The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
President Trump will not block secret JFK records
ASSASSINATION: Trove of thousands of government files to be released
President Donald Trump does not intend to block the scheduled release of thousands of secret government documents related to President John F Kennedy’s assassination.
He tweeted on Saturday: “Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.”
The National Archives has until Thursday to disclose the remaining files related to Kennedy’s 1963 assassination.
The trove is expected to include more than 3,000 documents that have never been seen by the public and more than 30,000 that have been previously released but with redactions.
Congress mandated in 1992 that all assassination documents be released within 25 years, but Mr Trump has the power to block them on the grounds that making them public would harm intelligence or military operations, law enforcement or foreign relations.
“Thank you. This is the correct decision. Please do not allow exceptions for any agency of government,” tweeted Larry Sabato, director of the Virginia University centre for politics and author of a book about Kennedy, who has urged the president to release the files. “JFK files have been hidden too long.” The anticipated release has had scholars and armchair detectives buzzing.
But it is unlikely the documents will contain any big revelations on a tragedy that has stirred conspiracy theories for decades, Judge John Tunheim told the Associated Press last month.
Mr Tunheim was chairman of the independent agency in the 1990s that made public many assassination records and decided how long others could remain secret.
Mr Sabato and other JFK scholars believe the trove of files may, however, provide insight into assassin Lee Harvey Oswald’s trip to Mexico City weeks before the killing, during which he visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies.
Oswald’s stated reason for going was to get visas that would allow him to enter Cuba and the Soviet Union, according to the Warren Commission, the investigative body established by President Lyndon B Johnson, but much about the trip remains unknown.
Mr Trump’s friend Roger Stone, who wrote a book alleging that Johnson was the driving force behind Kennedy’s assassination, had personally urged the president to make the files public, he told far-right conspiracy theorist and radio show host Alex Jones this past week.
Conspiracy theorists the world over will be poised by their computers this week. Donald Trump says he is not minded to block the release of papers related to the death of his presidential predecessor, John F Kennedy.
It is unclear what the documents can tell us that we do not already know and it is unlikely they will leave everyone satisfied.
Some mysteries will never be truly solved.