The world has waited more than 50 years to find out what really happened on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Now, that the JFK files have been released, are we any closer to the truth?
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In 1992, a law was passed making it mandatory for the National Archives to release all files related to the death of JFK by October 26, 2017. So on Thursday, Donald Trump released thousands of pages of previously classified documents — but bent to the pressure of security advisers to block dozens more in the interest of “national security.”
Although it’s now clear that the juiciest bits of information surrounding the death of JFK are still being kept secret from the public, a few interesting tidbits did come to light:
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The CIA considered mafia hit on Cuban President Fidel Castro
According to the report, JFK vowed to remove Castro by any means necessary. Also, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the President’s brother, told the FBI he learned the CIA hired an intermediary “to approach Sam Giancana with a proposition of paying $150,000 to hire some gunman to go into Cuba and kill Castro.” The belief was that it would be difficult to prosecute Giancana, a Sicilian American mobster. However, the Attorney General got cold feet.
“Attorney General Kennedy stated that the CIA should never undertake the use of mafia people again without first checking with the Department of Justice because it would be difficult to prosecute such people in the future,” the report read.
The report also said the CIA was interested in using mobsters to deliver a poison pill to Castro in order to kill him. They were also working with Cuban exile groups to overthrow Castro.
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The US considered sabotaging airplane parts heading to Cuba
A national security council document from 1962 — before Kennedy’s murder — referenced “Operation Mongoose,” a covert attempt to topple communism in Cuba.
In the minutes of a secret meeting on Operation Mongoose from September 14, 1962, “General (Marshall) Carter said that the CIA would examine the possibilities of sabotaging airplane parts which are scheduled to be shipped from Canada to Cuba.”
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Someone called the FBI and threatened to kill Lee Harvey Oswald a day before he was murdered
A document dated November 24, 1963, showed FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover addressing the death of Lee Harvey Oswald at the hands of Jack Ruby.
“There is nothing further on the Oswald case except that he is dead,” Hoover said.
However, the documents reveal that Hoover was aware that the FBI’s Dallas office received a call “from a man talking in a calm voice,” saying he was a member of a committee to kill Oswald.
Also, the Secret Service interviewed a man who overheard a bet in a bar that JFK would be dead within 3 weeks. The bet came true.
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CIA intercepted a call from Oswald to the KGB
A CIA memo from the day of Kennedy’s assassination outlined the CIA’s interception of a call from Oswald, then in Mexico City, to the Russian embassy in Mexico. Oswald spoke to the consul, Valeriy Vladimirovich Kostikov, an “identified KGB officer” “in broken Russian.”
The memo’s author said he was told by the FBI’s liaison officer that the bureau believed Oswald’s visit was to get help with a passport or visa.
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Soviets said killing was an ‘organized conspiracy’
FBI Director Hoover forwarded a memo to the White House in 1963, shortly after Kennedy’s death. The memo, obtained by the Church Committee and classified top-secret, detailed US sources’ sense of the reaction in the USSR to Kennedy’s death.
“According to our source, officials of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union believed there was some well-organized conspiracy on the part of the ‘ultraright’ in the United States to effect a ‘coup,'” the memo said. “They seem convinced that the assassination was not the deed of one man, but that it arose out of a carefully planned campaign in which several people played a part.”
The source added that the Soviet officials claimed no connection between Oswald and the USSR, and described him as “a neurotic gunman.”
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Top News Today
Although the freshly released documents didn’t provide the full clarification on the assassination of JFK many Americans have been waiting for, one thing is clear: the story of Lee Harvey Oswald as a lone operator and the sole shooter no longer seems plausible. Additional records will be released in the coming weeks on a rolling basis that should provide more clarity.
Do you believe the official story of Lee Harvey Oswald providing the single death shot that killed President Kennedy? Or are you more inclined to believe the death of JFK was a conspiracy that may have included the Russians, Cuba, or even the CIA? After all, what are the CIA and Donald Trump (still) trying to hide? Why can’t they release ALL documents 50 years after the assassination? Tell us what you think!
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I didn’t read any of the files but from all the summary’s I have seen it looks like there was some type of conspiracy. If Oswald killed him and that was it there would have been no reason to keep a lot of information secret all these years. Now they are still keeping things secret which tells me there is a cover up.
I am at work refreshing my browser trying to follow the big new today about Paul Manafort getting arrested. I know DJ has something good for us tomorrow.