So… the long anticipated and much hyped ‘JFK files’ document dump.
Some 80,000 pages of files have been made public, as per promises President Trump had made during his election campaign.
But does it really tell us anything?
Does this massive release of documents actually bring us any closer to a definitive truth about one of the pivotal events of the twentieth century – or does it make things even less clear?
Moreover, what is this release *meant* to do? To provide clarity – or to further confuse the picture?
Well, this latest document dump appears at least more meaningful than the widely-mocked and over-hyped ‘Epstein Files’ release a few weeks ago.
At first glance though, it simply looks like more careful drip-feeding of smallish items, essentially designed to vaguely titillate but to not decisively conclude anything.
Most of what appears to be revealed amounts to things we already knew or things that have already been in the public sphere in some form or another.
For example, that the CIA was running false-flag operations all over the world and engaged in drug trafficking, gun running and other criminal enterprises (which was, ironically, one of the reasons Kennedy was intent on dismantling the agency).
There’s stuff about Operation Mongoose and the plans to overthrow Castro: again, broadly public knowledge already.
Or that the agencies had been given advanced warnings about the imminent threat to Kennedy in Dallas, including tip-offs from the Soviets.
Keep in mind that this latest release of documents actually follows a similar release of files back in 2017.
And most of what I wrote back then in response to those releases could be restated verbatim again here.
Nothing definitive or game-changing came of that 2017 drop of files. Media talked about it for a couple of days and then it never got discussed again: with the majority of the files remaining largely undebated.
I did manage to read through a small amount of those documents over time. I haven’t looked at much of these latest PDFs yet: the sheer volume of documents, as well as the lack of effective indexing, makes it daunting.
Over the course of a few months or more, I might attempt it.
But it’s worth reiterating what I wrote eight years ago, based on something an MoD official had said: essentially that governments will release a flood of documents all at once in order to overwhelm analysts, journalists and media outlets who will struggle to process or evaluate such a large amount of information and will therefore miss key correlations or links.
I wrote then, ‘What happens is that, in general terms, the intense media focus fades after a few days and people lose interest again – leaving only JFK conspiracy enthusiasts or theorists to continue trying to connect dots and draw conclusions, but to a much smaller audience or readership‘.
That’s essentially what this looks like again.
But it actually might be that the 2017 files were more interesting than this current flood of documents: including significant acknowledgement of the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird program (essentially strategic control of key elements of the media), and even a Surgeon General’s report indicating the reality of two shooters.
But this really does seem to be just a song and dance routine where the president gets to look good, the institutions get to look vaguely honest, and the media briefly participates in the routine, before all of it gets forgotten again and everything remains basically the same.
Anyone who’s even partially examined the existing evidence already knows that there was more than one shooter in Dallas that day and that Oswald – if he was a shooter at all – wasn’t a lone gunman.
A trove of declassified or unredacted documents that *doesn’t* deal with this basic fact of multiple shooters – no matter how large the release of files might be – can be regarded as little more than continued smoke and mirrors.
Where, for example, are the transcripts or notes from Oswald’s interrogation? He was allegedly questioned for some twelve hours: why is there no record whatsoever of anything he said?
Where are *those* files?
But, if anything, the emerging consensus with these newly released files seems to reinforce Oswald as the sole assassin – presumably by design.
Nothing I’ve seen referenced so far deviates at all from this longstanding status quo that was codified into official history by the Warren Commission in the sixties and under the influence of the CIA.
Which indicates a carefully curated document dump intended to reinforce the long-standing official story for the most part.
All of that being said, the various media perusals of the files have thrown up a few vaguely interesting tidbits so far.
For example, it seems to be confirmed that Lee Harvey Oswald was under close watch by both the CIA and the KGB for quite some time prior to the assassination.
That isn’t exactly a revelation.
The indication seems to be, however, that he wasn’t working for the KGB. Instead it is implied he was seen as an oddball by the Soviets while he was in Russia and not considered a worthwhile asset.
That he could’ve been a CIA asset is still entirely possible (as many researchers have long believed): though, so far, that doesn’t appear to be definitively demonstrated either.
Though given the CIA’s palpable presence in the complex network of events leading up to the assassination, the assassination itself and then the aftermath, it’s basically a given that Oswald was being used by the agency with or without his full understanding.
It remains incongruous that Oswald wasn’t detained by the Soviets as a possible American spy: and just as incongruous that he wasn’t arrested by US intelligence upon returning to the US from Russia, having supposedly defected to the Soviet Union.
None of it adds up.
With some dramatic irony, however, one document quotes a Russian source as noting that Oswald was a “poor shot”.
Which somewhat undercuts the image of a deft shooter pulling off extraordinary (and highly unlikely) kill-shots from that book depository window.
Nevertheless, these freshly released documents seem to maintain the broad view that Oswald was the assassin. Nothing so far seems to even hint at additional shooters.
Which makes this whole song and dance exercise suspect.
Especially given that one of the most telling items from the aforementioned 2017 files was a J Edgar Hoover memo from the day after the assassination, in which he appears to be committed to making sure Oswald was portrayed as the lone assassin. The notorious head of the FBI wrote “The thing I am concerned about… is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin…”
As I noted back then, the most interesting thing in that statement is the word “real”. Hoover doesn’t simply say to ‘convince the public that Oswald is the assassin’, but that Oswald is the “real” assassin.
Which pretty much implies he wasn’t the real assassin.
Why play out this current PR exercise at all?
Two immediate things are served in this instance: first, a chance for the agencies and institutions in question to look like they’re being transparent.
And second, a PR exercise for the current President – to satisfy his supporters and to maintain the ‘anti establishment’ or ‘truther’ image.
It’s the height of naivety to think that the most important or revealing documentation hasn’t either been shredded long ago or is still being withheld.
The files that have been released will take ages for anyone to sift through. And neither eligibility nor ease of navigation seems to have been given much consideration with these documents.
Arguably what these files do provide is some record or insight into a fascinating period of history.
Not only concerning the shocking assassination of an American president, but some behind-the-scenes realities of the Cold War, and – perhaps most importantly – the bloody rise of the CIA and its criminal operations both at home and abroad.
Maybe then it’s all of more value to historians than to truth-seekers.
Though let’s note that multiple references to Israel and Mossad appear to have been redacted from various files, at the CIA’s request.
The whole subject of the Israel/Mossad connection to the CIA and the events of the sixties and the Kennedy assassinations, etc, are too big a subject to divert into here. Perhaps in a separate article.
Perhaps the most surprising item to emerge in these files so far concerns the one-time intelligence operative and World War II veteran Garret Underhill and his personal terror after the assassination, claiming that a clique within the CIA was behind Kennedy’s horrific killing and that his own life was in danger.
This is perhaps the most surprising item to come to light so far: not for what it suggests (which again is no revelation to anyone even passingly familiar with this subject), but simply for the fact that this file has been publicly released and not redacted.
Though, given how widespread the belief is in the CIA’s involvement in Kennedy’s assassination, maybe they don’t consider it any real problem anymore for this kind of memo to be out there.
According to the memo in question, documents say that ‘the day after the assassination, Gary Underhill left Washington in a hurry. Late in the evening he showed up at the home of friends in New Jersey. He was very agitated. A small clique within the CIA was responsible for the assassination, he confided, and he was afraid for his life and probably would have to leave the country. Less than six months later Underhill was found shot to death in his Washington apartment. The coroner ruled it suicide…‘
But there were so many suspicious deaths surrounding the JFK assassination – including the scores of Dealey Plaza eyewitnesses that wound up dead under questionable circumstances.
The trail of dead bodies following the initial murders of both Kennedy and Oswald demonstrate just how ruthless and how heartless the conspirators and their long-time protectors in the establishment were.
Garret Underhill was sadly was one among hundreds.
Jim Marrs, in his book Crossfire Plot, lists 103 people (related to the Kennedy assassination) who he claims died in mysterious circumstances between 1963 and 1976.
Everyone rightly focuses on John F. Kennedy and his public murder: but there’s a whole list of victims of this conspiracy spanning many years – and those individuals aren’t recognised often enough.
In conclusion…? There will be no conclusion to this subject. Possibly ever.
As I wrote in 2017: ‘If nothing else, these files – which would take months to read through – provide an interesting historical record or snapshot, but that’s about all. Most people by now know that the Kennedy assassination was not the work of a lone gunman – the ability to sustain that illusion was destroyed permanently once the Zapruder footage came to light in the 70s, by which time no amount of CIA control of the mass media was able to hide the bloody obvious fact that Kennedy had been shot from more than one direction…’
The rest, as I wrote back then, is a case of which conspiracy theory version you subscribe to.
There are so many different, rival theories and arguments, that you get the sense the intelligence agencies are perfectly happy to let people flounder in theory and counter-theory for the rest of time.
In fact, we might wonder if some of the conspiracy theories might’ve been put out by intelligence agencies themselves – literall
The more theories or elements there are – the CIA, the Mafia, the Cubans, the Soviets, the oil industry barons, the ‘Shadow Government’ or Deep State, etc – the less focused the subject becomes, with different people trying to defend their own theory against other theories instead of zeroing in on the definitive truth.
The sad reality is that the people responsible for murdering JFK, and for all the accompanying conspiracies and cover-ups, are mostly dead by now – along with all of their many victims.
‘Justice’ was never on the agenda: everyone got away with it – and with much more, for decades.
And by ‘accompanying conspiracies and cover-ups’, of which there were numerous, we can include also the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. *Those files* need to be released too.
The Warren Commission was never a search for the truth: but an exercise in narrative control, designed to draw a line under the matter and discourage questions.
The fact that Allen Dulles – the notorious CIA Director (and initiator of MK Ultra), who Kennedy had fired – ended up heavily involved in the Warren Commission and its conclusions tells us all we need to know about the nature of the entire business.
Crooks, criminals and conspirators were running the whole show: from top to bottom.
