President Trump indicates that he is likely to release the last JFK assassination files.

Marker outside of the birthplace of John F. Kennedy. Reuters. 

President Trump indicates that he is likely to release the last files concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Reuters. The long classified files are scheduled to be released next week but many news outlets said that Trump was not going to authorize their release. The JFK assassination remains mired in conspiracy theories despite the official story being that Lee Harvey Oswald committed the crime and acted alone. Intelligence agencies have argued for withholding these files with the justification that they may endanger intelligence operations and practices. The files are not expected to have any bombshells but may shed light on Oswald's travels in Cuba and Russia. 

Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2017

My Comment:
Once again the mainstream media got the story wrong. Politico had written an article saying that Trump was not going to release the documents less than a day before Trump tweeted that he was indeed going to release them, subject to review. One wonders if Politico was just making things up or if they were led on a wild goose chase but either way they got this story wrong. It now seems very likely that Trump will release these documents, barring a major change of course.

What is going to be in them? Good question. The Reuters report speculates that these documents have information about Oswald's travels to Russia and Cuba. Oswald was a defector to both countries but returned. He was also a dedicated communist and certainly had contacts with both governments. That information is publicly known but there could still be some details we are missing.

Is it possible that there is some kind of bombshell here? I think there is. I have always considered it a possibility that Oswald was in fact an agent of the Russians or Cubans. That doesn't mean they ordered the attack, but if it had been revealed in the 1960's that Oswald was a spy it could have resulted in a world war. It's very possible that a deal was reached with the foreign governments after our government determined that he wasn't acting on orders. There is also a slim possibility that he was acting on orders and if that is true that will rewrite history. 

I don't know how much I buy the intelligence agencies argument that sources and techniques could be compromises. Most of the people involved in the intelligence game from the 1960's are either dead or long retired and our intel gathering has grown enough that many of our old techniques are out of date. My guess is that there is probably some embarrassment for these agencies in these files. That and the obvious inertia there is for intel agencies to release anything if they don't have to.

Still, I don't think there will be much here. I am convinced that if there was something earthshaking left to learn about the JFK assassination we would have learned it by now. Someone would have leaked something and it would have happened decades ago. I think people would be wise to seriously temper their expectations about what these documents will reveal. It's not likely that there is going to be a smoking gun.

I have never been convinced with the traditional JFK assassination theories. I think most of them are stupid and even the more thought out ones are fairly far fetched. Indeed, the only one I give any credence at all to is the "Oswald was a Russian and/or Cuban spy" theory that I mentioned above. And that is one of the more unpopular ones.

It's my sincere belief that Oswald acted alone and he did so because he was a devoted communist that wanted to kill that anti-communist John F Kennedy. I doubt he had any help and I doubt he did so under orders. There was no second shooter and there was no further conspiracy. Barring some absolutely unprecedented info released in these documents I don't see my views changing anytime soon.

I also don't think that anyone else's minds will be changed either. People believe what they want to believe about the JFK assassination. New evidence, even if it supports a conspiracy angle, will not convince them that their pet theory is wrong no matter how strong it is. Everyone who lived through it made up their minds long ago and the new generations were born into the conspiracy theories.

Of course this whole post could be moot. Trump still has time to backpedal. He may well decide that he doesn't want to release these documents after all or could release them with so many redaction that they are completely useless. Doing so would probably be a political mistake because I think people will be really excited about this, but I think it is possible. I won't speculate on why he would tweet this out and change his mind as it would seem to be very out of character for him. My only guess is that it could be used as leverage against his enemies, but even that seems a bit "tinfoil hat" for me.

My guess is that these documents will come out and nothing much will come of them. The might shed some new light on things but they will do nothing to stop the conspiracy theories. In the end I think people will never give up on the "Who killed JFK?" question...