Why The JFK Assassination Files Still Haven't Been Fully Released

Above, Elm Street at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

In two more days, the 59th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy will be observed.

Incredible as it may seem, there's an inter-agency battle over the remaining classified documents and their release according to a 1992 transparency law ordering their release. The CIA and FBI want them kept secret, but the National Achives and Records Administration want them released. 

Politico has posted an article on might be the crux of the dispute.

They begin with:

Almost exactly 59 years after those rifle shots rang out in Dealey Plaza, left a president mortally wounded and changed the course of history, there are still secrets that the government admits it is determined to keep about the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. More than 14,000 classified documents somehow related to the president’s murder remain locked away, in part or in full, at the National Archives in clear violation of the spirit of a landmark 1992 transparency law that was supposed to force the release of virtually all of them years ago.

The fact that anything about the assassination is still classified — and that the CIA, FBI and other agencies have refused to provide the public with a detailed explanation of why — has convinced an army of conspiracy theorists that their cynicism has always been justified.

It appears the CIA, FBI and other agencies want to protect still-living foreign informants from reprisals by the Mafia (and possibly others) along with intelligence tools. That is why the battle still goes on.

Politico reported:

In the past, those agencies have provided the public with only vague explanations about their reasoning, citing potential damage to national security and foreign policy.

The Archives correspondence reveals, for the first time, their detailed justifications, providing a rare window into reasoning inside the CIA and FBI. In many cases, it shows, the CIA and FBI pressed to keep documents secret because they contained the names and personal details of still-living intelligence and law-enforcement informants from the 1960’s and 1970’s who could be at risk of intimidation or even violence if they were publicly identified.

Many of those sources — now elderly, if not close to death — are foreigners living outside the United States, which means it would be more difficult for the American government to protect them from threats. The CIA has also withheld information in the documents that identifies the location of CIA stations and safehouses abroad, including several that have been in use continuously since Kennedy’s death in 1963.

Even though it is almost 60 years since the assassination, it is interesting that intelligence and law-enforcement informants could still be put into jeopardy if their identities are revealed. At least, that's what the CIA and FBI contend. 

To read the full article, go here.

Speaking of the JFK assassination, a new proposal to improve Dealey Plaza has been released. To see what's in mind, go here.