Some JFK documents will remain under wraps for now
AP|
Updated: Oct 27, 2017, 11.16 PM IST
President Donald Trump has ordered the unveiling of 2,800 documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy but yielded to pressure from the FBI and CIA to block the release of other records to be reviewed further.
How many files are there and how can I see them?
The last batch of files included more than 3,100 documents _ comprising hundreds of thousands of pages _ that have never been seen by the public. About 30,000 documents were released previously with redactions. The National Archives website had more than 2,800 documents on Thursday evening.
Why are they becoming public now?
President George HW Bush signed a law on Oct. 26, 1992, requiring that all documents related to the assassination be released within 25 years, unless the president says doing so would harm intelligence, law enforcement, military operations or foreign relations. The push for transparency was driven in part in the wake of Oliver Stone’s 1991 conspiracy-theory filled film “JFK.’’
What do the files show?
cholars stress that it will take weeks to mine the documents for potentially new and interesting information. But the files show federal agents madly chasing after tips in the days after the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination and juggling rumours and leads worldwide. The materials also cast a wide net over varied activities of the Kennedy administration, such as its covert efforts to upend Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba. One document details efforts to interview people who may have seen Kennedy’s killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, while he was traveling to Mexico before the assassination.
Will there be any bombshells?
JFK experts believe the files will provide insight into the inner workings of the CIA and FBI. But the chances of a bombshell are slim, according to the judge who led the independent board that reviewed and released thousands of the assassination documents in the 1990s. The files that were withheld in full were those the Assassination Records Review Board deemed “not believed relevant,’’ Judge John Tunheim of Minnesota told AP. But Tunheim said it’s possible the files contain information the board didn’t realize was important two decades ago.
How many files are there and how can I see them?
The last batch of files included more than 3,100 documents _ comprising hundreds of thousands of pages _ that have never been seen by the public. About 30,000 documents were released previously with redactions. The National Archives website had more than 2,800 documents on Thursday evening.
Why are they becoming public now?
President George HW Bush signed a law on Oct. 26, 1992, requiring that all documents related to the assassination be released within 25 years, unless the president says doing so would harm intelligence, law enforcement, military operations or foreign relations. The push for transparency was driven in part in the wake of Oliver Stone’s 1991 conspiracy-theory filled film “JFK.’’
What do the files show?
cholars stress that it will take weeks to mine the documents for potentially new and interesting information. But the files show federal agents madly chasing after tips in the days after the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination and juggling rumours and leads worldwide. The materials also cast a wide net over varied activities of the Kennedy administration, such as its covert efforts to upend Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba. One document details efforts to interview people who may have seen Kennedy’s killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, while he was traveling to Mexico before the assassination.
Will there be any bombshells?
JFK experts believe the files will provide insight into the inner workings of the CIA and FBI. But the chances of a bombshell are slim, according to the judge who led the independent board that reviewed and released thousands of the assassination documents in the 1990s. The files that were withheld in full were those the Assassination Records Review Board deemed “not believed relevant,’’ Judge John Tunheim of Minnesota told AP. But Tunheim said it’s possible the files contain information the board didn’t realize was important two decades ago.
