On November 5, 1963, President Kennedy was exploring the idea. You can hear JFK talking about it with aides on this White House tape recording. (The substantive conversation starts at :25 in the recording.)
The Gerald Ford White House significantly altered the final report of the supposedly independent 1975 Rockefeller Commission investigating CIA domestic activities, over the objections of senior Commission staff, according to internal White House and Commission documents posted today by the National Security Archive at The George Washington University
A revealing document from UNREDACTED, the blog of the nonprofit National Security Archive illuminates how CIA officers pondered carrying out political assassinations. Read more
In face of a persistent legal challenge from the National Security Archive, the CIA continues to resist releasing an internal history of the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs more than a half century ago. The struggle for Volume 5, as the history is known, is an epic legal contest
Why the secrecy about something that happened so long ago?
Matt Taylor of Vice nails the larger point about the court decision sparing the CIA from embarrassment on Capitol Hill and in Havana: “The intelligence community has arguably never been as important or powerful as it is now…”
“This decision would put off limits half of the contents of the National Archives,” said Tom Blanton, director of the non-profit National Security Archive.
At the time of his death President Kennedy was thinking about it — and thinking hard. You can even hear JFK talking about it: just click here.
In 2003, Peter Kornbluh, an analyst at the non-profit National Security Archive in Washington, obtained a White House tape recording about JFK’s Cuba policy, made on November 5, 1963.
“Despite heavy competition, Clapper’s ‘No, sir’ lie to Senator Ron Wyden’s question: ‘Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?’ sealed his receipt of the dubious achievement award, which cites the vastly excessive secrecy of the entire U.S. surveillance establishment.”
In 2014, most Americanns are barred by law from visiting Cuba, the island nation closest to America. When it comes to Cuba, Amrica’s vaunted ideals of “free trade” are frankly repudiated by the government in Washington which justifies violation Americans’ freedom to travel in the name of supporting democracy and human rights.
A half century ago, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy came to believe that the ban on travel to Cuba was “inconsistent with “our views of a free society,” as these historic documents collected by the non-profit National Security Archive reveal..
“In this latest battle over government secrecy and the lessons of history, judges Thursday sounded a tad skeptical about the Obama administration’s sweeping claims. At the least, judges on what is sometimes called the nation’s second most-powerful court suggested there could be a limit to how long government documents remain locked away.”
Jefferson's Morley compulsively readable, and deeply reported biography of CIA spymaster James Angleton is "the best book ever written about the strangest spy chief who ever lived," says Tim Weiner. From the OSS to the CIA to MKULTRA and JFK, Angleton was a ghost of American power. BUY THE GHOST NOW.
About The Deep State news blog
The Deep State is Jefferson Morley’s new blog about the influence of secret intelligence agencies worldwide. Launched in November 2018, Morley has already published his reporting about:
In Our Man in Mexico, investigative reporters tells the remarkable story of CIA station chief and what he really thought of JFK's assassination.
Click on the cover image to buy it now.
Learn More
* Mary Ferrell.org, has the largest online collection of JFK assassination records and the most concise guides to the JFK debate.
* JFK Lancer holds an annual conference in Dallas highlighting the latest JFK research and revelations.
* 2017 JFK has a detailed guide to the massive JFK disclosures scheduled for October 2017.