… 58 years later, no excuse for this
According to a weekend statement, the White House is once again delaying the release of the complete files about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This is nonsense.
As the statement from the White House said, the government had passed legislation to release all of the information in 1992, yet again, after Trump had denied the release once, it has not been delayed again.
Here is the background,
In the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (44 U.S.C. 2107 note) (the “Act”), the Congress declared that “all Government records concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy . . . should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination.”
The Congress also found that “most of the records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are almost 30 years old, and only in the rarest cases is there any legitimate need for continued protection of such records.”
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., “Memorandum,” The White House, October 23, 2021
Nonsense about archivist, military
The statement says that the records will be withheld until Dec. 15, 2022, but the presidents have been hiding behind this nonsense of damaging national security for years.
Are they just protecting the CIA, FBI, or others in the government 58 years after the fact?
The only reasons for postponing the release are ones that the government has actually been using since 1963: Fear of disclosure would hurt the government,
The Act permits the continued postponement of disclosure of information in records concerning President Kennedy’s assassination only when postponement remains necessary to protect against an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., “Memorandum,” The White House, October 23, 2021
Trump caved, now Biden has too
What is happening is that the agencies are attempting to redact materials from the release. That is nonsense. There is nothing that happened in 1963 that could require redaction. If the government lied, release the data.
The rat here is probably the CIA which was upset with Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs invasion and is still trying to keep it silent,
Reeks of a coverup
The archivist is attempting to use the pandemic as an excuse, but if he receiving pressure from government agencies to keep the information hidden from the public?
The Archivist has also noted that “making these decisions is a matter that requires aprofessional, scholarly, and orderly process; not decisions or releases made in haste.”
The Archivist therefore recommends that the President “temporarily certify the continued withholding of all of the information certified in 2018” and “direct two public releases of the information that has” ultimately “been determined to be appropriate for release to the public,” with one interim release later this year and one more comprehensive release in late 2022.
Sec. 3. Temporary Certification. In light of the agencies’ proposals for continued postponement under the statutory standard, the Archivist’s request for an extension of time to engage with the agencies, and the need for an appropriate review and disclosure process, I agree with the Archivist’s recommendation.
Temporary continued postponement is necessary to protect against identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure.
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., “Memorandum,” The White House, October 23, 2021
This is nonsense. Release the damn information.
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