Latest news with #TheKennedyHalf-Century
Asharq Al-Awsat
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Washington Releases 10,000 Pages of Records about Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 Assassination
About 10,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were released Friday, including handwritten notes by the gunman, who said the Democratic presidential candidate 'must be disposed of' and acknowledged an obsession with killing him. Many of the files had been made public previously, while others had not been digitized and sat for decades in federal government storage facilities. Their release continued the disclosure of historical investigation documents ordered by President Donald Trump. Kennedy was fatally shot on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after giving a speech celebrating his victory in California's presidential primary. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison. The files included pictures of handwritten notes by Sirhan, The Associated Press said. 'RFK must be disposed of like his brother was,' read the writing on the outside of an empty envelope, referring to Kennedy's older brother, President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. The return address was from the district director of the Internal Revenue Service in Los Angeles. The National Archives and Records Administration posted 229 files containing the pages to its public website. The release comes a month after unredacted files related to the assassination of President Kennedy were disclosed. Those documents gave curious readers more details about Cold War-era covert US operations in other nations but did not initially lend credence to long-circulating conspiracy theories about who killed JFK. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of Robert Kennedy, commended the release. 'Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government,' the health secretary said in a statement. Documents include interviews with assassin's acquaintances The files surrounding Robert Kennedy's assassination also included notes from interviews with people who knew Sirhan from a wide variety of contexts, such as classmates, neighbors and coworkers. While some described him as 'a friendly, kind and generous person' others depicted a brooding and 'impressionable' young man who felt strongly about his political convictions and briefly believed in mysticism. According to the files, Sirhan told his garbage collector that he planned to kill Kennedy shortly after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The sanitation worker, a Black man, said he planned to vote for Kennedy because he would help Black people. 'Well, I don't agree. I am planning on shooting the son of a bitch,' Sirhan replied, the man told investigators. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of 'The Kennedy Half-Century," said there have always been conspiracies surrounding Robert Kennedy's assassination. He believes the rollout of documents Friday would be similar to the JFK documents released earlier this year. He cautioned that a review needs to be done carefully and slowly, 'just in case there is a hint in there or there is an anecdote" that could shed more light on the assassination. 'I hope there's more information,' Sabato said. 'I'm doubtful that there is, just as I said when the JFK documents were released.' Some redactions remained in the documents posted online Friday, including names and dates of birth. Last month, the Trump administration came under criticism over unredacted personal information, including Social Security numbers, during the release of records surrounding President John F. Kennedy's assassination. Trump, a Republican, has championed in the name of transparency the release of documents related to high-profile assassinations and investigations. But he has also been deeply suspicious for years of the government's intelligence agencies. His administration's release of once-hidden files opens the door for more public scrutiny of the operations and conclusions of institutions such as the CIA and the FBI. Trump signed an executive order in January calling for the release of government documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and King, who were killed within two months of each other. Lawyers for Kennedy's killer have said for decades that he is unlikely to reoffend or pose a danger to society, and in 2021, a parole board deemed Sirhan suitable for release. But Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the decision in 2022, keeping him in state prison. In 2023 , a different panel denied him release, saying he still lacks insight into what caused him to shoot Kennedy. RFK still stands as a hero to American liberals Kennedy remains an icon for liberals, who see him as a champion for human rights who also was committed to fighting poverty and racial and economic injustice. They often regard his assassination as the last in a series of major tragedies that put the US and its politics on a darker, more conservative path. He was a sometimes divisive figure during his lifetime. Some critics thought he came late to opposing the Vietnam War, and he launched his campaign for president in 1968 only after the Democratic primary in New Hampshire exposed President Johnson's political weakness. Kennedy's older brother appointed him US attorney general, and he remained a close aide to him until JFK's assassination in Dallas. In 1964, he won a US Senate seat from New York and was seen as the heir to the family's political legacy.
Arab News
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
10,000 pages of records about Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 assassination are released, on Trump's order
WASHINGTON: About 10,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were released Friday, including handwritten notes by the gunman, who said the Democratic presidential candidate 'must be disposed of' and acknowledged an obsession with killing him. Many of the files had been made public previously, while others had not been digitized and sat for decades in federal government storage facilities. Their release continued the disclosure of historical investigation documents ordered by President Donald Trump. Kennedy was fatally shot on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after giving a speech celebrating his victory in California's presidential primary. His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison. The files included pictures of handwritten notes by Sirhan. 'RFK must be disposed of like his brother was,' read the writing on the outside of an empty envelope, referring to Kennedy's older brother, President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. The return address was from the district director of the Internal Revenue Service in Los Angeles. The National Archives and Records Administration posted 229 files containing the pages to its public website. The release comes a month after unredacted files related to the assassination of President Kennedy were disclosed. Those documents gave curious readers more details about Cold War-era covert US operations in other nations but did not initially lend credence to long-circulating conspiracy theories about who killed JFK. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of Robert Kennedy, commended the release. 'Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government,' the health secretary said in a statement. Documents include interviews with assassin's acquaintances The files surrounding Robert Kennedy's assassination also included notes from interviews with people who knew Sirhan from a wide variety of contexts, such as classmates, neighbors and coworkers. While some described him as 'a friendly, kind and generous person' others depicted a brooding and 'impressionable' young man who felt strongly about his political convictions and briefly believed in mysticism. According to the files, Sirhan told his garbage collector that he planned to kill Kennedy shortly after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The sanitation worker, a Black man, said he planned to vote for Kennedy because he would help Black people. 'Well, I don't agree. I am planning on shooting the son of a bitch,' Sirhan replied, the man told investigators. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of 'The Kennedy Half-Century,' said there have always been conspiracies surrounding Robert Kennedy's assassination. He believes the rollout of documents Friday would be similar to the JFK documents released earlier this year. He cautioned that a review needs to be done carefully and slowly, 'just in case there is a hint in there or there is an anecdote' that could shed more light on the assassination. 'I hope there's more information,' Sabato said. 'I'm doubtful that there is, just as I said when the JFK documents were released.' Some redactions remained in the documents posted online Friday, including names and dates of birth. Last month, the Trump administration came under criticism over unredacted personal information, including Social Security numbers, during the release of records surrounding President John F. Kennedy's assassination. Trump, a Republican, has championed in the name of transparency the release of documents related to high-profile assassinations and investigations. But he has also been deeply suspicious for years of the government's intelligence agencies. His administration's release of once-hidden files opens the door for more public scrutiny of the operations and conclusions of institutions such as the CIA and the FBI. Trump signed an executive order in January calling for the release of government documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and King, who were killed within two months of each other. Lawyers for Kennedy's killer have said for decades that he is unlikely to reoffend or pose a danger to society, and in 2021, a parole board deemed Sirhan suitable for release. But Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the decision in 2022, keeping him in state prison. In 2023 , a different panel denied him release, saying he still lacks insight into what caused him to shoot Kennedy. RFK still stands as a hero to American liberals Kennedy remains an icon for liberals, who see him as a champion for human rights who also was committed to fighting poverty and racial and economic injustice. They often regard his assassination as the last in a series of major tragedies that put the US and its politics on a darker, more conservative path. He was a sometimes divisive figure during his lifetime. Some critics thought he came late to opposing the Vietnam War, and he launched his campaign for president in 1968 only after the Democratic primary in New Hampshire exposed President Johnson's political weakness. Kennedy's older brother appointed him US attorney general, and he remained a close aide to him until JFK's assassination in Dallas. In 1964, he won a US Senate seat from New York and was seen as the heir to the family's political legacy.
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.
