JFK assassination-related docs lift secrecy veil from CIA covert ops – Asia Times

These sources are available at&nbsp, website. nsarchive. With the consent of the National Security Archive, org&nbsp.

According to a Major Key memo on “CIA Reorganization,”” 47 percent of the social officers serving in United States embassies were CAS” on the day of President John F. Kennedy’s opening in January 1961, White House staffer Arthur Schlesinger Jr. reported that” 47 percent of the social officers serving in US embassies were CAS.”

123 “diplomats” at the U.S. Embassy in Paris were CIA undercover agents, and 11 of the 13 “political soldiers” at the U.S. Embassy in Chile were CIA undercover agencies.

According to President Kennedy, Schlesinger reported to the CIA that” the State Department ] has nearly as many people under official cover as the CIA does ] – 3900 to 3700.” ” About 1500 of those are under State Department cover,” according to the statement.” The another 2200 are probably under military or another non-State standard cover.” ( Document 1 )

The memo is included in a final discharge of information regarding the Kennedy death under the Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which includes the first-ever classified memo. On the evening of March 18 and in response to a policy from President Trump on January 23, the National Archives released 2, 182 information (63, 400 websites ) in two tranches. It was noted that more information would be made available as they were being digitalized.

In addition to the numerous CIA records, White House and NSC documents pertaining to covert operations conducted worldwide, particularly in Latin American countries like Cuba and Mexico, which are significant pieces of the Kennedy assassination’s history, are included in the new launch.

The majority of them were previously made public, but with significant edits to prevent the release of secret intelligence procedures and methods. These CIA secret businesses records are being made public for the first time without being disclosed.

Among the discoveries are files of:

A significant entry from the CIA’s well-known” Family Jewels” line, which details “examples of actions exceeding the CIA’s charter,” as well as “breaking and entering and the removal of records from the French consul,” and” John McCone’s relations with the Vatican, including Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI, which” was and increase eyelashes in some rooms,” ( Document 4 )
The names of CIA officers and others who helped with the plot are revealed in the CIA Inspector General’s report on the assassination of Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, in 1961. ( Document 6 )
A collection of DCI John McCone’s summary briefings to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board ( PFIAB) members include more information on well-known CIA political action programs and previously unreleased details about” the Agency’s covert financial support to political parties in the fight against communism” around the world. ( Document 2 )
One of the most in-depth observations of how the CIA runs its operations on the ground is provided by a CIA inspector general report on the operation of the CIA station in Mexico City. ( Document 3 )
A history of the CIA’s activities in the Western Hemisphere, including expenditures by CIA stations in Latin America, as well as details on how they paid and influenced Bolivia to influence the election of their choice, General René Barrientos. ( Document 5 )

More than any other declassification in the history of access to information, there is no denying that the JFK Records Act has improved public knowledge of CIA covert operations, including who they targeted, how they were conducted, and who conducted them, according to National Security Archive senior analyst Peter Kornbluh, who has spent decades studying CIA operations. These operational CIA files “would likely have stayed Top Secret for eternity” without this law and its continued application over the past 27 years.

page 6 comparison — Page comparison from the Mexico City station’s CIA history in 1964.

The JFK Records Act

Following a public outcry over Oliver Stone’s well-known conspiratorial film, &nbsp, JFK, Congress passed the 1992 JFK Act. The movie’s conclusion read,” Over five million pages of records on the assassination remained secret,” which features Kevin Costner as New Orleans District Attorney James Garrison, who mounted a failed, conspiracy-driven prosecution of a local businessman for killing Kennedy.

The Assassination Records Review Board ( ARRB ) noted in its&nbsp, final report that” the suspicions created by government secrecy eroded confidence in the truthfulness of federal agencies in general and damaged their credibility.

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 ( JFK Act ), which mandates the gathering and opening of all records related to the President’s death, was ultimately frustrated by the lack of access and disturbed by the conclusions of JFK, JFK, Congress passed.

The National Security Archive assisted in advising the five-member oversight board and its staff in developing a broad definition of an “assassination-related” document after the JFK Act was passed.

The ARRB mandated the full release of tens of thousands of documents, including those relating to FBI operations and the mafia, as well as to covert action and espionage operations in Cuba and Mexico, among other nations. The CIA and FBI’s operational histories have been the subject of numerous revelations to date from the documents.

CIA expenditures in Latin America by country for FY 1961. (See Document 5) — CIA expenditures by country for the AF 1961 in Latin America. ( See Doc 5 )

The Assassination Records Review Board members wrote in a letter to President Clinton in September 1998, in which they turned in their final report, that” the Review Board has worked hard to obtain all records relating to the assassination of President Kennedy and released the records as much as possible to the American people.”

” We have done this in the hopes that the release of these records will provide new evidence about the assassination of President Kennedy, advance our understanding of that tragic time in American history, and help regain public trust in the government’s handling of the assassination and its aftermath,” said the group.

This potent collection of fresh revelations is just beginning to be sorted out by the National Security Archive. Watch this space for more updates on CIA operations and much more.