WORLD Backflip on secrets

President holds back some files relating to JFK assassination

THE US government on Thursday released a mammoth, long-awaited trove of secret files on the assassination of president John F. Kennedy, but withheld others for further review on national security grounds.

In a statement the National Archives said that on orders from President Donald Trump it had released 2891 records related to the November 22, 1963 slaying of JFK in Dallas, Texas.

Kennedy scholars have said the documents were unlikely to contain any bombshell revelations or put to rest the rampant conspiracy theories about the assassination.

The files are vast in number and scope, covering everything from FBI directors’ memos over the years to interviews with members of the public in Dallas who came forward trying to provide clues in the weeks and months after that singularly unforgettable moment in US history.

Mr Trump said in a memorandum he had agreed to hold back for further review some records relating to the killing.

Administration officials who requested anonymity said the majority of those requests had come from the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“Executive departments and agencies have proposed to me that certain information should continue to be redacted because of national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns,” Mr Trump said.

“I have no choice – today – but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our nation’s security.”

Mr Trump gave agencies six months – until April 26, 2018 – to make their case for why the remaining documents should not be made public. Kennedy assassination experts were eagerly awaiting the chance to look at the files but have tempered expectations.

“Anybody who thinks there’s a document in there headed ‘Members of the Conspiracy to Kill President Kennedy’ is going to be waiting a long time,” said Larry Sabato, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia.