INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Donald Trump vowed last year to release all the long-secret files related to the JFK assassination, the administration announced Thursday
that some documents will remain redacted until October 2021 for national security reasons.In a White House memo, Trump said that the
nation's intelligence community persuaded him to keep some parts of documents secret because their exposure could harm "identifiable
national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns."Trump gave the CIA, FBI and other agencies a deadline of April 26 to
release documents related to the investigation into President John F
Kennedy's assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov
Last year Trump, who once suggested Sen
Ted Cruz's father played a role in the assassination, promised he was going to release the entirety of the 5 million pages of records, most
of which have been available since the late 1990s."Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long
blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened," Trump tweeted on Oct
21, 2017.Six days later, he promised: "After strict consultation with General Kelly, the CIA and other Agencies, I will be releasing ALL JFK
files other than the names and addresses of any mentioned person who is still living."The president did authorize the disclosure of 19,045
documents that are available on the National Archives website
Of that batch, more than 15,000 documents - which had been released previously with varying degrees of redactions - still have blanked-out
sections, according to a National Security Council spokesman
In most of those cases, the redactions are now fewer
The spokesman also said no more documents are being withheld in full under the section that falls within the public disclosure rules under
the Kennedy Act.Trump said the next deadline for release of more documents would be Oct
"The need for continued protection can only grow weaker with the passage of time
.," Trump wrote.Jefferson Morley, a former Washington Post staff writer who edits JFKFacts.org, a website devoted to the Kennedy records,
said in an interview that he was disappointed by Trump's decision to delay the full release for another three years and, possibly,
beyond."Trump said that all the JFK files will be released, but the truth is that thousands of JFK files are still secret
The clear intent of Congress was to have these released last October and now we're talking about 2021," Morley said
"The point is that the CIA wants to keep this secret forever
It's a very clear statement of intent."Morley also said that the Trump administration is not complying with the stipulations of the Kennedy
Records Act, which requires that the administration provide declassified explanations for withheld documents.On October 26, 1992, President
Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act
The law required that all the assassination records "shall be publicly disclosed in full and available" at the National Archives "no later
than the date that is 25 years after the date of the enactment of this act." But the law did allow for postponements if the government was
worried that harm to the military and intelligence communities "outweighs the public interest in disclosure."Morley, who has been fighting
the CIA in federal court for the last 15 years to obtain other Kennedy records, said he was quickly going through the 19,000 files that were
released Thursday and came across redactions that made little sense to him
One document was an FBI report detailing an agent's interview of Oswald's brother Robert and mother Marguerite in April 1960
The July 1961 document refers to four confidential informants - code-named T-1, T-2, T-3, and T-4 - but their names are blacked out."This is
a 57-year-old document," Morley said
"And the names are still being withheld
Why"Another document is a House Select Committee on Assassinations interview of Boris and Ann Tarasoff, two former contract employees with
the CIA at the agency's Mexico City station in the run-up to Kennedy's assassination
The transcript's exchanges are mostly all there, except that Morley noticed one paragraph whited-out for reasons he could not ascertain."In
a separate interview with Mr
Tarasoff on November 30, 1976, I learned that the photographic expert on station in Mexico City in 1963 September to November was Bob
Zambernardi's -"And then the paragraph is whited out until it continues again here:"Zambernardi was probably the man in charge of
photographing the activities of both the Cuban and Soviet embassies in 1963."At the same time, Morley did give credit to the government for
taking documents that were once heavily redacted and lifting their veils
"There is some progress," he said
"Some significant material has been released today, but other significant redactions remain."Rex Bradford, president of the Mary Ferrell
Foundation, which tracks the JFK files, said he wasn't sure yet what had been withheld and needed to spend time scrutinizing the latest
release of documents to see whether they contain a large or small amount of redactions
He said he did a quick "spot-check" and was surprised to see fewer whited-out sections than in previous releases."I checked a few dozen
files, and there were certainly many with redactions, but they tended to be names and short phrases," Bradford said.(This story has not been
