Trump says he intends to allow release of classified files on Kennedy assassination

[GennGreymane]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...ssination.html

President Trump said Saturday that he intends to allow the release of long-classified files on the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, a move that could shed light on a tragedy that has stirred conspiracy theories for decades.

The National Archives has until Oct. 26 to disclose the remaining thousands of never-seen government documents on the 1963 assassination, unless Trump changes course and tries to block their release.

“Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened,” Trump tweeted Saturday morning.

However, to what additional information the president was referring was unclear.

The CIA and FBI, whose records make up the bulk of the batch, won't say whether they've appealed to the Trump administration to keep them under wraps.

"The American public deserves to know the facts, or at least they deserve to know what the government has kept hidden from them for all these years," Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of a book about Kennedy, said in an email to The Associated Press.

It's unlikely the documents contain any big revelations about Kennedy's killing, said Judge John Tunheim, who was chairman of the independent agency in the 1990s that made public many assassination records and decided how long others could remain secret.

Sabato and other JFK scholars believe the trove of files may provide insight into assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's trip to Mexico City weeks before the killing.

During the trip, Oswald visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies.

His 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. However, much about the trip remains unknown.

Among the protected information up for release is details about the arrangements the U.S. entered into with the Mexican government that allowed it to have close surveillance of those and other embassies, said Tunheim, a federal judge in Minnesota.

Kennedy experts also hope to see the full report on Oswald's trip to Mexico City from staffers of the House committee that investigated the assassination, said Rex Bradford, president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, which publishes assassination records.

The White House didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The FBI declined to comment on whether it has asked Trump to keep the files hidden. A CIA spokeswoman would say only that it "continues to engage in the process to determine the appropriate next steps with respect to any previously-unreleased CIA information."

Congress mandated in 1992 that all assassination documents be released within 25 years, unless the president asserts that doing so would harm intelligence, law enforcement, military operations or foreign relations. The still-secret documents include more than 3,000 that have never been seen by the public and more than 30,000 that have been released previously, but with redactions.

The files that were withheld in full were those the Assassination Records Review Board deemed "not believed relevant," Tunheim said. Its members sought to ensure they weren't hiding any information directly related to Kennedy's assassination, but there may be nuggets of information in the files that they didn't realize was important two decades ago, he said.

"There could be some jewels in there because in our level of knowledge in the 1990s is maybe different from today," Tunheim said.

The National Archives would not say whether any agencies have appealed the release of the documents.

The Archives in July published online more than 440 never-before-seen assassination documents and thousands of others that had been released previously with redactions.

Among those documents was a 1975 internal CIA memo that questioned whether Oswald became motivated to kill Kennedy after reading an AP article in a newspaper that quoted Fidel Castro as saying "U.S. leaders would be in danger if they helped in any attempt to do away with leaders of Cuba."

"Oswald might have had a clear motive, one that we have never really understood for killing Kennedy, because he thought that by killing Kennedy he might be saving the life of Fidel Castro," said Philip Shenon, a former New York Times reporter who has written a book about Kennedy's assassination.

Some of the files will likely remain under wraps, experts say.

It's unlikely the National Archives will release some IRS records, including the tax returns of Jack Ruby, the man who killed Oswald, Bradford said.

Sabato said he also suspects that some key records may also have been destroyed before the 1992 law ordered that all the files be housed in the National Archives.

[Dear Mods, the story is about Trump wanting to release documents, not a conspiracy theory]

[SoLoR1]

I feel sorry for Ted Cruz, truth will come out!

[Grapemask]

One of the few good things to come out of a conspiracy nut as president. I'm kind of excited to see this stuff.

[Skroe]

This is yet another Trump distraction. It's sowing the seeds of a new generation of conspiracy theorists among his kook supporters.

Next up: The Area 51 dump.

[Cerilis]

This is yet another Trump distraction. It's sowing the seeds of a new generation of conspiracy theorists among his kook supporters.

Next up: The Area 51 dump.

Would be a real shame if he was removed before the release gets through, right? Wouldn't look like a deepstate cover-up at all, right? ;p

[NYC17]

I'm not entirely convinced that the documents won't just end up being a note written in crayon that says, "Lyin Ted's dad sucks!".

[Low Hanging Fruit]

He is doing this just to cover up his big fucked up week. The good news is that since he has a big fucked up week just about every week we might get our hands on all the classified shit we want to see from the past 60 years.

[Very Tired]

I feel sorry for Ted Cruz, truth will come out!

People will finally see Lyin' Ted was lying after all!

[GennGreymane]

This is yet another Trump distraction. It's sowing the seeds of a new generation of conspiracy theorists among his kook supporters.

Next up: The Area 51 dump.

You will never know my secrets.

[Skroe]

Would be a real shame if he was removed before the release gets through, right? Wouldn't look like a deepstate cover-up at all, right? ;p

Much of what the US public "knows" about the Kennedy Assassination came as a result of the KGB spreading lies about it in the 1960s and 1970s to try and cause civil unrest in America. The broad strokes of every conspiracy theory surrounding it? That was the KGB. Americans in the early to mid 1960s were not a conspiratorial people. It took Vietnam, then Watergate to "break" America's trust in the good word of government.

The KGB, for it's part, also did this with spreading lies about AIDS in Africa in the 1980s as well... lies that still make treating sufferers challenging in places. People told their entire lives AIDS was created by the US Army in Tennessee don' want treatment from the WHO and CDC.

Removing Trump is already going to be really traumatic for America. 30% of the electorate won't accept it the day it happens. 15-20% of it will never accept it until the day they day. Our foreign adversaries will capitalize on that of course and spread a new generation of conspiracy theories... you know... "shadowy forces", "deep state" all that shit, coming together to take down Trump who "wanted to make America great again".

We bought that. And it's going to be crap and with us for decades to come just as "9/11 was an inside job" has been. Trump releasing this is laying the groundwork for the conspiracy theories around him and his removal, to protect himself (perhaps pre-emptively, perhaps his legacy).

Don't be surprised if there are more episodes like this as we close into Mueller indicting Trump-Russia figures.

[Edge-]

Next up: The Area 51 dump.

Oh please, you know damn well that if there was any credibility to any of that nonsense that he would have already blabbed about it : P

[GennGreymane]

Oh please, you know damn well that if there was any credibility to any of that nonsense that he would have already blabbed about it : P

He would be golfing with an Ayy Lmao

I would have an air force one party with the Ayy Lmao and shit would be lit

[Lynarii]

Much of what the US public "knows" about the Kennedy Assassination came as a result of the KGB spreading lies about it in the 1960s and 1970s to try and cause civil unrest in America. The broad strokes of every conspiracy theory surrounding it? That was the KGB. Americans in the early to mid 1960s were not a conspiratorial people. It took Vietnam, then Watergate to "break" America's trust in the good word of government.

The KGB, for it's part, also did this with spreading lies about AIDS in Africa in the 1980s as well... lies that still make treating sufferers challenging in places. People told their entire lives AIDS was created by the US Army in Tennessee don' want treatment from the WHO and CDC.

Removing Trump is already going to be really traumatic for America. 30% of the electorate won't accept it the day it happens. 15-20% of it will never accept it until the day they day. Our foreign adversaries will capitalize on that of course and spread a new generation of conspiracy theories... you know... "shadowy forces", "deep state" all that shit, coming together to take down Trump who "wanted to make America great again".

We bought that. And it's going to be crap and with us for decades to come just as "9/11 was an inside job" has been. Trump releasing this is laying the groundwork for the conspiracy theories around him and his removal, to protect himself (perhaps pre-emptively, perhaps his legacy).

Don't be surprised if there are more episodes like this as we close into Mueller indicting Trump-Russia figures.

Umm... thing is, the October 26th 2017 release date was set 25 years ago. If Trump really managed to engineer it back then to form a useful distraction for his activities today, then I gotta admit that I'm impressed. Trump is not deciding to do the release, he's just saying he doesn't intend to block it.

[Azadina]

Why doesn't he release his own tax records first?

[Jester Joe]

Umm... thing is, the October 26th 2017 release date was set 25 years ago. If Trump really managed to engineer it back then to form a useful distraction for his activities today, then I gotta admit that I'm impressed. Trump is not deciding to do the release, he's just saying he doesn't intend to block it.

It's a happy coincidence for Trump.

This was going to come up whether or not he was elected. Now, he can use it to brag and distract though.

[Skroe]

Oh please, you know damn well that if there was any credibility to any of that nonsense that he would have already blabbed about it : P

Oh of course. All Area 51 is is a consolidated research and testing facility for advanced aircraft and seized foreign aircraft.

A month ago an experienced US test pilot died in accident there flying an Russian Su-27. The US got Su-27s from Ukraine, Belarus and post-Soviet States. An Su-27 modified with some semiimodern technology would be a useful and accurate analog for the Su-35S (reminder to anyone reading, while the US gives letters to major variants... e.g. "F-15A, F-15C, F-15E", Russia assigns them new numbers, so the Su-27, Su-30, Su-33-, Su-34 and S-35 are all very, very closely related aircraft, with the Su-34 being the most different).

What is known about Area 51 makes it arguably more fascinating than "they got UFOs". I mean does any one really think that Tacit Blue, Have Blue the F-117, the B-2, the F-22 and and the F-35 are the only stealth aircraft the US has ever flown? There are enormous gaps there.

[Thepersona]

Oh of course. All Area 51 is is a consolidated research and testing facility for advanced aircraft and seized foreign aircraft.

A month ago an experienced US test pilot died in accident there flying an Russian Su-27. The US got Su-27s from Ukraine, Belarus and post-Soviet States. An Su-27 modified with some semiimodern technology would be a useful and accurate analog for the Su-35S (reminder to anyone reading, while the US gives letters to major variants... e.g. "F-15A, F-15C, F-15E", Russia assigns them new numbers, so the Su-27, Su-30, Su-33-, Su-34 and S-35 are all very, very closely related aircraft, with the Su-34 being the most different).

What is known about Area 51 makes it arguably more fascinating than "they got UFOs". I mean does any one really think that Tacit Blue, Have Blue the F-117, the B-2, the F-22 and and the F-35 are the only stealth aircraft the US has ever flown? There are enormous gaps there.

Correct me if i'm wrong but wasnt area 51 also a waste disposal site? (Like chemical waste and the likes). And seriously, if there was an UFO locked there, i'd be fascinated if we managed to reverse engineer any tech from them (the gap would be like, trying to teach a caveman to repair a F-35)

Remember, conspiracy theorists: if an alien crashed on earth, it would meant that either they have a form of FTL travel thats reliable, or that they're incredibly long lived (if they dont have ftl). That tech is out of reach of humanity, by at least 100-1000 years (FTL) and 10-100 years (having 200+ year lifespan)

[Skroe]

Correct me if i'm wrong but wasnt area 51 also a waste disposal site? (Like chemical waste and the likes). And seriously, if there was an UFO locked there, i'd be fascinated if we managed to reverse engineer any tech from them (the gap would be like, trying to teach a caveman to repair a F-35)

Remember, conspiracy theorists: if an alien crashed on earth, it would meant that either they have a form of FTL travel thats reliable, or that they're incredibly long lived (if they dont have ftl). That tech is out of reach of humanity, by at least 100-1000 years (FTL) and 10-100 years (having 200+ year lifespan)

There is a waste disposal portion of it, related to hazardous materials used during weapon and aircraft development. The materials aren't necessarily radioactive, but carcinogenic. Low observable coatings even on "advanced" stealth aircraft like the F-22 are toxic.


One of the major program goals (and largely achieved) of the F-35 program was to create stealth coatings that don't need robots to apply it for every mission like the B-2, or men in bunny suits like the F-22. The F-35 is far closer to 4th generation aircraft in terms of skincare. It's stealth is worse than the F-22, but it's a different aircraft with a different purpose and more than just USAF squadrons at a handful of bases will be caring for them. To put it simply, the F-35 needed to be an aircraft that the Turkish Air Force could take care of no worse than the USAF.

In addition to things like that, Area 51 would logically also be a place the Air Force tested fuels and advanced propulsion methods. Not the kind of stuff you want to get into ground water.

On top of that, let's consider the purpose of Area 51. Test aircraft. That means lots of crashes over the years. The Salt Flats are believed to be a veritable graveyard of designs nobody outside the black world has ever seen. But when materials compress and burn, they undergo chemical changes and once safe materials can become quite toxic.

Basically, yes. You probably don't want to be growing raddishes anywhere in Area 51. But this kind of hooks into the US's historic negligence during the Cold War with weapons development. The Atomic Weapons infrastructure particularly, made an enormous mess at pretty much every facility, and over the last 25 years, the US has spent tens of billions of dollars cleaning it up. In the 1960s, they were simply giving a lot of thought to the "now" and not a lot of thought to what to do with the waste they generated. A lot of it was simply buried in the back yard, or sealed away in a shed.

America has paid billions of dollars to underwrite Russia's clean-up from the Cold War over the years. The US's equally as large, is still in progress. The key difference is that Russian facilities were just left open with the gate unguarded, while US facilities were kept open until budget cuts consolidated them, and suddenly policy makers realized "oh wow, staff 30 years ago put toxic waste behind the garage. Awesome.".

[Azadina]

Oh of course. All Area 51 is is a consolidated research and testing facility for advanced aircraft and seized foreign aircraft.

A month ago an experienced US test pilot died in accident there flying an Russian Su-27. The US got Su-27s from Ukraine, Belarus and post-Soviet States. An Su-27 modified with some semiimodern technology would be a useful and accurate analog for the Su-35S (reminder to anyone reading, while the US gives letters to major variants... e.g. "F-15A, F-15C, F-15E", Russia assigns them new numbers, so the Su-27, Su-30, Su-33-, Su-34 and S-35 are all very, very closely related aircraft, with the Su-34 being the most different).

What is known about Area 51 makes it arguably more fascinating than "they got UFOs". I mean does any one really think that Tacit Blue, Have Blue the F-117, the B-2, the F-22 and and the F-35 are the only stealth aircraft the US has ever flown? There are enormous gaps there.

Russia is so strapped for cash, why not just buy their latest models for testing straight from them?

[Skroe]

Russia is so strapped for cash, why not just buy their latest models for testing straight from them?

They wouldn't sell them to the US anymore than the US would sell them an F-16V.

Which is an interesting thing to comment on actually. The US gained access to Soviet/Russian technology because countries switched sides, and deals were struck. By in large the US has not had that happen to it. The one to watch though is Pakistan. They already let Russia and China look at and take samples of the Stealth Blackhawk that crashed during the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in 2011. Pakistan has flown export variants of the same "Block 30/40/50" of F-16 the US has flown for many years (which is to say, they're progressively obsolete and in the last decade of their useful life) but has been trying to buy more advanced Block 60 F-16s for years, which has substantial changes (which the US does not fly, because it is opting to buy the superior F-35). The US has been implicitly and explicitly blocking that transaction.

That being said, given what Pakistan has already done, it is fair to conclude that even though China and Russia aren't flying F-16s of their own, they've had an up-close and personal look at them for years. But the Pentagon would have anticipated that prior to allowing Pakistan to buy them.

What the US needs to be on the look out for is another "accident" where by a Chinese pilot flies into a US survellience aircraft and forces it to land in Chinese territory, as happened in early 2001. China would very much like to get a look at the P-8 Poseidon Maratime Patrol Aircraft (a militarized, heavily modified Boeing 737 that can launch missiles, depth charges and torpedoes). The P-8 would be the maritime quarterback in a Naval Conflict with China, and the Hainan Island incident in 2001 involved the P-8's predecessor, the P-3 Orion.