Courtesy of Bill Simpich:

January 23, 2025

Cohen is a Democrat, Schweikert and Burchett are Republicans.   These Congressmen have been in contact with many JFK researchers, and this ten point plan shows that there has been good communications among many people with differing political views.

Note that this letter calls for a new search by all agencies to conduct a new search that will immediately turn over all documents “pertaining to the assassination”, as well as an independent oversight board to ensure that it gets done, as well as immediate digitizing of all JFK documents in the hands of the Archives.

To circulate the letter, here it is:  https://cohen.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/cohen.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/JFK Docs Release LTR 1-23-25.pdf

If we can get more Congresspeople and other elected officials and members of the public to sign on to this letter or offer their support to the ten points in this letter, it will make a real difference in the days ahead.   

The plan for the release of JFK records is scheduled to be revealed on Friday, February 7.   This is the best plan out there.

RELATED:

Federal judge who examined JFK files previews what to expect

Judge John Tunheim chaired the JFK Assassination Records Review Board

FARGO (KVRR) – A federal judge in Minneapolis who oversaw the collection of government documents on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is pointing out what to look for when the records are finally unveiled.

U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim was chairman of the JFK Assassination Records Review Board. The panel examined every government file related to the assassination—including those that still remain sealed from the public.

On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order for the government to declassify all documents related to the assassination.

“There is a big category of records I would like to see and the public should see,” Tunheim said in an interview with KVRR Local News.  “Those are the KGB surveillance records on Lee Harvey Oswald for the time he lived in the Soviet Union. This is a remarkable cache of records.”

“I think there are records bearing on our relationships with foreign governments at the time that were considered way too sensitive to release. We protected some of that information, I think we will see some of that.”

Tunheim says unfortunately, some information will never be recovered, including records connected to Oswald’s visit to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination took place.

“Those records were taken over by counterintelligence two or three weeks into the investigation. Most of that has not been located. So I have no doubt that records like that…the Secret Service had destroyed some records, we know about that.”

Tunheim says several of the records remain in the custody of the Russian government and says perhaps Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin can be beneficial. “I think this would be a real treasure trove for investigators,” he said.

Tunheim says he’s still somewhat concerned that the U.S. intelligence community may try to pressure Trump into withholding some documents like they did in 2017, but remains hopeful that everything will finally be released.

Courtesy of The Kennedy Beacon

A day after President Trump signed an executive order to declassify records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has weighed in on X, on an issue close to his heart.

“JFK warned that ‘The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society’”; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secrecy,” wrote Kennedy. “We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has been outspoken about his desire for assassination records to be released to the public. In 2021, for example, he along with his cousin, Patrick Kennedy, expressed deep disappointment when former president Biden postponed the release of documents related to the JFK assassination.

At the time, Kennedy told Politico: “It’s an outrage against American democracy. We’re not supposed to have secret governments within the government.” He continued, “How the hell is it 58 years later, and what in the world could justify not releasing these documents?”

In addition to postponing the declassification of JFK documents in 2021, the Biden administration continued to block their release in 2022 and 2023 as well.

In his post today, Kennedy echoed his earlier sentiments, writing:

The 60-year strategy of lies and secrecy, disinformation, censorship, and defamation employed by Intel officials to obscure and suppress troubling facts about JFK’s assassination has provided the playbook for a series of subsequent crises — the MLK and RFK assassinations, Vietnam, 9/11, the Iraq war and COVID — that have each accelerated the subversion of our exemplary democracy by the Military/Medical Industrial Complex and pushed us further down the road toward totalitarianism.

Kennedy continued, “A government that withholds information is inherently fearful of its citizens’ ability to make informed decisions and participate actively in democracy.”

Trump’s January 23 executive order stated, in part:

The Executive Order establishes the policy that, more than 50 years after these assassinations, the victims’ families and the American people deserve the truth. Specifically, the Order directs the Director of National Intelligence and other appropriate officials to: (1) Present a plan within 15 days for the full and complete release of all John F. Kennedy assassination records; and (2) Immediately review the records relating to the Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations and present a plan for their full and complete release within 45 days.

As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. prepares for his hearing before the Senate Finance Committee next week, he closed his X post by thanking President Trump “for trusting American citizens and for taking the first step down the road towards reversing this disastrous trajectory.”

RELATED: President Trump’s Executive Order dated 23 January, 2025 and Statement by AARC president, Dan Alcorn

AARC welcomes the action of President Trump to attempt to bring about full disclosure in the assassinations of President Kennedy, his brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. AARC and the research community stand ready to assist this process by pointing to information that may lead to fuller disclosure, and suggestions on how the process may be conducted. The new government disclosure process must do more than examine records that have previously been examined.

Here is President Trump’s Executive Order dated 23 January, 2025:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1.  Policy and Purpose.  More than 50 years after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Federal Government has not released to the public all of its records related to those events.  Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth.  It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay.

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 required all records related to the assassination of President Kennedy to be publicly disclosed in full by October 26, 2017, unless the President certifies that:  (i) continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to the 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.  President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, section 5(g)(2)(D), Public Law 102-526, 106 Stat. 3443, 3448–49, codified at 44 U.S.C. 2107 note.

I previously accepted proposed redactions from executive departments and agencies (agencies) in 2017 and 2018, but ordered the continued re-evaluation of those remaining redactions.  See Temporary Certification for Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 82 Fed. Reg. 50,307–08 (Oct. 31, 2017); Certification for Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 83 Fed. Reg. 19, 157–58 (Apr. 26, 2018).  In the Presidential Memorandum of April 26, 2018, I also ordered agencies to re-review each of those redactions over the next 3 years and disclose information that no longer warrants continued withholding under the standard set forth in section 5(g)(2)(D) of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

President Biden issued subsequent certifications with respect to these records in 2021, 2022, and 2023, which gave agencies additional time to review the records and withhold information from public disclosure.  See Temporary Certification Regarding Disclosure of Information in Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 86 Fed. Reg. 59,599 (Oct. 22, 2021); Certifications Regarding Disclosure of Information in Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 87 Fed. Reg. 77,967 (Dec. 15, 2022); Certification Regarding Disclosure of Information in Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 88 Fed. Reg. 43,247 (June 30, 2023).

I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue.  And although no Act of Congress directs the release of information pertaining to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I have determined that the release of all records in the Federal Government’s possession pertaining to each of those assassinations is also in the public interest.

Sec. 2.  Declassification and Disclosure.  (a)  Within 15 days of the date of this order, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General shall, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Counsel to the President, present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

(b)  Within 45 days of the date of this order, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General shall, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Counsel to the President, review records related to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of these records.

Sec. 3.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

January 23, 2025.

Phillip Nieto | Jan 19th, 2025, 6:44 pm|

President-elect Donald Trump vowed to declassify all documents relating to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

During his speech at Capitol One Arena in Washington D.C. on Sunday evening, the incoming president said he would “reverse the over-classification of government documents” by declassifying long held information by national security agencies.

He noted that not only will documents relating to the Kennedy and MLK Jr. assassinations be declassified, but also “other topics of great public interest.” Robert Kennedy’s son, RFK Jr., is set to join the Trump White House as secretary of Health and Human Services.

“As a first step toward restoring transparency and accountability to government, we will also reverse the over classification of government documents. And in the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And other topics of great public interest. It’s all going to be released, Uncle Sam.”

WATCH the FULL Trump rally speech in DC by clicking HERE.

With the publication of The Oswald Puzzle, authors Larry Hancock and David Boylan reevaluate our current understanding of Lee Harvey Oswald. With meticulous attention to the documentary record, Hancock and Boylan have produced a reasoned assessment of out dated assumptions and introduced a framework for exploring new avenues of inquiry. Drawing from many decades of sources, the authors present a contemporary, multi-dimensional representation of Oswald as a real person rather than the empty and exclusively manipulated empty vessel into which so many students and scholars have invested what they imagine or would want to be true.

The AARC is pleased to present the following feature written by the authors of The Oswald Puzzle:

Larry Hancock and David Boylan Q&A

How intelligent was Oswald?

In school, Lee Harvey Oswald tested at a level of 118 – ‘very bright’ – on the standard intelligence test of his time. His documented reading choices in history, geopolitics, philosophy, fiction, and literature confirm his intelligence, as do reports of his knowledge from his time in the Marine Corps and his personal friends.  In the Marines, he tested for and was placed in a technical career field, did well in his training, and was evaluated as quite competent in his career field. Later, in a series of employment-related tests he performed well and was also evaluated positively in his interviews and personal presentation.

How politically radical was Oswald?

As a teenager, Oswald wrote to the American Young Socialist Federation proclaiming his socialist beliefs and applying for membership. He also asked about any local groups he might join and, as an alternative, inquired about forming one himself. His reading through his teenage years, through his time in the Marine Corps consistently reflected his beliefs in socialist principals, interest in Marxism, an aversion to racism and a commitment to economic justice.  Those beliefs are confirmed in his media statements over time as well as in a series of papers and monographs he wrote over the year prior to his death. At no time did he personally espouse or champion violent political or revolutionary action, however, he was a declared supporter of the Cuban revolution against the corrupt Batista regime and opposed ‘Yankee’ business imperialism across Latin America.

Was Oswald a Socialist/Marxist/Communist?

Oswald was a confirmed Socialist and frequently used the term Marxist and Socialist interchangeably. He had studied Marx and was certainly a believer in Marx’s critiques of pure capitalism and its negative effects on the working class. He was not hesitant to declare himself a Marxist in media appearances. Following his time in Russia he did become a critic of the Russian system, and specifically of the Soviet use of ‘communist’ doctrine and international communist parties for its nationalistic goals – that criticism appears in his writings of 1963.  Those writings also propose a compromise system between Capitalism and Marxism, one allowing more personal freedom but ensuring basic rights such as health care and access to education for all.

What about Oswald and guns?

Like many young men of his time and place, Oswald had a definite interest in guns – first described by one of his teenage friends in New Orleans and extending to the collection of shooting and hunting magazines taken into custody with his personal possessions in 1963. He owned and was disciplined for a personal weapon in the Marines. In Russia, he joined a factory shooting club, bought a shotgun and went hunting on occasion. In New Orleans, had a number of conversations about rifles and browsed rifle and hunting magazines at a garage near his workplace. When in custody in Dallas he had a pistol in his possession and a number of people had seen a picture of him with a pistol and rifle. Unfortunately, following his arrest, he was not shown nor directly questioned about the rifle taken into custody at the Texas School Book Depository.

Was Oswald violent – or was he a ‘Drama Queen”?

We have no history of Oswald threatening anyone or picking fights. In school, largely because of his being independent, he was bullied on occasion and responded if he was physically attacked.  When that sort of thing happened in New York schools, he turned to truancy rather than fighting. His discipline problems in the Marines did not involve aggressiveness other than the fact that he would push back verbally when he felt he was being unfairly treated – as in one incident with his non-commissioned officer supervisor. Oswald was neither passive nor restrained in expressing his views, he could be quite demonstrative. But he had no recorded history of actual physical aggression nor long term pattern of violent behavior.

In contrast Oswald’s tendency towards expressiveness and verbal assertiveness could and did lead to his making dramatic ‘gestures.’ He lost a stripe and ended up in the brig in the Marines for accusing a duty NCO of picking on him, even tossing a drink onto the Sergeant in a club. He managed to remain in the Soviet Union only by lightly cutting his wrists and getting committed to a hospital on the day the Soviets were forcing him out of Russia because his tourist visa was expiring. When performing pro-Cuba leafletting in New Orleans, he taunted expatriate Cubans, suggesting they hit or attack him. In Mexico City he accused a Cuban diplomat of betraying their revolution and later displayed a pistol to Soviet diplomats and claimed that he was being harassed and threatened by the FBI. And in the fall of 1963, he visited the FBI office in Dallas, complaining of his wife being harassed and leaving a letter of protest (immediately destroyed by the FBI after the assassination).

Oswald and JFK – motive or not?

This question was a real challenge for the Warren Commission given that they could locate no individual in contact with Oswald who had heard him speak out about President Kennedy much less threaten him in any fashion. Oswald’s spoken remarks and his writing circa 1963 were very much aligned with Kennedy’s goals of integration, and coexistence with the Soviets. He expressed the thought that JFK might be the only one who could achieve some sort of détente with Khrushchev. Overall, his public and written views were very much in sympathy with JFK’s “New Frontier” challenge of establishing opportunities for all.

The one administration policy which Oswald did oppose was the political and economic embargo of Cuba and American actions against the Castro regime. When questioned about that on radio about JFK and Cuba, in the summer of 1963, Oswald refused to personalize his response by any direct remark against President Kennedy himself, but simply stated his opposition to it as an ongoing American policy.

Oswald and the FBI – was he an FBI asset?

Oswald’s FBI history demonstrates that he was irritated by the FBI questioning him following his return from the Soviet Union in 1962, he also realized that his mail was being monitored and opened and felt the FBI was likely behind that – he protested the opening to the U.S. Postal Department. During 1963 he expressed concerns about FBI harassment on multiple occasions, in Mexico City, in a letter to the Soviet Embassy in New York (in which he complained that his wife had been visited and that the FBI might be attempting to persuade her to defect from her Russian citizenship) and finally in a personal visit to the FBI Dallas officer with a letter of protest. After the assassination, in custody and being question, he accused an FBI agent present in the room of harassing his wife.

In contrast, during his time in New Orleans in the summer of 1963 Oswald had actually requested to be interviewed by the FBI and had provided documents and information about the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and activities of what appeared to be a clandestine FPCC group meeting in that city. He did not offer any information about the anti-Castro Cubans he had contacted but instead overtly lied about the FPCC group, its membership, meetings and its leader (Hidell) who was a fictional character created by Oswald himself. The only information known to have been given to the FBI was false, resulting in a totally needless FBI inquiry about Hidell and the non-existent FPCC group.

Was Oswald a witting CIA asset with intelligence missions?

There is some evidence suggesting that upon his return to the US from the Soviet Union Oswald did provide limited information about his time in Russia and his factory job there.  That information was forwarded to CIA Russia Division from New York City, most likely from the State Department which had been the vehicle for communication to the FBI, CIA and other agencies while Oswald was in Russia. The State Department itself had actively opposed and delayed Oswald’s return. Oswald was an American citizen who had legally traveled to Russia and never officially rejected that citizenship. He had not legally ‘defected’ nor obtained Russian citizenship although he had initially rejected it and made anti-American remarks to US press in Moscow following his arrival there. Oswald was offered Russian citizenship during his efforts to return to the US but declined; he later wrote an unpublished monograph which was quite negative regarding his time in Russia and critiquing the Soviet system.   Beyond that Oswald’s own activities do not correspond to any of the known CIA intelligence operations which used volunteers traveling to Russia.

Oswald’s appearance in Mexico City has been discussed as another possible CIA intelligence mission, however his time there was very short – a matter of a few days – and his contacts with the Cubans and Russians quite limited. Beyond that we now know of a number of pre-existing intelligence actions against the Russians in Mexico and especially the Cubans. Those operations were underway long before his appearance and continued afterwards, there is no correlation with his actions there – if anything they increased Cuban suspicions of CIA efforts against their diplomatic missions and personnel in Mexico.

Was Oswald unwittingly known to and used by the CIA?

The delayed opening of a CIA file on Oswald – a year following his arrival in Russia – and the CIA counter intelligence compartmentalization of information being reported on him by the State Department from the Soviet Union suggests the development of some type of special CIA counter intelligence interest in Oswald. Following his return to the US there was a routine CIA Domestic Operations interest in Oswald but we lack any records related to that interest and reporting on him.

Oswald’s activities in New Orleans in 1963 did expose him to a variety of CIA assets including the Cuban Student Directorate (DRE) which reported their contacts with him to their headquarters and should have made that information available to their CIA case officers – especially once the DRE started its own propaganda efforts around Oswald in August 1963.  We also lack the records that should have documented that interest. During Oswald’s appearance in Mexico City, information on him was withheld from the CIA Mexico City station, suggesting that CIA Special Affairs Staff (Cuba Project) were either engaged in or planning some operational, but unwitting, use of Oswald as of October, 1963.

Why would Oswald be in Mexico City in the fall of 1963?

Beginning in January/February 1963 Marina Oswald had begun a series of communications and applications for her and June Oswald’s return to Russia.  Oswald’s return was a possibility but as Marina was a Russian citizen hers would have been more straight forward. By the end of summer Marina had paperwork in place requesting the return but was advised that processing would not occur for some months. Oswald’s correspondence stated that Marina, then present, and her children should receive urgent consideration while his should be considered separately. At that point Marina herself testified that his personal interests were focused on Cuba.

In Mexico City, Oswald visited the Cubans with a request for a tourist visa which would allow him to be in Cuba while his wife’s request was being processed in Russia. He claimed to be increasingly fearful in the US because of his pro-Castro and pro-Cuba media visibility – he carried samples of that activity in an effort to persuade the Cubans of his case.  He visited the Russian embassy with the same story, making his situation more dramatic by stating that the FBI was targeting him and his life might even be at risk.

Why was Oswald’s behavior the day of the assassination suspicious?

Oswald was known to be an avid follower of the news on both television and in the newspapers but showed no special interest in the President’s arrival in Dallas. The lack of any highly visible enthusiasm was not out of character for Oswald who generally held himself aloof from American politics (other than to speak out against racism and racist political figures) and any type of ‘fandom’ for politicians. What was out of character was his decision to immediately leave the area of the attack on the president during the chaos and general questioning about what had just happened.

Back at his apartment he failed to follow television programming (Oswald was known to be a frequent television viewer) or to ask questions about what had happened. In itself his decision to turn to an afternoon movie rather than live news coverage was very much out of character for Oswald – irrespective of any other of his movements or actions. The authors of The Oswald Puzzle present research and a scenario which relates Oswald’s anomalous activities to his Cuban agenda, and to his manipulation as a patsy in the assassination – a view in line with Oswald’s own personal character and agendas entirely independent of the Kennedy assassination.

 *****

Among the many enigmas in the saga of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald remains among the most enigmatic. The Warren Commission painted a portrait of a lone malcontent, but still could find no motive for his alleged actions. Some conspiracy books attempt to turn Oswald into a deep cover intelligence agent, always on assignment whether defecting to the Soviet Union or distributing pro-Castro pamphlets. Other authors ignore Oswald altogether.

In The Oswald Puzzle, veteran researchers Larry Hancock (Someone Would Have Talked, Tipping Point) and David Boylan square the circle. Taking the full measure of the same data the Warren Commission collected, they paint a contrarian picture of Oswald, a man that may surprise you. And then, using their expertise and the vast declassified records now available, they tell the story of how Oswald appeared on the radar of fervent anti-Castro activists in New Orleans in 1963, and how he was then turned into their pawn.

Hancock and Boylan, in considerable detail, provide a scenario which reconciles Oswald’s actual history and character with the massive evidence of conspiracy in the assassination of President Kennedy. Has the puzzle of Lee Harvey Oswald finally been solved? Was Oswald a murderer or a patsy? The Oswald Puzzle provides new answers.

Editorial Reviews

Order THE OSWALD PUZZLE by clicking HERE