Tag: JFK files

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

JFK Is Not a Culture War

One thing I like about the JFK assassination story: it’s a place where left and right (and center) can all agree. My friend James Rosen and I have very different politics and we still have illuminating conversations about JFK. For example:

Five Questions About Biden’s Dec. 15 JFK Disclosures

December 15 is the next deadline for federal agencies to release files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 58 years ago. What will we see? Last month, I offered some “smoking gun” possibilities in the Miami Herald. The pro-CIA Washington Decoded pooh poohs the idea that the JFK files contain anything of significance.

And that’s the JFK debate in a nutshell. There’s the people, like Harvard professor Cass Sunstein, who say, in effect, A little man killed a big man, get over it. And there’s the people, like Nobel Prize laureate Bob Dylan, who respond, Some big men killed a big man–and they got away with it. Who is right? This week will offer some clues.

Four Points About Biden’s Decision on the JFK Files

Peter writes:

Thanks for making yourself accessible.  I’m just wondering if you have any thoughts on Biden following Trump and continuing to withhold classification?  Stay well and all the best.

Thanks Peter. The only good news in President Biden’s October 22 letter is the announcement that the National Archives plans to digitize the entire JFK collection, which is welcome and overdue. In the digital age, the Mary Ferrell Foundation says the full record of JFK’s assassination should be available to anybody anywhere.

Otherwise, I have four observations for the press and the interested public on the 58th anniversary of JFK’s death.

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