It is very hard to hear cries that the public is engaging in a reckless conspiracy over anything – but especially the assassination of a president – when the government continues to withhold secrets about said incident. If it is nothing but a conspiracy theory and those in the know are fine with the “lone gunman” theory, why not put everything out there and just go with it? And yet administration after administration even 50 to 61 (today) years after the fact continue to withhold documents ensuring that the conspiracy theories live on. Frustratingly, it looks like the massive document dump of JFK files yesterday failed to deliver some critical files that may have shed real light on those who may be responsible. To the extent that the government is protecting anyone after 50 years to 61 years, the question becomes why?
We are assured that it will take a lot of time for historians to compare and contrast the new documents versus everything that had been out to this point. But reports are already out that yesterday’s massive release still held files back. According to a report in The Daily Mail:
More than 63,000 pages of records related to the 1963 assassination of president Kennedy were released Tuesday following an order by President Donald Trump, many without the redactions that had confounded historians for years and helped fuel conspiracy theories.
Okay – well, good. There is also the question as to whether the administration even has legal authority to release the most critical stuff – legalities not stopping it in other contexts but not our focus here. But some anticipated stuff has been left out and it just seems to fuel speculation:
They included typewritten reports and handwritten notes spanning decades, including details of a top CIA agent who claimed the deep state was responsible, Oswald being a ‘poor shot’ and that Secret Service had been warned Kennedy would be killed in August, three months before the murder.
Well, at least with respect to negligence and traditional case law the murder of a president would be termed res ipsa loquitur, “the thing speaks for itself” – someone screwed up, that’s a safe assumption until it’s really really proven otherwise. The tort doctrine wouldn’t necessarily apply here but there is the expectation that some people and agencies would be made to look like fools. The concern is that the release of the documents would prove they weren’t fools so much as devastatingly effective criminals of the highest order.
And someone has to explain what else it might be? Is anyone going to go nuts if the CIA actually knew that Oswald had been planning to shoot JFK and they just failed to prevent it? Again, that’s assumed. A full 61 years later, the release of something saying “Man, did they ever make some big mistakes” isn’t going to change the dynamic. Perhaps, “They didn’t actually plan the event but knew it would happen and did nothing” is far more provocative but still probably something the American public half expects. To the extent they don’t – who is going to really get blasted for it now? Proving that they had passive involvement at least dispels the more problematic “active involvement” theory. If one says “The intelligence community” might suffer anyway – well, they’ve got far more current concerns to deal with. Actually, coming forward and saying “This happened,” might increase trust in the current agencies. “If nothing else we don’t do that anymore.”
Alas, no. If the reports are correct – not necessarily an established fact but probably a good assumption, it appears that a lot of this will simply feed the never-ending conspiracy theories. Such a situation would seem to put current people at risk and, again, that’s not on one administration. No one forced the Biden or Trump administration to dump this stuff. But if they do, why not just get it over with?
The answer is likely not good. So there’s that – and the guy on the grassy thing. He’s not going away, either.
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You are quite right. However, I don’t think most people realize how much is already out there.
Not surprsing: The literature on the JFK assassination and coverup is huge, and frankly, the largest part isn’t worth reading. The problem is, which part? Using generally recognized standards of historical scholarship, I would roughly classify the literature into three categories: credible, garbage, and some mixture of the two. The really credible is the smallest category. For what is already known about Oswald’s conections with both the the CIA and the FBI, I would suggest John Newman, Oswald and the CIA; Newman is an ex army intelligence analyst. It is a bit of a slog; the material ( from previously released files) is voluminous and rather dry; the revelations are anything but.
What difference does it make now? You can’t drive a car staring in the rear view mirror. The larger question is what the phuck are we going to do now that two trust fund nazis have taken over? Wait til they destroy everything and then go into a civil war?
The difference would be finally understanding how a president was murdered, which – some find worthwhile. It is not like history has ever repeated itself and the more one knows the more to work with ensuring it never happens again.
I’d be fine with it happening…we no longer have a democracy since the ‘people’ pissed on all our dead veterans, and are fine with a fascist government. In fact, the only way out now, is if the cult leader drops dead…anyone who thinks we are going to have a real election in 2028 is smoking crack, or is investigating their colon with their head up their ass. If we’re fine with children starving at the hand of this nazi tyrant, then please tell me just what have we learned from history? We have learned nothing. Just ask the Europeans about their experiences with fascism. Ruin and rubble. Wake me when the shooting starts.
The assassination of JFK was the beginning of the decline of the United States. Some people don’t appreciate that history is the key to the present. The assassinations of the 1960s, the obviously suspicious coverups, and the associated wars, are probably the main reason why so many Americans have no confidence in the government. Different actors have manipulated and deliberately increased those suspicions over the years. Most people know they have been lied to for 60 years straight, they just don’t know who the liars were, why they lied, or what he truth is. As far as I can understand, the story is very complicated — the coverups even more than the assassinations.
The decline started with the genocide of the American Indians, the subsequent land grab, and the enslavement of 4 million black people. The institutional lying began at the same time. After herding the Indians to the various wastelands known as reservations…the government made and broke over 300 treaties, stealing everything that was of value. We maintained slavery for hundreds of years. Oh…we finally outlawed lynching in 2022. No…this cancer started long ago. Mass media depicted US as the good guys beating back the red savages. It depicted black folks as lazy, ignorant, amoral, and too simple-minded to be independent people. These racist roots go all the way to our founding fathers. No matter. The whirlwind is awaiting. Get ready for the reaping.
All that happened, but if that is where the decline started, there wouldn;t have been anything to decline from.
It was a long time ago, my time in college. I had a course where my thesis topic was a govt. commission and the Warren Commission and report was a natural topic. One of the best books I read on the subject was Inquest by Edward J. Epstein which took a deep dive into things. Not crazy conspiracy stuff but details on how the Commission went about its work and came to some of its key findings. His take on the whole “magic bullet” theory advanced by then staffer and later on Senator Alan Spector blew that whole theory and conclusion right out of the water. That ‘pristine bullet’ simply was a bullshit argument. But the commission needed it to be true and it was Spector’s job to find a way to justify it so he did – the best he could at least. I could write an entire article about that but it suffices to say that virtually unmarked bullet couldn’t have possible caused all the damage both to two human beings and the interior of the limo in which JFK and Gov. Connelly were riding. It was established a clean miss hit the street and some fragments caused injuies in the crowd. There’s that gruesome kill shot you can see on the Zapruder film. And the magic/pristine bullet that supposedly passed through JFK, changed direction (two axes) in mid air then slammed through the back of Connolly’s seat, through HIS chest (striking bone) then after exiting again did a mid-air direction change and smashed his wrist (again hitting bone) and the armrest. THAT is the “third bullet” of the three it was said Oswald fired from his sniper’s next on the sixth floor of the Book Depository. Sorry, but it doesn’t add up. There had to have been at least one other shot fired. That means the Warren Report was bullshit from the time it was released.
There’s also the matter of how Oswald was up in the corner of the sixth floor hidden behind a wall of boxes: How he scrambled out, ran to the stairs which were well away from the room and down four flights of stairs to the second floor break room and was calmly turning away from the soda pop machine with a bottle of Coca Cola he’d just purchased when a cop saw him about thirty seconds after the last shot. Calm. Not breathing hard. No one claiming he’d run into the break room. There’s also the issue of his piece of shit rifle (with bad sights) that was an Italian made piece of infantry junk that was unwieldy to operate. GREAT marksmen needed 2.3-2.4 seconds to work the bolt and sight in for their next shot. Granted, Oswald (or someone else) only had to work that bolt twice – one can assume the first round was chambered already BUT the sniper had to wait until the limo emerged from behind a tree to sight in for the first shot. There simply wasn’t enough time to fire three shots in the time it took from that hunk-a-junk rifle.
As for Oswald’s marksmanship we don’t need no stinking USSR intel on him being a lousy shot. Oswald was a true shitbird of a U.S. Marine and his lack of marksmanship was/is a matter of record. He had a reputation for getting “Maggies Drawers” (a small red signal flag from those in the pit working the targets on the rifle range – waving it meant a complete miss of the target!) during rifle range sessions. He was a lousy shot with a lousy weapon and is supposed to have hit a moving (albeit slowly) target with two out of three shots? Ok, maybe he beat the odds but I don’t buy it. Not this jarhead.
Interestingly I saw a documentary on TV a few years or so back that actually made sense. Back then the Secret Service was nothing like it would become. The guys on the Presidential detail would go out and get wasted even! Which happened the night before JFK was shot. He had some hung over guys, one of whom was armed with the then new M-16 in a trail car. Some of the autopsy notes, drawings and x-rays “disappeared” shortly after the autopsy but it’s said their was an x-ray that showed a shitload of bullet fragments in JFK, suggesting he’d been struck by a round from a trail car. IOW a hung-over Secret Service agent fumbling with his weapon accidentally squeezed off a round and hit JFK. I know from the film it screams that the kill shot came from the front left but hydrostatic shock from such a fast moving projective (from less than thirty yards away the bullet would have been traveling with virtually all it’s 3250 feet per second muzzle velocity) can cause a human body to react in weird ways. AND, hitting a skull the copper jacket would fragment and account for all those fragments that showed up on that x-ray.
From where I sit I can see why the govt. would want to cover up a (then) unprofessional Secret Service and a hung-over agent accidentally killing a sitting President. Whether it was Oswald himself or someone else (he might have taken part by helping a sniper who could actually shoot) we’ll never know. One thing that DID happen was the Secret Service underwent a major overhaul and became the gold standard. Until Baby Bush took them out of Treasury and into DHS – from where they have steadily declined a bit more each year.
I wouldn’t trust them anymore. I think pulling the protective details for Biden’s kids was appalling but it would have happened in a few more months anyway. You see, only TRUMP kids get protection for years after their daddy gets voted out! Of course “journalists” don’t want to point that out in a press conference.
Well, I’m tired and cranky and this is a sore subject so I’ll shut up. At least for now.
I got in trouble in the 5th grade for doing a book report on the Warren Commission’s findings, where I argued he wasn’t the lone assassin. Watching Jack Ruby shoot Oswald on tv convinced me, even then, something fishy was going on. My teacher would have made a great maga…she was in no mood for controversy so soon after JFK was killed. I should have seen trouble coming for me even then. Ha. Thanks for the details on the weaponry. Too bad I didn’t have your experience to keep me from getting an undeserved bad grade. Ha.The fight continues.
I was in 1st grade when JFK was shot and killed. I have lots of vivid memories of that day including of my own teacher that year who would I’m sure be MAGA if she’s still alive out there somewhere. She was the ONLY adult that day and in the days after that I encountered that clearly didn’t care what had taken place. Our Principal called teachers to the office multiple times when it happened to keep them informed. Her matter-of-fact, downright casual attitude in explaining what she’d learned during each visit remains with me still – six decades later. Granted, we were quite young and didn’t fully grasp the moment but we were all old enough to have some understanding of death and dying. It was after all a small midwestern town and even the girls knew about dads and brothers hunting and killing game. We’d also hear adults talking about people who’d died in car accidents, and there was even a murder that kept getting mention on the front page of the newspaper. Okay, so the full impact of a PRESIDENT getting shot and killed wasn’t something we “got”, at least not fully but in a place like where I grew up we’d hear adults talking about politics, JFK and his brother Bobby. Memories of the year before and the Cuban Missile Crisis were in us all. We didn’t understand why adults were so obviously filled with fear and dread during those fateful weeks but we knew something really big, and really awful was going on.
But Miss King came back to our classroom and casually said the President had been shot. And would probably die. Like I said, blunt and matter-of-fact. I recall another visit to the office and her coming back to tell us WHERE he’d been shot, pointing at the back of her head. Even kids of that age I was knew this was seriously bad! Yet to her it was clearly no BFD. After the official announcement was made and she came back from the office she simply said the President was dead. And directed us to open our textbooks to the next lesson she was going to teach. No, “We should take a moment to pray for his family and the country” or anything like that. Nope, it was he’s dead so let’s just ignore it and move on. THEN the Principal came on the intercom and formally told the school the news out of Dallas was confirmed, and that in about fifteen minutes school would be dismissed for the day. It was clearly a decision that had been in the works because when we got the message from him school was done buses were already showing up. Many, like me had homes/relatives within a few blocks of the school. Along with my two older sisters I went to my grandparents house which like my own was only a block away.
However, it was once I was in the hall my teacher’s reaction really hit home. She had no fucks to give. However every OTHER adult at school including the few male teachers, the principal and the janitors were crying. Not even trying to hide it. ALL the adults save Miss King were clearly shaken to their core. What stands out even more is my grandfather’s reaction. Yes, my P.O.S. KLAN grandfather who frequently erupted in outrage over a CATHOLIC being President. Even HE was shaken. And angry. Had JFK been out of office when he was assassinated grandad would have celebrated and said good riddance BUT Catholic or not he WAS the President and the thought that an AMERICAN President, even one he hated (and for such a stupid fucking reason) being shot filled him with rage and fear! That sticks with me all these decades later – even the most vile, evil despicable human being it’s ever been my misfortune to know (I will carry the shame of being a descendant of that man to my own grave) was upset about JFK being assassinated. But my 1st grade teacher couldn’t have cared less!
I was SO glad when that school year ended. The next fall I’d be at a different school in the “accellerated” class. Many of my friends from first grade were also part of that group. Having advanced classwork/curriculum for students was a new concept back then but we got great teachers who poured it on – much like in a prep school. Sixth grade was a bust but that’s a long story. Except for that particular year Ms. Keith was one of the outstanding teachers in my town. Both of my sisters had had her. Alas, just before school let out on the first day of class she was called to the office. She came back fighting tears to grab her things, told us her husband had suffered a heart attack and she was headed to the hospital and that someone would come in to be with us during the last few minutes of school. He died that afternoon and frankly she was in a fog for the whole year. In retrospect she SHOULD have taken a year’s leave of absence – she could have afforded it. But I remember little of that year. It was pretty much a lost year of education and came at a particularly bad time as it was one of those years of switching to “new math” and I’ve always wondered if that lost year didn’t negatively impact my ability in that area during subsequent years. My dad certainly didn’t understand why concepts that were second nature to him were things I had to really work at. But that’s a long, long story in and of itself.
your teacher would appear to have been a sociopath, at a minimum.
Was any of Oswald’s tax returns included? Despite many FOIA requests being made, none have ever been delivered. i think alot could be revealed by knowing who was paying him.