One of the JFK documents just released contains details of an examination of former CIA director Richard Helms as part of the Rockefeller Commission.
The commission led by vice-president Nelson Rockefeller was set up in 1975 by President Gerald Ford to look at activities of the CIA, including any possible involvement in the assassination of JFK.
The document details how, after a discussion with Helms about Vietnam, David Belin, an attorney for the commission, turned to whether the CIA was involved in Kennedy’s killing.
He asked: “Well, now, the final area of my investigation relates to charges that the CIA was in some way conspiratorially involved with the assassination of President Kennedy.
“During the time of the Warren Commission, you were Deputy Director of Plans, is that correct?”
After Helms confirmed he was, Belin then asked: “Is there any information involved with the assassination of President Kennedy which in any way shows that Lee Harvey Oswald was in some way a CIA agent or agent…”
The page cuts off at that point mid sentence and there are no further pages included.
The omission will infuriate conspiracy theorists who have long speculated the CIA organised the hit using Oswald.
Many theories speculate that JFK had got the CIA to carry out numerous assassination attempts on the life of communist Cuban leader Fidel Castro from 1960 to 1963.
It is known that the CIA enlisted the help of US mobsters to do this in a series of shady deals.
The true reason for the CIA wanting JFK out the way is not explained by the conspiracy theories, but they also believe that Oswald was murdered two days later by Dallas nightclub boss Jack Ruby to silence him because of links between Ruby and the mafia.
But investigations have since concluded Oswald acted alone, as did Ruby who took revenge for the presidents’ death.
JFK assassination in pictures
Fri, October 27, 2017
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.
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The motorcade of President John F. Kennedy is shown cruising down Main Street in Dallas moments before shots were fired at his limousine. (Nov. 22, 1963)
Within the conspiracy theories, there have long been claims that former CIA agent Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis, who was used by the agency for activities in Cuba, were in Dallas on the day of the assassination, disguised as tramps.
The pair had a history together concerning the Watergate Scandal after they were arrested with others breaking into the Democratic party headquarters on the sixth floor of Watergate, wearing surgical gloves and equipped with bugging devices and cameras.
They were later convicted on burglary charges.
However, the Rockefeller Commission investigated the particular claims of their involvement in the JFK assassination and said it found no evidence to support them.
In a report to the president on CIA activities, it concluded: “Hunt and Sturgis categorically denied that they had ever met or known Oswald or Ruby.
“They further denied that they ever had any connection whatever with either Oswald or Ruby.
“Numerous allegations have been made that the CIA participated in the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
“The Commission staff investigated these allegations. On the basis of the staff’s investigation, the Commission concluded there was no credible evidence of any CIA involvement.”
Yet, after Hunt’s death, his sons Saint John Hunt and David Hunt claimed their father had made several claims about himself and others being involved in the assassination of JFK.
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JFK Files Release: Why was a page missing after the crucial question of CIA involvement was asked?
Is there any information involved with the assassination of President Kennedy which in any way shows that Lee Harvey Oswald was in some way a CIA agent or agent?
In a 2007 Rolling Stone article, the pair named a number of individuals purported to be implicated by his father, including Lyndon B Johnson, who took over as president from JFK, Sturgis, and a number of others.
Hunt’s widow and other children said the two sons took advantage of Hunt’s loss of lucidity to coach him to say stuff for their financial gain.
The Los Angeles Times looked into their said supporting evidence and found it to be “inconclusive”.
However, believers of conspiracy theories that JFK’s murder was an inside job will be fired up by another document just released.
It suggests that Russia “had information suggesting US Vice President Johnson was behind killing” to take the White House for himself.
The newly-released memo from FBI Director J Edgar Hoover detailed how shortly after JFK’s death, a Soviet spy based in New York ordered fellow agents to look into Lyndon Johnson’s background.
The note goes on to reveal the same US intelligence source said that instructions came through from KGB headquarters in Moscow, saying that “now” the KGB was “in possession of data purporting to indicate President Johnson was responsible for the assassination of the late President John F Kennedy.
It said: “KGB headquarters indicated that in view of this information, it was necessary for the Soviet Government to know the existing personal relationship between President Johnson and the Kennedy family, particularly that between President Johnson and Robert and ‘Ted’ Kennedy.”
It is not the first time Lyndon Johnson, who was sworn in as US President just hours after JFK was shot, has been blamed for the murder.
JFK’s widow Jackie reportedly had suspicions about her husband’s successor, but this is the first time Johnson has been connected with the conspiracy in a government document.
Meanwhile, the newly released files also reveal claims from CIA Director Richard Helms, who served under both the Johnson and Richard Nixon administrations, that President Johnson thought Kennedy’s killing was a revenge attack following his role in the death of a Vietnamese leader.
In a disposition, Mr Helms said: “President Johnson used to go around saying that the reason President Kennedy was assassinated was that he had assassinated President Diem.”