Declassified JFK docs could reveal Oswald’s motive, expert says
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — More than six decades later, all of the records in the John F. Kennedy assassination are set to be released after years of public intrigue.
President Trump signed an executive order demanding they be released along with the assassination records of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
So, what can we expect to see in these documents?
Decades ago, Nov. 22, 1963, began with jubilation.
As the motorcade drove through the streets of Dallas, a radio report said, “The President’s car is now turning off Elm Street, and it will be only a matter of minutes before he arrives.”
That quickly turned into one of the darkest days in American history.
“It appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route! Something, I repeat, has happened on the motorcade route,” the radio report said.
Shortly after, Water Cronkite delivered the tragic news on air. President Kennedy had died.
Now, President Trump ordered the final documents in the JFK assassination file to be declassified, which should reveal the final chapter in what many feel has been a decades-long mystery.
“The optic is they’re hiding the secrets about who killed Kennedy, so those files should have been out years ago,” said Gerald Posner.
Posner is a longtime investigative journalist and author of the 1993 book “Case Closed” about JFK’s death.
The Warren Commission concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter and fired three shots from the sixth story of the Texas school book depository.
“I am hoping we’ll learn more about what the CIA might have known about Oswald’s visit to Mexico City six weeks before the assassination,” said Posner.
Posner said Oswald wanted to get to Cuba but was rejected by the Soviet and Cuban missions.
“If they did know more about how unhinged he was, why didn’t they tell the FBI when Oswald came back into the United States? So that would be a major embarrassment for the agency,” Posner said.
The Warren Commission also found the single bullet theory was true - one bullet that hit JFK in the neck was the same bullet that hit the Texas governor in the passenger seat.
Despite their weak proof, Posner believes the single bullet is correct based on modern ballistics expertise- though opinions vary on the science.
“The tougher part of the question always is, if I’m right and it’s Oswald doing the shooting, does he do it for himself, or is he part of a plot?” he said.
Posner said national and international circumstances happening at the time have fueled the theories.
“The mob hated the Kennedys because Bobby Kennedy, as attorney general, was going out and trying to bust them up. [Fidel] Castro knew that the Kennedys were involved with the CIA and unleashed the CIA and Mafia to try and kill him, so the question is, whether he tried to kill Kennedy first? The Russians had been humiliated at the Cuban Missile standoff with the Kennedys. They hated him,” Posner said.
Now, it’s a weeks-long wait to find out if any of those discussions were had after the president’s death.
“Where’s the evidence to connect Oswald to any of those plotters? I believe there could have been plots around the table, but I just don’t believe Oswald was part of them,” Posner said.
So, when will we see all these declassified documents?
President Trump has ordered national intelligence officials to present a plan in two weeks for the full and complete release of the JFK records.
They have 45 days to develop a plan for MLK Jr. and RFK.
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