Latest news with #TexasSchoolBookDepository
Washington Post
23-03-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
A dump of JFK-related records reveals past CIA secrets but also some personal data
History buffs dove into thousands of pages of government records released online this week, hoping for new nuggets about President John F. Kennedy's assassination . They instead found revelations about U.S. espionage in the massive document dump that also exposed some previously redacted personal information. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration posted more than 63,000 pages of records on its website, following an executive order from President Donald Trump. Many of the documents had been released previously but with redactions that hid the names of CIA sources or details about its spying and covert operations in the 1960s. Kennedy was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, during a visit to Dallas. As his motorcade finished its parade route downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, who had positioned himself from a sniper's perch on the sixth floor. Two days later, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer broadcast live on television. The latest release of documents pumped new energy into conspiracy theories about the assassination. Kennedy scholars said they haven't seen anything out of line with the conclusion that Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, was the lone gunman. 'The chase for the truth will go on forever, I suspect,' said Philip Shenon, who wrote a 2013 book about the killing of JFK. The vast majority of the National Archives' collection of more than 6 million related pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts had already been released before the archives posted about 2,200 files online this week. Writers, historians and conspiracy promoters have spent decades pushing for the release of all the records. In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president. According to researchers and the FBI, roughly 3,700 files held by federal authorities still haven't been released. Trump's order also called for declassifying the remaining federal records related to the 1968 assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars and history buffs described the latest release as rushed and expressed frustration that going through the files one by one represented a random search for unreleased information. 'We've all heard the reports about the lawyers staying up all night, which I believe, because there's there's a lot of sloppiness in this,' said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of 'The Kennedy Half-Century.' Scholars and history buffs grumbled that, unlike past releases, the National Archives didn't provide an index or workable search tool. Also, the files included material generated after the 1960s, and some people listed in the records were angry to find out that sensitive information about them was revealed, including Social Security numbers. They include Joseph diGenova, a former campaign lawyer for Trump . His personal information was on documents relating to his work for a U.S. Senate select committee that investigated abuses of power by government officials in the 1970s, including the surveillance of U.S. citizens. He is planning to sue the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration for violating privacy laws. 'I think it's the result of incompetent people doing the reviewing,' he said. 'The people who reviewed these documents did not do their job.' White House officials said a plan was in place to help those whose personal information was disclosed, including credit monitoring, until new Social Security numbers are issued. Officials are still screening the records to identify all the Social Security numbers that were released. The latest release represented a boon to mainstream historians, particularly those researching international relations, the Cold War and the activities of the CIA. One revelation was that a key adviser warned President Kennedy after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 that the CIA had grown too powerful. The aide proposed giving the State Department control of 'all clandestine activities' and breaking up the CIA. The page of Special Assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s memo outlining the proposal had not been released before. A previous release of part of his memo redacted Schlesinger's statement that 47% of the political officers in U.S. embassies were controlled by the CIA. Schlesinger's plan never came to fruition. Timothy Naftali, an adjunct professor at Columbia University who is writing a book about JFK's presidency, said scholars likely now have more details about U.S. intelligence activities under Kennedy than under any other president. 'It's quite remarkable to be able to walk through that secret world,' he said. ____ This story has been updated to correct that the date of President John F. Kennedy's assassination was Nov. 22, 1963, not Nov. 23.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A dump of JFK-related records reveals past CIA secrets but also some personal data
History buffs dove into thousands of pages of government records released online this week, hoping for new nuggets about President John F. Kennedy's assassination. They instead found revelations about U.S. espionage in the massive document dump that also exposed some previously redacted personal information. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration posted more than 63,000 pages of records on its website, following an executive order from President Donald Trump. Many of the documents had been released previously but with redactions that hid the names of CIA sources or details about its spying and covert operations in the 1960s. Kennedy was killed on Nov. 23, 1963, during a visit to Dallas. As his motorcade finished its parade route downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, who had positioned himself from a sniper's perch on the sixth floor. Two days later, night club owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer broadcast live on television. The latest release of documents pumped new energy into conspiracy theories about the assassination. Kennedy scholars said they haven't seen anything out of line with the conclusion that Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, was the lone gunman. 'The chase for the truth will go on forever, I suspect," said Philip Shenon, who wrote a 2013 book about the killing of JFK. It's a big document dump, but it doesn't include everything The vast majority of the National Archives' collection of more than 6 million related pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts had already been released before the archives posted about 2,200 files online this week. Writers, historians and conspiracy promoters have spent decades pushing for the release of all the records. In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president. According to researchers and the FBI, roughly 3,700 files held by federal authorities still haven't been released. Trump's order also called for declassifying the remaining federal records related to the 1968 assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars describe a chaotic release Scholars and history buffs described the latest release as rushed and expressed frustration that going through the files one by one represented a random search for unreleased information. 'We've all heard the reports about the lawyers staying up all night, which I believe, because there's there's a lot of sloppiness in this,' said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of 'The Kennedy Half-Century.' Scholars and history buffs grumbled that, unlike past releases, the National Archives didn't provide an index or workable search tool. Also, the files included material generated after the 1960s, and some people listed in the records were angry to find out that sensitive information about them was revealed, including Social Security numbers. They include Joseph diGenova, a former campaign lawyer for Trump. His personal information was on documents relating to his work for a U.S. Senate select committee that investigated abuses of power by government officials in the 1970s, including the surveillance of U.S. citizens. He is planning to sue the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration for violating privacy laws. 'I think it's the result of incompetent people doing the reviewing," he said. "The people who reviewed these documents did not do their job.' White House officials said a plan was in place to help those whose personal information was disclosed, including credit monitoring, until new Social Security numbers are issued. Officials are still screening the records to identify all the Social Security numbers that were released. New details about covert CIA operations The latest release represented a boon to mainstream historians, particularly those researching international relations, the Cold War and the activities of the CIA. One revelation was that a key adviser warned President Kennedy after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 that the CIA had grown too powerful. The aide proposed giving the State Department control of 'all clandestine activities' and breaking up the CIA. The page of Special Assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s memo outlining the proposal had not been released before. A previous release of part of his memo redacted Schlesinger's statement that 47% of the political officers in U.S. embassies were controlled by the CIA. Schlesinger's plan never came to fruition. Timothy Naftali, an adjunct professor at Columbia University who is writing a book about JFK's presidency, said scholars likely now have more details about U.S. intelligence activities under Kennedy than under any other president. 'It's quite remarkable to be able to walk through that secret world,' he said.
The Independent
21-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
A dump of JFK-related records reveals past CIA secrets but also some personal data
History buffs dove into thousands of pages of government records released online this week, hoping for new nuggets about President John F. Kennedy's assassination. They instead found revelations about U.S. espionage in the massive document dump that also exposed some previously redacted personal information. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration posted more than 63,000 pages of records on its website, following an executive order from President Donald Trump. Many of the documents had been released previously but with redactions that hid the names of CIA sources or details about its spying and covert operations in the 1960s. Kennedy was killed on Nov. 23, 1963, during a visit to Dallas. As his motorcade finished its parade route downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, who had positioned himself from a sniper's perch on the sixth floor. Two days later, night club owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer broadcast live on television. The latest release of documents pumped new energy into conspiracy theories about the assassination. Kennedy scholars said they haven't seen anything out of line with the conclusion that Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, was the lone gunman. 'The chase for the truth will go on forever, I suspect," said Philip Shenon, who wrote a 2013 book about the killing of JFK. It's a big document dump, but it doesn't include everything The vast majority of the National Archives' collection of more than 6 million related pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts had already been released before the archives posted about 2,200 files online this week. Writers, historians and conspiracy promoters have spent decades pushing for the release of all the records. In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president. According to researchers and the FBI, roughly 3,700 files held by federal authorities still haven't been released. Trump's order also called for declassifying the remaining federal records related to the 1968 assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars describe a chaotic release Scholars and history buffs described the latest release as rushed and expressed frustration that going through the files one by one represented a random search for unreleased information. 'We've all heard the reports about the lawyers staying up all night, which I believe, because there's there's a lot of sloppiness in this,' said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of 'The Kennedy Half-Century.' Scholars and history buffs grumbled that, unlike past releases, the National Archives didn't provide an index or workable search tool. Also, the files included material generated after the 1960s, and some people listed in the records were angry to find out that sensitive information about them was revealed, including Social Security numbers. They include Joseph diGenova, a former campaign lawyer for Trump. His personal information was on documents relating to his work for a U.S. Senate select committee that investigated abuses of power by government officials in the 1970s, including the surveillance of U.S. citizens. He is planning to sue the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration for violating privacy laws. 'I think it's the result of incompetent people doing the reviewing," he said. "The people who reviewed these documents did not do their job.' White House officials said a plan was in place to help those whose personal information was disclosed, including credit monitoring, until new Social Security numbers are issued. Officials are still screening the records to identify all the Social Security numbers that were released. New details about covert CIA operations The latest release represented a boon to mainstream historians, particularly those researching international relations, the Cold War and the activities of the CIA. One revelation was that a key adviser warned President Kennedy after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 that the CIA had grown too powerful. The aide proposed giving the State Department control of 'all clandestine activities' and breaking up the CIA. The page of Special Assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s memo outlining the proposal had not been released before. A previous release of part of his memo redacted Schlesinger's statement that 47% of the political officers in U.S. embassies were controlled by the CIA. Schlesinger's plan never came to fruition. Timothy Naftali, an adjunct professor at Columbia University who is writing a book about JFK's presidency, said scholars likely now have more details about U.S. intelligence activities under Kennedy than under any other president. 'It's quite remarkable to be able to walk through that secret world,' he said.
Associated Press
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
A dump of JFK-related records reveals past CIA secrets but also some personal data
History buffs dove into thousands of pages of government records released online this week, hoping for new nuggets about President John F. Kennedy's assassination. They instead found revelations about U.S. espionage in the massive document dump that also exposed some previously redacted personal information. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration posted more than 63,000 pages of records on its website, following an executive order from President Donald Trump. Many of the documents had been released previously but with redactions that hid the names of CIA sources or details about its spying and covert operations in the 1960s. Kennedy was killed on Nov. 23, 1963, during a visit to Dallas. As his motorcade finished its parade route downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, who had positioned himself from a sniper's perch on the sixth floor. Two days later, night club owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer broadcast live on television. The latest release of documents pumped new energy into conspiracy theories about the assassination. Kennedy scholars said they haven't seen anything out of line with the conclusion that Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, was the lone gunman. 'The chase for the truth will go on forever, I suspect,' said Philip Shenon, who wrote a 2013 book about the killing of JFK. It's a big document dump, but it doesn't include everything The vast majority of the National Archives' collection of more than 6 million related pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts had already been released before the archives posted about 2,200 files online this week. Writers, historians and conspiracy promoters have spent decades pushing for the release of all the records. In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president. According to researchers and the FBI, roughly 3,700 files held by federal authorities still haven't been released. Trump's order also called for declassifying the remaining federal records related to the 1968 assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars describe a chaotic release Scholars and history buffs described the latest release as rushed and expressed frustration that going through the files one by one represented a random search for unreleased information. 'We've all heard the reports about the lawyers staying up all night, which I believe, because there's there's a lot of sloppiness in this,' said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of 'The Kennedy Half-Century.' Scholars and history buffs grumbled that, unlike past releases, the National Archives didn't provide an index or workable search tool. Also, the files included material generated after the 1960s, and some people listed in the records were angry to find out that sensitive information about them was revealed, including Social Security numbers. They include Joseph diGenova, a former campaign lawyer for Trump. His personal information was on documents relating to his work for a U.S. Senate select committee that investigated abuses of power by government officials in the 1970s, including the surveillance of U.S. citizens. He is planning to sue the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration for violating privacy laws. 'I think it's the result of incompetent people doing the reviewing,' he said. 'The people who reviewed these documents did not do their job.' White House officials said a plan was in place to help those whose personal information was disclosed, including credit monitoring, until new Social Security numbers are issued. Officials are still screening the records to identify all the Social Security numbers that were released. New details about covert CIA operations The latest release represented a boon to mainstream historians, particularly those researching international relations, the Cold War and the activities of the CIA. One revelation was that a key adviser warned President Kennedy after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 that the CIA had grown too powerful. The aide proposed giving the State Department control of 'all clandestine activities' and breaking up the CIA. The page of Special Assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s memo outlining the proposal had not been released before. A previous release of part of his memo redacted Schlesinger's statement that 47% of the political officers in U.S. embassies were controlled by the CIA. Schlesinger's plan never came to fruition. Timothy Naftali, an adjunct professor at Columbia University who is writing a book about JFK's presidency, said scholars likely now have more details about U.S. intelligence activities under Kennedy than under any other president.
Al Jazeera
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
New JFK assassination files: What was revealed about Oswald and CIA plots?
The Trump administration on Tuesday released more than 2,000 files related to the assassination of former United States President John F Kennedy — a case that has fuelled conspiracy theories for more than 60 years. While there is limited evidence to suggest that the initial explanation surrounding JFK's death was inaccurate or misleading, the released documents shed light on how the US gathered intelligence during the Cold War. They also detail intelligence reports about Kennedy's killer. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald, a then 24-year-old former US marine, who shot him from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald was killed just two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby during a jail transfer. In the aftermath of Kennedy's death, President Lyndon B Johnson established the Warren Commission, named after then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, who led the investigation. In 1964, the commission concluded that Oswald acted alone and found no credible evidence to suggest the involvement of anyone else. Do the newly released documents cast any doubts about that conclusion? What new information do these documents reveal? And is the timing of their release significant? Do the released documents shed new light on JFK's death? For decades, many Americans have not believed the official narrative on Kennedy's death. A 2023 Gallup poll found that 65 percent of Americans rejected the Warren Commission's conclusion. But Tuesday's document dump did not support the validity of any conclusion other than the commission's findings, according to experts who spoke to Al Jazeera. 'I didn't really see anything to change the narrative indicating that Oswald as the lone gunman was the person who killed John F Kennedy and that it was not the result of a conspiracy,' Marc Selverstone, professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia, told Al Jazeera. 'The documents that I saw were, in some ways, tangential to the assassination itself,' Selverstone added. Did we learn anything more about Oswald? The documents confirm that the assassin visited both the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City before killing JFK. One document included intelligence reports with some details on Oswald's time in the Soviet Union — he had moved there in 1959, defecting and renouncing his US citizenship, before returning to the US in 1962. The document mentioned a KGB agent named Nikonov, who had reviewed files from the Soviet security service to determine whether Oswald had ever been an agent of the agency. Surveillance reports indicate that intelligence agencies in the US also closely monitored Oswald after his return. A report from the 1990s, also included in the document release, suggested that Oswald may have been a poor shot. Did the documents tell us more about CIA operations? Other documents revealed details more broadly about the US intelligence gathering and foreign policy efforts in the Cold War era, including a top-secret campaign dubbed 'Operation Mongoose', which was designed to destabilise Cuba's communist government. Another memo showed that the CIA had placed 1,500 agents overseas who posed as State Department officials, including 128 at the US embassy in Paris. A key aide to Kennedy, named Arthur Schlesinger Jr, warned that the practice could undermine the State Department's role in foreign policy. The document drop also included details about the involvement of US intelligence agencies in attempting to overthrow foreign governments — though many of these details only expand on already known efforts by the US to orchestrate assassinations or coups. For instance, they detail communication in 1963 between the CIA director's office and operatives in Cuba who were plotting to overthrow the Fidel Castro government that had come to power in 1959. 'We are seeing a lot relating to assassination plots against leaders of other countries like Castro in Cuba,' David Barrett, professor of political science at Villanova University, told Al Jazeera. Another document — a CIA memo — reveals details about covert activities dubbed E4DEED, aimed at removing the government of Dominican Republic President Rafael Trujillo. 'One segment of E4DEED was known as EMSLEW, the cryptonym for the operation to remove Trujillo by violent action,' the document notes, before going on to list the names of the CIA officers and others involved in these initiatives. Trujillo was assassinated in May 1961 — the US had severed diplomatic ties with the Dominican Republic in 1960 — by gunmen on a highway while he was in a car with a chauffeur headed to San Cristobal to meet his mistress. Trujillo, the CIA note observed, was known to leave behind his security detail for these secret rendezvous. How many JFK files have been released? According to the National Archives, prior to Tuesday's release, authorities had already published more than 99 percent of the approximately 320,000 documents reviewed under the 1992 JFK Records Act. During Trump's first administration, he promised to disclose all outstanding records on the assassination but ultimately released only about 2,800 documents after the CIA and the FBI requested that thousands of pages of material be withheld pending review. Former President Joe Biden's administration released about 17,000 more records, leaving fewer than 4,700 files withheld in part or in full. Last month, the FBI discovered an additional 2,400 documents previously withheld. On Monday, President Donald Trump said 'people have been waiting for decades' for the documents. However, many of the documents released were also duplicates of previously released documents that are already in the public domain — though some documents that were released included unredacted versions of previously redacted information. What about the JFK killing conspiracy theories? None of the documents released appears to give any legitimacy to the decades of conspiracy theories that sprang up around the former president's death. 'I'm not hearing about anything yet that's sort of earth-shaking,' Barrett said. The 2023 Gallup poll found that 20 percent of those surveyed believed Oswald conspired with the US government to kill Kennedy, while 16 percent suspected he worked with the CIA. However, no evidence has been released this week to support either of those claims. Other conspiracy theories range from claims of multiple attackers to suspicions that foreign adversaries orchestrated the assassination, to claims that his vice president, Johnson, was involved amid alleged desires to assume power, or that it was a mafia hit. The documents did show that intelligence agencies investigated these theories, which turned out to be hollow. Even Trump has fuelled conspiracy theories about JFK's death. During the 2016 campaign, he suggested that then-rival Ted Cruz's father was involved in the assassination, referencing a story in the National Enquirer. In 2024, David Pecker, the former publisher of the publication, testified that the story was fabricated. Transparency or PR stunt? The latest document release follows comparable actions from previous administrations. This is the second mass release of secret documents, and the administration claims this is aimed at ushering in more transparency. Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy's grandson, said on X that the Kennedy family was not given any 'heads up' this was coming. He also suggested the Trump administration was dismantling Kennedy's legacy by undoing his grandfather's work on civil rights and equality, and in standing up to Moscow by instead rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and partnering with Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, experts still believe that the document dump is a positive step. 'I think it's [the document release] a very good thing for transparency. The US government finally, very belatedly, released these documents,' Barrett added. Still, other document dumps under Trump have not been lauded as transparent. Last month, the president released files related to financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex trafficker with ties to some of the globe's richest and most powerful people. Trump came under fire for the initial release of the documents, which were only given to a small group of fringe conservative influencers and which turned out to consist of information already available in the public domain. Even some of Trump's Republican allies in Congress expressed disappointment with how the Epstein files were handled and pushed for more transparency.
