In keeping with President Trump’s demands…
#JFKFiles pic.twitter.com/AnPBSJFh3J
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 28, 2017
The National Archives and Records Administration on Friday afternoon released hundreds more documents related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
The documents can be found here.
As CBS reports, this latest batch of 676 records could yield more interesting results than last week’s release, as they are the ones intelligence agencies requested more time to review, citing national security concerns.
The majority of records from Friday’s batch – 553 of them – are from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Those records were previously denied in their entirety, according to NARA.
CBS points out some interesting findings…
Oswald contacts Soviet embassy in search of visa
On Sept. 27, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald called the Soviet embassy in search of a visa to visit Odessa, according to the files. Eventually, the Soviet Embassy says they have received no answer from Washington, and such a request will take four to five months. Oswald says he belongs to a pro-Cuban organization and can’t get a Cuban visa without first getting a Russian visa. The next day, Sept. 28, 1963, Oswald calls the Soviet embassy to ask for news from Washington.
Roofer told resident after JFK assassination: “I’m the man”
The Pentagon received a letter from a Betty Joe Dodge of Lubbock, Texas, in September 1978. The letter, addressed to General Westmoreland, noted that an ex-Green Baret named Robert H. Doty had stayed in Dodge’s home that summer while he worked as a roofer. On the evening the assassination news was reported, he seemed uneasy, Dodge said. When Dodge asked what difference it made, Doty told her, “I’m the man.”
“I was afraid to ask any questions,” Dodge wrote. “I could never tell whether he was testing my reaction to a wild statement or actually telling me the truth.”
Officials thought Oswald was “odd” in 1960
One U.S. official, Thomas B. Casasin, recalls that he thought Oswald’s behavior struck him as “odd” and “unusual” after reading a dispatch on him following Oswald’s return to the United States from the USSR. The official told his subordinates something along the lines of, “Don’t push too hard to get the information we need, because this individual looks odd.” The official remembers being particularly interested in what Oswald could provide on the Minsk factory where he had been employed.
However, perhaps the most interesting document released was a March 12th, 1968 FBI analysis of Martin Luther King Jr – just 3 weeks before he was assassinated – portraying the civil rights leader in a negative light.
The 20-page document released on Friday attempts to tie the civil rights leader to various communist influences and alleges financial improprieties at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the African-American civil rights organisation founded by King, reports CNN. The document also contains insinuations and assertions about King’s personal life, including extramarital affairs and other sexual improprieties. However, it was not clear whether the authors of the document verified any of the information.
The King document was reviewed by the National Archives and Records Administration’s JFK Task Force in 1994 and marked with an “x” for “total denial” of its release. The options “release in full” and “release in part” were left blank on the cover page.
As CNN reports, The FBI analysis questions whether King should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. It concludes:
“These facts about the Nobel Peace Prize winner make his remarks seem incongruous when he replied after winning this cherished award, ‘History has thrust me into this position. It would be both immoral and a sign of ingratitude if I did not face my moral responsibility to do what I can in the civil rights struggle.'”
In another section, the FBI document labels the Southern Christian Leadership Conference “a tax dodge”. It also alleges that many of King’s associates had communist ties, CNN reported.
The document was authored while the FBI was led by Director J. Edgar Hoover, who had investigators trail King and spy on him.
Hoover had authorised an extensive surveillance programme on King in the 1960s.
In 1964, a package containing tapes and a letter to King was delivered to his house and opened by his wife, Coretta Scott King. The letter appeared to urge King to commit suicide. It included the line: “There is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days.” A Senate committee later confirmed the anonymous package had been sent by the FBI.
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So 50 years ago The FBI was writing ‘analysis’ that included questioning an anti-establishment leader’s sexual behavior, business taxes, morals, ethics, and communist/Russian ties – not much changes does it!?
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Full FBI Analysis below: