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posted by martyb on Thursday October 26 2017, @05:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the for-the-record dept.

Update: 2,800 documents will be released tonight, others may be released on April 26, 2018.

Update 2: Documents have been released.

Update 3: Check this live feed: JFK files: government releases classified assassination documents – live

John F. Kennedy, often better known as JFK, was the United States of America's 35th President. He was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

The deadline for the release of redacted and withheld records from the JFK Assassination Records Collection is today. Of the approximately 5 million pages in the collection, about 11% are redacted and 1% are withheld in full:

According to the [JFK Assassination Records Collection Act], all [JFK assassination-related] 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. The 2017 date derives directly from the law that states:

Each assassination record shall be publicly disclosed in full, and available in the Collection no later than the date that is 25 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, unless the President certifies, as required by this Act, that –

(i) continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement or conduct of foreign relations; and

(ii) the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

The Act was signed by President Bush on October 26, 1992, thus the final release date is October 26, 2017.

Some records related to grand jury information and tax return information will remain withheld, as specified in Sections 10 and 11 of the Collection Act.

Although the current President of the United States could authorize the non-disclosure of any documents in the collection, that action appears unlikely:

Few seem as excited about the release of the final batch of secret documents from the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy as the current occupant of the Oval Office. "The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow," President Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. "So interesting!"

Surely, then, it was just a coincidence that Mr. Trump posted that message while on Air Force One heading to, of all places, Dallas. Or was it? Fifty-three years and 11 months after the event that gave rise to a thousand conspiracy theories, the president even landed at Dallas Love Field Airport, where Kennedy's body was brought for the final flight home, and his motorcade came within a few miles of Dealey Plaza, where the fateful shots rang out.

[...] "Of all the presidents since 1963, this is the one who would mind the least if the release of these documents damaged the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., two organizations that he's very angry at at the moment," said Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian.


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:29PM (2 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:29PM (#587960) Journal

    What does JFK have to do with military defense plans ~50 years later,..,.

    In a shocking new twist it turns out Vietnam was actually a bad idea!

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  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:26PM (1 child)

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:26PM (#587998)

    Also, we still haven't reinstalled the Batista government in Cuba!

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:33PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:33PM (#588006)

      We'll get to that right after we apologize for the whole Shah mess. Promise!