Release of JFK Assassination Documents

[Chance]

Since it's about to be public knowledge, I might as well come clean now: I was the second gunman on the grassy knoll.

There, I said it. I feel better.

From USA Today (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/26/john-f-kennedy-assassination-archives-release-secret-jfk-files/798788001/):


The National Archives on Thursday is expected to release a final batch of records related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, completing a long process that has enthralled researchers and conspiracy theorists for a quarter-century.

The once-classified records will be released pursuant to the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

That law, passed in the wake of Oliver Stone's conspiracy-minded film JFK, required the release of all records of the assassination investigation by the 25th anniversary of the bill's signing — Oct. 26, 2017.

"According to the act, all records previously withheld either in part or in full should be released on October 26, 2017, unless authorized for further withholding by the president of the United States."

....

Previous releases have not altered the government's initial conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he shot Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Historians anticipate that many of the records will deal with Oswald's activities in Mexico City, where he traveled two months before the assassination.

According to the 1992 law, all documents released this week will be completely uncensored.

Gerald Posner, author of the 1993 book Case Closed, which supported the conclusion that Oswald was the sole killer, said the Mexico City documents could be embarrassing for people who will be identified as informants for the U.S. government during the 1960s and later.

The archives have already released a large batch of documents in July, which included various reports by the FBI and CIA that identified some of their informants. A Jan. 30, 1964, FBI memo by longtime bureau intelligence chief William Sullivan explored allegations that Oswald was an FBI informant.

Hopefully, something included therein will be worth the wait.

[GCBHM]

Doubtful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[blues]

Doubtful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As one sent home from my 6th grade classroom that fateful day, I would personally appreciate any additional (useful and truthful) data which might come to light.

[GCBHM]

As one sent home from my 6th grade classroom that fateful day, I would personally appreciate any additional (useful and truthful) data which might come to light.

So would any red blooded American, but do you honestly believe the political class machine is ever going to allow that?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[blues]

So would any red blooded American, but do you honestly believe the political class machine is ever going to allow that?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've lived too long and worked for the government too long not to be cynical. That said, there's always the possibility (I suppose)...

[GCBHM]

One can hope.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Peally]

I predict a "meh, OK, that's nice" document and I won't be wrong.

[holmes168]

im sure this will be a treasure trove. I mean all the government files were turned in and kept right?

[Drang]

completing a long process that has enthralled researchers and conspiracy theorists for a quarter-century.Insert joke about J-School and math skills here.

[SAWBONES]

I'm doubtful.

I remember making the announcement about the assassination to my 8th grade homeroom class in November '63 after having inadvertently heard the news bulletin on the radio. (Nobody initially believed me, of course.)

We were certainly very trusting and naive about any and all government proclamations and reports of the results of government-sponsored "investigations" (Warren report) back then.

[Hambo]

Since it's about to be public knowledge, I might as well come clean now: I was the second gunman on the grassy knoll.

Don't believe it. We've seen how you shoot. ;)

Seriously, the conspiracies rely on making the shots from the repository seem harder than they were.

[Chance]

So Trump ordered the release of most of the files, but still kept a few sealed due to "national security" reasons. I'm having a hard time imagining the impact a 50 year old investigation could have on present national security.

ETA: here's a summary (https://www.dallasnews.com/jfk/jfk/2017/10/26/jfk-files-khrushchev-thought-dallas-police-killed-kennedy-cias-castro-plots-rfk-marilyn-monroe-affair) of some of the contents of the released files.

[RJ]

Not an expert, just a kid that watched the funeral of JFK as a 4 year old. It’s one of my earliest memories.

We toured the School Book Depository Museum this summer. It’s really well done and very informative.

[Drang]

So Trump ordered the release of most of the files, but still kept a few sealed due to "national security" reasons. I'm having a hard time imagining the impact a 50 year old investigation could have on present national security.
Some of the documents date from the 90s.

[holmes168]

I wonder how many people believe that it was Lee Harvey Oswald or a bigger conspiracy? For my money- I'd guess more along the lines of CIA/Mafia.

We went to the spot JFK got shot a couple years ago. Nobody in the family thinks the single shooter theory is any good.

[BN]

Didn't Rich Davis recreate the Kennedy shooting as one of the competitions at Second Chance several years ago? As I remember it very few could make the shots. As I remember it, Jeff Chudwin, a left handed shooter could make the shots. Wasn't Lee Harvey Oswald a lefty? I think Mas wrote it up at the time.

[Screwball]

In regards to Oswald doing it, I really didn’t have an opinion until I got a pretty much copy of his rifle...

https://i.imgur.com/BegbC73.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/E9LI0MD.jpg

The final shot on Kennedy was at a distance of 81 meters... about 88.6 yards. While it seems like a hard shot on a moving target with a crappy scope, the one thing having a reproduction in my hands showed me was that it probably wasn’t as hard as it was made out to be (and if the scope was damaged prior to the rifle being taken into evidence, it doesn’t matter).

https://i.imgur.com/VEQq2kx.jpg

Oswald was familiar with iron sights from his time in the Marines (his shooting records are from him with a M1 Garand). Also, ammo wouldn’t have the accuracy issues we face today with different bullet diameters than what the Carcano was built around (the rounds Oswald had were Western Cartridge Company, which were surplus, made for Greece as military aid during their civil war). Also, being a pretty flat shooting round, you have a good rifle for shooting a target moving away from you.

I personally feel that Oswald did it, and likely by himself. I feel he tried to get out of the US, and those contacts are what people feel fueled a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Oswald was a loser, who killed one of the most powerful people in the world... doesn’t add up for some people. For such a great figure, you want something as large or as evilly perpetrated to result in his death.

[RJ]

Some of you guys are experienced with rifles.

Can you explain how the back of JFKs head was blown onto the rear of the Limo such that Jackie climbed back to get it, if the shot came from six stories up and behind out of the sixth floor window?

I’ve been to Dealy Plaza and stood on the knoll, looking down the road to the ‘X’ on the pavement. It’s a straight shot.

[TheNewbie]

I think a lot of people want to believe conspiracies because it makes them feel good. Otherwise it means that individual humans are capable of great evil and this scares people.

[Peally]

I think a lot of people want to believe conspiracies because it makes them feel good.

And they're usually grasping at straws. Makes my eyes roll every time.

[Irelander]

Some of you guys are experienced with rifles.

Can you explain how the back of JFKs head was blown onto the rear of the Limo such that Jackie climbed back to get it, if the shot came from six stories up and behind out of the sixth floor window?

Not trying to derail, but I thought this same thing about the recent Vegas shooting. Some of the gun shot wounds did not look like they came from a high angle.

[TiroFijo]

Not trying to derail, but I thought this same thing about the recent Vegas shooting. Some of the gun shot wounds did not look like they came from a high angle.

The Vegas shooter only had about a 17º to 13º vertical angle. That's not too much, and you also have to consider that the people there were crouching, sittting with the head down, laying flat on the ground, etc., all sorts of funky body positions to present all kind of angles to the incoming fire.

[Poconnor]

Anybody read the book that says a secret service agent shot him after Oswald hit him first? I have it somewhere.

[PNWTO]

The stuff about Operation Northwoods is always a solemn reminder of how low we were prepared to go. (http://miami.cbslocal.com/2017/10/27/jfk-files-cia-plotted-kill-castro-stage-bombings-miami/)

Summary from Reddit:


IIRC, Operation Northwoods was focused on a few main aims:

Assassination of Cuban officials.

Staged terrorist attacks in major US cities, Miami in particular.

Deliberate sinking of Cuban refugee boats.

Hijacking airplanes, disembarking passengers, and placing the hijacked plane under drone control.

All done in the name of Cuban Communists against US civilian and US military targets. The plan was shot down by JFK.

From Wikipedia:
At the time of the proposal, communists led by Fidel Castro had recently taken power in Cuba. The operation proposed creating public support for a war against Cuba by blaming it for terrorist acts that would actually be perpetrated by the U.S. Government.[4] To this end, Operation Northwoods proposals recommended hijackings and bombings followed by the introduction of phony evidence that would implicate the Cuban government. It stated:
The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere.
Several other proposals were included within Operation Northwoods, including real or simulated actions against various U.S. military and civilian targets. The operation recommended developing a "Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington".

[TGS]

Not trying to derail, but I thought this same thing about the recent Vegas shooting. Some of the gun shot wounds did not look like they came from a high angle.

And how did you make that assessment?

[TGS]

Some of you guys are experienced with rifles.

Can you explain how the back of JFKs head was blown onto the rear of the Limo such that Jackie climbed back to get it, if the shot came from six stories up and behind out of the sixth floor window?

I’ve been to Dealy Plaza and stood on the knoll, looking down the road to the ‘X’ on the pavement. It’s a straight shot.

The head is a pretty explode-y target. Depending on the angle and the bullet's line of travel, and some other variables, you can totally have someone's grape pop with an angle back towards the seat back. Nothing conspiracy worthy.

[RevolverRob]

One doesn't grow up in Dallas - without an understanding and interest in the JFK Assassination.

Random factoids from my family history/life.

At the time of the assassination, my 18-year old father worked as a valet at the Adolphus Hotel. It was in the Adolphus that Jack Ruby had his nightclub. There were a lot of gangsters and cops coming in and out of the Adolphus and specifically Jack Ruby's nightclub in that era. My dad distinctly remembers a big event held about 3-days before the assassination, that included a number of mobsters and the nightclub was closed.

New documents suggest that the FBI warned Dallas PD that there was a group intending to kill Oswald, and it's always been a mystery how Ruby got into the parking garage armed with a gun.

In the basement of the building at 2030 Main Street in downtown Dallas, which is immediately next to the Police station where Oswald was shot, is a false plaster wall, directly under the sidewalk on the west side of the building, facing the police station. I know this to be true, because my family's construction business did HVAC service on that building for 20-years and I've been in the basement and discovered the false wall myself. The plaster wall, covers a cinderblock wall, that post-dates the construction of the building (building is brick).

It has always been my theory that Oswald was a patsy and was paid/setup by the mob to kill Kennedy, to try to send a message to RFK.

Apparently, some of the new documents also suggest that LBJ was a believer in the conspiracy theory. Though he seemed to think JFK was killed in retaliation for the South Vietnamese presidential coup. Which reminds me - after reviewing the literature on that particular coup and the complicit nature of the JFK administration to it - it reinforces how BAD a foreign policy president JFK really was.

[Bigghoss]

From what I understand, JFK was looking and waving out the right side of the limo. So even though Oswald was more-or-less behind him, the bullets would have struck his head more from the right side than from the rear. Which may account for what some see as discrepancies between angle of attack and injuries. Also, if you've ever seen high-speed footage of fruit getting shot you'll see that a lot of material is ejected out of the entrance would which causes some to mistake it for an exit wound. And I don't really understand all the physics at work but I have seen melons and such shot move toward the direction the bullet was fired from, which is counter intuitive.

All of this makes me think that Oswald was the only shooter and he likely acted alone. It doesn't make any sense but why would a crazy person make sense? Why would a retired millionaire open fire on a concert and murder a bunch of people? It doesn't make sense, but it happens. I could be wrong. Shady things happen all the time, both within and outside our government so Oswald could be a fall guy. He could have been coerced into doing it and had help. He could have been totally framed for all I know. But I'm not seeing it.

[fixer]

looks like surgeon general thought there were two shooters.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2017/10/26/20171027_jfkpara3.jpg

[blues]

looks like surgeon general thought there were two shooters.

Where was Ted Cruz' father that day?

Seriously though, I don't doubt that for every piece of "evidence" supporting one position, there's going to be at least one that contradicts it. It will be very interesting to see where things end up in the final analysis...depending upon the depth of the released documents.

[Darth_Uno]

Truth is (most likely anyway) that Oswald was the only shooter. I think the big mystery is whether he did it all on his own, or was acting on behalf of someone else.

Or in a culmination of astronomically slim odds, Oswald, the CIA, and the Russians all acted independently and happened to fire at the same time. Chew on that one.

[Wondering Beard]

Though he seemed to think JFK was killed in retaliation for the South Vietnamese presidential coup.


Charles McCarry' novel, Tears of Autumn, is all about that theory and it's a great read. (https://www.amazon.com/Tears-Autumn-Christopher-Novel-Novels-ebook/dp/B013JQMCDY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509205593&sr=8-1&keywords=charles+mccarry)

[4gallonbucket]

So it looks like Trump is having the rest of JFK docs released with names/addresses of still living people redacted. Tweeted last night.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171030/a678f2f6513b7bc7fa647e1fb6c06c73.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Irelander]

And how did you make that assessment?

An interview I saw with a nurse who was shot in the stomach. The way she described it sounded like she was shot straight on. But just assumed she was running away and not bent over or laying on the ground. I guess the angle wasn't super high anyway.