As the April 26 deadline for release of the last of the JFK assassination files approaches. President Trump will be hearing from his new CIA director Gina Haspel on the issue of what can and cannot be made public.
What will Haspel say?
Despite the 1992 JFK Records Act, which mandated full disclosure by October 2017, the law has not been enforced by the Trump administration. Thousands of JFK files remain out of public view. According to the Mary Ferrell Foundation, 21,890 JFK files still remain wholly or partially secret.
These include key files on four CIA officers who participated in the pre-assassination surveillance of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
In her upcoming confirmation hearings before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Haspel should be asked about her position on these files.
Her record is not reassuring. In 2005 Haspel destroyed 92 CIA videotapes to conceal the nature of the agency’s torture program. Its not a stretch to think she might destroy JFK files to conceal the nature of the agency’s pre-assassination surveillance of Oswald, or some other embarrassing fact.
A question for the Senate Intelligence Committee: Will Haspel commit publicly to preserving and releasing all JFK assassination files now in the CIA’s possession?