The U.S. National Archives on Thursday declassified more than 12,000 documents related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy almost 60 years after the assassination in Dallas, Texas.
«The agencies have undertaken a comprehensive effort to review the full set of nearly 16,000 records that had previously been released in redacted form. They determined that more than 70 percent (of them) can now be released in full,» the White House has explained in a statement.
The total number of records declassified by the National Archives and Records Administration amounts to 12,879 and have been released following statements by U.S. President Joe Biden, as reported by ‘The Washington Post’.
Most of the documents made public on Thursday belonged to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), so 95 percent of the documents in its collection on the Kennedy assassination have already been declassified, according to a spokesman for the agency, as reported by the newspaper.
The White House has stressed that this decision «reflects the commitment» of the Biden Administration to «greater transparency», since it provides the American people with a «greater understanding» of the investigations into his assassination.
«Most of the records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are nearly 30 years old, and only in the rarest cases is there a legitimate need for continued protection of those records,» it has explained.
These cases occur, the White House has explained, when the documents could produce «harm» to U.S. military defense, Intelligence operations, law enforcement or U.S. foreign relations.
However, the U.S. president has explained that until next May 1, 2023, the National Archives will continue to review the documents, so that any withheld information that the agencies do not «recommend for continued deferral» will be released by June 30, 2023.
The JFK Archives Act, adopted in 1992, directed the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to establish a collection of all documents related to the Kennedy assassination.
Kennedy was 46 years old and serving his first term as president when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963 when he was shot several times while traveling in a presidential motorcade on an official visit to the state of Texas.
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for those shots, and two days later, when he went to testify for the events, he was assassinated by Jack Ruby, owner of a nightclub in the city of Dallas. The Warren Commission, in charge of investigating the assassination, concluded that Oswald acted alone.
However, his assassination and the ten years he spent living in the Soviet Union generated wide and controversial conspiracy theories about the assassination of former President Kennedy, of whose case there are thousands of classified and declassified files.
