately, that the files had been released, Trump protected the last of the CIA and FBI’s assassination-related secrets.
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Breaking a promise, Trump blocked the release of JFK files a year agoRead More »
Bill Simpich has a terrific piece at WhoWhatWhy about the new JFK files released since October 2017. One document found by Simpich jumped out at me. In 1995 the CIA asked Brazilian intelligence.
to photograph the JFK researchers and Cuban counterintelligence officers that met together in August, 1995 in Rio de Janeiro pursuant to an invitation by the Ministry of Culture.
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New files reveal the CIA spied on JFK researchers in 1995Read More »
On March 19 the DC Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in my FOIA lawsuit, Morley v CIA. In the absence of Senior Judge Karen Henderson, Judge Brett Kavanaugh presided.
Now Kavanaugh has been nominated for the Supreme Court, and his every word is being parsed.
The question before the court that day: Was the CIA obligated to pay my court costs for a long-running lawsuit about certain JFK assassination files held by the agency.
Click for the audio recording of the hearing. Kavanaugh is the first speaker you will hear, followed by my attorney Jim Lesar, a veteran FOIA litigator. …
My day in court with Judge Kavanaugh: the subject was JFK filesRead More »
President Trump broke his tweeted promise to release “ALL JFK files,” notes James Kelleher.
While an additional 19,000 documents were released, some 15,834 documents contained redactions, and another five hundred or more were withheld from the release. The president bought into the national security argument and again extended the time for the removal of all the redactions and final document release to October 2021.
Source: A promise broken on JFK files release | News & Views | Irish Echo …
President Trump will soon announce his decision on whether the last of the U.S. government’s JFK files will be fully released or not. April 26 will be a moment to assess what we know about JFK’s assassination that we didn’t know before, and specifically, what have we learned about the CIA’s role in the events of November 1963.
Among those vouching for the probity of the CIA in the JFK assassination story is the agency’s chief historian David Robarge. …
Is the CIA’s chief historian obstructing justice in the JFK case?Read More »
Stuart Wexler, high school teacher and author of “Killing King: Racial Terrorists, James Earl Ray and the Plot to Assassinate Martin Luther King Jr.,” doubts the president will free the files. …
Will President Trump release all the JFK files on April 26?Read More »
Reason’s Jesse Walker asked the single most important JFK assassination files question last October. It will be answered on April. 26.
Meanwhile, I’m asking other people in the JFK community for their views. Like:
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JFK Files Watch: Is Trump really too weak to release the JFK files?Read More »
In his Oct. 26, 2017 order concerning JFK files, President Trump set a specific time table for the CIA and other agencies that want to keep JFK secrets past April 26, 2018.
Any agency seeking to postpone release of any files must report to U.S. Archivist David Ferriero “on the specific information within particular records that meets the standard for continued postponement” under JFK Records Act, Trump said.
“Thereafter,” Trump went on, “the Archivist shall recommend to me, no later than March 26, 2018, whether the specific information within particular records identified by agencies warrants continued withholding from public disclosure after April 26, 2018.”
So I recently put two questions to Ferriero’s offiice.
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JFK Files Watch: White House is reviewing Archivist’s secrecy recommendationsRead More »
The most important revelations in the new JFK files concern the CIA (and possibly NSA) surveillance of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
A Senate investigator’s memo, released in December 2017, gives the exact date that the surveillance of Oswald began: November 11, 1959.
This is one of the most important JFK records released in the Trump era, so its details are worth understanding.
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How CIA surveillance tracked Oswald on his way to DallasRead More »
With 17 days to go until President Trump’s April 26 deadline for release of the last of the U.S. government’s assassination files, it is worth recalling what Trump told the head of U.S. government agencies in his October 26, 2017 order.
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JFK Files Watch: Trump set a high bar for full disclosureRead More »
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