US government releases trove of Kennedy assassination files
WASHINGTON: The US government released a mammoth, long-awaited trove of secret files on the killing of president John F Kennedy, offering intriguing new insights into events surrounding one of the most infamous assassinations in history.
While many of the 2,891 records released by the National Archives were raw intelligence and uncorroborated, they were almost certain to reinvigorate rampant conspiracy theories about the November 22, 1963 slaying of JFK in Dallas, Texas.
An outlandish CIA plan to recruit the mafia to kill Fidel Castro, FBI foreknowledge of the plot to murder Kennedy’s killer, and Kremlin suspicions of a homegrown rightwing conspiracy were among the highlights, even as some files were withheld for further review on national security grounds.
One document from 1975 detailed how in the early days of Kennedy’s presidency the CIA offered US$150,000 to ItalianAmerican mob boss Sam Giancana to organise the killing of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Giancana in return sought the CIA’s help to place a listening device in the room of his mistress – a Las Vegas entertainer – whom he thought was having an affair.
Other possible ideas to kill the Communist leader – said to be a keen diver – included contaminating his diving suit with disease causing bacteria, or booby-trapping a seashell with a bomb.
The plan was scrapped when it was determined “there was no shell in the Caribbean area large enough to hold a sufficient amount of explosive.”
Another document included a transcript of a Nov 24, 1963 conversation with then FBI director J Edgar Hoover, who said his agency informed police of a threat against the life of Kennedy’s killer Lee Harvey Oswald the night before Oswald was murdered. Police, however, failed to act.
While many theories over the years have related to Oswald’s ties to Cuban or Soviet operatives, an FBI memo in 1963 indicated Kennedy’s death was source of deep mourning in the USSR.
According to a source, “officials at the Communist Party of the Soviet Union believed there was some well-organised conspiracy on the part of the ‘ultraright’ in the United States to effect a ‘coup’.”
The Soviets feared the killing would be used as a pretext to “stop negotiations with the Soviet Union, attack Cuba, and thereafter spread the war.”
The Warren Commission, which investigated the shooting of the charismatic Kennedy, 46, determined that Oswald, a former Marine sharpshooter, carried out the Kennedy assassination acting alone.
The released files are vast in number and scope, covering everything from FBI directors’ memos to interviews with members of the public in Dallas who came forward trying to provide clues after that singularly unforgettable moment in US history.
Trump said in a memorandum he had agreed to hold back for further review some records relating to the killing following pushback from intelligence agencies. — AFP