Trump
Blocks Full Release Of JFK Assassination Records After Last Minute
CIA Push
26
October, 2017
With
much of America clicking furiously
all day Thursday on the website of the National Archives,
hoping to be among the first to catch the release of thousands of
previously unseen JFK Assassination records, the U.S. government was
in danger of missing the deadline to release the trove of previously
classified records from the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy, "adding an unexpected twist to a saga already rife with
rumors and conspiracies" according
to NBC.
Caving
to lobbying pressure by intelligence agencies, Trump announced he
would not order the release of the full tranche of records, instead
following last-minute recommendations of his national security
agencies that some of those records be redacted, White House
officials said. During a call with reporters, White
House officials explained that while some 2,800 JFK records will be
released today, the
publications of the remaining records has been postponed for 180 days
to give agencies more time to figure out what they want redacted. By
late Thursday afternoon, the memo specifying which material the CIA,
State Department and other agencies still want to keep under wraps
had yet not made it to Trump’s desk, intel officials told NBC News.
“There’s
a mad scramble going on in the executive branch to get this
done,” one
official said.
As CBS
adds,
the delay requests – some of which were registered a couple of
months ago and some more recently - come
from agencies throughout the government including the CIA and FBI.
Some of the worry seems to center around documents created in the
1990's, when the congressional committee was crafting the legislation
setting Thursday as the release date. Officials told CBS News there
is concern the documents may reveal sources and operations from the
near past and include current people or operations. Of particular
concern, according to officials, are names in the documents.
CBS News' Chip Reid interviewed JFK scholar Larry Sabato, at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, who said he had been told that "at least most of it will not be released Thursday because not just the CIA, but apparently other agencies, unnamed -- I assume the FBI is one -- are appealing."
Sabato says that the CIA wants some of the names in the documents redacted, and some of the paragraphs they say reveal the names of sources or methods used by the CIA.
In
any case, the reason behind the delay remains a mystery. As CNN's Jim
Acosta notes, senior administration officials declined to discuss the
contents of the files that will be released, including whether they
contain evidence of a conspiracy surrounding Kennedy's death.
Trump
will issue a memo to heads of intelligence agencies saying "the
American public expects and deserves its government to produce as
much access as possible to the John F. Kennedy assassination records.
"I am ordering today that the veil finally be lifted" on
the records, the memo will say. The President will also note that law
enforcement and foreign affairs agencies have requested that certain
records remain redacted.
"I
have no choice" but to keep those records under wraps, the
memo will say. In his memo, Trump will order intelligence agencies to
re-review their reasons for keeping the records redacted, and to
report back in 180 days.
What
will remain classified?
According
to CNN,
officials said the sensitive information that will remain redacted
for now relates to "intelligence and law enforcement"
details. That includes the identity of individuals involved in the
investigation into the assassination and their roles as informants to
law enforcement, a senior administration official said.
It
also includes information about foreign partner organizations that
were involved in the investigation, the official said.
"The
President heard those justifications from the agencies that requested
the continuing postponement and he acknowledged that information ...
requires protection," the official said. Agencies requesting
continued redaction of certain documents will need to submit a report
to the archivist by March 12, 2018, explaining why those documents
meet that standard, the White House said.
Documents
determined to not meet those standards will need to be released by
April 26, 2018.
Trump's
decision to keep some documents secret is likely to keep conspiracy
theories alive, fueling those who have long questioned official
conclusions about the assassination and argued that the government
has helped cover up the truth.
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