The public is getting a look at thousands of secret government files related to President John F Kennedy\u2019s assassination, but hundreds of other documents will remain under wraps for now.<\/p>\n
The government was required by Thursday to release the final batch of files related to Kennedy\u2019s assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963. But President Donald Trump delayed the release of some of the files, citing security concerns.<\/p>\n
Experts say the publication of the last trove of evidence could help allay suspicions of a conspiracy \u2014 at least for some.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as the government is withholding documents like these, it\u2019s going to fuel suspicion that there is a smoking gun out there about the Kennedy assassination,\u201d said Patrick Maney, a presidential historian at Boston College.<\/p>\n
How many files are there and how can you see them?<\/p>\n
The last batch of assassination files included more than 3,100 documents \u2014 comprising hundreds of thousands of pages \u2014 that have never been seen by the public. About 30,000 documents were released previously with redactions. The National Archives released more than 2,800 documents on its website Thursday evening. But Trump delayed the release of the remaining files after last-minute appeals from the CIA and FBI. Trump cited \u201cpotentially irreversible harm\u201d to national security if he were to allow all the records out now and placed those files under a six-month review. Officials say Trump will impress upon federal agencies that JFK files should stay secret after the six-month review \u201conly in the rarest cases.\u201d<\/p>\n
President George HW Bush signed a law on October 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 by the uproar in the wake of Oliver Stone\u2019s 1991 conspiracy-theory filled film \u201cJFK.\u201d
\nJohn F Kennedy, former first lady Jaqueline Kennedy and Texas governor John Connally ride in a limousine moments before Kennedy was assassinated, in Dallas, Texas. (Reuters File Photo)<\/p>\n
Scholars stress that it will take weeks to mine the documents for potentially new and interesting information.<\/p>\n
But the files show federal agents madly chasing after tips in the days after the November 22, 1963, assassination and juggling rumors 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\u2019s government in Cuba.<\/p>\n
One document details efforts to interview people who may have seen Kennedy\u2019s killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, while he was travelling to Mexico before the assassination.<\/p>\n
Another file describes individuals being monitored as potential threats, including a person who sent a letter to the president in December 1963 that said \u201cyou\u2019re doomed.\u201d After an interview with that person, an official wrote: \u201cSaid letter was a joke. Not dangerous. Attending 5th grade.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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