Government's handling of JFK files says a lot to U.S. citizens

On Thursday, the U.S. government released thousands of more documents regarding the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of then President John F. Kennedy.

Since the time of the assassination, 54 years ago, the government has kept many of the assassination-related documents and files away from the public.

Twenty-five years ago, the U.S. Congress ordered that all of the assassination records be released to the public on Oct. 26, 2017 – that was Thursday.

Current President Donald Trump initially stated that he supported the full release of all of the assassination documents on Oct. 26.

When the day came, however, President Trump announced that some assassination documents held secretly by the government would continue to be held secretly at this time, at his order.

Over the weekend, Trump said all of the JFK files would be released with only names and addresses of living persons redacted.

News reports stated that the government’s CIA (Central Intelligience Agency) and FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) had convinced Trump to continue to keep some of the assassination records secret.

Why, after all this time, is the CIA and the FBI still so concerned about what’s in those assassination documents and files?

So much time has passed. Any real concern about how the government secretly monitored foreign governments at that time, for example, are now outdated and obsolete. Plus, all the foreign government leaders of that time are dead.

The stance of the CIA and the FBI today are still enough of a mystery to make today’s U.S. citizens skeptical of the government’s reasoning in 1963 and now.

For U.S. citizens who had already come of age in 1963, and viewed the actual TV reports and followed the full week of TV coverage of the assassination aftermath and presidential funeral, these new developments in the JFK assassination are probably more than enough evidence to them that JFK’s suspected killer – 24-year-old, former U.S. soldier, Lee Harvey Oswald, likely was not the only one who knew that the president would be shot that fateful day in Dallas.

The CIA and FBI – the public records show, I believe – knew all about Oswald and the man who killed him later – Jack Ruby – and the CIA and FBI took no action to stop Oswald – and probably others – from killing the president. That, in itself, defines conspiracy, or at least profound ineptness for which the CIA and FBI would be embarrassed.

Did Oswald act alone? Spent bullet casings found in the Texas Book Depository Building minutes after the shooting reportedly were not consistent with the exploding type of bullet that struck JFK in the head that day.

Another lesser-circulated JFK shooting theory is that a hung-over Secret Service agent, traveling in the motorcade in a convertible directly behind the president’s car that day in Dallas, accidentally shot the president in the back of the head after the Secret Service agent heard other shots and pulled out a shutgun from under his carseat. The Secret Service agent’s shotgun reportedly was loaded with the exploding type of bullet consistent with the one that killed the president.