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(NewsNation) — The remaining classified files on the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy were released Tuesday evening on the National Archives website.
It, however, remains unclear which documents are new and which ones have been released unredacted.
The long-awaited release has so far yielded little new information. Despite hopes that the files might contain groundbreaking details, early reviews suggest much of the material has been previously available in some form.
President Donald Trump said Friday that individuals will be able to make their own “determination” as to who killed JFK.
“I don’t think there’s anything that’s earth-shattering,” said Trump. “But you’ll have to make that determination.”
So far, there hasn’t been any “smoking gun” that would validate decades-old conspiracies about the assassination.
The biggest takeaway from the new JFK files? The CIA ‘failures’: Coulthart
The latest release of formerly classified files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are mostly, according to investigative journalist Ross Coulthart, a “nothingburger,” but he believes it’s likely there isn’t anything the government can do to dispel conspiracy theories related to the case.
“Frankly, I do think there are arguments that are worthy of investigation, that there should be a broader investigation into claims that there were multiple shooters and the unanswered questions surrounding the forensics in the Warren Commission that have only recently come to light,” said Coulthart.
The long-awaited file release has so far yielded little new information. Despite hopes that the files might contain groundbreaking details, early reviews suggest much of the material has been previously available in some form.
Coulthart believes it is unlikely that any revelation about the killing of a president would be found written in a government document, let alone allowed in the National Archives.
“It is a bit naive of us to expect to think that there might have been something in those files suggesting some kind of CIA conspiracy,” he said. “Why would they put it in writing?”
Coulthart, however, believes President Donald Trump’s decision to release the remaining files shows a degree of transparency not seen in previous administrations.
“That truly is an extraordinary achievement and a great moment in accountability and transparency,” he said.
What Coulthart believes is most evident in the files? The CIA’s “failures.”
“The history of the CIA, sadly, is one of an intelligence agency that has, frankly, missed so much.”
Abraham Zapruder’s verbal account of JFK death is preserved, too
Abraham Zapruder, the Dallas businessman who filmed the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was private and reluctant to talk about what he had experienced.
But he did speak to radio journalist Marvin Scott, who says it took a lot of cajoling and a charm offensive. The interview took place in 1966, three years after the president’s murder and four years before Zapruder’s own death.
Scott donated the original tape of the interview to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, which commemorates the event that changed the world.
On tape, Zapruder described seeing Kennedy’s open car coming into view.
“Jacqueline and the president are waving,” Zapruder said, referring to Kennedy’s wife, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. “As he came in line with my camera, I heard a shot. I saw the president lean over to Jacqueline. Then the second shot came. And then I realized I saw his head open up, and I started yelling, ‘They killed him. They killed him.’ And I continued shooting until he went under the underpass.”
Zapruder said he never forgot what he saw.
“It’s left in my mind like a wound that heals up, but yet there’s a pain left,” he told Scott.
The photographer expressed doubt about theories of a second gunman hiding behind a fence. Zapruder said he would have heard shots coming from the location, which was about 30 feet behind him.
The 26 seconds of footage that comprise Zapruder’s record of the Kennedy assassination was tightly controlled for years. “Life” magazine initially purchased the film and published still images in black and white.
The shaky film is ubiquitous today, but it didn’t appear on national television until 1975 through the efforts of investigative journalist Geraldo Rivera. Rivera, a correspondent-at-large for NewsNation, at the time hosted an ABC show called “Good Night, America.”
He said he tracked down a copy of the footage, which he called “astounding,” and had to reassure his bosses that he would take legal responsibility for airing the copyrighted material.
“I ultimately had to sign a document with ABC, my network, wherein I accepted personal responsibility for the onetime-only airing of the Zapruder film,” Rivera said. “And we put it on, and it launched an industry.”
JFK files: Who is David Lamar Christ?
The newly declassified documents from the John F. Kennedy assassination files have shed light on David Lamar Christ, an American intelligence operative imprisoned in Cuba during the 1960s whose case raised significant national security concerns.
According to the files, Christ was involved in “Operation Palladium,” a covert American program designed to spoof unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) in Soviet airspace. The operation aimed to create false radar readings that would lead Soviet defense systems to dismiss actual threats as phantom readings in the event of a genuine American strike.
Former Australian intelligence official Geoff Cruickshank, who analyzed the recently released documents, confirmed that the declassified National Security Council notes reveal U.S. authorities were actively planning to break Christ out of Cuban captivity.
American officials were concerned that under torture or interrogation, Christ might reveal sensitive details about Operation Palladium to the Soviets.
“They were trying to break him out,” Cruickshank told NewsNation.
The documents suggest a possible connection between Christ’s imprisonment and the Bay of Pigs invasion, with Cruickshank noting that “a lot of people have thought that maybe the Bay of Pigs was actually a cover for the jailbreak.”
Cuban authorities apparently anticipated such a rescue attempt.
According to Cruickshank, they had “lined the Isle of Pines prison with explosives” to prevent a jailbreak, prepared to “blow it up and kill Christ and everyone with him,” if necessary.
The newly declassified files also indicate that Kennedy had concerns about anomalous objects detected during American thermonuclear weapons tests in the Pacific. Kennedy reportedly worried these phenomena might be misinterpreted by the Soviets as signs of an impending American attack.
Cruickshank said he believes now is the “perfect time” for the CIA to be fully transparent, otherwise it could be a “slow-moving trainwreck for them for months.”
